Sessions

Advanced SEO thoughts

Presented by Robert Jacobi in WP Cafe.

Discuss the state of tools, solutions, and metrics for SEO as well as speaking with clients on what they should be looking for in KPI.

Design your WordPress website to be accessible and usable – WCAG standards

Presented by Izabela Mrochen in Workshop 3.

Learn why web designers, webmasters, trainers, students, or developers should be familiar with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to enhance and improve accessibility. Izabela will discuss and share a set of methods to make images accessible by means of webmaster tools. Hands-on training will cover adding alternative text, checking a text-colour ratio, using focus, and skipping links. Simple elements can change the invisible world into a colourful, visible reality.

Develop with Docker: Containers for everyone

Presented by Maura Teal in Track 3.

Utilising Docker can be extremely helpful for matching production environments closely, as well as streamlining testing and deployment processes. Maura will go over the basics of setting up a local WordPress development environment using Docker and some of the benefits of containerised development.

Doing it wrong

Presented by Jenny Beaumont in Track 1.

The Internet was the promise of freedom of information, but it never promised the information would be truthful or objective. What was good for you yesterday, isn’t today. Fail fast, fail early, fail often, but filter the imperfections out of your Instagram. Cultivate your intuition, and fear nothing, but how can you be sure that your intuition isn’t a fight-or-flight response? Since the first time she was told she was ‘doing it wrong’, Jenny has been fascinated by the contradictions of ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ that shape how we view the world. Join her as she explores science, history, medicine, yoga, agile and more; and how these ideas affect us as individuals and as members of a rapidly growing community.

REST API

Presented by Micah Wood in Workshop 2.

The WordPress REST API was fully integrated into WordPress core in version 4.7. There is a lot of buzz around the REST API, and just as many questions. Micah will spend the first hour on introductory content, in case you aren’t familiar with it. In the second hour, he will dig into the API with PostMan and cover authentication, CORS, and JSONP. In the last hour, he will focus on how you can utilise the REST API in your own projects and plugins, as well as customising it to fit your needs.

 

Required skill set

This will be a development workshop, and it is desirable for attendees to have at least basic PHP development knowledge.

Technical requirement

Bring a laptop that has Postman installed. A local development environment is optional but recommended.

The big, bad content planning workshop

Presented by Vassilena Valchanova in Workshop 1.

How many types of content do you have in your marketing plan? If the answer is less than 10, there’s still work to do! People often think creating content is a question of creativity, but that’s not true. If you roll up your sleeves and do the work, you can come up with lots of ideas that bring value to your users. Vassilena will review different ways of generating content ideas and building topic groups and content clusters. The workshop will cover both long-form content like blog posts or whitepapers and dynamic, everyday micro-content for social media to compile a robust content distribution plan.

 

Required skill set

Attendees should have basic knowledge of Google Analytics and, prior to the workshop, to have explore Facebook Audience Insights for 15-30 min read   Buyer Persona Tools Template, which is a guide to audience research.

Technical requirement

Bring a laptop, and have a way of taking notes (paper or digital).

WordPress for non-profits: Website best practices, collecting donations, increasing exposure online

Presented by Charles Johnston in Track 2.

Charles will discuss plugins that he finds work well for donation-based model websites, and share ways to create a user experience to increase donations and awareness. Proper theme selection, SEO, and plugins not only enhance the way we tell a nonprofit’s story, but also build brand awareness and in turn create a sense of comfort for the donor that they are supporting a cause which resonates with them. Whether the cause relates to animal welfare, orphans or trafficking, a properly designed site can attract donor dollars and exposure that the organisation might not have otherwise.

Advanced database management for plugins

Presented by John Jacoby in Track 3.

For nearly a decade, developers have been encouraged to use custom post types and taxonomies for all of their needs, and life was good. Good enough, anyway. For the next decade of advanced computing, machine intelligence will require, at the very least, custom database tables. John will break down what a database really is and what WordPress got right and wrong, and share several solutions that plugin developers can use right now to interface with complex custom data structures inside of WordPress.

An introduction to mindfulness practice

Presented by Raffaella Isidori in Wellness at WCEU.

Mindfulness is a state of being, an approach to life (and to our work, regardless of its genre) that calls for presence and awareness, care and purpose. Living mindfully, designing mindfully, coding mindfully can be extremely rewarding, for us and for the beneficiaries of our work.

