December 21, 2015 — Take an up-front tour of the WordPress dashboard and its built-in features. We will discover how to customize the look of your dashboard to remove the clutter. We will also look at where your menus and navigation are created and edited and the flexibility you have for building your own custom menus. We’ll also learn about hidden shortcuts and settings and see, as we add our theme and plugins, where their settings end up and if there is any logic to their new homes.

December 21, 2015 — This session is an introduction to putting the practice of Content Architecture to work on your WordPress site to build the most flexible and manageable site possible. You have your content (MAYBE), your site graphics are designed, you know what functionality you need, and now all you have to do is… shove it all into WordPress? Somehow? This session will show you how to figure out what are your WordPress-specific content types, what they need to do, and how to build them. Understanding how to structure your content in WordPress is an invaluable skill to have no matter what level you are at. You will leave understanding your own content structuring needs, and how to translate those to WordPress content types. Be prepared to leave full of ideas for your next project!

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December 21, 2015 — Council meetings sit empty until a road closes, a subway schedule changes, or property taxes increase. Suddenly, meetings are packed with concerned residents. It’s often too late by that time. Use WordPress.com as an interactive digital communication tool to engage the public before meetings are crowded. Incorporate the public’s voice in your local planning process with simple steps outlined in this session.

December 21, 2015 — For this talk, we will discuss how WordPress can empower users while still understanding the pitfalls and considerations required to reach those affected by censorship.
Other topics will cover how WordPress sites and plugins get blocked, issues designing and maintaining sites, and how the OpenNet Initiative affects WordPress. John will also give insight into his own experiences working with censorship and the Web from his time working in China.

December 21, 2015 — WordPress has been making great inroads into government agencies, pubic school districts and military institutions. This session will cover the business case(s) why WordPress should be considered and wholeheartedly embraced by those organizations that are spending taxpayer money. Case studies will include a large public school system and the U.S. Army.

December 21, 2015 — The focus of my presentation will be on WordPress and website accessibility; from a front-end perspective. First, I will explain what web accessibility is and why it is important. To continue, I will discuss AODA and Section 508 regulations for Canada and the United States. Then, I will go over some key WCAG 2.0 compliancy requirements a developer will need to ensure the websites they develop are fully accessible. From there, I will showcase a few web accessibility tools, then some WordPress accessibility plugins; followed by a quick demonstration on how to evaluate a website’s accessibility.

December 21, 2015 — Is it easy to build a website with WordPress? The answer to that question depends on what you have to compare it to.
Fortunately, it’s not difficult to learn. There are steps you can take to make sure your clients feel confident managing the content on their sites and appreciate the power and flexibility they don’t get with hosted solutions. If we put in a little extra effort when building sites, we will turn our clients into WordPress fans—and fans of our products and services.

December 20, 2015 — Let’s talk type! We’ll take a look at the importance of typography in design, as well as some basic best practices. You’ll learn about a few of the top font services as well as methods and tools for implementing the right font for your WordPress site. Whether you prefer to work with a plugin, change your theme options, or manually edit your theme, you’ll walk away knowing a few ways to add shiny new fonts to your site. This talk will be useful for anyone wanting to learn how typography can improve their site, and designers who are unsure how to implement custom web fonts.

December 20, 2015 — The Enterprise market still sees (in large part) WordPress as a “blogging platform” or only sees WP as an option for “simple” use cases.
This talk focuses on how we can better address that market and show the true power of WordPress’ focus on simplicity (of experience) even in contexts where complexity (of implementation) is required.

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December 20, 2015 — Your added functionality usually means additional Settings, Post Types, Taxonomies, Custom Fields and overall Workflow. Don’t make users struggle to look for your settings page, or become confused and frustrated when trying to fill in fields for a custom post type. Provide them with inline help, where and when they need it
In this session you will learn how to limit support tickets, emails and general user frustration, by creating

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