November 17, 2020 — We often talk about websites the way we talk about cars. Are you driving a flashy sports car or a stable hatchback? And is yours a lemon, no matter how pretty the paint job? And if you just got one used, what’s going on under the hood? There’s a way to address these questions about your website, and it’s called a technical audit. The vast majority of site owners live in fear of the day their site breaks down. Performing a site audit can ensure you understand the current state of your site, from the back end code level to the front end performance. It can also help you see potential problems when it comes time to add features (like that sweet audio system). People attending this session will learn the basic building blocks of performing a technical audit, including approaches for auditing different aspects of your site including custom code, theme and front-end functionality, back-end configuration and plugins, and accessibility. The session will also cover tools that can be used to run these tests and tips on what to watch for when managing a website over time.

November 17, 2020 — Improve you website’s speed by eliminating some of your plugins. In this session you will learn how to test your website’s speed with a few free options (Lighthouse and GTMetrix, for example) and then you will learn how to track down the causes of slowdowns and fix issues.

November 9, 2020 — Go on the journey of “mere mortals” (someone without a computer programming background) on how they learned WordPress, designed two business sites and opened an on-line store with Woo Commerce. Your trip will guide you through the basics, identify tripping and stumbling points, direct you to where to get information, introduce you to the language of WordPress, where to “hotel” your site, and overview safety tips for your journey.

November 3, 2020 — With the explosive adoption of Smart Speakers, the primary interaction with your content will become auditory instead of visual. On the world wide web, our brand revolves around a URL, logo, tagline, color palette, font, images, etc., but when your audience is no longer engaging with your content through a screen, traditional brand elements become invisible. In a voice first environment, when your audience just asks for what they want, they expect the answer to be returned verbally. In a voice first world, what does your brand look like, (I mean, sound like)? In this talk, I explore the components of a verbal brand, how to prepare for the shift from written content to verbal content, as well as the future of voice technology and how to prepare for it.

October 30, 2020 — We’ll talk about practical resources and advice that beginners to seasoned veterans can use to improve their content and their perception to their audience.

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October 29, 2020 — With the web ecosystem steadily moving towards JavaScript frameworks and JAMstack setups, let’s see how to get up to speed with those latest headless trends.

During this hands-on workshop, we will build a React front-end pulling content from WordPress with GraphQL, and using Gatsby as a static website generator. Some knowledge of WordPress Rest API, Node or React is a plus but not a requirement. We will go through each step following a homemade GitHub tutorial with concrete examples, including the initial setup and a deployment on a serverless hosting and continuous integration (CI) platform. As an extra, we will also explain how to easily make your Gutenberg layout work with your React website.

Bring your own bottle laptop (BYOL) and join us if you are curious about headless architecture.

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October 22, 2020 — You picked a web host and set up your WordPress site – everything is cool! Until it isn’t. Maybe your site isn’t loading. Maybe your theme looks all kinds of broken. Maybe some jerks graffitti’d over your latest travel adventures! Now what?

Step one is determining whether your WordPress config is the reason or if you’ll need to contact your web host for a deeper dive into your hosting environment.

Different companies may offer different levels of technical support, but there is a basic and universal approach to getting your WordPress site back up and running again as quickly as possible. You’ll learn who to contact and why if and when your WordPress site ever runs into trouble.

August 31, 2020 — Pictures and logos are a necessity on a website, but not all images are created equal. The wrong images could slow down your site or even worse, cause users to leave before your page loads. Speaker Kim White will walk through the basics of the most used image format types and some optimization techniques. She will also do a review of what WordPress does when you upload your image file.

July 16, 2020

March 30, 2020 — Whether you manage a large site or a small one, if you write your own code one of the most tedious parts can be getting started. This talk will show you techniques such as scaffolding tools and others to get you a fully functional WordPress plugin with unit tests, continuous integration, a local development environment and more with just a single command. It will help you stop rebuilding the wheel so you can focus on the functionality you need and can be extended to themes, libraries or whatever else you need.