Presented by Steve Heuser in Paul Duke.

1. Have a Solid Backup Strategy
2. Take Important Security Measures
3. Delete Default Content
4. Combat Spam
5. Optimize Your Site’s SEO
6. Change the Site Tagline
7. Set Up a Contact Form
8. Don’t Forget Settings
9. Connect Email Lists
10. Start Tracking Metrics with Analytics
11. Make Site Updates Easy

Presented by Mike Demo in Anne Cramer.

Do you know that if you have a picture of a duck having it face left or right can increase your conversions by 40%?

Think this sounds silly? It is, but backed by research. Spend some time to learn about what a/b testing is, what things to test, testing methodology and the best tools to use for your WordPress site.

Everyone will get a handout of the very same checklist I use when A/B testing our client’s sites. One of our clients, an insurance company, increased leads by making just a small 2px change.

Want YOUR site to be tested live? Please tweet me your URL @MPMIKE with the hashtag #TESTME. Selected sites will get live feedback and examples.

Presented by Gene Hammett in Paul Duke.

Sub-title: Stand Out in a Highly Competitive Market is the Future of Sales and Marketing

This is a straight shooting (no holding back) talk to help WordPress companies grow in the hugely competitive market segments they are in.

There is a mega trend impacting WordPress companies. It is the fight for ATTENTION. We all crave attention. Attention is the new business currency. Millions of messages come at us faster than ever before, and it confuses the average prospect.

If you are in a highly competitive service-based business like WordPress Developers and Designers, you want your message to be heard. No, wait…you NEED your message to be heard. It is what makes the difference between sustainable success and stagnation.

In this signature talk, Gene shows WordPress shops how to:
– Stand out from the white noise of the competition
– Build deep trust by establishing yourself as a credible expert
– Develop the mindset and skill set needed to move beyond your comfort zone and accelerate your personal and professional growth
– Dominate your market as the go-to authority in your field
– Create new action steps to increase your sales and bottom line profits

Presented by April Wier in Paul Duke.

Practical tips for growing your referral network. Warm leads hold you in higher esteem, are easier to convert, and stay customers longer. Includes a case study on a successful referral partnership.

Presented by Brian S. Reed in Anne Cramer.

A dive into the mistakes we as developers make and the best practices we can employ in object-oriented programming and design. We start with an example plugin and remove issues addressed using the STUPID principles. We then apply the five basic principles of SOLID design ending up with a word class WordPress plugin.

STUPID: (Singleton, Tight Coupling, Untestability, Premature Optimization, Indescriptive Naming, Duplication)

SOLID (Single Responsibility Principle, Open/Closed Principle, Liskov Substitution Principle, Interface Segregation Principle, Dependency Inversion Principle)

Presented by Josh Pollock in Mark C. Pope.

WordPress 4.7 now includes the content endpoints of the WordPress REST API. These endpoints provide new ways to read and write data on your WordPress sites that is perfect for use with JavaScript-driven interfaces, apps and more. But do you know what exactly is available and how to to find them?

In this talk I will give an overview of what endpoints are available and which endpoints might be available. Then we will talk about how to use the WordPress REST API to discover what is available from the WordPress REST API.

• Video

Presented by Cliff Seal in Paul Duke.

WordPress’s content management system is only one piece of a very large puzzle. Acronyms abound as a site prepares for launch—from DNS to SSL to CDN, you’re up against a series of technical tasks that need to go well to go live.

Once you get to launch, there’s a whole litany of concepts a site owner ought to understand: optimizing and maintaining SEO, keeping the site secure, monitoring performance, tracking analytics, and keeping everything up to date. Plus, what do you do when performance slows down, or your site gets hacked, or users aren’t converting like you expect?

In this session, I’ll give an introduction to everything from domain hosting to site launching to cleaning a hacked site—sharing proven tools I’ve used to help hundreds of clients. You’ll get a better idea of what you can manage on your own and better understand the things you can’t (or don’t want to).

Presented by Mark Deal in Mark C. Pope.

