August 21, 2024 — This lesson explains the importance of running a local WordPress site for safe development and testing. It highlights the benefits, such as experimenting without risk to your live site, and guides users through setting up local sites using tools like Local by Flywheel, Studio, and WordPress Playground.

August 21, 2024 — Do you or a client have a site using a classic theme? You may want to consider adding a theme.json file. Your project’s budget or lack of time might be preventing you from tackling a complete conversion of your classic theme to a block theme. By adding a theme.json file, you can simplify and streamline your Editor’s options and you will quickly see the benefits.

You might be looking to gain control of global settings and styles so you can create less overwhelm and confusion with too many user options in the Editor. For example, you could choose to remove the ability to select custom colors or the default color palette from WordPress core. Or, you may want to create a website with more consistent visual elements and maintain branding. For example, you could choose to disable color support for the heading block.

With this workshop, we will take a classic theme and walk you through the process of adding a theme.json file. We will also take a brief look at the current theme.json file that ships with WordPress core. At the end, we’ll have an open discussion on converting classic themes to either hybrid or block themes.

Presentation Slides »

August 17, 2024 — The Great Wall of China, internet freedom scores, shadowbanning. As the world wide web becomes a more closed, fragmented, and siloed place, WordPress has an important role in keeping it open and accessible. This talk will explore the current state of internet censorship, case studies in different countries, and what business owners, marketers, and developers need to be aware of while creating WordPress sites on an increasingly censored internet.

August 17, 2024 — Slide decks, slideshows, and PowerPoints are tied to a time when content was static and contained in finite pages. We navigated through content by moving from slide to slide, page to page. We had to turn the page or hit ‘next. But now we have websites and digital media. So not only has content evolved drastically, but so has the way that we can interact with this content on a screen. Webpage presentations fit in with today’s visual culture. Today we can present content in a way that matches how we naturally view and experience the world.

This presentation has three parts: when, why, and how. We’ll look at the history of visual storytelling to understand why it’s time for a change. Then, I’ll discuss how to build webpage presentations using page builders, WordPress and other tools.

August 17, 2024 — This session will dive into the subtle skill of team leadership by identifying the personalities a leader can expect to meet and learning the language necessary to communicate effectively. With that foundation, we’ll learn effective ways to ensure your company’s Key Initiatives are conveyed clearly and appropriately digested, clearing the road for your team to operate nimbly and efficiently. Lastly, we’ll learn some tips on how to engage with technical teams, specifically.

August 17, 2024 — WordPress is evolving, and so should we. The Interactivity API opens up new possibilities for building interactive, dynamic, and engaging websites without sacrificing performance. In this session, we’ll explore what this API is all about, why it matters, and how to get started with it. By the end, you’ll have a solid understanding of the Interactivity API and be ready to implement it in your projects.

August 17, 2024 — What are the best resources to actually understand what’s needed to make a website accessible? How do you know what you can “ignore”?

Perceivable, operable, understandable, robust. Sounds good, right? But what does that actually mean? As a designer, what do you need to know? A content writer, a developer. What parts are important to know at what times? Are there other ways to organize these guidelines to better represent the different parts of website building, rather than through these principles that drive the WCAG?

We’ll dive into some tools that help us understand these guidelines, and how we can think about these concepts in ways that are a little easier to understand.

August 17, 2024 — Units tests are extra lines of code that check to see whether or not the rest of the code we’ve written behaves the way we want it to. While it might seem paradoxical that writing more code can reduce development time, it’s true. Writing unit tests has made me a better developer. Not only does it help me catch bugs, but it has taught be how to write better code. We’ll look at unit testing, how you can start using it today without a formal testing framework, and also how to write your code to make it easier to unit test.

August 17, 2024 — You are new to WordPress and need some lessons on creating a webpage. There is a new release and you need to know what is available. This workshop is for you. I will walk you through the Learn WordPress site and explain the resources available from tutorials to lessons to videos.

August 17, 2024 — Creating high-quality and engaging content is essential for driving traffic, engaging visitors, and achieving your business goals on WordPress. In this session, we’ll dive deep into content creation strategies and best practices that will captivate your audience and elevate your WordPress site to new heights.