June 2, 2017 — Heather Burns is a digital law specialist. she research, write, publish, consult, and speak extensively on internet laws and policies, most specifically those that affect the crafts of web design and development. She is working with WordPress since 2008 and designing websites since 1997.
Her talk was on ‘Protecting the Web from Political Uncertainty’. She said in the UK, as a result of the Brexit referendum, designers and developers face losing the legal basis for the freedom of personal movement as well as the freedom of the movement of data which has facilitated the very creation of the digital industry. In the US, the incoming (as of this writing) Trump administration threatens instability on a scale which has spurred many developers, including Matt Mullenweg and many Automatticians, to publicly pledge not to participate in the creation of databases of individuals which could be used to target them for unthinkable actions.

June 2, 2017 — Session 1.
Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
What’s Love Gotta Do With It?

Have you read the Code of Conduct? It’s mandatory when you buy a ticket to any WordCamp so I guess you (should) have. I have been to several WordCamps but I never really understood the impact of it until WordCamp Europe 2016:
The Code of Conduct is not just a set of rules, it’s a declaration of love.
In this talk I will share what happened in Vienna, what it did to me, how it impacted me personally and how it changed my view on life. I’ll show you how I implemented a Code of Conduct in my business and in my life and why you want to too.

Session 2.
Marco Calicchia:
Making The Most Out Of WordCamps

WordCamps are a fantastic opportunity to get to know the WordPress community better, make new connections, start new business opportunities and elevate your personal or company brand. Yet, as they get bigger and bigger, navigating WordCamps, especially for first-time attendees, might be challenging. In this talk, I’ll be covering 4 key steps that will help both individuals and business owners on how to prepare for a WordCamp, what strategies to implement for the best results and how to take the most from the event after it’s over.

Session 3.
Heather Dopson:
Why (and How!) You Should be Using Videos in Your Marketing

Using both recorded video and live broadcasting are HOT ways to increase your visibility, share information and solve problems. All this can lead to more clients and more dollars in your pocket.
In this talk I will share examples from multiple social platforms and give specifics on tools and resources to make it simple to add this into your business plan.

June 2, 2017 — As a freelance designer, we turn down business constantly. Most small business owners undervalue the work we do and have limited budgets. Every week, I found myself turning down those dreaded “I have $300. Can you build me a website?” kind of leads.

Then, I realized I didn’t have to. With the right strategy and confidence in your work, you can make a living on $300 jobs. But more importantly, you can convert that customer you would’ve turned down into the customer you wanted, to begin with (and still do the fun custom work we really love to do).

We’ll discuss strategies, contracts, residual income generation, and long-term customer-focused approaches to freelance web work. We’ll also chat about keeping yourself happy in the midst of working for yourself and why those leads you’ve been turning down can be a huge asset.

June 2, 2017 — With the rapid popularization of web fonts over the past few years, type on the web has never been more exciting! We’ll learn a bit about basic typographic principles, review techniques and services for integrating web fonts into your WordPress sites, and finally conclude with a bit of speculation on where type on the web is heading.

June 1, 2017 — He started using WordPress when running a charity 7 years ago. He was the client, partnering with the agency, now work for, so his experience using WordPress on both sides of the fence. At his agency, I’m an Account Manager and Team Leader, working with hundreds of clients, and many team members, to deliver a wide range of WordPress sites. Prior to WordPress, He ran mass engagement, behaviour change campaigns relating to climate change and environmental conservation.

His session explored the psychology and methods behind a loving client relationship.

Presentation Slides »

May 31, 2017 — It’s 2017 and many clients would rather pay for short-term paid advertising to attract leads than invest in the long game of search engine optimized content marketing. However, if you’ve been paying attention, you know that Siri, Alexa, Cortana and others have changed the way clients reach for products, creating increased demand for local search. Evolution in semantic search has broadened related keyword terms, giving more value to alternate phrases in search and resulting in more emphasis being place on area keywords. Website developers must adjust their workflow to assist clients in creating local, relevant content to deliver findability results to their clients. As businesses use advertising and organic search in audience targeting, more closely-matched real audiences and, more importantly, real revenue increases. Customers who are local tend to refer more often and become repeat buyers. While locality is not all that matters when curating content, it places a large role in whether the content will be seen by a large regional audience. In this talk I will share how website creators can change client results by recognizing the impact consistency, social promotion, relevancy, area-sensitive keywords and quality writing play in converting generalized text into content that matters. Further, I will explain how local blog posts and page content rise to fit that need and can extend as podcasts, videos and more to appeal to alternate search tools, such as YouTube, iTunes and Yelp.

May 30, 2017 — Protecting diversity, empowering oneself and ones colleagues are difficult are challenging career questions that we all face at some point during our professional lives. As WordPress professionals, we are lucky that, in addition to our communities as freelancers, agencies or publishers, the larger WordPress community serves as a support network when we face these challenges. The goal of this panel is to bring together professionals from different sectors of the WordPress community to share their experiences facing questions of diversity and empowerment in the WP community.

May 30, 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

May 30, 2017 — Your website’s tone of voice affects the way your users feel and how they act. So could the language on your site be causing people to feel uncomfortable or excluded?

We’re going to explore how changing even a few words can make for a much more inclusive website. If time permits, I’ll also present user testing results to illustrate the difference these small changes can have on user diversity.

This workshop includes:

• Why and how to create an inclusive tone of voice
• Tips on improving the UX and accessibility of your writing
• Examples of subtle changes you can make to your own site(s) and your other marketing channels
• How online inclusiveness can improve offline diversity

May 30, 2017 — VVV 1 is a popular local developer environment, but VVV 2 is now available with significant improvements to site setup.

This session will walk through the new features, and how to migrate to VVV 2