December 21, 2018 — This talk will go into detail about when, why and how to use WordPress as a decoupled CMS backend with a React / Node frontend. This talk is equal parts tutorial, existential dive into when it is appropriate to use modern web application architecture, and lessons learned from my journey building a React SPA with a WordPress backend.

December 20, 2018 — Ready to learn the basics of Gutenberg?

Learn the ins and outs as well as useful tips and tricks for publishing content using WordPress’ new editing experience.

December 20, 2018 — You have something to say – find your unique voice for your words and then develop creative and powerful ways to put your words to work

Simple ideas for finding your voice
Quick Tips for getting the words down
Turn scripts/blogs into ebooks.
Turn ebooks into print books.
Turn blogs into to memes.
Turn podcasts into blog posts.

Be creative in adjusting your words to work within a niche and you will find that your words work for you instead of you having to work so hard for your words.

December 17, 2018 — As freelancers, we all know how difficult it can be to keep clients on track. From shifting visions to missed deadlines to massive scope creep – it can feel like an uphill battle to keep things on deadline and within the original contract you signed. Fortunately, with strong client communication you can avoid many of this issues. As a long-time project manager and freelance developer, I’ll dive into the foundations of good client communication including: setting expectations, using deadlines and timelines effectively, buffering for client schedules, measuring out next steps, and handling conflict.

December 17, 2018 — The new WordPress editor (Gutenberg) is how all new content is to be created on WordPress. However with the way the data is stored, is that really the best way to power an application? I will walk through the drawbacks for how Gutenberg stores data, and how to easily change that to more easily power custom headless (and not) web applications.

Presentation Slides »

December 17, 2018 — An update to last year’s WCLAX 2017 SEO talk, this presentation will cover everything that has changed in the last 12 months and will go into what Google’s algorithm is liking this year.

This rapid-fire talk will cover and provide step by step instructions on the following SEO processes:

– Topical organization of content, bread crumbs, and schema.
– Implicit and explicit entities, what they are and why they are important.
– Voice search optimization for publishers, name-brands and service providers.

We will also dive into Google’s new Search Console, its new reporting features and what it all means for bloggers, marketers, and webmasters.

The primary objective for this talk is to help attendees become more educated about the ever-changing world of SEO and to keep these new practices in mind as they work on their websites.

Presentation Slides »

December 17, 2018 — Join the team of SEO experts from TopHatRank SEO as they provide attendees with actionable SEO recommendations and solutions. They’ll audit your site on stage in real-time proving you with actionable SEO solutions to your existing website. No theoretical solutions or hypothetical scenarios in this session. You’ll walk away knowing what you need to do to your website.

3-6 attendees will have the opportunity to get their site audited and everyone else can watch and learn from these real world examples!

December 14, 2018 — This presentation will start with the basics behind Google Analytics and dive into intermediate level guide to using the dashboard as well as procedures and process for the following:

– Basics of installation
– Setting up a dashboard
– Getting comfortable with the terminology and what everything means.
– Analytics channels and conversion tracking

My goal is help attendees understand that Google Analytics is more than just tracking “number of hits”, but it also contains a wealth of information that can help them get the most from their site.

Presentation Slides »

December 14, 2018 — GDPR is fundamentally changing the way we do business online. With GDPR now in effect for nearly 4 months, what does this mean for your site? Is the GDPR law geographically limited? Sam brings his 20 years of cybersecurity experience to discuss how you can protect your client data, what to do in the event of a data breach, and how you can prevent one. We’ll answer your questions and more including how your plugin choices can affect GDPR compliance.

December 14, 2018 — Within the WordPress community, we are beginning to see a need to better support our children with the challenges of autism and related issues, particularly as they grow into adults.

This panel will focus on how the tech community can create systems that enable people with autism and related challenges to flourish professionally.

The panelists and moderator will be tech and medical professionals from outside of the WordPress community, with an eye to sharing what other technologists are already doing.