June 20, 2018 — This happens a lot at formal networking events, but it happens even more frequently at WordCamp. Do you feel intimidated when it’s time to give your “30 second commercial”? Do you run out of things to talk about once you’ve exchanged names?

Effective networking is an important part of building your WordPress business. This presentation will help you get past the “grip and grin” stigma that people associate with networking and cover some ways that you can get the most out of mixing it up at networking groups, “business after hours” meetups, and of course the Hallway Track at conferences like WordCamp. Whether your an introvert or an extrovert, you’re sure to pick up a thing or two.

June 20, 2018 — Let’s face it. There’s a gap between what developers care about and what users care about. In this session, we’ll explore what happens when we ignore this simple fact. We’ll discuss what UX is and why the user’s experience matters, how to think like your users, and some new rules we can all get behind. After all, UX is more than just about visual design, but also about making sure systems are set up in a way that makes them easy for people to actually use.

June 20, 2018 — Whether you’re designing a new website or updating an old one, user-friendliness is key. Large fonts, big buttons, and strategic color motifs make calls to action obvious.

Help users take the actions you want them to. Help website users be happy.

Happy website users convert to happy customers. Happy customers help your business thrive.

June 20, 2018 — In this session, we examine the NC State Accessibility Helper, a homegrown plugin that makes accessibility testing a part of WordPress. We will discuss common issues reported by users of assistive technology and how those issues are introduced when creating content. We will then discuss how our plugin addresses these issues using an open source accessibility testing engine called aXe.

June 20, 2018 — In this talk, we will cover how the central IT web team at NC State reworked development processes and tools to fit within a GutenWorld. We will discuss changing coding practices, new vocabulary, and cross-departmental collaboration all coming together in a campus-wide Blocks plugin.

Attendees of this talk will come away with strategies for adapting to change and working collaboratively, as well as a framework for developing a set of blocks for your campus.

June 20, 2018 — ¿Trabajas con un ordenador? ¿Eres diseñador gráfico, programador o editor de contenidos? En esta charla Lolo Marchal nos hablará de utilidades y herramientas que nos hacen la vida más fácil a todos aquellos que trabajamos con un PC, ahorrando tiempo y dinero.

Se propondrán algunas soluciones pero tú también podrás comentar las tuyas, anímate y descubre cómo ser más eficiente.

Presentation Slides »

June 18, 2018 — Here at Zeek Interactive, I’ve put together a system that allows us to deploy code worry-free. The system automatically brings in PHP dependencies, WordPress plugins, builds assets, runs security scans, deploys the files quickly and performs automated visual regression tests, all while keeping the team informed via Slack on the status of the deploy.

This talk is recommended for anyone who has ever had to get code from their local machine and push it to a server. If you have ever been frustrated or annoyed at deploying code and wondered if there was a better way, don’t miss this talk.

June 18, 2018 — As a long time Drupal community member, I decided to participate in other free software communities to share my experiences and learn from theirs. In Nicaragua, my home country, the local WordPress community is very active. In this session I want to share my experience in being involved for almost a year now. In particular:

* What I have learned about community building and event organization.
* How my background as speaker, code contributor, and mentor in Drupal has been useful in my volunteering efforts.
* The benefits of the two communities working together to promote the adoption of free software in the country.

It has been a great first year and I look forward to get more involved in the WordPress community.

Presentation Slides »

June 17, 2018 — We’ve all been there. Your site looks beautiful on mobile, tablet, and desktop but 768 pixels to 900 pixels is a disaster. Creating a truly responsive website experience goes beyond using bootstrap. Front-end Developers consistently find themselves creating elaborate sets of media queries that are time consuming to create and difficult to maintain.

This talk will explore browser-compatible innovations in CSS that you should start employing in place of media queries. The end result will save time and create more adaptive web experiences.

We will walkthrough practical use cases for the calc() function, Flexbox, and CSS Grid.

June 17, 2018 — This talk will provide an overview of web accessibility standards and will demonstrate how to use existing tools to ensure your themes, plugins, and content are compliant with those standards. This talk is designed for WordPress developers of all skill levels who want the sites they create and manage to be as accessible as possible. Topics will include: Selling your clients (and yourself) on web accessibility, an introduction to WordPress accessibility guidelines for theme and plugin developers, an overview of manual and automated accessibility testing tools, common accessibility pitfalls to avoid, and where to learn more about web accessibility tools and standards.