March 11, 2017 — The WordPress Community is one of the most supportive tech community in the world. We help each other through code issues, site problems, ideas for improving the design of the site, and so much more. New WordPress users often struggle to understand how to get help, and confront similar challenges when they start building their site and hosting it.

Where should they host their site?
What type of design should they use?
How do they manage all of their plugins, and which plugins should they use?
Then what happens when their site goes down?
How do they ask for help?
Who do they ask?
This talk covers these type of topics and covers the life cycle of different types of users. WordPress is one of the most flexible platforms in the world that provides a ton of options. For a new user, or a seasoned user, it can be hard to navigate the WordPress Community. Users Need Our Help.

July 3, 2016 — Once you’ve started a WordPress Meetup the early rush of having people show up and participate is great, but once you’ve started, how do you keep building momentum? What are the secrets to having it continue to grow? Are there tools and tricks to keeping things fresh and interesting? This talk will give 7 primary areas to address in planning your meetup for growth and engagement. Melbourne’s meetup group has grown from a single multidisciplinary monthly event into 4 monthly meetups happening across disciplines, diverse groups, and geographic regions. There have been a lot of learning experiences in raising up leaders for this group, and in maintaining its success. I’ll share some of those lessons in the context of this talk.

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December 11, 2015 — Large community projects introduce constraints on how we program. Our biggest assets aren’t the hardware we run on or the language we use – it’s each other. How can we code in ways that respect each other and capitalize on that “asset” of the contributor-base? In this talk Dennis will discuss some techniques and patterns that lead towards fewer problems and improve a project’s overall health in these and any environments.

July 9, 2015 — Three stories of the many acquisitions Karim has made over the last two decades. He will share what was learned from those experiences, and the impact the WordPress community has made on how we can all grow together.

November 17, 2014 — This talks gives tips and information about building an online community in 5 easy steps.

September 1, 2014 — There’s no magic behind building a successful online community (unless blood, sweat and tears count), but there are a few key actions that lead to increased engagement. With over 5 years of experience in building communities online (in various forms), plus data gathered from 4 expert bloggers, Michael G. Calvert of Disqus will offer real-world examples as a guide. Join him for a talk outlining the 5 steps you can take build a vibrant, active community.

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August 21, 2014 — Chris Lema (virtual) & Karim Marucchi (local) talk about the tools and strategies they’ve leveraged as they’ve helped Crowd Favorite work 24 hours a day. Global virtual teams don’t happen by chance. Hear the tips and tricks for helping people feel connected, while also igniting a culture of performance.

March 19, 2014 — WordPress isn’t just about slapping some cool plugins on your site; you have to know your audience, understand how THEY interact, and be willing to listen to them. Of course, there are some awesome plugins to help you handle the masses, and I’ll talk about those too, but let’s get down and dirty and look at the evidence, trace the paths, and find out who’s killing your site. It may be you.

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December 15, 2013 — The presentation includes tips for how to encourage other members of the WordPress development community to contribute to your plugin and theme projects. Many of the lessons learned and presented come from several years of experience with managing plugins that have very active community contributions.

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