December 27, 2019 — No one got into web design to be a privacy expert. But times have changed and privacy is more relevant than ever. What you’ll learn:

1. Why privacy is important;
2. What websites need to have a Privacy Policy;
3. Why you should be the one talking to your clients about it.

December 27, 2019 — Calling all freelancers! Whether you focus on design, development, content creation or marketing, there’s more to freelancing than just being good at your trade. In order to be able to service your clients, you have to keep YOUR business running and that means getting those finances in order. We’ll talk about the basics (fixed vs. hourly, time tracking, invoicing and profit to name a few) as well as more advanced topics (like IRAs and planning beyond this month). There will be spreadsheets.

December 27, 2019 — As creatives, we hear objections from potential clients all the time.

Unfortunately, we don’t all respond appropriately and we end up losing business. In this talk, we explain how creatives should respond when a client says you’re too expensive, don’t have enough experience, or aren’t an expert.

Closing the sale is hard, and it doesn’t help when a client hits you with an objection that could derail your pitch entirely.

But instead of losing projects because of objections, we can actually use them in our favor. Whether the objection is due to you being too expensive, not having enough experience, or not being an expert, you can still win the project if you tweak your sales approach.

In this talk, we share how we land gigs even though we’re more expensive than our competitors, don’t have double-digit years of experience, and don’t have any expertise in any particular industry.

December 27, 2019 — The BigCommerce WordPress plugin uses headless ecommerce to create a hybrid of a SaaS and WordPress. It’s powerful, fast, easy, scalable, and inexpensive. This is not a deeply technical talk, but rather a discussion about how the ecommerce landscape is changing in WordPress.

This is not intended to be a sales pitch for BigCommerce, but rather a plugin overview, similar to an “Introduction to WooCommerce” talk. Obviously BigCommerce must come up, but this is more about the evolving landscape of ecommerce in WordPress with the move to SaaS based plugins.

December 27, 2019 — Did you know that it is possible to create SaaS applications with WordPress? We will discuss some of the successfully created applications, and how to go about building one. We will cover what kinds of software makes sense to be a SaaS application instead of a standard plugin, and the kinds of built-in advantages WordPress add to the process. In addition, we will compare different options for provisioning new accounts and how to secure and scale your applications.

The WordPress plugin ecosystem numbers in the thousands, but there is still a comparatively small set of software for the WordPress platform that goes beyond plugins. We will cover what kinds of software makes sense to be a SaaS application instead of a standard plugin, and the kinds of built-in advantages WordPress add to the process. Using Laravel as an example, we’ll also discuss the basics of how to integrate your application as well as compare different options for security and monetization.

December 27, 2019 — In this talk we will go over the basics of designing, developing and testing for accessibility. We will cover accessibility principles (POUR: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) and approaches to achieving accessibility guidelines including: Color Contrast, Sizing & Spacing, Device Independent User Input, Page Structure, Headings, Testing Tools, Extensions, Testing with a Screen Reader.

December 27, 2019 — “Advertising” and “marketing” may overlap, but marketing doesn’t have to be expensive! Would you like to learn how to market your small business on a small business budget?

In this session, you will learn:
– how to identify your ideal client (target market)
– how to market to them in a way that they will respond to, and
– how to do this effectively for little to no cost

With 20 years of experience, helping small business owners with their marketing and online presence, I am ready to teach you the strategies that actually WORK for small businesses. I will help you discover the clients you WANT to work with, which sounds overly simplistic, but in reality, most small business owners can’t identify their ideal client. I will teach you how to communicate with your ideal prospects in a way that helps them to know, like, and trust you, which encourages them to respond positively to your message. Finally, I will equip you with a list of free and low-cost tools, giving you some tips on how to best use them to reach your target market.

I have been using these tools and strategies with and for my clients for two decades. Not only can you use the knowledge you learn in this session to reach your own target market, but you can also add value to your business by teaching these strategies to your clients. By the end of this session, you will learn the methods that helped me gain more visibility, credibility, and profitability as a small business owner who actually THRIVED during the recession and has kept growing ever since!

December 26, 2019 — Právnik vám porozpráva, ako si nastaviť svoj digitálny biznis tak, aby ste žiadneho právnika dlho nepotrebovali. Pozrieme sa na hlavné výzvy, ktorým čelia webové a digitálne spoločnosti.

Presentation Slides »

December 26, 2019 — In the world of frauds scams and internet wild wild west, we need to build trust and involve more humans in all processes. Humans like to speak to humans rather than automated responses, bots etc. Let’s see how to!

Presentation Slides »

December 26, 2019