Do you blog for your own WordPress site or encourage clients to blog on theirs?

In this talk, Mark Deal of the Podcast Atlanta group will outline the benefit of delivering audio content to peoples’ ears and hearts. The evolution from blogging to podcasting will be covered as well as practical and proven methods to take a blog into the podcasting world (and beyond). We will start with hardware/software and how to be a podcast guest on another show. Moving to content archetypes and podcast formats for your own podcast and growing your show – then how to take the momentum beyond podcasting.

You will walk away with basics to get you started, essential website elements for a podcast, and resources to move you further.

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Krystal Galewski, Leah Halbina in Paul Duke.

Every company’s biggest challenge is finding and closing sales. Finding your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow doesn’t involve luck or getting past the leprechaun. Our joint talk (Leah Halbina, Account Manager & Krystal Galewski, Business Development Specialist) will dive into and provide guidance on this common struggle for big companies, small companies and freelancers alike. At emagine, our Business Development & Sales team is on the front lines of finding the companies we want to work with, attracting the right contacts, nurturing prospects and closing the deal. We know first-hand that it’s not an easy task but we also know it’s not impossible. In a world where tactics are constantly changing, it’s important to be strategic. Making it about your prospect (and not completely about you and your business) can go a long way in a world of standardized sales emails and boilerplate proposals.

First, prospector Krystal Galewski will talk about:
– Defining your ideal client
– Identifying the companies you want to work with
– Finding the right contacts
– Attracting and nurturing prospects

Then, Leah (“The Closer”) will discuss:
– Researching and understanding a potential client and their world
– Creating a personalized proposal
– How to set yourself apart and seal the deal

We know from experience that this approach works because our close rate has improved dramatically since making changes nearly a year ago. This talk is for anyone who is out there trying to find and win new business. Applying these steps and the principles we’ll share to your business can help you grow if you’re ready to get out there and make the change.

Presented by Shelly Peacock in Anne Cramer.

After this talk, you won’t ever have to pick a random theme again.
You will learn quick customization tips, and won’t fear the Functions.php file any more.
Also, we will incorporate Page Builders for even more speed and flexibility.

Takeaways: Tons of resources, basic functionality of child themes and page builders, all built on a framework.

Presented by Nathan Ingram in Ballroom.

After years of teaching and coaching WordPress freelancers, I’ve realized something… most of us stink at marketing ourselves. Clearly explaining our value and finding great clients is a common struggle. In this workshop, participants will work together through the process of articulating their value propositions, defining their target customers, and building a basic marketing strategy.

Presented by Lauren Jeffcoat in Paul Duke.

Global marketing takes more than just enabling traffic to your website from other countries. Encouraging multilingualism and cultural diversity will help determine how involved your business can be with the online world. In this presentation I will discuss WHY it is important to cater to foreign audiences in their native languages and why translation is the next step to grow a global business.

I’ll cover the importance of translation being done correctly and some of the best tools and practices that are widely available for WordPress website translation. This will include:

How Translation (or lack of) can Affect your Business Reputation
Common Mistakes or Mistranslations
Ways to Connect with your International Audience

I will have a special section on optimizing eCommerce websites for different languages. This will include how to create a pleasant experience that encourages your consumers to convert, return, and advocate for your business.

Presented by Jill Anderson in Anne Cramer.

If you’ve been meaning to revamp your website for a while—but haven’t gotten very far—you aren’t alone. Ready to finally check it off the list? Actionable steps are the way forward. In this talk, we’ll go over how to approach your WordPress website like you would a client project and the 12 steps necessary to get it done.

Presented by Frank Corso in Paul Duke.

Imagine a website that is getting 1000 users a day. Now imagine that about 50 of them are spending money on the site. You probably want to get more of the users that are spending money on the site but how do you know where these users are coming from? Maybe you know that all of them are coming from Twitter or Facebook but do you know which post or tweet refers the most people who actually convert to customers? Or, how do you know how many signed up to receive your lead magnet?

