November 3, 2020 — Speed matters. People are impatient. If your website or a client’s website doesn’t load quickly – within a just a couple of seconds – many visitors will abandon it completely. A slow site means lost time & revenue. But figuring out how to speed up a slow site can be HARD. Everyone’s got a suggestion and an idea for how to fix your performance issues, but most are just guesses, and not based on real data. STOP GUESSING. If you have a performance issue, or just want a faster site, you need to KNOW exactly what is slowing things down, and how to fix it. This talk will show you how.

November 3, 2020 — In this talk, you will learn the importance of online surveys, user interviews, analytics and focus groups to build better websites. Shifting the conversation from client focused projects to user-focused experiences allows you to truly understand and deliver for your users.

We will explore when to leverage tools like Google Analytics, Inspectlet, and marketing automation platforms. The outcome is a stronger relationship with your client, a repeatable method for continued website improvements, and an outstanding experience for both the client and its users.

November 3, 2020 — This talk will include:

lessons learned from our personal experiences looking for work at everything from partnerships to VIP agencies
when to work for yourself and when to hire on with someone else,
and then job trends in 2019 that open up opportunities for people interested in moving away from the traditional opportunities in development and design.

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November 3, 2020 — Come learn about how you can use WordPress to power and amplify your voice online, and reclaim the web from the walled gardens for the user!

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November 3, 2020 — If you’re working with code, you’re going to encounter bugs. One of the most important aspects to efficient software development is learning how to troubleshoot and debug more effectively. In this talk, we’ll discuss some useful debugging methods, powerful tools, and insightful plugins that can help you become a better developer when building with WordPress.

November 3, 2020 — Transients allow developers to easily micro-cache expensive queries and remote data calls in the most efficient way possible. They’re relatively easy to use and can make dramatic performance improvements in your site.

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November 3, 2020 — Have you been asked to translate your website(s) yet? If not, the question is coming soon. The US has 4.3% of the world’s population and yet, less than 5% of US companies export. Plus, nearly half the population in the top 5 US cities don’t speak English at home. Being able to research and buy online has blasted open multilingual lead generation and customer acquisition opportunities leading many companies to become “accidental exporters”. If your (or your client’s) website isn’t translated and you aren’t doing multilingual marketing, you are losing out. In this session, learn how to develop a multilingual communications strategy, leverage WordPress with translation technologies, and figure out the right process to get the quality you need.

November 3, 2020 — CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language used to control the look and feel of your website. This powerful tool controls the spacing, coloring, fonts, and decorative elements (such as boxes and underlines) of your WordPress website. In this session, we’ll learn what CSS is, how to view the CSS already affecting your website, and how to add your own CSS.

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November 3, 2020 — With the explosive adoption of Smart Speakers, the primary interaction with your content will become auditory instead of visual. On the world wide web, our brand revolves around a URL, logo, tagline, color palette, font, images, etc., but when your audience is no longer engaging with your content through a screen, traditional brand elements become invisible. In a voice first environment, when your audience just asks for what they want, they expect the answer to be returned verbally. In a voice first world, what does your brand look like, (I mean, sound like)? In this talk, I explore the components of a verbal brand, how to prepare for the shift from written content to verbal content, as well as the future of voice technology and how to prepare for it.

November 3, 2020 — With all the talk about the importance of making WordPress Accessible, how does someone with a vision impairment teach WordPress? Listen as I share the tools and techniques I have used for the last ten years as a WordPress instructor at Pratt Institute, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Third Ward in New York. I will share with you 5 tools and techniques that aid me in teaching my students as well as my thoughts on my article published by Smashing Magazine on what it’s like to have macular degeneration. If you care about Accessibility, you don’t want to miss this.