Mindfulness is defined as the basic human ability to be fully present (aware of where we are and what we’re doing) and not overly reactive (or overwhelmed) by what’s going on around us.

Mindfulness practice refers to the cultivation of this basic human ability through various methods which may include, but are not limited to, colouring, movement, meditation, breathing, etc.

In the 50-minute workshop, Raffaella will illustrate the principles and the applications of Mindfulness and Mindfulness Practice and share her experience and examples of practice.

The art of networking

Presented by Francesca Marano in Track 1.

Networking is a great tool to grow your business. It can help you find new ideas, new customers, new partners, and even a new job if you are looking for a career change. Networking comes naturally to some people but is dreaded by others. It can be hard if you are not an extrovert and it is time consuming. The good news is you can learn how to network! How do you get out of your comfort zone and push yourself to talk to potentially interesting people? How do you measure the return on investment? How do you find a good balance between schmoosing and getting down to business? Let’s find out together!

The promise of structured data and blocks

Presented by Omar Reiss in Track 2.

The web as we know it is a collection of poorly structured documents. We need to rely heavily on context to determine what’s on a page, whether it’s a job, a recipe, or another object. Structured data adds structure to web content and links objects. However, like any metadata, it adds abstraction and overhead that isn’t intuitive for end users. Blocks, as abstract units for organising and composing content, turn out to be an ideal UX in this regard. They give us a way to structure content and derive structured data from it. Omar will explain how we will transform an Internet of pages to an Internet of objects, which unlocks countless possibilities. Let’s look at the future!

Who are the deciders? A governance conversation

Presented by Morten Rand-Hendriksen in WP Cafe.

A frequent question in WordPress conversations is “who makes decisions”. In this WP Cafe, the WordPress Governance Project invites you to take part in a conversation about who you think should make decisions and what WordPress governance could look like. This is your chance to discuss ideas about future WordPress policy, leadership, and governance and how they may impact the community in positive ways. Let’s talk about the future by asking ourselves: “In the future of my design, who are the deciders?

Change your socks, change your mind: A no-fuss primer on change management

Presented by Josepha Haden in Track 1.

Everyone who works with other people – small or large teams in an office or around the world – will need to help their teams through a change someday. If you’ve ever done this, you know that it can be a difficult but rewarding process. If you haven’t done it yet, you might feel paralysed at the thought of ‘doing it right.’ Join Josepha for a brief look at the things that make us resist change, what leaders can do to help others embrace change, and a few things that we’re all prone to forgetting.

For the love of code: Modernising WordPress, plugins, and themes

Presented by Juliette Reinders Folmer in Track 3.

Now that WordPress has committed to a minimum requirement of PHP 7 by the end of 2019, we can all start looking at modernising the code we maintain. Removing hacks to support old versions is easy, but how can code be improved when it just works on PHP 7? Namespaces, generators, Intl are just a few of the features introduced since PHP 5.2, not to mention scalar type declarations and all the other awesomeness that came with PHP 7. But what does it all mean, and how can you take advantage of these goodies? Join Juliette to learn to identify where to make quick fixes, when to look into refactoring, and how to make your code faster, better and more secure by using modern PHP.

It is never too late to find the right career path

Presented by Afsana Multani in WP Cafe.

WordPress wasn’t the first choice in my life. My very first choice was painting. I didn’t even know I will be starting working with WordPress.

For more than six years, I had worked on many profiles and already struggled for finding the right career choice. But coming to WordPress, it feels freedom, support, and space to work on my dream. During my talk, I will be sharing how I settle down with WordPress and how WordPress inspires me to work for oneself as well as for the community. Support and helping people become one of the core objectives of my life. Everything is possible if you are ready for a change – there’s no right time, and proper age to start a new start 🙂 It’s never too late to find a Right career path.

Special characters and where to find them

Presented by Torsten Landsiedel in Track 2.

There are 23 official languages within the European Union and many, if not all, of them have special characters. In German, for example, there are Umlauts (“üöä”) and the “ß”; and in other languages, there are more. Many characters exist in a pre-composed version and as a combination of two characters. Using the two-character version can lead to a broken search, broken spell check, broken transliteration for the slug, and broken images if this happens in a filename in combination with some server configuration and browsers.

Yoga

Presented by Helen Odia in Wellness at WCEU.

Set aside any doubts you might have about not being ‘flexible enough’ or ‘good enough’ for yoga and join Helen for a relaxed class between talks at WCEU.

