September 17, 2015 — What does the current WordPress design landscape look like? What are popular and upcoming design trends to look out for? We’ll take a look at the current WordPress design ecosystem and explore how it’s projected to change in the next year.

Prerequisites:
An interest in design! The talk is open to people of all levels of experience, but it’s going to be less of a lecture and more of a show-and-tell. It won’t teach you how to design, but it will give you a lot of examples of modern design built on and for WordPress and some of the really cool things WordPress can do.

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September 17, 2015 — Let’s talk fonts! We’ll take a brief look at the history of fonts on the web and best practices for typography. You’ll learn about some of the top font services available as well as methods and tools for implementing the right font for your WordPress site. Whether you prefer to work with plugins, theme options, or manual edits to the theme, you’ll walk away with some options for adding shiny new fonts to your site.

Prerequisites:
This talk is for anyone who wants to learn some basics about typography and get an overview of the various methods available for adding custom fonts to their WordPress site. From advanced coders to beginning bloggers, a wide audience can benefit from learning typography principles and best practices. Folks curious on how to modify fonts on their WP site will learn the options available for customizing at any comfort level.

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September 16, 2015 — Think only coders can make a living using WordPress? Think again! There are a surprising number of ways to make a career using WordPress without knowing a single line of code. This presentation will tackle some of the barriers that discourage beginners from using WordPress professionally, like a lack of technical skill and feeling like an impostor. Shed the fear and discover different career options and simple WordPress tips while learning to leverage your unique skill set for the tech industry.

Prerequisites:
For beginners, come as you are!

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September 16, 2015 — Want to draw people to your website? Simple changes can make a big difference in your site’s popularity. Discover ways to attract readers by tweaking your content structure, fine-tuning visuals, and maximize WordPress sharing tools. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that isn’t subject to the whims of algorithm changes by employing the best plugins and learning how to keep your writing strong. You’ve got great content, now it’s time to share it with others effectively.
Prerequisites:
This presentation is perfect for beginner bloggers, and it can also benefit those who have had a site for years.

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September 16, 2015 — WordPress has built-in support for storing location information on posts, but no real way to make use of it. The Geo Mashup plugin enables deep, powerful geolocation in WordPress, letting you easily add geolocations (coordinates) to almost any content type. It also displays locations on maps you can embed in your theme, posts or widgets, with a dizzying array of options for what to show and how to display it.

This talk starts with the default geolocation system in WordPress and how Geo Mashup integrates with it. We’ll then cover the basics of setup and adding locations on posts, then the different map types and situations where you’d use them. We’ll finish with some dev considerations for displaying maps as elegantly as possible.

Prerequisites:
This talk is aimed at anyone planning a site and considering geo integration. There will be developer speak (PHP/HTML/CSS) at times, but there will be lots to consider for anyone building custom WordPress sites.

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September 16, 2015 — By the end of the The Business of Blogging, you’ll be able to answer the question: Does my business need a blog? I’ll cover what it takes to build a blog, how much time it takes to sustain a blog, and common blog mistakes businesses make. Session attendees will also learn about content marketing and how to curate great content without having a blog. I’ll include resources and WordPress plug ins that make blogging easier. And, we’ll learn how to hire a Virtual Assistant if you don’t think you can do this alone!

Takeaways

Common blog mistakes businesses make and how to avoid them
Resources to find content if your business doesn’t have a blog.
Tips on finding and hiring a great Virtual Assistant to help you with your company’s social media, blog, or content marketing

September 16, 2015 — Spend a few minutes learning how to increase the PageSpeed score of your WordPress powered site. Find out some of the rules you have to follow, and some of the rules you have to break to get there.

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September 16, 2015 — Creative SEO tactics go beyond the usual technical SEO, keyword selection and link building. Dan provides a practical session with actionable takeaways to inspire new ideas.

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September 16, 2015 — Did you know the average user will wait only 2-3 seconds waiting for a webpage to load before abandoning it forever? Having a fast website is critical to its success. How do you ensure your site loads fast and reliably, to all kinds of users around the world? In this presentation we’ll discuss seven strategies for increasing your WordPress site’s speed. Covering caching, content delivery networks, image optimization, file optimization, database cleaning, and hosting and theme choices, you’re guaranteed to leave this presentation with concrete next steps for improving your site’s performance.

Prerequisites:
Most of these strategies can be accomplished through plugins!

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September 16, 2015 — This is not a marketing presentation on how to get more conversions. In this presentation we walk through best practices for integrating A/B testing tools and plugins like Visual Web Optimizer and Optimizely for WordPress. We also look at how to properly setup template pages, embed tracking codes and how to manage your content and media for testing across multiple devices.

Prerequisites:
This presentation is suitable for intermediate designers, developers or marketing managers using WordPress.