August 22, 2018 — You wouldn’t try and work out what’s wrong with your car engine by looking at the front bonnet.. so why debug your application from the outside when you can “pop the hood”?

The xDebug extension for PHP offers some amazing tools for developers to both understand and debug problems in their applications, but is frequently passed over as its benefits, setup, and configuration are poorly understood.

This talk aims to bring xDebug to the masses, discussing the setup of xDebug for a couple of local environments ( currently Local by FlyWheel, Laravel’s Homestead and Laravel’s Valet, though open to including more ‘WordPress’ environments like chassis ) and the configuration of your IDE ( VS Code / PHPStorm). Along with some demonstrations of how this method of working can help everyone take their development to the next level.

August 22, 2018 — Facebook groups are a great way to build your brand and build connections but can you really make money from them?

In this presentation I’m going to explain how to create your own groups to support your customers, build trust and authority and upsell your products and services.

With two large groups (6k and 3k) I’ve learned the hard way how to deal with the trolls, share the right content, create connection and sell without selling.

I’ll cover:

Why you should consider a Facebook group
How to set primary goals for your group
How to build and maintain engagement
Managing time and resource investment in your group
What kinds of content to share
How to sell without selling
Dealing with trouble makers and keeping things positive

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — ndustry developments have highlighted the need for media organizations to reexamine traditional distribution models and cultivate genuine relationships with their audiences. But where do you start? What do those relationships look like? And are they scaleable and sustainable?

This experienced group of journalists share their experiments with audience engagement, from internal adoption and design, to implementing learnings and generating revenue. You’ll learn from the successes (and failures) of others and how to run a successful experiment in your own newsroom.

Moderated by Sherry Skalko (Executive Director, Injustice Watch), the panelists include Caroline Porter (Consultant, Shorenstein Center on Media), Harry Backlund (Co-Founder, City Bureau), and Sarah Schmalbach (Entrepreneur in Residence, Lenfest Institute).

August 22, 2018 — ndustry developments have highlighted the need for media organizations to reexamine traditional distribution models and cultivate genuine relationships with their audiences. But where do you start? What do those relationships look like? And are they scaleable and sustainable?

This experienced group of journalists share their experiments with audience engagement, from internal adoption and design, to implementing learnings and generating revenue. You’ll learn from the successes (and failures) of others and how to run a successful experiment in your own newsroom.

Moderated by Sherry Skalko (Executive Director, Injustice Watch), the panelists include Caroline Porter (Consultant, Shorenstein Center on Media), Harry Backlund (Co-Founder, City Bureau), and Sarah Schmalbach (Entrepreneur in Residence, Lenfest Institute).

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — A talk comparing some of the popular gallery plugins, as well as general advise and tips on how to optimise your image-heavy websites to ensure they run as efficiently as possible.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — Hosted by Bret Phillips, this panel will feature three successful business owners that specialize in building WordPress websites for different markets and client sizes.

The purpose of this panel is to help dissect the process of pricing your work so that you can continue to offer great value to your clients while staying profitable.

Freelancers will get a better understand of their own value and where to start.

Agencies and other staffed businesses will understand how to take profit into account when
pricing larger projects with many ‘unknowns’.

August 22, 2018 — Bobby Kircher is a digital marketing consultant focused on SEO, digital advertising, and analytics based in the Atlanta, Georgia. Since 2004, his company Papaya Internet has helped small businesses find opportunities for new business online.