As many of us know, spending long hours sitting in front of a screen can often lead to bad backs, uncomfortably tight hips and poor postures.

Moving in time with the breath, we’ll gently stretch and twist our way through a flowing sequence of common yoga poses to counteract these niggles.

Don’t be put off if you’ve never tried yoga before – everyone’s welcome, regardless of experience.

Mats will be provided, so all you’ll need to bring is some comfy clothes. Hope to see you on the mat!

Matt on WordPress

Presented by Matt Mullenweg in Track 1, Track 2, Track 3.

Deploying a WordPress web server in minutes

Presented by George Gkouvousis in Workshop 3.

Everyone should be able to turn their virtual private server into a blazing fast WordPress LNMP stack by the end of this talk. George will cover how to set up a complete stack via automated scripts like EasyEngine and analyse all parameters of it, with hands-on experience of using NGINX, PHP7, MySQL/MariaDB, and Redis Cache for a super-fast website.

 

Required skill set

Attendees should understand basic Linux commands, have basic Linux hosting experience, and must be familiar with the use of terminal.

Technical requirement

Bring a laptop. No WordPress-related setup is needed. This workshop will be all about setting up a web server.

How fast-growing agencies win business

Presented by Simon Cooke in Track 3.

Simon tells his story of becoming a salesperson after 20 years as a designer. Now heading up the Commercial team at Pragmatic, one of Europe’s largest WordPress agencies, he reveals how agencies experiencing rapid growth can win business and retain valuable clients. For agencies and freelancers who want a professional approach to sales with a creative touch, Simon shares practical advice on positioning your business, pitching digital solutions, and creating a unique value proposition, with a sprinkle of sales presentation tips to ensure you stand the best chance of success.

Linking together the WordPress Community

Presented by Norbert Mayer-Wittmann in WP Cafe.

Pause. Think. Create.

Presented by Dennis Hodges in Workshop 2.

Spark your creativity in just a few minutes a day! The session begins with an inspirational talk that explains why it’s difficult for us to leave our connected devices alone. Dennis will share anecdotes and stories about disconnecting, as well as ideas on how to adopt these ideas to help you de-stress and enjoy the moment. The second part applies concepts from the talk. Dennis teaches an easy-to-learn and proven non-linear thinking technique designed to draw inspiration from within and help you capture ideas quickly.

 

Required skill set

None needed beyond being curious.

Technical requirements

None.

SEO for content marketing

Presented by Viola Eva in Workshop 1.

Viola will cover how to build a holistic content strategy in this advanced workshop. You are catering to different objectives when creating content: What you want to communicate, what people are looking for, and what Google favours. Through technical analysis, market research and data-driven decisions, you need to create a content strategy that hits the sweet spot between those three objectives. Learn how to achieve sustainable ranking success and increase content ROI when applying the right SEO techniques, and get a practical step-by-step guide to implement an effective SEO strategy on your website.

Required skill set

None needed.

Technical requirement

Bring a laptop that has a free installation of Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Attendees also have the option to trial a premium account on the day of the workshop.

The art of pricing

Presented by Rahul Bansal in Track 1.

Whether you are selling a service or product, setting the right price for a globally diverse customer base is hard. Because WordPress is used by everyone from individuals to billion-dollar corporations, setting the price is even harder. So how do you master the art of pricing? Over 10 years, Rahul performed a number of experiments and learned lessons, sometimes the hard way. He will share his wisdom, the tactics he used, and real-life experience. Yes, all in 10 minutes!

Variable fonts: The future of web design

Presented by Ana Cirujano in Track 2.

Using variable fonts in WordPress, it’s possible for the text of a website to adapt to the context of the user to become more readable and attractive with better performance and without sacrificing upload speed. Variable fonts can change properties, such as width or weight, using just one file! It is expected that variable fonts are fully usable in browsers, and Ana will demonstrate this in WordPress (CSS code), explain the advantages they have compared to standard fonts, and use real examples of how to create and apply variable fonts.

Gutenberg and page builder plugins: Two great tastes that taste great together

Presented by Michele Mizejewski in Track 2.

Michele will explore best practices for using the new core editor (Gutenberg) and a page builder plugin. Leveraging the best of both can be a win for designers who may not have the skillset or desire to build custom blocks. Along the way, we’ll also put to rest some anti-Gutenberg fears.

Renaissance jobs in WordPress: Skills you need to survive the 21st-century career

Presented by Nevena Tomovic in Track 3.

