Julien Melissas is a web developer from Asheville, NC, with a passion for clean, efficient code, and re-doing things until they’re just right. Julien loves to learn about new technologies and development workflows. He has been working with WordPress for 5+ years now and has grown quite fond of it.

Julien is a co-founder and technical director at Craftpeak, a creative agency in Asheville. Formally he was a freelancer and independent contractor for companies all over the US, where he built tons of custom WordPress themes and other solutions tailored to the client’s needs. He’s on the Roots development team, and was also an organizer of the 2014 WordCamp in Asheville, NC. Julien loves JavaScript, information architecture open source, the Roots/Sage starter theme, the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, mobile-first web design, and Pit Bulls. When Julien is not in front of the screen working on building beautiful websites or that “next big thing”, you can find him making music, cooking, wrenching on a car since he’s had since 15, or out in the yard gardening with his girlfriend, Hana, and their dogs, Dina and Wilbur.

WCATL 2015 Session – Using Roots/Sage 8.0.0 – A Modern Developers Starter Theme

Roots has always offered awesome tools for theme developers who want a great head start and aren’t afraid to try the latest and greatest. The latest version of the very popular Roots starter theme has been renamed to Sage and now has even more magic to make your life better when developing WordPress themes. We’ll cover some of the newest changes in 8.0.0, including:

• How to install Sage and it’s requirements
• Some of the tools that are used (and how they work)
• How to use Sage
• The name change to Sage and the future of Roots

We’ll also talk about some caveats, requirements, and how to get help and contribute.

Please note: you will get the most out of this talk if you come with some prior knowledge or experience with creating custom WordPress themes, using CSS preprocessors as well as some of the latest front-end tools like Bower, gulp, and Grunt. Or, if you want to come and learn about those things that’s ok too! Keep in mind, this talk is just as much for designers as it is for developers, so devs, don’t be afraid to get up and walk over to the designer track!

Melodye Hunter is an international digital strategist. She empowers savvy entrepreneurs all over the world with the tools to stand out online and claim their expert status.

Melodye is founder and chief creative officer of personal branding firm, Melodye Hunter Creative + Consulting, where she designs and develops stylish and strategic websites and online marketing plans for empire building entrepreneurs.

To learn how to build your brand with class and authenticity online visit MelodyeHunter.com

WCATL 2015 Session – Creating Websites with Style and Strategy

Let’s talk “Website Strategy.” If you’re creating content to attract business, position yourself as an expert and grow an online business, you have to blog differently. You have to blog with a strategy.

You also need a great website that infuses your style and personality with attractive visual elements. Your site should flow so that visitors can purchase your products or services easily. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Your website can be simple, stylish and strategic. I’ll show how to use WordPress to do just that.

Gone are the days where all you need is a cute lil blog and the customers come rolling in. Today there is so much noise online, your competition is fighting for the attention of your potential customers. You need to stand out…and fast!

The best way to do that is with a strong website strategy.

We’ll talk social media, opt-ins and calls to action so that your website grabs your visitors’ attention and moves them to take action.

Linda is the founder and president of Definitive Medical Marketing. She started the company 11 years ago offering only video production. Today they are a complete medical marketing company offering website development (WordPress sites only), responsive design, SEO, social media, Eblast newsletter design and delivery, custom blog entries, pay per click campaigns, logo design, and all types of print collateral, reputation management, monthly analytics showing progress of the web sites and video production including TV commercials. She has very little time to do anything but to work on growing Definitive Medical Marketing but if there’s a minute to spare she’s a Master Gardener and loves growing just about anything.

WCATL 2015 Session – Video Marketing: YouTube

YouTube is now the 2nd largest Search engine after Google and the preferred way the younger generation likes to receive their information. Video should be incorporated into your website development and SEO strategy.

Heather Solos has been blogging since 2004, professionally since 2006. Coincidentally this is when she made the switch to WordPress and she hasn’t looked back. She runs Home-Ec101.com in her spare time, a site that averages 250k pageviews a month. She joined FeedBlitz, an RSS and email marketing company in 2012 where she built the customer service team. She lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with her three kids and is happy to talk about whatever shiny thing has her attention on Twitter.

WCATL 2015 Session – 5 Plugins for List Building

Grow your list without breaking your budget, upsetting your hosting service, or violating your users. Learn which email list building plugin is best for YOU … and discover some neat email marketing tricks along the way.