As with prior years, we will have curriculum for wizards of all ages, from first years to final years. New to 2015, we will have a hands-on instructional day where you can hone your skills in the safety of a classroom.
Workshops
Beginning Plugin Development
In this Workshop you will learn how plugins work, how they interact with WordPress, and how to create them following WordPress best practices. This is planned to be a hands on workshop so expect to be writing some code. We will be ending the day with guided plugin creation so everyone should walk out having created their very own plugin (or two).
Although HTML and CSS experience will help here, we will mostly be working with PHP. So you should be comfortable with at least editing PHP when working with WordPress.
Prerequisites:
- Before attending, you’ll need a basic understanding of WordPress, as well as a basic working knowledge of PHP. You do not need to have advanced PHP or JavaScript knowledge to get useful information out of this workshop.
- You will also need to run a local web server from your laptop with WordPress installed and running. We will not be able to devote session time to getting these setup, as each person could have a different setup to manage. You can contact us before the workshop if you need additional assistance. If you cannot get a basic web server setup before the workshop, it may not be for you.
Resources:
Windows: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-on-your-windows-computer-using-wamp/
Mac: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-locally-on-mac-using-mamp/
VVV: https://github.com/Varying-Vagrant-Vagrants/VVV#the-first-vagrant-up
Beginning Theme Development
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own theme for WordPress, this is the session for you. We’re going to start from scratch and work our way up. This workshop assumes HTML and CSS knowledge, though there is no level of PHP requirement. We’ll go through all of the core files needed for a theme; some supplemental features that can be added; and how themes should be structured for clients, public free release, and sales sites. We’ll also cover some tools that can help with your theme development.
Prerequisites:
Before attending, you’ll need a basic understanding of WordPress, as well as some HTML and CSS. PHP basics are highly encouraged, as we’ll be using a lot of WordPress PHP code to make our themes work. You do not need to have advanced PHP or JavaScript knowledge to get useful information out of this workshop.
Wi-fi should be available during the workshop, but is not guaranteed. We highly encourage you to run a local web server from your laptop, and to test it out and install WordPress beforehand. We will not be able to devote session time to getting these setup, as each person could have a different setup to manage. You can contact us before the workshop if you need additional assistance. If you cannot get a basic web server setup before the workshop, it may not be for you.
Below are some tutorials on setting up WAMP or MAMP to run a local server, but you may use the software that suits you best.
Windows: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-on-your-windows-computer-using-wamp/
Mac: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-locally-on-mac-using-mamp/
For remote WordPress installation, install FileZilla: https://filezilla-project.org/
You should also have a good text editor installed that can provide syntax highlighting, such as one of the following:
Programmer’s Notepad for Windows: http://www.pnotepad.org/
Brackets for Mac: http://brackets.io/
If you want to follow along exactly with the presentation, David will be using VirtualBox and Vagrant, with a VVV install. He will be editing code using Sublime Text 3 and some useful add-ons for it.
Getting Started With WordPress
If you’ve heard about WordPress but didn’t know where to start, or tried to get started and became overwhelmed, now you have an opportunity to get started with WordPress.
From the start of the day to the end, our magicians will guide you through the process of getting around the dashboard to adding text, images and extra functionality on an actual site that we set up for you and you can continue to use after WordCamp. We will have lots of volunteers on hand to help should you need a little extra attention.
Bring your laptop and magic wand. We will have a WordPress site setup for each of you ready to go.
This full-day workshop will be hands-on learning experience divided into a morning and afternoon session. We will present a topic, and you will have an opportunity to practice it. Each group of campers will have an assigned wizard’s assistant to help you along the way.
Goals
- Learn your way around a WordPress site
- Get familiar with the terminology
- Learn how sites are organized
- Know how to add and edit content
- Provide hands-on relatable experience for your site.
Come with a laptop and bring images and content – or you can conjure some up for the practice site.
Getting Started with WordPress
If you’ve heard about WordPress but didn’t know where to start, or tried to get started and became overwhelmed, now you have an opportunity to get started with WordPress.
From the start of the day to the end, our magicians will guide you through the process of getting around the dashboard to adding text, images and extra functionality on an actual site that we set up for you and you can continue to use after WordCamp. We will have lots of volunteers on hand to help should you need a little extra attention.
Bring your laptop and magic wand. We will have a WordPress site setup for each of you ready to go.
This full-day workshop will be hands-on learning experience divided into a morning and afternoon session. We will present a topic, and you will have an opportunity to practice it. Each group of campers will have an assigned wizard’s assistant to help you along the way.
