June 2, 2017 — To often a website is planned on ideas based around the business owners personal likes and wants. Humanistic design creates an engaging experience that users can connect with physically and emotionally. I teach human-centered design as a creative approach to problem solving to unleash creativity to put the people visiting websites at the center of the design process.

It’s critical to know exactly who you’re designing for. You must define your audience so that you know the broad spectrum of people who will be touched by your product or service and create a website that resonates with them.

Yes, the goals of the business are still in the spotlight, but you need to approach web design by taking human emotions into account during the design and planning phases of every web project. And understand that you have more than one type of site visitor to design for.

I’ll redefine your web design strategies to create and build a site directed toward what your site users want. Using these strategies, you’ll fuel your design process to build WordPress sites directed to what your visitors expect and need:

Research and become passionate about the Industry and trends.
Define your segmented audience and understand the many types of people you’re designing for.
Think like your end user and be innovative!
The importances of user personas to eliminate guessing whom your users are and build a design with their needs in mind.
Get curious; discover what your competitors are doing — both good and bad. What works and what doesn’t. Go beyond what’s happening and investigate your competitors’ strategy:
What types of customer are they’re targeting?
What are their products/services? Pricing structure? Product packages? How can you improve on any of these?
What are the features and functionality of their site?
What types of content do they have?
Based on what your competitors are doing, improve and find your niche in the market.
Find out what keywords they use and build a keyword list to create relevant and engaging content.
It’s good to get a bit nosy, and I’ll share tools to quickly tell if a competitor’s site is a WordPress site, and which plugins or theme they use.
I’ll touch base on the importance of low-fidelity prototypes along with Design Tiles and how they simplify and finalize the design process.
Build in good SEO and plan for social media.

June 2, 2017 — Mik is TV Presenter, Journalist and Access Expert.
With over 30 years in the media he was one of the first well-known disabled people to appear on TV in the UK, working on shows such as Beat That, From The Edge, The Travel Show, BBC News and C5 News. Alongside his media career, He is one of the UK’s leading access and inclusion experts. His advise major companies and government bodies on how to create and maintain systems that ensure disabled people, and all other protected characteristics as described by the Equality Act 2010, are fully included in society. He is specialise in the retail, leisure and transport industries.
His talk is on #A11Y and How to Sell it to a Client.
In his talk he explained the reason why it is so vital for all working it the field of WordPress to ensure their output is accessible. But more importantly, he explained how to sell this to potential clients, and why it is so vital for them to invest in #A11Y.

June 2, 2017 — Chris is a developer for UF Health at the University of Florida who has been working on WordPress since 2008. Over the years Chris built one of the largest security plugins on WordPress.org as well as numerous other plugins, themes and other solutions.
His talk was on practical encryption that covers the basics of what encryption is, what it does and how it can be used in some of our every day communications.

Presentation Slides »

June 2, 2017 — WordPress is one of the most used content management systems in the world. Which also, inconveniently, makes it one of the most-targeted CMS’ for hackers. You know you should keep WordPress core, plugins, and themes up-to-date, but what else can you do to protect your system?

Join Sarah as she walks through some of the best practices for securing WordPress and explore the resources available to secure a site, especially if you’re maintaining or hosting sites for your clients. How do you reduce your security risks, so you have less headache over time, ensuring you don’t have nasty surprises, and can keep your clients happy.

June 2, 2017 — Using an in-browser style guide to drive your development process will save you time and help you manage code and design complexity. In this hands-on demonstration, participants will learn how to build an in-browser style guide and prototype for your WordPress site using KSS.

June 2, 2017 — Redesigning your website can be a pretty daunting task, but being prepared can make the whole process go a lot smoother. Defining your goals will help you understand what features are most essential to your new web site, who is the best partner for you, how much money you might expect to spend and how long it will take.

This presentation should get you headed in the right direction with:
– Questions to ask yourself
– Research to conduct
– Tasks to complete

June 2, 2017 — The GovIntranet WordPress theme was released in 2013 and since then I’ve been supporting an open source community of users and developers.

In this session I’ll talk about my experience of developing in the open and working out loud, what I’ve learned since starting as a WordPress developer and the ups and downs of managing ongoing theme and plugin development.

Presentation Slides »

June 2, 2017 — Shared, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, Dedicated PS, Dedicated Cloud, Co-lo what does any of that mean welcome to the world of hosting with its bizarre vocabulary and massive amount of marketing spin. It can often be confusing just working out what hosting companies do let alone, if their products and services are suitable for your project.

In this talk Tim will guide you through the world of hosting, looking at what the different offerings mean trying to break down the vocabulary of hosting into terms that are easy to understand. To help you find out what products and services might be right for your next site. He will go through some of the key things to look for and questions you should be asking about any products/service. Finally he will challenge some of the preconceived notions and show how in the right services free can sometime be the

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.