February 27, 2024 — The maturation of the block editor brought with it a major shift in how WordPress theme development was expected to work. For many independent developers and small agencies, this shift seemed like an huge disruption to their workflow – a once-reliable codebase now in flux, entirely new coding languages and tooling to learn, and layers of complexity added to tools (like hooks and queries) that used to be simple and accessible.

The questions seem overwhelming: How do we build something modern for our clients while ensuring its stability and reliability in the years to come? How do we find the time to learn all these new tools while continuing to produce quality work (and support ourselves or our team in the process)? Can’t I just keep doing it the way I was doing it?

Through my own experience as a full-time independent developer – building and supporting real projects with classic WordPress, the block editor, “hybrid” themes, and Full Site Editing as these features were introduced – I will share what I have learned about navigating the triumphs and pitfalls of modern WordPress theme development, and how to confidently decide which tools and features make sense for your projects.

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February 27, 2024 — You’ve decided to use WordPress to build your site. Congratulations! Now you’ve got to find a hosting provider.

You’ll soon realize that there are significant (and confusing!) differences between $2.50 WordPress hosting, $250 WordPress hosting, and $25,000 WordPress hosting.

Cloud services, managed hosting, CDN, SSH, WAF, NVMe, DDoS…How are you supposed to make sense of it all?

Join one web host’s Director of IT Operations to understand the managed hosting landscape and learn which features will actually make your

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February 27, 2024 — It can be challenging to be an introvert in a world built for extroverts. Many introverts have been told at some point in their career to “be more extroverted”, as though introversion is bad — but it’s not, and being an extrovert is certainly not required for success – even as a leader!

Ever wondered how the dopamine pathways in your brain affect how and when you’re able to focus? Probably not, but science can tell us a lot about how our brains work and we can learn to leverage that information to help us be the best leaders we can be.

Aaron will take both a scientific and experiential look at introversion and extroversion, how they differ, how to tell where on the scale you are, and how to employ this better understanding of how your brain works as an introvert to be a great leader. He’ll walk through his own journey of learning to leverage the strengths of his introversion and share what he does to help him navigate the parts of life and his career that are harder for him as an introvert.

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February 26, 2024 — Compatibility is often indicated with labels like “works with Gutenberg” or “Gutenberg ready.” However, these labels often only mean the product can function with it. It’s essential to fully embrace and use the new features to enhance the quality of your interface and workflow.

What does it mean to embrace the new phases of WordPress as a product? Specifically, how can you take advantage of them now and in the future? In this talk, I will share steps and offer insights into how to embrace the changes.

February 23, 2024 — The WordPress Training Team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through learn.wordpress.org. Within this team exists the Faculty Program

The Faculty Program consists of a team of dedicated volunteers who work to achieve the goals of the Training Team and Learn WordPress. You can read the initial proposal for this program here.

Key for Faculty Roles:

A: Administrator
CC: Content Creator
E: Editor
SME: Subject Matter Expert
TC: Translation Coordinator
In this session we will explain what the Faculty Program is, the rules that can be occupied, and answer any questions current or prospective Faculty Members have about the program.

Affiliated links:
https://make.wordpress.org/training/
https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/
https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/faculty-program/

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February 21, 2024 — In this lesson, we will explore the different WordPress user roles. Knowing the differences is important as it will help you protect your site and ensure that your team of editors and contributors are informed about their abilities and the part they play.

February 21, 2024 — This lesson will cover how you can use headings correctly across your website’s posts and pages for readability, accessibility, and SEO purposes.

February 20, 2024 — For this week’s livestream, I enabled Xdebug and started digging into an opened REST API ticket. Once I’d figured out what the reported bug was, and more importantly, why it exists, I logged my findings to the ticket and asked the core REST API team for feedback.

February 20, 2024 — Jonny is Head of Design & UX at Big Bite and has worked on several enterprise websites for clients such as The Times, Wall Street Journal, Gumtree, V&A, and Octopus Group. In this talk, we will take a behind-the-scenes look at how enterprise brands are utilising WordPress.

February 20, 2024 — In August last year I took on a new challenge, acting chief of staff to the CTO at GitLab. In this talk I share the lessons I learned from working alongside leadership, how I applied them to my regular role, and how you can too.