February 17, 2015 — Underscores has become the go to tool for many theme developers, as their starting point when creating a new theme. It’s the semi-standard for the WordPress.org Theme Repository, and the origin for all themes launched on WordPress.com in the past three years. In this presentation we’re taking a look back at its origins, its successes, and most importantly, its most recent improvements. Including a feature update that supercharges Underscores.me, and will change how developers will interact with WordPress starter themes for years to come.

Presentation Slides »

October 23, 2014 — There are many things that solo developers do that break down when placed in a team environment. We’ll walk through some of the best practices and things to keep in mind when going from freelance to working in a team.

Presentation Slides »

September 15, 2014 — When developing a theme for a client, it’s super easy to throw all of the new functions and hooks into the theme’s functions.php file, wipe your hands, congratulate yourself for a hard day’s work and go have a beer. But, after a while, have you stopped to see the size of that functions.php file? It can be massive! It’s easy to create a large disorganized functions.php file with so many tutorials out there giving you little tips and tricks on hooks and doodads that you can add to the site to make it fancy. “Ohh! Look at this code that changes my background color based on weather patterns! I’ll just… put this… right… here… *drops in functions.php file* This session is about why you don’t want to fill up your functions.php file, the proper way to add code to your site, and why it’s proper for readability, security and extendability.

Presentation Slides »

February 14, 2012 — Presentation Slides »