The idea of a single long-lasting career is fast becoming a thing of the past and, according to Dell’s report, 85% of jobs in the year 2030 haven’t been invented yet. WordPress disrupted the publishing industry in 2003, and with Gutenberg is at the forefront of innovation, but what skills are needed for WordPressers to survive the 21st-century career? Nevena will focus on results from world-renowned surveys conducted globally and a survey conducted in the WordPress community. She will attempt to answer questions about ‘renaissance jobs’ we find ourselves in and how to attract new talent through WordPress education.

Understanding what makes a website landing page convert

Presented by Rob Hope in Track 1.

Attention spans are diminishing online, so we need to get to the point with our landing pages. We should start by identifying the user problem, then promote just one solution in an uncluttered and direct manner. This allows the visitor to make a quick decision, rather than sending them to a bloated website with many options. Rob covers the essential things to include on your landing page while encouraging a minimalistic design approach.

100 Days of What? Why you should learn how to code, even though you don’t fancy a coding career

Presented by Monique Dubbelman in Track 3.

This year I took the challenge of #100DaysOfCode. But why? Am I new to code? Do I need to learn code as a designer in the first place? And what does it behold? Is it a fixed format?
In this talk, I’ll explain what #100DaysOfCode is an why I took the challenge. I also challenge you to join when you work with WordPress, even though you don’t fancy a career as a frontend or backend developer.

Designing your first Gutenberg block

Presented by Mel Choyce in Track 2.

Sometimes the hardest part of a new project is just getting started. In this new Gutenberg-powered world, what does it mean to design a block? Where do I put my shortcode attributes? What’s this toolbar? Mel will show you examples of blocks she designed and go over the basic anatomy of a Gutenberg block. You’ll learn how a block is structured, where to put your settings, and user experience tips to ensure your users or customers are set up for success. No prior design experience is required, and developers are encouraged to attend!

Semantic content in a block editing world

Presented by Joe McGill in Track 1.

The Gutenberg block editor gives us new and exciting possibilities to create visually rich content in WordPress using block-based authoring tools. But what if we don’t know how our content is going to be displayed? Joe will take a look at what happens when we make assumptions about the visual presentation of our content, based on the tools we use to create that content. He will explore the advantages and tradeoffs that come from keeping the structure of your content distinct from the presentation of that content, and look at examples of how we can maintain this separation while providing compelling visual authoring experiences for people using our custom authoring tools.

Moving to WordPress: Evolving businesses into successful stories

Presented by Alessandro Kaounas in WP Cafe.

Let’s see how WordPress helped ErgoScan — a sports science lab — offer better services to athletes and runners who wanted to improve their performance and how it helped the owner to keep everything up to date and run smoothly its business.

Accessible content

Presented by Maja Benke in Track 2.

Writing and creating content for people to enjoy your content is the intention, but is this content accessible for everyone? What should you consider before pressing the publish button? Maja will explain what accessible content means and how to create content that everyone can access, including best practices for text, links, video, images, and structure. She will also share insights on how Gutenberg supports creating accessible content.

Business planning: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Presented by Radost Dacheva in Workshop 2.

The WordPress ecosystem is a tough place to be and only those prepared for competition will survive. Movies show us how ideas sketched on a restaurant napkin magically turn into flourishing business ventures, but reality proves this is impossible 99.9% of the time. Having a seemingly innovative idea and a strong desire for success are simply not enough to differentiate your business from all others competing for a slice of the pie. Entrepreneurs need to master the art and science of business planning and analysis to ensure a long and prosperous life and future.

Creating a Gutenberg block

Presented by Elio Rivero in Workshop 3.

Gutenberg is making waves in the WordPress community and changing how we compose content forever. What essential new stuff does Gutenberg bring to content authoring? Elio will focus on the block, the brick used to build content, and show you how to build a Gutenberg block from scratch to offer everyone an easy and predictable way to compose content.

 

Required skill set

Attendees should be familiar with WordPress plugin development, but need not be experts, and familiar with terms such as hooks, filters and enqueuing scripts. No previous experience with creating Gutenberg blocks is necessary.

Technical requirements

Bring a laptop with a setup appropriate for development of WordPress plugins. It’s better if this setup is local. Please note that *we will need network connection* whenever we run npm to download JS packages necessary for compiling the Gutenberg blocks created.

