July 5, 2017 — The process of building an effective website starts long before you even touch a WordPress installation. The simple truth is that your audience will construct a story about your business or organization. If you want that story to match the vision you have for it, you’ll need to put some thought into how to talk about yourself to your users. In other words, you must consider your brand. Whether you’re doing it yourself, or hiring professionals, this talk will give you guidance on designing an authentic, intentional, brand that attracts ideal customers, and translates well both on and off-line. We’ll talk about what should inform your brand choices, and how to effectively communicate to your audience with your site’s design, content, and functionality. We’ll also discuss ideas for how you can go about infusing your brand into offline interactions for a consistent user experience.

June 27, 2016 — WordPress Community Interview With Shelby Elliott

June 20, 2016 — If you’re building a site for your own purposes, or doing some freelance work for others, but don’t consider yourself a developer, you’re probably working with purchased themes. And just maybe you’re looking to have more control over the look of your theme, than what is afforded by many built-in theme customizer options. This talk will focus on some things I learned the hard way, that now routinely save me a lot of time and frustration in the mockup and styling processes, using simple techniques and free tools. A basic knowledge of CSS is recommended, though not required for this session.

Presentation Slides »