November 13, 2019 — In this talk, I’ll cover the basics of how to get to the bottom of technical issues, and to set up a workflow that prevents your site visitors’ experiences from being disrupted.

You will walk away armed with the tools you need to confidently click “Update” every time, without fear of bringing your site down.

As an added bonus, you will have an antidote for that voice in your head that says silly things like “but I’m not technical” or “I’m not a coder” as a way of avoiding leveling up.

November 13, 2019 — Joining such a welcoming and inspiring community as is the WordPress project can be exhilarating and makes people want to contribute their part to join the movement and strengthen their feeling of belonging.

The initial enthusiasm can easily lead to contributors slowly spiraling into overcommitment and a feeling of obligation and responsibility towards the project. There’s a cost attached to anything we do, even when we’re talking about unpaid volunteer work done in the spare time. And that cost will be paid in some way, no matter what.

We need to more openly talk about the adverse effects of doing open source contributions in an unsustainable way, destigmatize the money topic when it comes to “”free”” software and directly address immediate issues of frustration and burn-out as they surface.

Let’s all have our fellow contributors’ backs, and make sure we’re all in it for the long run!

November 13, 2019 — This talk provides a transparent account of why Bristol chose to do_action, what successes and challenges we faced, who it helped and how it made an impact.

November 13, 2019 — This session is for people who want to implement BDD in their WordPress projects. Through examples the role that each tool plays will be presented. The relationship among them and how they build on each other will also be exemplified.

By the end of it you will have an overview of how to use Behat, Mink, WordHat, and Selenium to write BDD tests for WordPress.

Learning objectives:

– How to set up Behat and WordHat to run tests for WordPress projects.
– How to write non-javascript enabled tests using driver Goutte driver.
– How to write javascript enabled tests using the Selenium driver.

November 13, 2019 — You might love your website — but does your target market? More importantly, are the people you seek to serve actually converting in terms of your website’s goals?

It’s easy to get caught up in bias when it comes to a project that you’re closely involved with. One way to get around this involves inviting unbiased third parties to try using your website, while narrating their experience. You may be surprised to see the major differences that come to light in terms of what you expected to happen versus how people actually navigate your website.

This process, known as user testing, can quickly become expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. With experience designing websites for 15+ years, UX enthusiast Maddy Osman will provide an actionable process (complete with tool suggestions) for performing user tests on a budget.

November 13, 2019 — If you, like me, have ever thought “I’m not a developer, how could I realistically contribute to WordPress?”, then think again. Anyone can contribute to WordPress. And yes, that includes you! In this lightning talk I’ll walk you through a couple examples like coordinating component teams, gardening bugs in Trac, and getting videos submitted to WordPress.tv.

November 13, 2019 — Jonathan Wold will talk about the history of WordPress, its current state, and its future through the lens of serving as an Operating System for creating on the Open Web.

November 13, 2019 — “With the explosive adoption of Smart Speakers, the primary interaction with your content will become auditory instead of visual. On the world wide web, your brand revolves around a URL, logo, tagline, color palette, font, images, etc., but when your audience is no longer seeing your content, 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 13, 2019 — WordPress web design takes a different approach when creating websites for nonprofit organizations rather than a brick and mortar or eCommerce business. It is more than just driving traffic to a site but getting the visitor to buy into the story that the nonprofit is telling. Picture the ASPCA commercials we all have seen on TV, then convert that into pictures and words. Stories that pull at the heartstrings open the wallets for donations. Providing secure portals to accept not only one-time donations but also subscription based, monthly reoccurring is key. By designing a website that creates emotion and engagement as well as a place to share the stories of the nonprofit. In turn, donations and exposure will increase for the organization as well as their digital reputation. In this presentation, I will discuss plugins that I have found that work well for donation-based model websites. I will also share ways to create a user experience that increased donations and awareness. Proper theme selection, SEO, plugins all enhance the way we not only tell the nonprofit’s story but also build brand awareness and in turn a sense of comfort with the donor that they are supporting a cause whose story resonates with them. Whether it be animal welfare, orphans, trafficking, no matter the cause a properly designed site can provide donor dollars and exposure that the organization would likely not have otherwise.

November 13, 2019 — Why should you forget about the scores if you want to speed up your website? Why would using CDN might not help you improve your site speed? How do you get to know your hosting is fast enough? Why does Twitter with all its funny GIFs load lightning-fast and your visitors have to wait for ages while one single kitten gets loaded? How do you make video and images on your website load really fast?

Join Sabrina Zeidan for answers to all of these questions. You will want to take notes!