August 14, 2017 — In this presentation I will be debunking the biggest myths about our beloved WordPress CMS. I will cover some of the most common misconceptions about WordPress that may have kept users from diving in to give it a try. Think WordPress isn’t strong enough, fast enough, secure enough, or powerful enough? Join me as I discuss these non-issues and give WordPress skeptics a reason to take another look at the most popular CMS.

August 13, 2017 — BUT WHY? USE CASES FOR THE REST API

August 12, 2017 — I’ve found a new level of success as a freelance WordPress developer over the last year and I’d like to share my story with you. But more importantly, I want to teach other freelancers (or aspiring freelancers) how I made the transition successfully from full-time employment to full-time freelancing.

These are the tips, tricks, and strategies that I’ve personally implemented that have allowed me to earn at least $10,000 (five figures) each month as a freelancer.

I’m a 27 year old developer who’s recently made the transition himself and I’d like to help you set yourself up for a successful transition into freelancing as well.

August 12, 2017 — My experience has been that designers/agencies face two business oriented challenges that they fail to address, often because of a closed lens around what is possible. In other words, they aren’t aware that these options can greatly help their businesses and these partnerships are super easy to form. – Selling alone – I spend much of my day linking agencies with clients to sell projects together. Our clients need designers and often don’t know where to turn. Designer/agency clients need hosts, ad providers, marketers, etc. and again often don’t know where to turn. Selling in tandem increases both stickiness and value for all parties involved. – Building something amazing then turning it over to an unknown hosting or adtech provider. I liken this to building an awesome sports car and then leaving to chance that the owner will park it out on the street with no protection from the elements. This presentation is a vendor-agnostic look at how designers/agencies can increase their opportunities, deliver greater lifetime value to their clients, and insure that their hard work isn’t neglected after a site is finished by partnering with other providers. It also touches on how to choose providers/partners where there is a true synergy and sharing of interests. Thank you for your consideration. I’m excited about the opportunity to help WordPress professionals explore new ways to grow their businesses!

August 12, 2017 — In this talk we’ll discuss common WordPress performance issues and how to troubleshoot them. Then we’ll dive into New Relic and how to leverage this powerful tool to monitor, troubleshoot and optimize your site.

August 12, 2017 — As a freelance web designer I heard them all. The horror stories of domains lost (and later resold at auction), the (not so) ‘great hosting deals’, and myriad tales of web designers who had run off with their money.

If you’re a business owner with a website or getting geared up to build one, you’ll want to listen to Linda’s talk on how to side-step some of these common, and not as common, mistakes. Learn what you need to know to protect your online presence and accounts, and how to work with a web professional to create the product you want (and can afford).

August 12, 2017 — No matter the size of the site, getting hacked is a painful process to deal with. As a developer, it is important to know what you can do to prevent possible attack vectors. In this talk, Jim will show what you can do to harden your code and ensure your project will be secure.

August 12, 2017 — Hooray! You’ve got your WordPress Website up and running. Now that it looks great, see how you can use it to get more sign ups, contact inquiries and more for your nonprofit or business.

We’ll show you how to connect your WordPress Website with some of the leading customer relationship management (CRM) tools and marketing automation systems, so that you can develop long-term relationships with customers, donors, fans and brand advocates.

August 12, 2017 — Developers have spent countless hours working on a plugin that seems to be built just for you, just for this moment. If only it wouldn’t… This is a problem nearly every developer faces at some point during a project. Knowing how to safely customize functionality is key to building products that will stand the test of time (or major updates.)

This talk will cover the following topics:

Tips for diving into a large codebase (like WooCommerce or Gravity Forms)
Hooks
Filters
Overwriting functions
Modifying returned content
Requesting a change to a plugin

August 11, 2017 — Metrics are important for the digital publishing industry. One key metric that Boston.com, a major regional news media outlet, uses is ‘Time to Publish’. In a world of breaking news, time is of the essence. This talk will take a look at the past year and a half since launching on WordPress and how this metric came to the surface. Further, it will cover performance in the WordPress admin, tools for debugging, and investigating general slowness in the admin. Finally, we will review some of the ways in which we addressed these issues for the editorial staff. Join to learn why you want to reduce your Time to Publish and how to get it done.