Goals
- Learn your way around a WordPress site
- Get familiar with the terminology
- Learn how sites are organized
- Know how to add and edit content
- Provide hands-on relatable experience for your site.
Come with a laptop and bring images and content – or you can conjure some up for the practice site.
Content Production
Creating content for your WordPress site can seem overwhelming but with the proper tools, it can be easy and effective. In this session, we will be offering an overview of how to create effective content for SEO and marketing, how to do it consistently to avoid burnout, and how to make your content work for you. We will also be sharing the tools we use for content production.
This three-hour workshop will be a hands-on learning experience so be sure to bring your laptop. We also encourage you to complete the SEO workshop prior to this workshop as we will sharing how to create search engine optimized content. This workshop is great for beginner users who need help understanding how effective content can be to their site or to the intermediate level user who wants to know how to overcome the content production battle. We look forward helping you find the ease in content production.
Requirements:
- Wi-Fi capable laptop
- Notebook / Notepad
- Pen / Pencil
- Self-hosted WordPress site or blog already installed (Please see http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/ if needed)
Optional: Google Account for Google Calendar or Planner
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO, short for search engine optimization, can be a headache for the new website owner. Terms like focus keyword, header tags, user experience, website page load, Google Search Console, and more, can be overwhelming.
Our workshop will go over the basics of SEO, specifically best practices, in order to take away those headaches.
If you’re a beginner, or still need to learn a solid foundation on SEO basics, this this is the workshop for you. This workshop is intended to lead up to the Content Creation course so you can be fully prepared to put your best foot forward for your visitors, and on Google search.
Requirements:
- Laptop that can connect to wifi (We will try a little hands on, especially on adjusting some plugin settings)
- Note pad (optional, but you may find that if note taking helps, then bring a note pad to write on)
- Have a self-hosted WordPress website installed. It can be a test or staging site. (refer to http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/ if needed)
- Yoast SEO free plugin installed. If this isn’t installed prior to the event, we can take a moment to help you install it (refer to http://kb.yoast.com/article/119-installation-guide-for-wordpress-seo if needed)
- Google Account (We will use this to make sure your site is added and submitted to Google Seach Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools)
Contributor Day
Design Track
Managing Project Expectations and Roadblocks
This presentation will cover the ins and outs of project based WordPress projects and how expectations if not set correctly can have a negative impact on the project scope, budget and future client relationships.
We’ll cover:
– The importance of the discovery phase
– Setting project scope
– Identify and resolve failing projects
– The importance of project post-mortems
– Setting the stage for the next project
The audience that will gain the most from this presentation will be those who want to have a better way of handling projects that can earn them a profit vs being constantly feeling overwhelmed in the organizational aspect of a project. Beginners and advanced users both will benefit from this session.
Opening Remarks – Atrium
We’ve got a lot to cover, so be on time for some important announcements!
But Why? Designing For Strategy
Designers and non-designers alike can get caught up in the aesthetics and functionality of a website, and forget that every decision made should be supported by an underlying strategy. We will discuss how to find your site’s primary call to action and create experiences that support that goal. We will also evaluate design choices of many well-known sites as we examine how they help (or hinder) common goals. Whether you’re a designer, developer, or a person maintaining a site, you will come away with a critical eye for evaluating design patterns and a process for narrowing down a design strategy.
Modern Visual Design Trends
What grabs you as you scroll through Facebook, Twitter, or other social media outlets? What causes you to stop and give a site a second glance? Images. Visual communication methods are more and more important as a hook to get people to listen to your message. By looking around, you can see there are various trends that have been occurring in the web world related to what types of imagery is more popular than others. People do judge a book by its cover. You want your cover to be attractive!
The Good, the Bad and The Ugly: Rapid Fire Website Critiques
Join us and find out best practices for user experience with websites. If you’d like to get some feedback or learn vicariously by watching critiques of other people’s sites, this is the place for you. Come prepared to with your website URL to get a boost on how to make your website rock.
Mobile-First Design: How and Why Mobile Design Comes First
A complementary look at my WordCamp Tampa 2015 “Mobile-First Development: Why and How” talk, we’ll look at the design aspects of what mobile-first is and what it entails. We’ll look at examples of great designs and some pitfalls to avoid, as well as my pet peeves as a mobile consumer of content.
How many of us use services like Pocket to get a nice view of the content because the site owner didn’t account for mobile or did a poor job of it? I Pocket over 1.5 million words last year avoiding poorly-designed mobile sites.