Setup for plugin development includes:

  • a local server such as Apache
  • a database manager such as MySQL
  • a local WP 5.1 installation with its corresponding database

Setup for Gutenberg block creation includes:

  • Latest Node.js 10.x. Gutenberg recommends the active LTS version that is currently  one–see https://nodejs.org/en/about/releases.
  • Latest version of npm

Growing your WordPress site organic search traffic in a mobile-first world: How to evolve your SEO for a mobile-first audience and Google’s mobile-first index

Presented by Aleyda Solís in Track 1.

From discovering potential mobile queries to target and optimising your mobile website configuration to tracking mobile search results, learn the SEO steps, criteria and tools to ensure that your site is optimised for Google’s mobile-first index and evolve your SEO process to connect with a mobile-first search audience,

Live website reviews

Presented by Michiel Heijmans in Workshop 1.

Don’t you love the interaction that comes from judging each other’s sites? In this interactive workshop, Michiel and the Yoast team bring their years of experience reviewing websites and dive into yours to come up with practical tips and direct improvements you can use. Exploring SEO, UX and site structure, and the basis of all website optimisation: What is the goal of your website? How does that align with what your customers are looking for? Interaction is key. Everyone has an opinion, but which ones work? Give them 90 minutes, and they’ll tell you everything.

 

Required skill set

None needed.

Technical requirements

Bring a laptop or a tablet with Internet access.

Panel: User onboarding and retention. What can we learn from site builders?

Presented in Track 3.

When: Friday 21 June at 17:00 in Track 3

Recent studies show that 63% of marketers say they focus their strategies on customer acquisition and not retention. We all know that retaining customers is much cheaper than buying them.

Building a great UX is one of the most important factors to improve the core of your business, as well as reduce barriers to entry in your website and a better understanding of your customer in order to build a community around your business.

What can we learn from site builders and how can they help us? Come to this discussion panel moderated by Miriam Schwab and listen to great professionals of the WordPress community who will give us their point of view, don’t miss it!

Hosted by Miriam Schwab

Our panelists:

Investing in the WordPress Community

Presented by Mike Demo in WP Cafe.

Customer support: Turning your nightmare into a growth engine

Presented by Valentina Thörner in Track 2.

“Oh no! Not another one!” If this is your gut reaction to incoming support requests for your product, service or plugin, Valentina will guide you from terror in the face of unreasonable customers to a state of bliss from the critically important information they share with you. Instead of hypnosis and therapy, she will give a framework to engage with your customers, explaining when and where it makes sense and putting boundaries and resources in place that allow you to offer excellent service when it matters most, without putting you at risk of burnout.

How better performing websites can help save the planet

Presented by Jack Lenox in Track 1.

The web has a dirty secret — its carbon footprint is larger than that of global air travel. The immense energy consumed by the Internet from non-renewable sources makes it the largest coal-fired machine on earth. Mozilla’s 2018 Internet Health Report highlighted this growing problem and stated that sustainability should be a bigger priority for the industry. Jack will provide practical steps to reduce the environmental impact of our work and promote a better future.

How to build a lean SaaS startup with WordPress Multisite

Presented by Sabrina Zeidan in Workshop 2.

What comes to your mind when you think about requirements for a successful SaaS app? It’s easy to build, it’s flexible, it’s scalable, right? But even more important is it’s lean, which means it is continually being improved according to what the audience needs. Sabrina will go over the process of planning such a startup, step by step — how to validate the idea for the market, define your target audience, make marketing personas, pick a pricing model, plan your application structure, create an SEO-friendly content strategy, and end up with a ready-to-go development plan. Plus learn how to pick the most appropriate tools to build a lean SaaS startup with WordPress Multisite.

How to create a UTM tag protocol

Presented by Annelieke van den Berg in Workshop 3.

Measuring your marketing efforts and knowing how they perform is essential if you want to optimise your marketing even further. You can customise how Google Analytics tracks your traffic data by using UTM tags and, with these parameters, determine exactly how visitors end up on your site. To achieve this, you need to create a sustainable UTM protocol to use to properly analyse your data. So how do you do this? Annelieke will walk you through the process of developing a good UTM protocol for your business.

Technical requirement
For this workshop you need to have a Google Analytics account. Creating UTM tags is only useful for you if you do some form of marketing, like email, social media, promotion in PDFs. Or if you have a plugin that contains links to your site. Bring your laptop.

