July 7, 2019 — I recently joined Dow Jones as a WP developer. I discovered not everyone was a WP developer but PHP or other developers who did some WordPress. I had to figure out how to win adoption of ‘the WordPress way’ across multiple countries, devs, stakeholders, & online publications. We also had to make sure that legacy plugins, tools, etc kept up with the new changes of WordPress 5. I’ll share how I won adoption and coordination by using Git for collaboration, regularly scheduled meetings (without death by meetings), & creating standards. I’ll also give a peek at pitfalls to avoid when trying to work within org that never did remote before & worked with multiple outside agencies.

July 7, 2019 — Recent laws (with more on the way!) make it a requirement that even the most basic of sites and blogs have a Privacy Policy and follow best privacy practices. And working with a law firm or consultant can prove to be costly and overwhelming. Luckily, recent WordPress updates have done much of the hard work for us, but we still need to spend the time to document our practices and policies, which isn’t always a straightforward task. We’ll discuss the requirements of a Privacy Policy, how to use the new built-in WordPress privacy tools, and provide open-sourced examples that you can take and make your own. You will walk out of this session with everything you need to publish or update your privacy policy with confidence.

July 7, 2019 — With the glut of information and competitors online, how will you engage busy buyers who have such short attention spans? Two ways: by using design to draw folks into the key messages on your website; and by crafting those messages to make a genuine connection.

We’ll look at a pile of before-and-after examples to explore some surprisingly simple ideas and insights that really can help your site stand out. The trick, as we’ll see, is to approach things from the buyer’s perspective instead of the seller’s perspective.

July 7, 2019 — Transform Google Analytics from a maze of baffling figures to a robust optimization tool that drives the success of your WordPress projects. In this session, you will learn how to “cage the beast” that is Google Analytics allowing you to achieve insights that actually matter.

We will cover how move beyond stock metrics to track meaningful engagement and conversions. Start scoring referrers, content, website changes and much more allowing you to uncover the most effective opportunities for improvement. Finally, learn how to integrate reporting to empower smarter data-driven decisions.

For those who are determined to create impactful websites with online marketing that maximizes results, this talk will deliver actionable items you can implement as soon as you get back into your office.

July 7, 2019 — Did you know there are mini-WordCamps that happen every month all over Atlanta? WordCamp is awesome. From the great topics and happiness bar to meeting new people & catching up with old friends, everyone has a great time. But you don’t have to wait once a year to get this experience! Come meet the organizers of our local WordPress meetups and learn how you can continue your WordCamp experience year-round.

If you’re local and applied to speak, but didn’t get accepted this year — or, if you’re thinking of applying to speak next year — this is where to start.

July 7, 2019 — As we take our first steps into a block-based editing system within WordPress 5.0 and beyond, designing exceptional WordPress experiences has never been more important.

Let’s take a look at how to level-up our design capabilities and explore strategies to building block experiences within Gutenberg that can be notably complex, yet extraordinarily simple at the same time.

In a world where the lines between design and development are blurred more than ever, we’ll dive into design patterns, user experience, and even a couple programming techniques and ideas — all to understand how to design remarkable user experiences in Gutenberg blocks.

July 7, 2019 — Modern browsers, JavaScript libraries, and CSS3 have made it easier than ever to create exciting, dynamic animated experiences within web interfaces. But we have also seen the unfortunate side effect of trying to do too much: websites that are resource hogs, eating up bandwidth and slowing load times to a crawl, all for effects that are ultimately just there for the “show” factor. This talk will discuss how to use these animation skills for good: to establish context, convey status, give feedback, and yes, even add a little delight. Along the way, we’ll discuss the principles of animation that guide everything from your favorite feature films to the actions of a button on your screen, and learn how deliberate animation choices can improve the experience for your user.

July 7, 2019 — What about those who use screen readers? What really drives them crazy? What do they wish web designers knew? Come learn what the visually impaired want most from your website.

July 7, 2019 — Do you constantly feel like you are hacking code together? Do you find it difficult to maintain, adapt or even read code you’ve written previously? Chances are, you are not taking into consideration some of the basic principles of software architecture. Come learn how some simple habits and changes in perspective can transform you from a 1x developer to a 10x developer!

July 7, 2019 — We’re all humans, right? The primary way we exchange information with each other is by having a conversation and that’s what users expect from websites and apps. Everything from lead forms to error messages are a part of the conversation. And just like a conversation, the flow of information is expected to go both ways.

In this talk, we’ll discuss the art of designing the words people see when they interact with software and how to craft a genuine conversation with your users.