Topics covered:
Why mobile-first
Pet peeves
Examples of great mobile design
Teaching Your Clients How to Use WordPress
You’ve probably seen it happen- someone complains because they just got a website, but they don’t know how to use it. Their designer or developer or project manager just left them high and dry without some type of direction or documentation.
Let’s face it, as a designer or developer or project manager, you’re definitely going to run into someone who isn’t really that familiar with WordPress. In fact, you’ll encounter all sorts of user levels when it comes to working with clients. How do you teach your client how to use their WordPress website? How do you figure it into your project’s scope? If you don’t like teaching them, what can you do to make sure your relationship with your client ends on a good note because you were diligent to give them the tools they need to continue on their own?
I’ll be going over strategies to help you put together a plan on teaching your clients how to use WordPress. Let’s decrease the frustration together and allow your clients to become enthusiastic WordPress users that are making money.
Development Track 1
Opening Remarks – Atrium
We’ve got a lot to cover, so be on time for some important announcements!
Defence against the Dark Arts: Writing Secure WordPress Plugins and Themes
We live in a dangerous world. An insecure plugin or theme opens up a WordPress site to any number of ill fates. Your first responsibility as a developer is to write defensive code, protecting your users from both malicious hacks and innocent mistakes. This presentation gives an overview of potential attack vectors, demonstrates how vulnerable code can be exploited, and shows what you, the developer, can do to defend your code against the Dark Arts.
WordPress and the Chamber of Single-Page Apps
Has a client ever wanted complex functionality within a WordPress site that you just couldn’t find a plugin for? How about when a client’s needs could be fully met by WordPress except for one little part. Single-page apps (SPAs) are in high demand, and perfect for adding dynamic functionality to a WordPress site.
So, can SPAs be easily added to WordPress sites? Turns out, they can, and with minimal effort!
Daniel and David will talk about how to develop a SPA within WordPress, as well as how popular front-end frameworks such as React can be used with a Laravel backend or the WP-API plugin to interact with a database.
There will be demos, and there will be goats.
WordPress REST API & Amazon Web Services
What’s the product of combining WordPress REST API and a few Amazon Web Services?
Highly available, scalable and secure websites ready to serve millions of users.
Best Friend || Worst Enemy: WordPress Multisite
We’ve all built a ton of WordPress sites. We’ve also managed them all too. You’ve probably heard about WordPress Multisite Networks, and all the awesome things it can (and can’t) allow you to do.
With great power, comes great responsibility. During this talk, Taylor will step through the do’s and don’ts of Multisite Networks. He will share how WordPress Multisite can be your best friend or worst enemy… but usually both… at the same time.
Expect pro-tips, eureka moments, and hard lessons learned from his experience setting up and running multisite networks for small private company intranets, all the way to global enterprise brands.
By the end of this talk you will know the pros and cons of WordPress Multisite Networks, best practices for setting up and running a multisite, and know about alternatives if multisite isn’t a fit for your next project.
You Should Probably Be Using PHPStorm
PHPStorm has made so many improvements to my WordPress development. As someone who loves workflow, doing things the right way, and finding ways to make my life easier, I think it’s absolutely necessary to show how it’s helped me and how it’ll help you write better code, plan easier, and debug quicker. I have no affiliation with JetBrains, it’s simply the most important tool in my toolbox.
How Do You Grow Your Garden of Knowledge? Pull Mandrakes!
It’s said that to master your trade, you must practice for 10,000 hours- but do you know how to make the best out of those hours? Like in Harry Potter, pulling Mandrakes is like taking out your worst problems from a project and tackling them first!
Development Track 2
Opening Remarks – Atrium
We’ve got a lot to cover, so be on time for some important announcements!
Be a Good 3rd Party Developer Citizen
All applications with extensions have one big problem on their hands: bad developer citizens. Bad developers do bad things. They write terrible code which breaks the application, frustrates users, gives the software a bad name, and ultimately drives users to other technologies.
In this talk Chad highlights examples of common, and rare, developer mistakes. You will learn how to be a good developer citizen and avoid the mistakes which earn you the title of being a bad developer.
You will be able to write cleaner PHP and Javascript, and write proper CSS which will make Front End Developers appreciate you.
Come live at peace with WordPress, satisfy your users, and draw more implementors to your products.
Introducing WordPress Multitenancy
Did you know that running multiple instances of WordPress on a single server doesn’t actually require multiple instances of the codebase? In fact, as of WordPress 3.9, you don’t even need multiple instances of a plugin or a theme! Multitenancy can eliminate massive maintenance overhead in the right situations, think server-wide, near-instant updates that let you stay secure without keeping up with multiple sites. And that’s just the beginning of how it can help. In this session, I’ll show you how multitenancy can save time and energy while empowering your users. It’s simple, but powerful.
