Archives

Content Architecture *NEW

with Shanta Nathwani

Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. An “About Us” page would be just that… A PAGE. If you are talking about something that is more time sensitive, then you want to do a post. Connected to this would be Categories and Tags. What are they? When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also category archives that can create a more complete experience for small businesses.

Agency Panel

This is often one of our most popular sessions, so show up early because the room fills up fast!

Are you curious about the business of designing / creating / developing WordPress websites? We’ve created this session for you. We’ve handpicked experts across a wide spectrum of WordPress-related businesses, from freelancers through web development studios to large agencies. They will be your panel, in a moderated question-and-answer format, where you can ask your questions and hear a variety of (possibly conflicting!) answers from some outspoken folk in the know.

Expect to hear discussions around:

  • How to approach a WordPress developer / studio / agency
  • How much does a WordPress website cost?
  • How does one make money selling WordPress-related solutions?
  • How to incorporate WordPress into your web development workflow
  • What are the challenges of evolving from a 1-person freelancer to a multi-person webdev shop?
  • How do you handle a typical web project lifecycle?

The topics are varied and the audience is broad. The focus of this 2-hour session is based on your questions!

Panelists

Robyn Larsen from Robyn Larsen Development

Avery Swartz from Avery Swartz Web Design

Brian Rotsztein from Rotsztein.com

Brent Kobayashi from Kobayashi Online

Dre Armeda from WebDev Studios

Moderator

Tom Auger from Zeitguys

Sunday Lunch with Abokichi

Abokichi is an extraordinary Caterer and the creator of a wide assortment of delicious Japanese- and fusion snacks, meals, condiments and other goodies. Everything is prepared holistically and local food sources as used extensively to provide sustainable, nutritious ingredients for some seriously awesome and unique food. Unless you were at last year’s WordCamp, you will not have experienced anything like it.

Lunch and snacks on both the Saturday and Sunday are being provided entirely by Jess, Fumi and the Abokichi team and will be different on both days. Our lunch session are extra long to ensure that everyone gets a chance to sample and enjoy this delicious treat.

At other times, you can visit Abokichi at the Annex Hodge-Podge at 285 Dupont Street. Other venues that carry Abokichi’s products include the Liberty Village Live Market, the OCAD student cafe, and a wide variety of Farmer’s markets across town during market season.

Back To Square One: Building A WordPress Starter Development Kit

With Kyle Unzicker in the Agency track

The back-end and front-end teams at Modern Tribe set out to create a WordPress starter development kit in order to speed up development and help keep uniformity among projects. So, how did we build it? Why didn’t we use “________” framework instead? What does the code look like? Is our universe real? What is true happiness? This session will attempt to answer at least 60% of these questions.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify what recurring challenges your projects have and how to get a head start on that
  • Build your own starter development kit, use or fork our own!

WordPress Project Management 101

With Chris Van Patten in the Agency track.

I’ll be focusing on how you can manage a WordPress development project from start to finish: writing great proposals, working with project management software, learning to communicate with clients, and more.

Link to speaker deck

Learning Outcomes

  • Eliminate fear and anxiety around large WordPress projects
  • Implement a task management system in WordPress
  • Make clients happy with more frequent check-ins and status updates
  • Level up your WordPress business!

 

Powering Business Sites with WordPress

With Luca Sartoni in the Agency track

Full blog post summarizing the talk

I’ll be addressing all the code poets, the WordPress consultants and business owners who powers their business sites with WordPress. I’ll be showing them how to define their business goals and structure a methodology based on WordPress to implement all the tools to meet those goals. I’ll be covering case scenarios: restaurants, gyms, local businesses, consultants, pro-bloggers, etc.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify the business goals
  • Embrace a Growth attitude
  • Understand the Growth methodology
  • Implement Growth tools on WordPress with the right plugins
  • Empower their WordPress sites with user flows
  • Track the relevant metrics
  • Measure results and define iterations

Pick the right CMS for your job

(or “When is WordPress the right choice for your project?”)

With Alan Lok in the Agency track

Over the last 6 years, Alan has tackled content management system projects for small and large companies, and the question of what content management system is right for the project. Ask yourself these questions and know when is the right time to pitch WordPress in your RFQ and defend your choice in front of your client. In the presentation, Alan will be sharing insights on where WordPress make things easy, highlight areas that other CMS packages may shine, and help clients dispel the myth that WordPress is for small sites only.

Intended audience: WordPress developers, content consultants, business owners

Learning outcomes

  • Confidence in pitching WordPress for your project when appropriate
  • Expand your horizons on what other CMS have to offer, and packages that can make up lost ground