Required skill set
Basic understanding of Google Analytics is recommended but not necessary for this workshop. Motivation to work with Google Analytics comes in handy 😉

Maintainable CSS architecture in the Gutenberg era

Presented by Sami Keijonen in Track 3.

Writing maintainable and scalable CSS is one of the biggest aspects of front-end work. Sami will show how CSS methodologies such as ITCSS and BEM can help achieve that and, at the same time, maximise the WYSIWYG experience in Gutenberg editor without rewriting the CSS that much.

SEO copywriting

Presented by Jesse van de Hulsbeek in Workshop 1.

Want people to read your content? It all starts with well-written and engaging copy and, of course, it helps if your text is optimised for search engines. In this workshop, the Yoast Academy team will help you write text that’s irresistible to visitors and search engines alike. Jesse takes you through the process of writing a blog post, from brainstorming an idea and a focus keyword to the first draft of your text. You’ll get tons of useful and practical tips you can start using on your website right away. Bring your pen or your laptop and start writing!

 

Required skill set

Learning materials will be available for different skill levels, whether attendees are beginners trying to get to grips with how to set up an article or more experienced writers trying to refine  tone of voice or SEO aspects of writing.

Technical requirements

None.

Get things done! 7 Tips to save time

Presented by Judith Schröer in Track 2.

Today we are busier than ever, our to-do-lists are growing, everything struggles for our attention and everything is, of course, super important (what else?!). There are many time management methods, and time is a critical factor, and you know that. You look at your to-do list and have the choice of either working a late shift or continuing the list tomorrow. It’s time to change that.

Leveraging the power of custom elements in Gutenberg

Presented by Felix Arntz in Track 3.

If you have worked with JavaScript over the years, chances are you used a mechanism to define reusable components that are rendered and can be interacted with in an encapsulated manner, for example in React or Vue. Web Components is a set of features that introduces similar mechanisms natively to the browser. Having a standard layer for these so-called leaf components aids interoperability. Imagine a future where you can reuse a leaf component you wrote for a simple native JS application in a React application or vice versa. Felix will teach you how to leverage Web Components by example, such as usage by the AMP framework or within Gutenberg blocks.

Sell WordPress without talking WordPress

Presented by Robert Jacobi in WP Cafe.

With WordPress becoming more ubiquitous how can agencies and developers get out of the “everyone does WordPress” rut. Focus on how to find the right partnerships and tools to take advantage of what you do best.

The power of free

Presented by Brian Teeman in Track 1.

In the last 20 years, using free or open-source software has transformed from being nerdy to being evil to being trendy, and finally to being the norm. What led to this change? Have we lost the values of free and open-source software along the way?

Yoga

Presented by Helen Odia in Wellness at WCEU.

Set aside any doubts you might have about not being ‘flexible enough’ or ‘good enough’ for yoga and join Helen for a relaxed class between talks at WCEU.

As many of us know, spending long hours sitting in front of a screen can often lead to bad backs, uncomfortably tight hips and poor postures.

Moving in time with the breath, we’ll gently stretch and twist our way through a flowing sequence of common yoga poses to counteract these niggles.

Don’t be put off if you’ve never tried yoga before – everyone’s welcome, regardless of experience.

Mats will be provided, so all you’ll need to bring is some comfy clothes. Hope to see you on the mat!

Sharing is caring session: Development tools, tips & tricks

Presented by Alex Bordei in WP Cafe.

Let’s talk about our working and development environments. I will personally show you my development tips & tricks and IDE optimizations, and please feel free to join us and share with us what specialities are you using in order to optimize and make your workplace fancy.

Even if you liked and used a nice PM tool, a testing one, a development one or any organising principle, this will be really well welcomed.

Catch the big fish

Presented by Shane Pearlman in Track 2.

The two most common questions I get about running an agency / freelancing successfully are what to charge and how to land large 6 figure+ projects. If you are ready to step up your business, this will be worth your time. I’ll walk you through the fundamentals of enterprise sales and what changes in lead generation, negotiation, procurement & contracts and the execution of large contracts. I’ll teach you how to land the big fish, and even more important, how to navigate it gracefully after you win.

Find that bug you made months ago with Git Bisect

Presented by David Needham in Track 3.

You made a mistake months ago, and a part of the site is broken. No one noticed at first, but now the client is upset, so you need to fix it…and fast! But where in the code was this bug introduced? What if David told you there’s a tool hidden within Git to quickly find when a bug was committed and then fix it? Git Bisect allows you to comb through dozens of commits at once and find the culprit in seconds, even when you don’t know when it happened or what file was edited. Once you understand the basics, David will take it a step further with automation.