Five Events In The Life Of Every WordPress Request You Should Know
WordPress is a magical system that turns any URL into a web page, dynamically. In this talk, aimed at beginning wizards, looking to develop new WordPress powers, we’re going to take a look at five major events in the transformation of a request to your site, into a web page.
This talk is for new plugin developers, or those looking to increase their skills in the art of custom site development. It is designed to show you where to look when you need to change WordPress’ behavior to fit your specific needs and increase your ability to make use of WordPress hooks.
An Introduction to PHP Classes
Many WordPress developers start out learning PHP from playing around with themes and then slowly pick up the language and start moving towards writing their own plugins. However, it is common to find WordPress developers struggling to grasp the higher-level concepts and features of PHP. Let’s fill the gaps in our self-learning and break through to the next level of PHP programming by learning what PHP classes are and how they can be used to make your code simpler, easier to read and easier maintain.
BrickPress – Merging LEGO Master Builder Techniques with WordPress
Adam Soucie will share how the LEGO Master Builder techniques apply to building WordPress themes, plugins, and full websites.
Let WordPress Speak to Your Users: Introducing wp.a11y.speak()
WordPress 4.2 introduced a new JavaScript method: wp.a11y.speak(), which allows you to trigger spoken notifications for screen reader users.
But why would you use it? And how?
Hint: If you use AJAX in your plugin or theme settings, you may want to consider using it for the greater good of more accessible settings.
User Track
Opening Remarks – Atrium
We’ve got a lot to cover, so be on time for some important announcements!
Repurposing Your Blog Posts: How to Save Time byExtending the Life of Your Content
Blogging burnout is a real thing: it can be creatively exhausting to come up with 5 or 10 new pieces of content week after week. In this panel, you’ll learn how to identify your blog’s best existing content, then quickly repurpose it into a YouTube, series of posts, email course, eBook, infographic, slide show and more – leaving you less time coming up with new things to write, and more time to market the great content you already have.
The Ultimate Guide to UTMs
A UTM allows you to track different links used in your marketing efforts across various ads, pieces of content and other mediums. UTM information is then picked up in your analytics platform to allow you to make better decisions on your ongoing marketing efforts. As a blogger, you need to understand how to properly use UTMs as you promote your content across different mediums and networks. This talk’s goal is to cover everything from what a UTM is, how to create a UTM, and how to properly use UTMs to track traffic across all major analytics platforms. I will show you easy to use sites to create your UTMs as well as other tools for the power user.
WordPress Plugins I Can’t Live Without
There are so many WordPress plugins in the repository, which ones DO YOU CHOOSE? For this amazing seminar, I will pull not one, not two, but 10 plugins out of my hat. Briefly going over each plugin and showing how it can help you as a business owner or a WordPress user create amazing sites. Plugins shown will be a mix of free and paid version.
Live Streaming on a WordPress Site
Video and in particularly live streaming allows you to instantly connect with your audience in a real-time way. Thanks to the ease of using ready-made platforms like Livestream and Ustream, and now apps like Periscope, Meerkat, and Nomadcast, utilizing this media on your WordPress site is easier and more effective than ever. Bess will cover not only the technology and must-have hardware for live streaming, but also the most effective streaming platforms and website considerations you must decide when utilizing this exciting content.
Custom Built Themes vs. Premium Themes: Advantages and Disadvantages of Both
You’re getting ready to build your website. Or maybe you’re thinking of a complete redesign. There are plenty of options out there in the world of WordPress, and building a custom design or purchasing a premium theme are crucial decisions you need to make and live with. Each have great benefits and equal pitfalls, but key knowledge on them will help you succeed.
Must Have Blogging Tools
Learn about amazing tools to help you improve your blogging. We will go over a variety of tools including tools for idea generation, planning, creating, editing, and marketing. Take your blog to the next level by learning about these tools today!
Business Track
The Forgotten 30%
The most important part of any project is the understanding. Understanding the Goals, the Users, the time line and the budget. With out the understanding you have no idea what to build. In this talk I would like to share with the campers how we handle our Project Management for Larger Agile projects. We would cover the PM site of Audit, On-boarding, Tickets creation, Research and Discovery, the Main work flow and Off-Boarding. We will talk about the importance of keeping your clients Involved and Informed.
This talk should be educating everyone on everything that goes into a project, but design and development. The title is hinting at the amount of time it takes to properly PM a project and most small dev shops / freelances tend to over look the about of time and effort it takes to really PM a successful project.
