November 25, 2024 — Using a design system approach, learn some useful principles and tools for creating and testing consistent, maintainable, reusable custom design and layout elements. Aimed at developers of custom themes.

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November 25, 2024 — Images are the heart and soul of many websites, especially those built on WordPress. They capture attention, tell stories, and enhance user experience. But did you know that images can also be a powerful SEO asset?

In this session, we’ll dive into the world of image SEO, exploring how to optimize your visuals to not only look stunning but also rank higher in search results. We’ll cover everything from technical optimizations like formatting and sitemaps to creative strategies for crafting descriptive filenames and alt text.

As a seasoned SEO expert, I’ll share insider tips and tricks gleaned from years of experience and the latest Google guidelines. Whether you’re a blogger, photographer, e-commerce store owner, or anyone else using WordPress, this session will equip you with the knowledge to make your images work harder for your website’s success.

Main Topics:
– Image Discovery and Indexing: How to ensure search engines find and understand your images.
– Responsive Images: Techniques for delivering the right image to the right device for optimal performance.
– Image Formats and Quality: Choosing the best formats for web and balancing quality with speed.
– Image Sitemaps: Helping search engines discover images they might otherwise miss.
– Descriptive Filenames and Alt Text: Crafting informative text that improves accessibility and SEO.
– Structured Data: Using schema markup to provide additional context to search engines.
– Page Titles and Descriptions: Optimizing the text around your images for better search visibility.
– Speed and Performance: Tips for optimizing image size and delivery for faster page loads.

By the end of this session, you’ll have the skills to transform your images from pretty pictures into powerful SEO tools.

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November 25, 2024 — The Gutenberg project has ushered in a new era for WordPress theme development, opening up many new opportunities, but also creating new challenges as well.

In the good old days of WordPress, things were simple. You had your theme, you had your content, and sometimes some custom fields.

Things aren’t so simple anymore.

One particular challenge is how the line between content and layout has been blurred so much that it might not even be there at all. Nothing exemplifies this quite as much as the humble post thumbnail.

Join us as we take a deep dive into the WordPress template structure as we try to untangle the layout from the content, and find a solution to the Post Thumbnail Paradox.

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November 25, 2024 — Cyber security (or lack of) has been covered extensively in the news. Hacker attacks range from bored school kids toying around to state-sponsored ransom-driven targeted strikes. As web developers it’s our responsibility to incorporate cyber security best practices into the development cycle.

In this talk I’ll cover:
– state of security of WordPress
– resources and guidelines from Australian government and The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP)
– WordPress plugins and other services to secure your website

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November 25, 2024 — The Code Company has been working with global enterprise brands for a decade, and one of the keys to being able to share developer knowledge and efficiency across projects is by using a consistent project framework.

Our core framework at TCC, unofficially named “WPMVC”, is a basic, unopinionated PHP framework that leverages a basic Model-View-Controller structure that works for any project that we’ve encountered (so far).

As part of this talk we’ll cover:
Some background on how we developed this framework
Comparison to other popular PHP frameworks
Why we have chosen this specific approach, and the benefits we’ve seen
Some real-life use-cases
Upcoming features and improvements

In addition, as part of this talk we will be making our “WPMVC” framework open source and available for you to use in your own projects.

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November 25, 2024 — Welcoming our Robot Collaborators: AI and Creativity in Content Marketing

Artificial intelligence is often seen as a threat to human creativity, but what if we could leverage it to build deeper, more meaningful connections with our audience? This talk will explore the integration of AI into content marketing, emphasizing the importance of human creativity and how AI can enhance, rather than replace, our creative efforts. I’ll cover topics such as:

* How AI fits into content marketing
* The value of human creativity
* The limitations of AI
* Using AI to build human connections

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November 25, 2024 — Many people find the whole concept of web accessibility intimidating, but we’re here to show you that it can be approachable and rewarding (not to mention, necessary).

In this talk I’ll discuss the real risks website owners, designers, and developers face when they overlook accessibility.

Ignoring these issues can lead to lost opportunities and frustrated users, and we want to help you avoid that. It’s crucial to educate ourselves and implement accessible practices in our projects, and I’ll share why it’s worth the effort, and how you can get started.

By the end of our session, you’ll have a practical plan for how you can start tracking, testing and improving accessibility on your own projects, and I’ll provide a bunch of tips and resources to help you create more inclusive websites.

Let’s work together to make the web a better place for everyone!

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November 25, 2024 — * How to build a page layout with patterns
* Sharing pattern developer sites to show the breadth of selection in the community
* Discuss latest core features for working with pattern styling
* Discuss latest core features for working with patterns (syncing, editing, etc)

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November 25, 2024 — XWP addresses many corporates and enterprises who are exploring WordPress for the first time. Often the first conversation is ‘Why is WordPress better than other CMSs?”. This is a non-technical talk as it takes a view from the Customer’s lens on what they need to know to address internal stakeholder objections. It will cover areas such as:
– the value customer’s are looking to provide their customers
– the value propositions for key internal stakeholders (CEO, CTO, CMO, Procurement, Chief Architect, Senior Users (Marketers, Editorial, Product)
– how the WordPress project and ecosystem is optimal for addressing this value

There is no silver bullet and it needs a honed narrative, that it would benefit us all if we were more consistent in our messaging.

Whether your customer is a local dentist or a multinational corporation, this talk will show how WordPress can be the hero a company’s digital story.

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November 25, 2024 — Our local Aussie WordPress communities copped a fair bashing during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been slow to recover.

Recent upsets in the WordPress community haven’t helped either.

Our panel will discuss ways to reinvigorate and rebuild local communities to their pre-pandemic state – if possible!