January 4, 2017 — This talk will cover how atomic design can be incorporated into the WordPress theme design and development process. We’ll talk about the advantages of starting with the smallest elements of a design (think raw HTML elements), and how to combine those atoms to create molecules and organisms (search forms and navigation systems).

You’ll also learn tips for getting started with atomic design in WordPress theming, and what you can start doing now to incorporate the atomic design methodology into your workflow.

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January 4, 2017 — I will give a brief introduction to the Git Version Control System (VCS). Short demonstration of using git with WordPress. The demo will be for coding a theme or child theme. Then advantages and disadvantages of using a VCS. Lastly, other WordPress tips and tricks and Q&A at the end.

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January 4, 2017 — Page builder plugins have continued to gain popularity with developers and WordPress users. They are powerful and give the creative freedom that anyone needs when building a site, especially for those that know no code. I would like to talk about some of the ways this power can be harnessed.

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January 4, 2017 — Beaver Builder is a page builder plugin that allows you to visually build custom layouts in WordPress with a drag and drop interface. While that adds a lot of power to any WordPress website, the real power is in its extendability. In this talk we’ll discuss the benefits of using a page builder and how to customize Beaver Builder to supercharge your third party themes or client sites.

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January 3, 2017 — It all starts with a vision, a designer’s dream. There are no limits. It’s a developer’s job to bring that vision to reality. There are some limits. If a designer doesn’t know, understand or acknowledge they exist, it can make for a not so cool end result or work experience. By discovering where a developer is coming from, together, we can make design great again!

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January 3, 2017 — I will be going through the essential aspects of being a freelance web developer/designer in Zimbabwe covering the following subtopics:

getting started
having things in order – incorporation, taxes, legal docs
getting the right workflow
branding
misc

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January 3, 2017 — When one creates a website for a client the work is not done – websites get hacked, plugins and themes are not all compatible, and users do stupid things that break their sites. A responsible website developer has to provide ongoing support to make sure their clients’ sites stay up an running.

This can take up a lot of time that could be spent getting new clients and building new sites. But one can significantly reduce the time spent in support over the lifetime of a site by spending a little time educating one’s clients right at the start.

This talk will look at five of the most common issues/questions about which we can educate users so they don’t need to ask for support quite as often.

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January 3, 2017 — You know how the saying goes, “When you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

As business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers we often come across projects that may seem complex maybe even overwhelming. In this talk, you will discover how to create structure around your WordPress projects to protect you from the dangers of unmanaged scope creep. There are strategies and steadfast approaches that can help turn even a failing project into a viable one if you are up for the challenge.

This session will cover:

How to structure your process for client communications
Tips to make room for innovation
How to keep the lights on by avoiding scope creep
How to turn scope creep into a positive revenue boost

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January 3, 2017 — As a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer, I’ve worked with WooCommerce stores for over two years. However, only in October of this year did I create a live WooCommerce store with physical products for the first time.

In this talk, I’ll focus on the challenges in setting up a WooCommerce store in Africa, but also on its potential and quick wins. I’ll share my experiences with handing over the project to the store owner and give some tips on setting boundaries.

By the end of the talk, you should have a good overview of the considerations when starting a WooCommerce project, especially in making sure that you can hand over to your client smoothly.

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January 3, 2017 — Beginning of this year I honestly wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone what WordPress is. I had never used WordPress until pressure mounted on me as an internship student , the company wanted the website up and running within a week. As a student who had told them “I know how to create a website”, I couldn’t give an excuse and there was no way out. Later on that day I researched on the easiest way to make an e-commerce website within a day and I learnt about WordPress. Now I can advertise website design and earn a little extra income and my boss is impressed and still talks about efforts put to meet the website deadline. My boss even offered we come back after school and make systems and another website for their subsidiary company.

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