I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the WLPC this year. This was my second time and if you have never attended, I can’t recommend it enough.
WLPC has an amazing atmosphere. The people are friendly, love sharing their knowledge and really make you feel part of the wireless community. There are always amazing presenters, new technology announced, and if you are fortunate enough to be able to take one of the pre-conference boot camps, you’ll learn so much and have a chance to try things hands on while doing it.
If you would like to see some of the presentations from 2022 here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXJsNZqZEF9YIWzIACR9aO_mJXcfg444u
The Recordings from this year aren’t up yet, but I’ll add the link to those as soon as they’re ready.
***UPDATE: 2023 presentations link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXJsNZqZEF9a0kIYMQSarJCNLPRdjvfmA
Now this is just the North American part of the tour in Phoenix, AZ. They also have WLPC conferences in different parts of the world through out the year! The next stop will be in Medellin, Colombia Aug. 1st and 2nd, then they will be in Prague, Czech Republic Oct. 25th to 27th (I’d really like to go to this one someday), and then the last conferences will be in Mexico City, Mexico from Nov. 14th-15th. All of these conferences offer a range of boot camp sessions that run the 2 days before the start date. Boot camps are completely worth the extra cost and days away.
You can find out more details at https://www.thewlpc.com/ and it’s always good to follow them on twitter @wirelesslanpros and @TheWLPC
Last years conference was the first one they had held since covid lockdown. It was a bit more intimate than this year haha. But this year I got to meet even more great people. There are no other wireless people that I know of anywhere near me (next ones are a few provinces over) so it’s always a blast to have someone to talk Wi-Fi with, let alone have everyone in the room be just as or more excited to talk about it 😊 You will also have so many “it’s not just me” moments while sharing stories.
For the boot camp this year, I chose to take the ESCE troubleshooting class and am very happy to say that I learned A LOT of new things and passed the exam at the end.
Last year I had taken Peter Mackenzie’s CWAP class. He’s knows so much that I’m starting to think he can see Wi-Fi haha. Having just passed the CWNA exam 2 months before, I had read somewhere that it was the hardest CWNP level exam to master, so it was best to try to get it out of the way first. Well, they did not mention the firehose of information you would need to absorb. I think I was dizzy by the end of the second day. The course came with a voucher to write the CWAP, but that came with a 1 year expiry date.
This year the conference was a few weeks earlier than the last and I was still holding on to that almost expired voucher. I spoke with a lot of people about how I had been studying but that I had also been mostly freaking myself out over writing the exam because I was worried I’d fail. Well to my surprise, more people than I ever would have guessed told me that had failed that exam at least once! Now I guess it used to be harder a few years ago, but to hear these amazing people that I had watch give talks on stage or online, that had written books and study guides I’ve read, tell me that they had failed it and just went back and tried again. Like it was no big deal. No stigma or shame. That was a game changer. There are too many people to list that helped me to get over that fear that I’ll just say, if you ever read this…Thank you! 😊
So, I will close with this. Besides all the great times I had, seeing wonderful, inspiring people I had met last year and meeting a lot of just as amazing new people this year, my favorite part had to be what I came away with. Confidence. And I may have booked a date for my CWAP exam before I left the conference.
***UPDATE: I PASSED!!!!! :D****
Let's Ginger-Fi it! 
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