June 30, 2016 — Ever been baffled by an online comment? Said something online that’s blown up in your face? Communicating through text alone is a challenge, but communicating in text in real-time in a multinational context is insane. This talk will address the challenges of online communication and look at how you can communicate effectively through just the medium of text.

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June 29, 2016 — Working on and with the web is engaging in that most human of endeavors: Communication. Even so, it’s easy to forget that the people we interact with and those who access and interact with our creations are just that: People. Learn how to make empathy and acceptance driving forces for your interactions and designs to build great informational experiences for everyone.

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April 7, 2016 — What communication mistakes do organizations make that cause them to be zombie-like? Learn about research on identity and communication that impacts content decisions on our websites. In this session, we’ll discuss how to avoid being like “the undead” by:

identifying communication problems on the web generally and on your own website
determining your organization’s identity (it’s not the same thing as your brand)
finding consistency in written and visual content with your identity
selecting the right visuals for your website (photos, videos, graphics) and avoiding problematic ones
getting others on board with this consistency (it’s sometimes like herding cats, I know)
We will talk about real-life examples of these various issues. You’ll walk away with practical tips you can begin using immediately to improve your organization’s communication on your website and beyond.

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January 7, 2016 — An American turns 50 every 7 seconds. The senior age group is now, for the first time, the largest in terms of size and percent of the population in the U.S. Those aged 50 and older represent 45% of the U.S. population. One-third of the internet users in the U.S., are adults aged 50+ representing the Web’s largest constituency.

WordPress sites must be designed with this in mind. You will learn how to meet seniors’ needs from one of their own.

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December 14, 2015 — We often forget when designing and developing websites that there are actual users on the other side of the screen. Whether through ability, age or cultural differences, there are a lot of ways that we can inadvertently alienate users. We sometimes forget that we’re making websites for our clients and customers, not ourselves.

In this presentation, I’ll give a brief rundown of considerations that should be given to make your website as effective to as wide a range of users as possible. Accessibility, internationalization, UX and UI changes will be covered, as well as some tips on how to determine your goal, and make your website work toward that goal for you.

December 12, 2015 — Posts & Pages might have some obvious differences to you but to new users, they seem exactly the same. When teaching WordPress, the goal is to make sure the user feels comfortable, so never assume! In this talk I’ll go over some of my tried and true methods for introducing and training people on WordPress

December 11, 2015 — Council meetings sit empty until a road closes, a subway schedule changes, or property taxes increase. Suddenly, meetings are packed with concerned residents. It’s often too late by that time. Use WordPress.com as an interactive digital communication tool to engage the public before meetings are crowded. Incorporate the public’s voice in your local planning process with simple steps outlined in this session.

October 6, 2015 — Every technically minded person needs to know how to communicate technical knowledge clearly and effectively. This talk examines the fundamentals of “explaining hard things to humans,” including:

– What makes technical communication uniquely difficult, and uniquely important.
– Avoiding two major impediments to technical communication: arrogance (relating to gaps in knowledge as a hassle or irritation) and breeziness (attempting to gloss over gaps in knowledge).
– How and why to make technical communication both audience-aware and strategic – tailored to both the knowledge level of the audience and the goal of the communication.
– The value of analogies in technical communication.
– Principles of clear technical writing.

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August 3, 2015 — The Principles of Effective Technical Communication – This talk summarizes things I’ve learned over the past 18 months writing WordPress tutorials at WPShout, as well as co-writing an e-book and screencast series on WordPress development. It describes principles for communicating technical knowledge clearly and effectively.

March 12, 2015 — Poor communication within the team, dissatisfied clients, lack of direction; Every developer encountered one form or another of these problems and in this talk, Tomaž goes over them, analyzes their causes and suggests a few solutions from which we can all improve our business relationships.

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