April 27, 2018 — Getting started using Gutenberg for content creators and business owners. Where Gutenberg originates from, what’s it good for, how to take advantage of it and which latest features should be used at your own risk.

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April 27, 2018 — Freelancers and agency owners, does this sound familiar? You don’t have enough money to pay your bills. You have a few clients, but you’re rushing projects and doing less than your best work because you don’t have enough time to find new work AND complete the projects to which you’re already committed at the same time. As much as you’d like to charge more for your work, nobody takes you seriously because you’ve only done small, cheap projects so far.

This is what happens when you accept the wrong clients. Most of us think we have to start at the bottom with low paying jobs and work our way to the top, yet that approach leaves us broke and stuck. In this session, we’ll talk about which clients you should turn down, which you should target, and how to command twice your current rate without needing an impressive portfolio.

April 27, 2018 — Action Heroes are known for their ability to size up a situation and do whatever it takes to overcome their obstacles and be successful. As designers, bloggers and consultants there is a constant need for dedicated action, yet distractions, lack of focus and just plain daily craziness stop the needed forward momentum.

In this fun, fast moving presentation we look at how to become the Action Hero of Your Own Life by overcoming those distractions, building stronger habits, developing ironclad self-control, and employing laser focus. All of which enable you to overcome your obstacles and master your day.

By the time you leave this presentation you’ll know:
The importance and power of being in action and why it’s easier than you think
How habits are your secret weapon when it comes to having stronger will power and self-control
The four types of procrastination and how to consistently conquer them
Easy ways to leverage dedicated focus to do more with less time

April 27, 2018 — As someone who builds WordPress websites for clients, you’ve probably learned that offering (or requiring) monthly maintenance contracts is smart business. It’s likely you’re including core software, plugin and theme updates as part of your maintenance plan, which ensures a steady income stream you can rely on and helps with your financial forecasting. But are you including website security as part of your project proposal and scope? The security of your clients’ websites is often not a priority or is left till the end of a project (or sale?) as an optional add-on for the client to consider after going live. The value of a strong website security posture can be difficult to explain to clients, but when put in the context of their business and possible loss of revenue, it can become an integral part of your offering that separates you from the rest. In this session, Jamie will cover simple website security best practices that you can implement immediately for your own site and those of your clients. In addition, she’ll also offer advice and examples on how to best present the importance of website security during the proposal, scope, and maintenance package stages to your clients. Not only does this ensure your maintenance plans offer what every website needs, but also presents an additional revenue stream opportunity for your business.

April 27, 2018 — Jason is a partner at co-founder of GiveWP.com, a WordPress donation plugin powering more than 40k+ active installs. He works on managing the businesses growth, buys the ads and does pre-sales support tickets, too. He grew up in Jefferson Park (blue line), too—though he lives in San Diego now, he’s a Blackhawks and White Sox fan.

April 27, 2018 — We’ve all had the experience of a support technician being seemingly unable to answer our question about their theme, plugin, or service. Do you know that there’s a link between your support tickets and better documentation? Do you find yourself frustrated at developers and support reps who can’t seem to diagnose issues arising from their plugins or themes? Do you want to find better answers to your support questions, more quickly? Plus, the two-minute method of solving +50% of your support requests before you even send them. This talk, appropriate for all audiences, will be most beneficial for folks new to the WordPress ecosystem

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April 27, 2018 — One of the most known leitmotif for people into code quality assurance is: “run unit tests in isolation”.

To apply this principle to code written for WordPress will bring us to write tests to be ran without loading WordPress.

The talk will mostly pivot on real-world examples of unit-testing WordPress plugins in isolation.

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April 27, 2018 — Your clients (prospective and active) are not telling you the truth. Maybe it’s about a project that’s gone off track or a website dream they envision. Or maybe they’re not sharing their thoughts on ways their business could grow its sales or improve operations.

By demonstrating your ability to be truly authentic at each step in the process, you can aim toward creating projects that are more collaborative and ultimately more successful. Learn why it’s critical to: – Restate, in your own words, your perception of the project. – Boldly ask, “So, what do you want from me?” – Authentically and directly tell the client what you want from them. – Test for client commitment and control.

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April 26, 2018 — First off, what exactly is user generated content (UGC)? This is content that is created by your customers. It can be anything – a blog post, product reviews, photos, videos or comments. Content marketing is currently a top marketing strategy for most businesses. A report by Demand Gen shows that 47% of customers surveyed will read about three to five pieces of content prior before they consider reaching out to a company to get its products or services.

April 25, 2018 — As WordPress developers and project managers, freelancers and agencies, our work revolves around the concept of the client project. We invest countless hours in discussing and preparing projects for presentation throughout the sales process. In this context, we limit ourselves to thinking about projects from the perspective of budget, timeline, and resources. After all, this is the information we need to land sales and maintain a revenue stream. However, a successful project is much more than a set of numbers in a proposal. Projects are complex systems with multiple inputs and outputs. They are impacted by relationships, variables and dependencies. Neglecting these intricacies and interactions at the beginning of a project only increase the risks that your project team will need to overcome. Establishing a sustainable and thorough infrastructure for your project will mitigate these risks and allow your team to focus on writing awesome code and generating opportunities for your team and your clients. This talk will focus on practical suggestions for effective onboarding, offboarding and documentation that will improve your ability to establish a healthy, self-sustaining project.