September 30, 2023 — There are tons of helpful guides out there to help you get your WordPress website live. What you do after that though is entirely up to you. The first 6 months can be both exhilarating and frustrating in equal parts. This talk is about how to plan and execute during those critical early days, when most bloggers tend to give up even before they’ve really started.

September 30, 2023 — Like it or not, but if you sell online you have to think about tax compliance.

In this talk Ivo will explain how indirect taxes (VAT, sales tax, GST etc) work and how you can configure your WordPress site to ensure you are compliant.

September 30, 2023 — We critically analyse how WordPress agencies currently generate recurring revenue (retainer model, maintenance fee, consultancy, etc.) and the onset of productisation as a trending topic in the WP community.

I propose that productisation could/should be a collaborative, community-driven endeavour. We talk about different models and approaches and demonstrate this concept of collaboration by demonstrating a partnership case study during the talk.

September 30, 2023 — Freelancers know the pain of trying to deliver top of the line projects to their clients, while simultaneously trying to build a pipeline of new leads, secure projects, onboard new clients – not to mention all that extra stuff you know you should be doing to scale your business.

When you’re working in services you need systems in place to keep the cogs turning when you’re working with clients, drumming up new business, and even taking some time off (yes, time off!)

In this session, I’m going to show you how creating a system for onboarding can prevent some of your biggest client headaches.

When you’re working on high-touch (and €€€!) projects your process is as important as your deliverables – a great experience gives clients confidence in you, makes them come back time and time again, and gets you those referrals.

But how can you give your clients a high-touch experience from behind a screen? How can you stand out from the fancy in-person agencies with their mimosas and cute office dogs?

In this session I’ll take you through a battle-tested system for onboarding, working with, and off-boarding your clients while giving them a 5-star experience. You’ll learn how to stand out and make remote working a selling point – not a drawback.

September 30, 2023 — Branding is often associated with high-price consultants, reduced to logos and color schemes, or considered a gimmick. But if you’re a freelance professional, a business owner, or you’re working in a small team, you simply must work on your personal brand. Where to start? This presentation will be a better place than most.

Over the span of 30 minutes, I will give you an actionable blueprint for your personal branding strategy. The basis here won’t be The Big Marketing Bucks (TM), but authenticity and professionalism.

You will walk away ready to:

get people to know you and see you for the expert you are;
share valuable information that helps target audiences and gets them to like you;
build your value proposition by balancing the personal and the professional to generate trust.

September 30, 2023 — WordPress has been around for over 20 years and I’d like to demonstrate WordPress version 0.71 to show the community what they have built.

I’ll hit some highlights on major features in WordPress all the way through, for example a search feature at 1.0, Custom Post Types at version 3.0, and Gutenberg in 5.0.

September 30, 2023 — Tech companies love to market that they “support women in tech” – Here are the real world ways that a business can truly support the success of women working in technology.

Statistically speaking technology is a male dominated arena but is that truly beneficial to the industry?

Are we missing out on the humanity and warmth, knowledge and experience women and others can bring to the table?

Diversity is a value because it is truly valuable, and the more diverse your org infrastructure is, the more innovative and successful your business will be.

September 30, 2023 — The panel brings together a diverse group of people for an honest discussion about underrepresented folx involvement in the WordPress open source project.

The panelists will discuss their achievements, struggles and give advice to those starting out.

September 30, 2023 — For product companies wanting to grow in the WordPress ecosystem, strategic partnerships are often the best place to focus your efforts.

Join us for an active discussion with a group who knows partnerships well and together we’ll learn more about how to think and where to focus our energy to grow through partnerships.

September 30, 2023 — During the last few years I have been working with several teams on developing a number of systems powered by headless WordPress applications. Based on this experience I will go through the most common issues that we have come across and provide practical examples how they can be approached and solved.

We will cover every stage of the development process from planning to deployment. This talk will cover:

Proper planning and taking into consideration Headless WordPress specifics;
Security challenges and how to make sure your and your clients’ data is safe and secure;
Performance issues and how to tackle them without breaking key functionalities;
SEO and SM optimization is a must for every modern site, but with Headless WordPress, it might be a bit trickier;
Adding functionality and custom integrations – different approaches for optimal results;