This is where analytics comes in. Analytics allows us to track where visitors come from and how they behave on your website. You can see which tweet, post, ad, video, etc. brought the most users to your site. Then, you can also see which link brought the most users who converted into customers. Analytics allows you to see which pages the visitors go to, how long they are on each page, where they come from, and much more so you know how to get more converting visitors to your site.

Presented by Micah Wood in Ballroom.

As of January 2017, JavaScript is used by 94.4% of all websites. On average, JavaScript developers earn 20% more than PHP developers. You can create entire websites, single page applications, mobile or even desktop apps using 100% JavaScript. You can’t ignore JavaScript anymore.

At the same time, there are tons of JavaScript frameworks, tools, and even different versions of the language that you can learn. How do you make sense of it all? Where do you start?

You start by attending this special double-session where we will give you an overview of the JavaScript landscape, start with the basics of JavaScript coding, and point you towards some great resources for continuing your journey towards becoming a JavaScript master.

We’ll spend the first hour by giving you a broad overview and helping ease that overwhelming feeling you get when people start throwing around the names of JavaScript things you know nothing about. We’ll also take a look at what the learning process looks like in general and how you can accelerate your learning of new things like JavaScript or that new framework you’ve been wanting to try out.

During the second hour, we’ll take a closer look at JavaScript itself. We’ll start with some sample tasks, things you might normally want to do with JavaScript in WordPress, and show you how to get the job done. You will learn about basics of JavaScript coding, the tools that WordPress provides and some great resources for gaining a deeper understanding of JavaScript.

Presented by Adam Walker in Anne Cramer.

Finding a good WordPress developer can be tough. This talk will help you find out what to look for from a development skill perspective, but also from a human perspective (because a great developer that is a jerk is not a great developer).

Presented by Carl Alexander in Mark C. Pope.

Ok, so you’re a kickass WordPress developer. You’re always looking to learn new things. You read every technical blog post that you come across. You try your best to apply them in your WordPress project. Things are going well, but you’re not sure if there’s more that you could do to hone your skills.

Why yes there is! You could also teach. But you might be wondering, “Seriously, how can teaching make me a better developer?” That’s a good question! And that’s what I’ll share with you in this talk.

I’ve dedicated a significant amount of time to teaching. I write a lot on my personal site and sometimes on other WordPress educational sites. I also speak at WordCamps and local meetups. These teaching opportunities have been essential to help me grow as developers.

The good news is that you too can use teaching as a powerful learning tool! This talk will show you how. You’ll learn how to use teaching to build your development chops. You’ll also see how to do it so that what you give back benefits the WordPress community.

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Brian Rotsztein in Mark C. Pope.

WordPress is software like no other. Businesses harness its versatility. Creative skills are mastered with it. It unifies individuals from diverse backgrounds. Yet to so many, it remains “just” software. As a blogger, web designer, marketer, educator, and entrepreneur since long before its existence, I’ve watched it grow into a worldwide phenomenon. My own path to success is intertwined with a decade of WordPress use. Clearly, there’s more to this software than just a free install. Discover how WordPress will completely change your personal and business life for the better, if you let it!

• Video

Presented by Mark Tilly in Paul Duke.

Do you or your clients find it hard to generate enough content for your business site? Content curation can be a great way to overcome this ‘content famine’. Keeping up with your field is something you do regularly. Why not curate some of that content onto your site? An even bigger benefit is that regular content curation can lead you to feel more comfortable or become better at writing your own posts and articles from scratch. With content curation and more of your own content, your site will be well on its way to ranking higher on Google. We will cover:
– The basics of content curation
– Is content curation legal?
– How does it help my SEO rankings?

Presented by Su Berland Schaer in Ballroom.

Good design is important no matter what the medium. Making the transition from print to web has been an ongoing and evolving education. There are certain constants as well as plenty of differences between the two. I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned as a designer that will help others who feel like the learning curve is overwhelming. I’m a graphic designer who will likely never write original code, so WordPress has made the web a friendlier, more inviting place for me to work. Once a print piece is on press, at the bindery and then sent to the mailhouse, there’s a definite finality to the process, which is completely different than the web.

