March 18, 2017 — Agile practices such as Scrum, and Lean practices such as Kanban, have become some of the biggest buzzwords in tech, and are top keyword in job descriptions. But they’re also frequently misunderstood, and constantly argued about online, which can make them seem intimidating and confusing. They can affect everything from how you write code, to how you organize your work, and how you relate to your customers. I can’t cover everything about them in a single talk, but I can explain some core Agile and Lean concepts, and how to go about trying them out in a way that can maximize their benefits while minimizing risk and disruption to your work. I’ll share insights from hard-won experiences bringing Agile and Lean practices to several different companies and consultancies where I’ve worked. While some of these practices are tremendously beneficial for WordPress work, others can cause confusion, and even harm if you try to suddenly force them into a typical WordPress development environment. I’ll do Q&A with the audience through most of the talk, as every workplace has unique challenges, and I want to make sure the talk addresses what’s on people’s minds and the challenges they are dealing with, whether they’re issues with difficult customers, deadline pressures, too many bugs, project management difficulties, etc.

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March 18, 2017 — WordPress upgrades, they bring us new features, faster sites, and better security. But pushing that upgrade button can be a scary moment, unless you’ve ensured your site is ready and compatible. I’ll show you the best practices for ensuring your site is ready including a simple strategy that works whether you manage one site or hundreds.

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March 18, 2017 — The day I discovered Vagrant was the day that I changed the way I worked. I went from fighting with server setups and local development boxes to seamlessly creating sites that fit in with my own workflow. But Vagrant by itself, while good, won’t get you there alone.

That’s where VVV – a WordPress development environment – comes in. VVV comes pre-equipped with all of the tools, bells, and whistles needed to streamline your development environment.

Mitch will walk you through the setup of Vagrant, commands and tips to help you get the most out of Vagrant, and other applications (VVV Dashboard and VV) that help you use VVV to its full potential.

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March 18, 2017 — In eCommerce, speed is your most important metric. Mere milliseconds can mean the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart, which could mean millions of dollars in lost sales. I’ve spent a good portion of the last three years in pursuit of page speed, exploring caching, virtual machines, hosting platforms, SSL negotiation time, CSS preprocessing, minification, inline styles and WooCommerce optimizations with the goal of sub-one second pageloads. Using real-world examples, I’ll show you the results I’ve been able to achieve and how to replicate them yourself.

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March 18, 2017 — Shortcodes are commonplace in WordPress themes, plugins and even WordPress core. Whether you are a new developer looking to implement a shortcode for the first time, or are a seasoned pro; come join us as we delve into the pros, cons, gotchas, best practices and creative approaches to shortcodes.

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March 18, 2017 — Common Security Issues with Plugins

March 17, 2017 — If you have ever had a client pick out a random theme, and asked you to build it out- then you spent 2 days learning how it worked- then this is for you. Don’t spend all your time learning new wheels- get a framework and learn it inside and out.
Frameworks are going to be your best friend- there are several out there, I will talk about my top four faves- and the pros and cons of each. And, there are so many snippet resources out there- (of which I will share a ton) implementation will be your best teacher.
The Bonus? Build sites in 2 days, not 2 weeks. “Not because it is easy, but because you are GOOD at IT!”

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March 17, 2017 — The Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin is a powerful tool that allows you to extend the capabilities of WordPress admin without writing any additional code to create these fields.

We’ll explore:
• How ACF allows you to offer additional functionality to your clients
• How to use these new fields in your templates
• And how to make sure you don’t go too far when adding fields.

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March 16, 2017 — Women Who WP

March 16, 2017 — “There’s nothing like being with people under the same roof.” Carin Arrigo