January 8, 2019 — I’d like to do a talk about how I started, built, and grew my own WordPress agency. Unity is a completely bootstrapped business (no startup funding) that I founded in 2016. Since then, I’ve grown the business to 4 full-time employees. At the beginning of 2018, we became a Certified B Corp.

June 20, 2018 — Let’s face it. There’s a gap between what developers care about and what users care about. In this session, we’ll explore what happens when we ignore this simple fact. We’ll discuss what UX is and why the user’s experience matters, how to think like your users, and some new rules we can all get behind. After all, UX is more than just about visual design, but also about making sure systems are set up in a way that makes them easy for people to actually use.

June 19, 2017 — During this session, we’ll hear from a three person panel on the importance of web accessibility, and how it affects users and businesses. Our panel will discuss various aspects of accessibility with WordPress, and will take questions. We will experience a screen reader and listen to what a user actually hears when navigating both an accessible and a non-accessible website. We’ll explore the most common types of disabilities that can impede usability, checkout out some techniques to improve accessibility, and look at WordPress specific solutions that can help.

Takeaways:

An overview of WCAG 2.0
Tools for testing accessibility
5 easy changes to make TODAY to help with your website’s accessibility
How to better accommodate disabilities and create more accessible web experiences.
WordPress specific tools that can be used to make accessibility better.
How to sell accessibility to your clients
Who has to be accessible by law and the fines associated
Organic UX and SEO benefits

May 27, 2017 — Lots of people think website accessibility is a “nice to have” feature when in reality it’s a “must have” feature. In this session, we’ll demystify the WCAG 2.0 guidelines and show how when you make websites accessible it benefits everyone. You’ll be well on your way to being an a11y ally!

November 12, 2016 — We all have stories to tell. Whether it’s why your business is better than your competition, how you got to where you are today, or about the latest political kerfuffle, data makes any story more engaging. At this talk, we will look at good and bad data visualizations and explore how incorporating the good ones clarifies and strengthens stories. You will walk away with ideas, inspiration, and tools to begin incorporating data visualization into your stories and website.

Presentation Slides »

August 27, 2014 — Harness the power of the WordPress Transients API! In this presentation, I’ll answer the age-old question, “What on earth are transients?” And also, “Why would I want to cache things?” Alisa highlights some examples of real-world cases of using the Transients API and show how easy it is to get started.

Presentation Slides »