January 14, 2016 — A designer, a developer and a client walk into a bar… or more accurately, a meeting room. Hear from designer Avery Swartz, developer Linn Øyen Farley, and client Mark Aikman as they describe the process of getting the new Buddies in Bad Times Theatre website off the ground.

Forget the outdated “waterfall” method of designers and developers working on a site in hiding and then handing it over to the client at the end of the project. Discover the allure of the iterative web design process, where the designer, developer and client are all working openly, contributing to the site at the same time. It’s better, faster, and more cost-effective. It just requires one really important element (hint: it starts with T and ends with RUST).

After this presentation that’s part case study and part philosophy, you’ll want to try the iterative approach with your own clients.

January 14, 2016 — Getting any plugin on the WordPress.org forum can be a lot of work. Taking a plugin like Better WP Security (now iThemes Security) to more than 2.5 million downloads when it isn’t your full-time job can seem nearly impossible. This talk will discuss how I built Better WP Security to one of the largest plugins on WordPress.org including what I did right and what I could have done better. Specific tips will involve handling support, marketing a plugin and squashing bugs when you wear all the hats (developer, marketer, teacher, project manager, etc). This session will help to equip you with the tools you will need to not just get your plugin out there but also to make sure it is successful.

January 13, 2016 — A new wave of website tools now allow us web designers to collect an abundance of data on our users behavior and actually associate it with an individual. While we’ve been using general tools like Google Analytics to refine our user interfaces and page designs for a decade, we’re now able to actually understand how each individual interacts with our website.

Imagine how you, and your clients, can use that information to improve the sales process!

In this presentation, I’ll show you how to uncover what customers want based solely on how they use your website. Specifically, how to better define sitemaps and website architecture for clients whose goal is lead generation.

Learn about the new tracking software that you should be recommending to your clients and learn how to implement this strategy through examples and real case studies.

This presentation is best for web designers, marketers and entrepreneurs.

January 13, 2016 — In this session, we will be going over how to design and secure your site, so that your users trust your site (and you), and then teach you some basics on how to make sure that you aren’t betraying that trust.

We will cover some thoughts on why users trust what they do, and then some practical things that you (as the shop owner) can implement to keep your visitors’ info safe and secure, as well as convey that to your customers.

Learning Outcomes:

The user that attends this session should walk away with an understanding of the importance of gaining your user’s trust in e-commerce, and then various ways to help grow that, as well as make sure that you don’t betray their trust.

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January 12, 2016 — Timber cleans up your theme code so your PHP files can focus on supplying the data and logic, while your twig files can focus 100% on the display and HTML. Timber is for both WordPress pros and rookies. People new to WordPress will like how it reduces the WordPress-specific knowledge required to theme a website while pros can take advantage of object-oriented patterns that adhere to DRY and MVC principles.

January 12, 2016 — What grabs you as you scroll through Facebook, Twitter, or other social media outlets? What causes you to stop and give a site a second glance? Images. Visual communication methods are more and more important as a hook to get people to listen to your message. By looking around, you can see there are various trends that have been occurring in the web world related to what types of imagery is more popular than others. People do judge a book by its cover. You want your cover to be attractive!

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January 12, 2016 — An introduction to using Ecommerce with WordPress. Session attendees will have a working knowledge of how to set up a basic ecommerce store in WordPress.

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January 12, 2016 — Have you ever had to develop an iOS app with dynamic content? Did you need to roll out an CMS system for it?
Forget the custom CMS and use WordPress by leveraging the WP-REST-API to build an iOS app using WordPress has your backend.
In this talk I will introduce the WP-REST-API, it’s main endpoints and how to use it on an iOS app to get the content of your site in the app.

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January 12, 2016 — All applications with extensions have one big problem on their hands: bad developer citizens. Bad developers do bad things. They write terrible code which breaks the application, frustrates users, gives the software a bad name, and ultimately drives users to other technologies.

In this talk Chad highlights examples of common, and rare, developer mistakes. You will learn how to be a good developer citizen and avoid the mistakes which earn you the title of being a bad developer.

You will be able to write cleaner PHP and Javascript, and write proper CSS which will make Front End Developers appreciate you.

Come live at peace with WordPress, satisfy your users, and draw more implementors to your products.

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January 12, 2016 — Video and in particularly live streaming allows you to instantly connect with your audience in a real-time way. Thanks to the ease of using ready-made platforms like Livestream and Ustream, and now apps like Periscope, Meerkat, and Nomadcast, utilizing this media on your WordPress site is easier and more effective than ever. Bess will cover not only the technology and must-have hardware for live streaming, but also the most effective streaming platforms and website considerations you must decide when utilizing this exciting content.

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