December 12, 2017 — The session will explore possibilities for how WordPress can modernize its media handling capabilities to support the next generation of media experiences built on top of WordPress.

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December 12, 2017 — This talk describes how the exercise worked, presents some of the more interesting findings and explains how the 30 Questions exercise can be adapted and applied to any type of website.

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December 12, 2017 — Plugins are a vital part of WordPress websites that need specific functionalities. While the official WordPress repository has more than 45,000 plugins from you to choose from, many of these plugins miss the mark. Just because a plugin is in the repository doesn’t mean it won’t hinder its performance or compromise its security. So what can you do? Well, you can build your own. In this talk we’ll talk about what you should do when building a plugin as well as walk trough how that can be done trough an example plugin called Toptal Save.

December 10, 2017 — Those of us who collaborate on websites work with coworkers, employees, and freelancers who often aren’t in our office, our city, or even in our country. When work is remote, new challenges arise: people can find it harder to stay motivated, to communicate goals and accomplishments, and to check in effectively. This talk is about how to lead others from a distance toward a common goal. How do you build and maintain working relationships and get things done correctly and on time when you aren’t in the same physical location as your colleagues? Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, is fully distributed, which means all of our communication is entirely online. If we can do it, so can you!

December 10, 2017 — In my more than two years serving as the content creator for WooCommerce, I wrote 200 posts, responded to over 600 comments, and literally wore out an Macbook keyboard to the point of failure. (Eat your heart out, George R.R. Martin.)

I’ve learned three valuable lessons while writing for a business of Woo’s size that I’d like to share:

1. Never, ever fully commit to a publish date if you can help it — people get sick, writers don’t deliver, and unexpected things will happen.
2. Commenters are going to test your patience — always be kind, always think of their intent, and look for the gems (the funny ones/the helpers).
3. Writing content for a business is not easy, but it is rewarding. Lots of examples to share here: people recognizing/thanking me at WordCamps, getting comments weeks later saying “I did this and it worked!” and knowing you’re making it easier for someone to succeed.

December 10, 2017 — As brick and mortar stores close because of tough e-commerce competition, local governments can take a page from the retail playbook. Innovate with the times, or risk being left behind. When local private investment dries up and empty stores predominate downtown, “Buying Local” is only one step in thinking critically about how to improve a local economy. Why not buy local…online? Here is how one local government almost made this a reality.

December 10, 2017

December 10, 2017

December 10, 2017 — In 2002, the percentage of the population over the age of 50 was over twenty-seven percent. By 2020, it will be over thirty-five percent. The size of the 50 plus population will more than double in the next 35 years. Our nation faces a demographic revolution as 78 million boomers enter their retirement years. A baby boomer turns 60 every 7.5 seconds. This demographic shift will result in tremendous changes in the workplace, civic organization and healthcare. This segment is adopting and using technology faster than any other segment. And, they are the group with the most disposable income. Ignoring them and their needs is not just a bad practice, it’s bad business. More importantly, the things that can be learned from working with this audience can inform efforts with other segments. We’ll look at some of the unique aspects of designing, developing, and testing with this audience.

December 10, 2017 — If there is passion for innovation, things get done. This is often true for the WordPress Open Source project and smaller projects within.

The WCEU design team set a tall goal this year, beyond the usual design work for the event. We decided it was time to make creating and customizing a WordCamp site easy and intuitive, so we released a new WordCamp default theme for all. I’d like to share our goals, design consideration, and how we released the CampSite 2017 theme beta just before the event.