Presented by Rob Riggs in Mark C. Pope.

Great topic for developers of various levels. I walk through a case study and decision tree for building a theme framework and leveraging Child Themes and Grandchild Themes to build quality websites that can continue to be upgraded without affecting design or operability.

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Bridget Willard in Paul Duke.

The WordPress industry is dominated by freelancers, remote workers and a distributed workforce. Though the Community as a whole is strong, the day to day reality for many is isolation.

Sure, there’s Twitter, Slack, and the lot. But seeing people’s faces and hearing their voices is the way humans connect. This is why Face to Face Communication is such an important part of human connection. And you can’t have a community without connection.

It’s easy to take meetups for granted or to believe that their only value is in the exchange of information. However, the value of in-person meetups cannot be understated. Meetups are a great defence against isolation. They inspire, create relationships, and are a great place to learn. Yet, not everyone lives close enough to attend a WordPress meetup.

In Orange County, for example, we have several meetups to choose from which have become mini communities in and of themselves. By building relationships, there is a cohesive bond is formed. We generally call this friendship.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” CS Lewis http://bit.ly/29gj31W

Knowing that you’re not alone is the first step in friendship. The exchange of ideas — theme suggestions, the best form plugins, and CSS tricks — all help the meetup attendee with her work, but even more, the discussion is a platform upon which friendships are built. And friendships are the undergirding, supportive structure of any thriving community — like a coral reef.

Presented by Tom McFarlin in Mark C. Pope.

Imagine, for a moment, the ability to add a new class to your WordPress plugin and not have to worry about adding a new include statement and having the ability to organize the class into a pre-defined package structure.

Sounds nice, right?

Unfortunately, one of the problems that WordPress plugins developers face is having to work with older versions of PHP. But it’s really not as bad as you may think.

Although we sometimes, we sometimes have the ability to use newer versions of PHP (and that’s great), it doesn’t mean we have to forgo poor development practices.

See, depending on the paradigm with which we build our projects (namely, object-oriented programming), we have the ability to take a lot of redundant code out of our plugins.

Furthermore, we have the ability to more easily organize our code at both a conceptual level and at a virtual level.

In this presentation, I walk everyone through namespaces and autoloading, explain how they work, why they are beneficial, and then will show sample example code on how it works. I’ll also provide a downloadable plugin that they can use to study.

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Mickey Trivett in Paul Duke.

Have you ever needed an extra hand when working on a website or project? Are you looking to expand your business by hiring a staff? Have you ever considered outsourcing?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, then this is the seminar for you. I will walk you through what has worked for me and share my experiences and hiccups with you. I will let you know what tools I use to monitor and manage my projects with my staff. I will give you the best practices that I know to maintain a healthy and good relationship with your virtual assistants. This informative talk will leave you with the tools and resources to grow your business.

Presented by Aaron Reimann in Mark C. Pope.

A hosting panel to discuss the difference, features and what is new for each platform. We will have technicians from WP Engine, BlueHost, ClickHost, Godaddy and more. Moderated by a WordPress developer.

• Video

Presented by Scott Fisk in Anne Cramer.

You do not have to be a professional photographer to take (and find) quality photos for a website. Anyone who learns basic photo composition. Composition will be discussed. Learn how to take top-notch photographs geared specifically for implementation in website design.

Presented by Isaac Irvine in Anne Cramer.

You can have a bulletproof plan to complete a project, but you never know when a Sith Lord will crash the party and derail everything. As long as you can keep your head in the game and lean on friends when you need to, you’ll stay on target and come out on top. You might even get a medal for it.

Unless you’re a Wookie – Wookies don’t get medals. It’s sad.

Presented by Bret Phillips in Ballroom.

Running your business can be extremely time consuming.

Working with others also holds plenty of it’s own challenges to make sure everyone is on the same page.

