June 21, 2017 — Andrea Middleton has worked with WordCamp organizers since 2011, helping people plan events that inspire people to do more with WordPress, connect the WordPress community, and contribute to the WordPress project.

She said in his talk “The WordPress community is built and maintained by volunteers, using the same methods — and many of the same tools — that are used to make WordPress itself. In this session, you’ll get a look at the WordPress community’s “source code” and learn how to contribute to the growth of your local community — or create a community if you don’t already have one.”

June 21, 2017 — Sarah Semark is a designer, developer, and world-traveller. After running a business for eight years, she now works for Automattic designing and building WordPress themes.

The line between design and development is getting blurrier, and our approach to web design is becoming more modular. How do we keep track of it all?

Style guides to the rescue!

Using style guides that update as our projects progress, we can visually document our work and ensure that everything stays consistent. They may seem daunting and time-consuming at first, but they don’t have to be.

How do I get started with living style guides? What’s a living style guide anyway, and how do I know if mine is dead? Isn’t that going to slow me down? Why should I bother?

June 21, 2017 — Andrew Nacin is a Lead Developer of WordPress. He’s led major releases, mentored contributors, and spearheaded new development.

He said in his talk ‘You can make a bigger impact with people skills and thoughtful human-centered design than simply with code. After running WordPress releases and then spending two years working in government, WordPress lead developer Andrew Nacin wants to talk about how your interactions with others matter and how it’s important to think with people, not for them.’

June 21, 2017 — Taking that first step from working as a freelancer to making your first hire and becoming an agency is an exciting but daunting step. In this talk I will explain how I accidentally started an agency and strategically grew my WordPress specialist agency from myself to over 40 people over the course of 5 years with minimum staff turnover.

I will cover:

– How and when to make hires
– Where to find new employees (from developers to operations)
– How to create a company culture
– How you can ensure your employees are on board for the long run

June 21, 2017 — Rahul is the founder and CEO of rtCamp – the only WordPress.com VIP Partner from Asia.

He said in his talk Whether you’re a budding developer, a pixel-perfect designer, or just like helping out, we’re always looking for people to help make WordPress even better.

Presentation Slides »

June 21, 2017 — Switzerland has four official languages: German, Italian, French, and Romansh. Growing up in the canton of Grisons, I got in touch with the latter early on. Unfortunately, it is a dying language. To do something against this, I decided to translate WordPress into Romansh. And I didn’t even speak the language!

What began with one person, one idea, one passion, got attention from more people outside of the WordPress community and encouraged them to help to translate WordPress. In this process, I not only began to learn the language and appreciate its beauty, I also learned some interesting things by introducing people to WordPress, the polyglots team, and the translation management tool.

June 20, 2017 — Lauren has been building WordPress websites for almost a decade and is currently part of the OnTheGoSystems WPML Customer Support team.

She discussed how to create the perfect directory or Destination Marketing Organization site from the ground up. A directory site or DMO site is regionally focused and typically has many different components that overlap and connect. I’ll discuss the best tools and practices for building these components and also how to organize and tie the content together.

June 20, 2017 — Hari Shanker is a passionate WordPress enthusiast, Hari is currently employed as a Happiness Engineer at Automattic.

WordPress is the perfect tool for startups! Free, open source, has several customization options and is backed by an active community – the perfect tool any startup needs!

Today’s startups face a mélange of issues – one of them is the need for a potent tool to support them. This is where WordPress comes into the picture: From creating enterprise grade websites for their corporate website, to riding the eCommerce wave by setting up a WooCommerce-powered online store, to even providing Web development services through WordPress, the possibilities are limitless!

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June 20, 2017 — You know the services you provide to your clients are valuable, but how do you quantify your impact? Transcend awkward conversations about budgets and confidently price impact-driven work that your clients will view as an investment rather than a commodity. Instead of competing in a race to the bottom, we should collaborate and elevate our community.

Presentation Slides »

June 20, 2017 — As you progress in your professional life as a WordPress user, you’ve probably considered starting your own business on WordPress. Maybe you’ve had a few paid freelance jobs. Or perhaps you’ve been refining your skills in your free time. However you arrived at this point, the logical next step is to start your own Business.