October 7, 2015 — Once you get the hang of the basics, it’s time to dive in and start getting work done with git. We will talk about staging your files, branching strategies and merge vs rebase. We will also touch on the topic of rewriting history – what it means, examples of doing it and when to avoid it at all costs.

Presentation Slides »

October 7, 2015 — An American turns 50 every 7 seconds. Those aged 50 and older represent 45% of the U.S. population. One-third of the internet users in the U.S., are adults aged 50+ representing the Web’s largest constituency. WordPress sites must be designed with this in mind. You will learn how to meet seniors’ needs from one of their own.

October 7, 2015 — “Web Accessibility is not just for developers, there are plenty of things people can do to get involved. This presentation will focus on the different ways you can contribute to Web Accessibility and how you can help spread the word. We will cover some Web Accessibility fundamentals and why it’s important. From there we will go over the various ways you can communicate and increase exposure to Web Accessibility using various terms and avenues. Next we will discuss WordPress Accessibility specifically and the different aspects surrounding it. Finally, we will go over the different ways you can contribute to WordPress Accessibility.
It’s well-known that there is power in numbers, so the more we can advocate the more we can evoke change.

Presentation Slides »

October 7, 2015 — 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.

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the important of keeping WordPress upgraded.
Create a 5 step test plan to ensure their site is ready to upgrade.
Test their sites on beta and Release Candidates to provide feedback to the community.

Presentation Slides »

October 6, 2015 — How to make your responsive WordPress site render in less than a second.
A step by step walkthrough of how to reach this critical goal on a responsive WordPress based site.
Server side and front end key principles that you can put into practice on your very own WordPress site.

October 6, 2015 — “Maybe you’ve heard about Genesis or other frameworks but you don’t know what all the fuss is about. Maybe you’ve tried to use Genesis but were thrown off by the actions and filters. Or maybe you just find me entertaining and want to spend an hour listening to me talk. (Hey, it could happen.)

I struggled with using Genesis for a long time before I had a breakthrough. I finally stopped trying to compare it to other markup-based themes and started treating it as a framework rooted in PHP. This talk is geared toward people in the same boat that I was in – they know what Genesis is, but are daunted or confused by it.

After explaining the markup / PHP differences, I go through several use cases, showing how to make simple changes in regular themes like Twenty Fourteen, and how to make the same changes “”the Genesis way.”””

Presentation Slides »

October 6, 2015 — This talk focuses on Best Practices in getting started with WordPress. Or “Things I Wish I Knew When I First Learned WordPress”.

Presentation Slides »

October 6, 2015 — Themes shape the entire WordPress experience, and there are seemingly endless options to choose from. But with all these options, how do you know which theme is the best for you? This talk will explore the vast spectrum of WordPress’ theme dom, from the simplest default themes to the most involved custom creation, including theme option panels, theme repositories and marketplaces, and which types of themes are best for which purposes. Sé will also cover the must-haves (and the red flags) to look for when choosing your next theme, when you should (or shouldn’t) build a custom theme, and how to structure your site so you can go from theme to theme without losing your content (or your mind).

October 6, 2015 — Every technically minded person needs to know how to communicate technical knowledge clearly and effectively. This talk examines the fundamentals of “explaining hard things to humans,” including:

– What makes technical communication uniquely difficult, and uniquely important.
– Avoiding two major impediments to technical communication: arrogance (relating to gaps in knowledge as a hassle or irritation) and breeziness (attempting to gloss over gaps in knowledge).
– How and why to make technical communication both audience-aware and strategic – tailored to both the knowledge level of the audience and the goal of the communication.
– The value of analogies in technical communication.
– Principles of clear technical writing.

Presentation Slides »

October 5, 2015 — The eagle has landed. WP-API 2.0 is here, opening up new horizons for how websites are constructed with WordPress as a CMS. More and more developers are discovering the benefits of “decoupled” website development: where the front-end is built as a separate system from the CMS itself.

Presentation Slides »