With so much to do, how can you ever get it all done?

Processes!

Unless you are a certain type of person, creating and implementing processes is probably not high up on your list of “things I would love to be doing right now”. It should be and I want to show you why.

In this presentation we are going to look at a few examples showing how using repeatable steps and automation saves us time and money in our WordPress Website development business.

Presented by Ashlea Lanier, Ali Green in Ballroom.

Responsive design has become an expected and necessary element in the website design process. With the large majority of users viewing content on their mobile devices, your website should be easily accessible and tailored to each experience.

This workshop will walk through the process of wireframing and explain how setting goals is an important step to optimizing your content for your audience. We will also lead you through an exercise that helps you understand how each responsive viewpoint can be altered to fit the consumption needs of your users.

Presented by David Laietta in Ballroom.

There are a lot of things that go into running a service business beyond finding clients and building things for them. You’ve got to manage contracts, invoices, estimates, proposals, and more. You need to keep clients informed on progress, collect payments, and follow up on those payments invariably missed. On top of all of that, you need to have some sort of repeatable process to make projects run smoothly and keep getting in new work.

We’re going to look at a few ways that you can use WordPress to manage your WordPress business. This includes managing all of that paperwork from the backend of your site, allowing clients to make payments, and setting up a progress and ticketing system. We’ll also take a look at some ways to use your site to gain and manage leads.

From there you’ll be able to manage your business with ease and focus on the most important part: keeping your clients happy and successful!

Presented by Mickey Mellen, Jenny Munn in Ballroom.

Come join Jenny Munn and Mickey Mellen for a two-hour session on Search Engine Optimization in 2017.

We’ll talk about what’s new with Google, such as the push for SSL and new tools like AMP, and show you what basic changes you can make to improve your site’s visibility and to drive more traffic and conversions. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and come prepared with your keywords and questions.

Presented by Judi Knight in Anne Cramer.

Frustrated with trying to make a living doing WordPress websites? Think you just need to find the right theme for a project or learn a few more design tips? This presentation will let you in on what you don’t know you don’t know. I will present a framework you can follow to become a skilled WordPress Designer who can price, close, create, and deliver amazing, effective WordPress websites for happy clients!

Presented by Mallie Hart in Mark C. Pope.

You create a killer read. Your article will change the way your ideal client does business. You’ll be inundated with calls from prospects wanting you to help them better their business. But there’s one small problem … no one’s reading the killer content you created. Writing and publishing doesn’t build a business unless your content lands in front of ready to read eyes.

That’s where smart social sharing comes in. But often this part of the content marketing equation is ignored or misunderstood. How can you get more eyes on your content prize? That’s what this talk will deliver.

We’ll talk social sharing best practices, etiquette and connection building techniques. We’ll also talk tools (plug-ins and schedulers) and smart social sharing set-up, including how to use – and not abuse – hashtags and keywords … and a whole lot more!

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Derek Hart in Anne Cramer.

Instead of working for anyone and everyone, what if your company served a niche market? In an increasingly crowded field, many freelancers are finding success by focusing on a niche market. Settling on a niche can be a little intimidating at first, but on the other side is a business with more clients, higher rates, and more efficient workflow. If you’re a freelancer that has worked in every industry under the sun, yet can’t shake the feeling that your business could be something…more, this is your session. Hopefully, you’ll walk away inspired enough to come up with a brand new business model!

Presented by Naomi C. Bush in Mark C. Pope.

In a gold rush, the people who got rich were the ones who sold the tools. And buying expensive tools didn’t guarantee success.

If you’re working with clients or building a site to support your business, a form builder is the one simple, inexpensive tool you can’t do without. Come learn how I run my product & services business with this simple, unassuming tool of the trade. You’re sure to leave with a gold nugget or two 😉

• Video

Presented by Travis Smith in Anne Cramer.

JavaScript is awesome when it works, but when it doesn’t, it can be extremely frustrating. How do you troubleshoot an AJAX call? How do you know if your JavaScript is even on the page? How do you know if it is executing when and how it should? We will walk through some of the best practices for finding and identifying problems with your JavaScript inside WordPress.

