The (hopefully) first annual Web Plunge had me working on the new site for the Airport Foundation, with great gusto and fury. It was interesting and challenging, since I had only dabbled with WordPress in the past. Lessons were learned, and I am extremely appreciative that my first real experience with WP was aided by some folks that know the platform really well. It is complex, powerful, and confusing.

The site itself was really pretty damn straightforward, nothing too out of the ordinary, and that is probably what contributed to what success we had. We automated a TON of stuff on the site with custom fields, page types and other nonsense. Having control over the CMS I am working in is really comforting, it turns out. Going back to the proprietary CMS at work was annoying, to say the least.

Probably more than any of the technical stuff, though, was the effect that working on a site for a goody-two-shoes nonprofit had on my psyche. I work on lawyer websites for huge law firms day in and day out, so this was a significant departure mentally, and I really wanted to do well for these folks. I am fairly confident that we gave them a great site, and I can’t friggin wait for the next nonprofit event here at work… It’s like getting paid to do pro-bono work…