October 9, 2015 — All websites we build have a goal, usually to convince a visitor to do something we want in one way or another. Optimizing websites for conversion requires knowledge about how we humans work, how we make decisions and how we can predict our irrational behavior and use it for good. In this session, we’ll explore working techniques and methods of high converting websites and landing pages, building ourselves a tried-and-tested toolset to make our website achieve business success.

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October 9, 2015 — As working remotely is getting more and more popular in the WordPress industry, many of us are choosing to work from co-working spaces. But is everyone familiar with co-working etiquette?

In this talk, Franz will present some insights on how to be a good co-worker, boost your productivity in a co-working environment and nurture the co-working culture. He will share the most common challenges he has encountered whilst working from a co-working space and how he overcame them.

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October 9, 2015 — Maintaining any business for 20 years is difficult. But keeping a tech business running strong for 20 years is a big challenge. Zeek Interactive just turned 20 and Steve will discuss how to stay ahead of the game in an ever-changing tech environment.

October 8, 2015 — My talk will be on developing WordPress themes using Sage WordPress starter theme based on HTML5 Boilerplate, gulp, Bower, and Bootstrap. I will go through the theme development process, then I will be guiding the audience through starter themes and reach Roots Sage project and present how to develop / test / finish theme development process.

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October 8, 2015 — Learn to embrace the client dynamic and avoid one of the most common mistakes in running a creative business. Treat your client as an adversary and you will foster a short term relationship that is contentious and unfruitful.
As design professionals, we need to let go of the “artist” persona and embrace the creative entrepreneur as one who solves not just design problems but business problems.
Learn how to:
Pivot when you are getting negative feedback
Define objective goals to reduce frustration and endless revision cycles
Talk about money
Charge for value versus time

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October 8, 2015 — In this session, we dig into what it means to really satisfy a client (with a fun dip into some cognitive psychology), develop a process to find out what the Target is so you can hit it every time, and discuss why it’s easier, more profitable, and more effective than trying to “Wow” everyone you work with.

October 8, 2015 — This talk covers the use of premium content development and services like Rainmaker Pro, ZippyCourses, Optimize Press and Premise to set up automated and password protected content and marketing systems to sell information to users. Heavy emphasis of the class will be on content development and delivery, which ultimately is why WordPress is the best tool for self-hosted e-learning platforms.

October 8, 2015 — What are some of the ways to quickly get a WordPress site up and running with the minimal amount of effort?
Templates, page builders, and emerging technologies will be covered. Many tips and tricks will be reviewed helping those who suffer from the lazy find a way to become part of the WordPress community.

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October 8, 2015 — Both a retrospective and look into the future: We’ll walk through the last year in WordPress core — what’s changed, how some of these changes have been received, and a peek into what’s likely for 4.4, due in early December.

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October 8, 2015 — Similarities of surgery and coding. KISS principle, First do no harm, etc.

I will describe my journey in development of GitHub Updater.