WordPress for Everyone: Case Studies for Non-Profits, Education, and Bloggers
Are you unsure if WordPress is the platform for you or your business?. From a range of topics from themes, plugins, custom-builds, e-commerce, and more, I will share three case studies of how I’ve used WordPress in different ways to centralize three different brands online. The case studies covered here will share how WordPress can be beneficial to almost any business.
Work Smarter not Harder: WordPress for the Average Business
We’ll be looking at how the average business owner can launch a WordPress website in minimal time. Let’s face it, we all want to spend more time on our business and less time on a website. Learn how you can maximize what WordPress does for your business and how that leads to more time cultivating revenue.
Google Analytics
Having a website is a great, but if you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t, are you getting the most out of your site? Mike Hansen’s presentation will review the Google Analytics dashboard and describe how best to use it, as well as create a list of things to do right now to improve your data like setting up site search, custom filters to remove common spam referrers, setup goals and automating your reports.
WordPress Growth Hacks
WordPress’ extensibility not only allows for additional features, but also the ability to grow your user base rapidly. We will discuss many ‘growth hacks” available through plugins and coded functionality.
Growth Hacking is more than just marketing; it is the narrow focus of growing your user base (rapidly) through optimizing how they got to your site, the user experience funnel while they are there, and how you keep them active. Through a series of systems, processes, and mindsets, you can continually experiment with different growth hacks to see which ones grow and convert your visitors, email list, or customers.
When Giving It Away is a Mistake 15 Years of Lessons Learned About Being Too Nice
Scott comes from a long line of business owners that drove their businesses into the ground by being too nice. He spent 5 years not charging enough and 10 years doing favors that were never returned. He’s here to share some of his hard-knocks tips and tactics on staying nice but earning what you deserve and leveling up your business.
Business For Developers Track
Selling WordPress: Save or Make Them Money
While there are plenty of organizations out there looking for “WordPress development work,” there’s a larger opportunity available for freelancers and agencies that care more about the final results: a system that will save or make them money. In this session, we’ll go over some tried and true methods for matching with better clientele and closing more leads.
Time Management is not Arithmancy
One of the great benefits of freelancing is the freedom to manage your own schedule. One of the great challenges of freelancing is the necessity to manage your own schedule. If you go through days (or weeks!) wondering where your time went, if you find yourself pulling all-nighters when project deadlines approach, if you’re more experienced than you’d like to be in the fine art of informing clients of schedule slips, perhaps it’s time to rethink your habits and processes. Time management isn’t an arcane art only understood by a secret cabal of arithmancers. In this session we’ll discuss several dependable techniques to help you predict timelines, manage your working hours, and maintain consistent productivity.
The Hidden Benefits of Difficult Customers
Supporting Free Plugins on WordPress.org and Commercial Products has its challenges. Yet, when handled properly, even the most challenging of exchanges can benefit your product as well as positively market your solution to potential customers. In this talk, I will go over setting expectations, watching out for the curse of knowledge, and how to “trust but verify.”
I will go over the types of questions to ask in support threads in order to get to the bottom of an issue. Additionally, I will go over how to respond to the shoulds, the lashers, exergatertors, and unreasonables, along with the regular usage support to benefit you and your customers. This will include going over examples including how the support team turned a review titled “Run Away From This You Won’t Regret It” into a positive review and many more. The last part of talk will go over some ways to reduce support and go over support tools such as forums versus email.
Five Strategies to Boost Profits
Often we get into WordPress because we love the product. But there is a difference between doing the work and running a business. When you are the business you need to maintain profit and build a reserve for the lean times. This talk will cover five Money Savvy Profit Strategies to make more money now.
Mischief Managed: Handling Support & Remote Teams
This session from the WP Valet team will focus on the differences supportling a lot of high traffic clients and working as a remote team.
Lessons in Plugin Development: Successes and Failures of a Large Free Plugin
Getting any plugin on the WordPress.org forum can be a lot of work. Taking a plugin like Better WP Security (now iThemes Security) to more than 2.5 million downloads when it isn’t your full-time job can seem nearly impossible. This talk will discuss how I built Better WP Security to one of the largest plugins on WordPress.org including what I did right and what I could have done better. Specific tips will involve handling support, marketing a plugin and squashing bugs when you wear all the hats (developer, marketer, teacher, project manager, etc). This session will help to equip you with the tools you will need to not just get your plugin out there but also to make sure it is successful.
Panels
Multisite Panel
Google Analytics Panel
Business Panel
Education Tech Panel
Security Panel
UX Panel
