January 10, 2018 — Finding the time and desire to blog can be tough, so we’ll be talking about blogging and how it can help your business. Most of us can appreciate the advantages of blogging, but get hung up on the details. We have blogs, but we’re embarrassed to give out the links because it’s been so long since our last post. We’ll tackle those issues, including things such as:

Where to blog (personal blog versus on your business site)
How to find ideas and manage them in a content calendar
How to build those ideas into full posts
Where to find and create graphics for your posts
Some of the best WordPress themes for blogging
Plugins to help make your blog more effective
By the end of the talk, you’ll have everything you need (and no more excuses) to get your blog up to speed and helping to grow your business.

January 10, 2018 — How to develop high quality content that is highly focused on answering customer questions and developing trust with website content. This presentation will be based on a hybrid mashup of ideas found from Marcus Sheridan’s “They Ask, You Answer”, and Stephen Covey’s “Speed of Trust”

January 10, 2018 — The number of companies facing legal action for inaccessible websites is on the rise. Inaccessible websites and digital content can limit access for users with disabilities. While automated evaluation is not an adequate substitute for accessibility testing, WordPress users can employ web accessibility evaluation tools to help determine if their content is accessible to users with disabilities. This session will provide an overview of several free WordPress plugins and web-based tools. Designers, developers, and content creators can utilize these tools to evaluate websites against recognized guidelines and create a better user experience.

January 10, 2018 — SEO in 2017 requires a mix of foundational best practices, following trends and updates, understanding the nuances for your industry, and making continuous improvements. Come to this workshop prepared with your keyword list, WordPress, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console (if you have it) account information handy.

January 9, 2018 — A talk about my personal story with WordPress and how I made a living with and from it. Some insights on businesses that I didn’t own but helped building (with WordPress) to widen the perspective.

Some of the aspects covered:

* using WordPress for your static company site
* Publishing & Monetization
* eCommerce
* being a (freelance) developer
* selling Premium Plugins
* Consulting

This talk is not about becoming rich in 3 easy steps, but sharing my story in order to motivate others to try out new things and understand what it takes (and doesn’t take) to do that.

January 9, 2018 — When a project goes wrong, most of the time it fails as a result of mismatched expectations. This can be avoided for most clients by following a repeatable and thorough discovery process. Understanding how to ask the right questions up front can mean the difference between happy clients who are eager to give you more business and nightmare clients who can never be satisfied.

This session will focus on:

Asking the right questions
Controlling the conversation
Creating maintainable expectations
Using discovery throughout your business

Presentation Slides »

January 9, 2018 — Content is EVERYBODY’s problem: it’s a problem for the content creator, and a problem for the developer. Without content, there is no website. Without the website there is no client. Yet.. how is it always left for last? In this talk I will teach you the core practices of the field known as Content Strategy: planning, development, and management of content. Truly thinking “Content First” from the beginning will completely transform your workflow and give everyone a grasp on creating, managing and structuring content, in time and on budget.

This talk is equally valuable for content creators, agencies and freelancers alike. Everyone wants to avoid the horror situation of scrambling to get content together two days before going live. It’s a nightmare for the author and a nightmare for the developer to implement. Learn how to integrate Content Strategy into your entire web process, resulting in quality content — organized and delivered on-time.

January 9, 2018

January 9, 2018 — I entered the world of WordPress because my husband invited me to join him during his trip to WordCamp Europe 2016 in Vienna. I did not even know what WordPress was up to that point. I was scared of meeting the “nerdy” part of my husband’s life probably due to not being able to get involved into it because of a lack of both interest and knowledge.
The story I want to share is about how things evolved afterward, as I visited several WordCamps as a passionate volunteer to the point of getting a true WordPress Community-Junkie. It is about how the community has actually allowed me to take part in the life that my husband’s leading every day. It is about how I became a WordCamp speaker and emcee as well as a member of the organizing team of three different WordCamps including WCEU 2018 without even having used WordPress professionally before.
It is the story about how I have been changing my life completely in one year: from sickness, frustration, and depression through a new source of inspiration and creativity to lots of new opportunities in personal and professional matters.
Being part of and contributing to the WordPress Community can be a very inspiring and enriching experience – not only for WordPress users and professionals but also for their partners, friends, and family.

January 9, 2018 — A talk about recent attacks carried out by hackers. How to secure WordPress using plugins and other services. Chathu has mastered Art of hardening WordPress installation more than 20 in Sri Lanka and other clients abroad.

Presentation Slides »