October 22, 2020 — Bash can unlock the true potential of any machine. Besides gaining more control of your device, Bash lets you leverage hundreds of power tools like WP-CLI, Drush, npm, composer, and Behat, to name a few.

Leave this session understanding:

How to stop being afraid of the command line
A brief history of Bash and how it does what it does
The basic commands for manipulating your files and folders
An overview of tools that are only available through the command line
The basics of scripting to automating anything

Presentation Slides »

January 14, 2020 — Whether it is for re-using the same code or deploying a bug fix or just for better document management, one of the most important leaps any site builder will ever take in their path towards becoming a developer is learning a version control system. This talk will briefly explore the need for Git, the history and use cases. Then we will jump into how to get started and the basic organizational concepts. We will also examine Github, the web-based Git hosting service.

Presentation Slides »

December 19, 2019 — We live in a world of continuous integration, continuous delivery, version controlled code and configuration. Yet when it comes to delivering content we are relying on doing all publishing straight to the production environment and hoping it works, editing the live document to fix issues we only find once they are in production. I propose there is a better way.

Let’s build our content on our development instances the same way we develop code and configuration. Then using the power of Github, WP-CLI and Automated Testing tools like Behat, let’s professionally deploy our content to production will full confidence it works as intended. Let’s give editors better tools to build better content in a word of Gutenberg while saving anyone the need to overwrite the production database ever again.

Topics include:

WP-CLI for generating content
Connecting Github and your WordPress site
Leveraging multiple environments
Behaviorally testing content

Presentation Slides »

August 7, 2019 — Whether it is for re-using the same code, experimenting with your code quickly and efficiently, or just for better document management, one of the most important leaps any site builder will ever take in their path towards becoming a developer is learning a version control system, or VCS. Since Git is the standard VCS over 80% of developers, lets roll up our sleeves and dive in. The benefits far outweigh the efforts needed to learn this tooling. Once you start, you will wonder why it took you so long to unleash the power of this awesome tech.
This talk will briefly explore the need for git, the history and use cases. Then we will jump into how to get started and the basic organizational concepts. We will also examine Github, the web based Git hosting service. Bring your laptops to play along at home and get started before you leave the room.
Takeaways:

Basic know how of what git can even do
A history of online collaboration and what that means for Free and Open Source Software projects like WordPress
A path to better collaboration with any developer, or frankly anyone, in the world

Presentation Slides »

August 7, 2019 — Don’t you wish there was a way to write content faster without having to log into your WordPress site? Turns out there is and it is called Markdown, which can be written in any text editor you choose. Based on the basics of HTML and with a goal of making marked up content as readable as possible, Markdown takes only minutes to learn and is the most transportable way you can write your content. Sites like GitHub, Bitbucket and Reddit already expect it and now WordPress does too.

Takeaways:

A working knowledge of how to notate plain text to be rendered as beautiful HTML
A Cheatsheet for everything else
Strategies for content curation a storage using Git

May 21, 2019 — Whether it is for re-using the same code, experimenting with your code quickly and efficiently, or just for better document management, one of the most important leaps any site builder will ever take in their path towards becoming a developer is learning a version control system, or VCS. Since Git is the standard VCS over 80% of developers, lets roll up our sleeves and dive in. The benefits far outweigh the efforts needed to learn this tooling. Once you start, you will wonder why it took you so long to unleash the power of this awesome tech.

This talk will briefly explore the need for git, the history and use cases. Then we will jump into how to get started and the basic organizational concepts. We will also examine Github, the web based Git hosting service. Bring your laptops to play along at home and get started before you leave the room.

March 18, 2019 — We live in a world of continuous integration, continuous delivery, version controlled code and configuration. Yet when it comes to delivering content we are relying on doing all publishing straight to the production environment and hoping it works, editing the live document to fix issues we only find once they are in production. I propose there is a better way.

Let’s build our content on our development instances the same way we develop code and configuration. Then using the power of Github, WP-CLI and Automated Testing tools like Behat, lets professionally deploy our content to production will full confidence it works as intended. Let’s give editors better tools to build better content in a word of Gutenberg while saving anyone the need to overwrite the production database ever again.

Presentation Slides »

March 8, 2019 — How many times have you been in a situation where the client is never happy with the results, no matter what you do? How many ’emergency’ messages have you responded to because the site isn’t quite right in some new way? How many clients have you lost or fired because they honestly had no idea what they really wanted? If you answered yes to any of those questions, this session is for you!

Gathered from years of ‘learning it the hard way’ I am excited to share my knowledge with Freelancers, Agency Owners, Project Managers, Business Development professionals as well as anyone else who wants to better manage conversations.

Walk away from this talk with a better understanding of:
– Project And Sales Pipeline Strategy
– Uncovering Client Business Goals
– KPIs vs KPIs
– Managing Scope

Presentation Slides »

January 24, 2019 — It’s time to make the robots do all the things we can make them do. Machines can do just about anything as long as you give them the properly formed instructions. Fortunately for us WordPress allows us to give these instructions in an easy to learn and very robust manner called The WP-CLI. It is the fastest way to install, active and update any theme, plugin or just about anything else in your WordPress site.
In this presentation I will demonstrate a simple install script that will have a fully functioning, customized WP website in about the same time than it normally takes download the WordPress.zip file. We will also look for how third party tools and hosts are leveraging the WP-CLI to make your life as a developer even easier.

Presentation Slides »

December 31, 2018 — How many times have you been in a situation where the client is never happy with the results, no matter what you do? How many ’emergency’ messages have you responded to because the site isn’t quite right in some new way? How many clients have you lost or fired because they honestly had no idea what they really wanted? If you answered yes to any of those questions, this session is for you!

Gathered from years of ‘learning it the hard way’ I am excited to share my knowledge with Freelancers, Agency Owners, Project Managers, Business Development professionals as well as anyone else who wants to better manage conversations.
Walk away from this talk with a better understanding of:
Project And Sales Pipeline Strategy
Uncovering Client Business Goals
KPIs vs KPIs
Managing Scope