• Video

Presented by Alison Chandler in Ballroom.

Choosing typefaces and applying them to your WordPress website can be frustrating, even designers go around and around about this. There are so many options and decisions to make—it’s hard to know where to begin. What gives?

You will learn the importance of typography in website design, how to choose font families, and tips for implementation. Armed with the basic understanding of typography and how it relates to the success of your website, you will be confident the choices you make will be based on more than a whim.

Presented by Dwayne McDaniel in Mark C. Pope.

There are a lot of parallels between the open source development world and Improv communities. The goal of this talk is to expose the similarities and directly apply the core principles from the stagecraft of improv to get better code, smoother projects and ultimately happier customers. At the end the audience will be able to take practical examples and very simple exercises back to their organizations to better communicate with customers and internal stakeholders alike as well as techniques to get ‘unstuck’ when hitting major blockages in creativity needed for elegant code.

Topics will include:
Parallels between the Dev Community and Improv
Core principles of Improv and how we can embrace them for better code, including
– Active Listening
-Yes, And…
-Embracing failure as part of the process
Simple group exercises for any size team to improve communications

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Aaron D. Campbell in Mark C. Pope.

Security can be complex, intimidating, and even frightening. Don’t let the enormity of it scare you into inaction. Learn what some of the security researchers and security professionals deal with, and then find out some simple steps you can take to secure your sites.

• Video

Presented by Carel Bekker in Anne Cramer.

In this session we’ll be exploring how to setup WordPress in AWS (Amazon Web Services) without using a server. It is also referred to as server-less computing. It takes the pain out of having to setup and manage a VPS, or dedicated server for WordPress.

• Slides
• Video

Presented by Adam W. Warner in Paul Duke.

Adam left college with a degree in Advertising Design and went straight to work on the factory floor making office furniture. It wasn’t the life he’d imagined but having been raised in a blue-collar family, he was taught that a strong work ethic would make you invaluable to “the company” and “they” would provide the financial security and stability needed to raise a family and enjoy life. In other words, this meant working in the same stark metal building for thirty years with twenty-minute lunch breaks and 2 weeks vacation in the summer.

In this session Adam will detail how he discovered WordPress and the open source community, the many businesses he’s experimented with, and how he’s utilized those experiences to continually fuel his entrepreneurial spirit and create his own path to a work/life balance and how you can too.

No matter what your passion, WordPress can be an integral tool to helping you achieve your dreams and success in your own business.
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
― Babe Ruth

Presented by Jason Lengstorf in Mark C. Pope.

Developing WordPress sites doesn’t have to be painful. But for most of us, it’s a nightmare: we work on our local copy, then we have to set up the staging server, export the content, import it on the staging site (and hope it all works), remember to install all the plugins, and move over the media files. All over FTP.

But we’re developers. Why are we doing all this manual work?

In this talk, we’ll look at the modern WordPress tools from the Roots team — Bedrock and Trellis — to learn how we can set up a local WordPress development environment in minutes using Trellis, then deploy it to production fast with free SSL and two-way database syncing. Migrate everything — theme files, plugins, media uploads, posts, users, and all the rest — with simple commands using free and open-source tools.

This talk will cut your WordPress setup time to 30 minutes and give you hours of your life back.

• Video

Presented by Shawn Hooper in Anne Cramer.

WP-CLI is a set of command line tools for managing your WordPress site. It allows you to perform many tasks much quicker than you would be able to by other means. In this session, I will teach you how to get WP-CLI running, and show some of my favourite time saving features. Once you’ve started using WP-CLI, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it! This talk is appropriate for developers, designers and server administrators of all skill levels.

Presented by Karen Cleveland in Paul Duke.

Learn how to use your website to attract and capture prospective new clients.

Karen uses a fun analogy to show you how to bait, hook, and land new leads using your WordPress website.

No prior fishing knowledge required!