May 27, 2015 — With new PHP versions being released more often it’s clear that things are changing rapidly. This session is all about the changes introduced in recent versions of PHP, and what that means for PHP projects everywhere – including yours. There will be practical examples of the shiny new features, advice on finding hosting and safely upgrading your existing codebases, and news about the performance improvements you can expect as you move between the versions. After this talk, you’ll know what’s been introduced in recent PHP versions and how to make sure your code will be awesome wherever it goes!

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May 27, 2015 — Open source is not only found everywhere – running the Internet, powering supercomputers, servers, desktops, mobile phones, and in embedded devices – increasingly it is becoming the dominant force in those sectors. Open source builds on the earlier achievements of free software, whose foundation is freedom itself. That freedom is particularly important in the world of online publishing, where WordPress plays a leading role. This talk will look at how the elimination of barriers to disseminating information and commentary has become a major factor in preserving free speech and freedom itself.

May 27, 2015 — Considerate design and user experience is vital to making alternatives to the current mainstream tech. We don’t want our alternatives to only be available to a geek elite. Accessibility and diversity will make us design better solutions, and help new tech spread beyond enthusiasts. Accessible sharing and education will also help us promote sustainable practices in our industries and communities.

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May 27, 2015 — We’ve all come to use JavaScript in WordPress, be it in the admin or the front end. This talk covers some common pitfalls/traps and ways you can avoid them in your code

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May 26, 2015 — This talk covers the three major conventions for organizing CSS: Object Oriented CSS (OOCS), Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS (SMACSS) and Block Element Modifier (BEM). And discusses similarities, differences and use cases between the schools, as well as general tools that can be used to speed up and clean up the CSS development process.

May 26, 2015 — An introduction on how to configure your .htaccess file to do more than what WordPress provides by default. The talk will cover basics like setting up a preferred URL, and redirecting old page URLs for better SEO. How to optimize your site’s files using gzip will also be covered, as well as preventing image hot linking, and more. A sample .htaccess file will be provided to all attendees. A useful introduction to a very important file for any shared hosting environment.

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May 25, 2015 — This is a discussion on understanding WordPress security, basic internet security and what you should be doing to practice “good basic security”.

May 25, 2015 — Today’s web users have the need for speed. With internet and cellular connections getting faster and faster, users expect sites to feel snappy and not make them wait. We as developers must make sure we’re doing our very best to serve those pages quickly. This talk focus’ on the things you should be doing, both on the front-end and back-end, when building WordPress themes.

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May 25, 2015 — Fear is a powerful force that stalks us through most aspects of our lives. Kirk works full-time as a developer, but not a day goes by without having to face feelings of inadequacy, Imposter Syndrome, and making a commit that takes down one of the highest traffic sites on the Internet. He shares the power of fear in his life (past and present), give some fun disaster stories along the way, and share tips to ensure we all wake up raring to code every morning.

May 25, 2015 — Plugins are what make WordPress extra-awesome and enable you to make your website do pretty much anything you want it to. Need to add collapsible sections to a page or make your gallery images circular? There’s a plugin for that! How about making your widget titles into links, or duplicating pages at the click of a mouse? Yep, plugins can help you do that too. Whether you’re just getting started with WordPress or use it everyday, there are over 30,000 plugins to choose from and finding the right one for the job can be tricky. We look at how to choose an appropriate plugin and I’ll introduce you to a few I just couldn’t live without.

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