November 3, 2021 — This talk reviews some of the most common WordPress mistakes. It explores how we can learn from our mistakes and make our projects better.

November 13, 2019 — You built a plugin. It was fun — until it wasn’t. Now the support takes away from your family time. If you stop supporting the plugin, it can weigh you down with creator’s guilt. So, what are your options? We’ve seen big products sell like iThemes to Liquid Web and Sucuri to GoDaddy, but is your product worth selling? Mike Demo breaks it down.

September 16, 2019 — “Do you know that if you have a picture of a duck having it face left or right can increase your conversions by 40%?

Think this sounds silly? It is but backed by research. Spend some time to learn about what a/b testing is, what things to test, testing methodology and the best tools to use for your site.

Everyone will get a handout of the very same checklist I use when A/B testing our client’s sites. One of our clients, an insurance company, increased leads by making just a small 2px change.

When you launch a website, you are guessing. Sure the guesses are educated based on experience and data, but you can maximize your ROI with good A/B testing.”

August 9, 2019 — When you launch a website, do you know what works? You don’t; you’re guessing. Your guesses may be based on experience and education, but with good A/B testing you can also make decisions based upon data. For example, do you know that even the way a duck’s face points (left versus right) could increase your conversions by 40%? As a case study, one of our clients, an insurance company, increased leads by making just a small 2px change. In this talk, we will spend some time review the A/B checklist I personally use to guide you on your journey to discover what things to test, testing methodology, and the best tools to use for your clients sites.

Presentation Slides »

July 26, 2019 — How do you eat an elephant? Answer: one bite at a time. Like anything overwhelming, breaking it down into bite-size, easy to achieve components is the way to become efficient and efficiency is the path to profitability.

All too common in the free and open source software market are developers who are financially frustrated, to put it lightly. Would you like to level up your profitability?

What’s stopping you as a freelancer from financial freedom? Let’s work on some of the practical things that, with just a bit of tweaking, can help you earn $100,000 in one year.

In this talk by Mike Demopoulos (his friends call him “Demo”) will talk about ways to streamline your process, have client outreach like the big brands, and become profitable.

June 10, 2019 — Imposter Syndrome

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December 28, 2018 — Change is hard. For a developer, changing our workflow is especially difficult. In his book, Who moved my cheese?, Dr. Spencer Johnson uses an allegory to teach healthy coping mechanisms for change. When it comes to choosing a CMS, developers rely upon the tools with which we’re most familiar. Traditionally, WordPress doesn’t make breaking changes. But with the upcoming release of the Gutenberg editor in WordPress 5.0, how can we realistically adjust both our attitudes and our workflows?
What if WordPress forks? What if it forks several times? How do page builders fit into a Gutenberg world? Will my favorite plugins adapt and how? Will my clients’ sites break?
It’s okay to ask questions. Learning to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to change leads us to a healthy place of positive acceptance.
In this talk, we will spend some time discussing the actual risk-benefit assessment of WordPress 5.0. You will leave with a better outlook — guaranteed.

Don’t fear forking
Truth vs fiction
It will be OK

December 28, 2018 — Join us for an open-ended question and answer session with a panel of our speakers and WordCamp Toronto organizers, moderated by Robin Macrae. The one topic we will discuss is adoption strategies for individuals, business and enterprises and other practical issues in the changes brought by Gutenberg.
Come and tell us whether you’re stressed, elated and/or resigned and we’ll do our best to put Gutenberg into perspective for you.

July 30, 2018 — WordPress is better!
Drupal is better!
Joomla! is better!

Sound familiar? The open source community has the habit only to look inside ourselves and never look what else might be going on in the other communities or projects. As someone who currently serves on leadership for Joomla and also the evangelist of BoldGrid has seen the best of multiple open source communities. I have seen patterns emerge across our communities.

This talk will explore my experience being married to open source. I will also explore the ways the communities support each other through initiatives such as CMS Garden (An initiative to promote all major open source CMS projects). I will also share the top things I learned about myself and the combined future of an open source web.

Presentation Slides »

June 4, 2018 — When you launch a website, do you know what works? You don’t; you’re guessing. Your guesses may be based on experience and education, but with good A/B testing you can also make decisions based upon data.
For example, do you know that even the way a duck’s face points (left versus right) could increase your conversions by 40%? As a case study, one of our clients, an insurance company, increased leads by making just a small 2px change.
In this talk, we will spend some time reviewing the A/B checklist I personally use to guide you on your journey to discover what things to test, testing methodology, and the best tools to use for your clients’ sites.