How Gutenberg changed the way we sell WordPress sites

Presented by Kåre Steffensen in Track 1.

In early 2018, Peytz & Co started using Gutenberg to power a boilerplate theme on which they built custom websites. Kåre will talk about how Gutenberg helped better align sale pitch and client understanding of what is actually developed in a modular approach when looking at functionality and content, on a website that is bound to change over time.

Democratising education

Presented by Ronnie Burt in Track 2.

It is no surprise that WordPress is used in various ways in schools and universities worldwide, but current trends and data show that proprietary and closed learning management systems reign supreme. Ronnie will explain why data ownership and portability is so critical, what plugin developers and site owners should be aware of, and how WordPress could and should play an integral role in the future of education.

Why I walked more than 700km to Berlin, and survived

Presented by Marcel Bootsman in Track 1.

Marcel walked more than 700 kilometers to get to WordCamp Europe to raise funds for a good cause in the WordPress community. He will tell you about his preparation, the journey itself, people he met, and how he managed to step away from his company for a month to do it.

WordPress through the bad guys’ glasses

Presented by Vladimír Smitka in Track 3.

You usually notice design and content when you visit a website, but what do attackers see? They spot misconfigurations, forgotten endpoints, out-of-date components, emails and other sensitive information. Vladimír will give a 10-minute preview of common but not often-mentioned mistakes he saw during security scans of WordPress sites, specifically: Username and email leaking, full path disclosures, accessible backups, open .git repositories and DoS capable endpoints. He will also provide tips on how to reduce risks, where it is worth restricting access, how to enable Bcrypt password hashing and 2FA, and what configuration directives you need to check.

Copywriting tricks, techniques, and CTAs for bloggers and marketers to improve conversion rates

Presented by Fernando Tellado in Track 2.

There is no perfect text to attract everyone, but writing techniques, neurolinguistics, and legibility can be used to get the maximum result from content on our website or blog. Fernando will teach you how to write for SEO, readability and mobile devices, optimising for sharing and virality across social networks and content curation services. Starting with imperfect text, he will improve it step by step until it transforms into a practically perfect piece of content for conversion and call to action (CTA).

Guided meditation

Presented by Jenny Beaumont in Wellness at WCEU.

Join Jenny for an inner journey that will take you to places both familiar and new!

Beginners are welcome, no prior knowledge of meditation is needed to enjoy and reap the benefits of this unique experience. Come as you are, ready to be guided through diverse landscapes that will transport you in space and time.

Please be punctual. The session starts at 12:00 and after a brief introduction, the guided meditation will begin promptly at 12:15.

If you have any questions, you can contact Jenny on the Make WordPress Slack @jennybeaumont.

On multilingual WordPress sites

Presented by Pascal Birchler in Track 1.

To democratise publishing, internationalisation is one of many barriers that WordPress needs to overcome. That’s why, for 2020 and beyond, the goal is to find an official way to build multilingual websites. Until now, this was considered to be plugin territory, but what is needed to make WordPress a true polyglot? Pascal will cover the status quo of multilingual WordPress websites and share ideas — both from a technical and a user’s perspective — on how WordPress could evolve in this area over the next few years.

Using blocks outside the editor

Presented by Tom Nowell in Track 3.

Blocks aren’t just for editing posts and pages. Tom will build a block, then show you how to put it in other places, such as a settings page or even on the front-end. Why should posts get all the attention?

Why you should go to a silent meditation retreat

Presented by Aslam Multani in WP Cafe.

An introduction to mindfulness practice

Presented by Raffaella Isidori in Wellness at WCEU.

Mindfulness is a state of being, an approach to life (and to our work, regardless of its genre) that calls for presence and awareness, care and purpose. Living mindfully, designing mindfully, coding mindfully can be extremely rewarding, for us and for the beneficiaries of our work.

Mindfulness is defined as the basic human ability to be fully present (aware of where we are and what we’re doing) and not overly reactive (or overwhelmed) by what’s going on around us.

Mindfulness practice refers to the cultivation of this basic human ability through various methods which may include, but are not limited to, colouring, movement, meditation, breathing, etc.

In the 50-minute workshop, Raffaella will illustrate the principles and the applications of Mindfulness and Mindfulness Practice and share her experience and examples of practice.

Automating your QA with visual regression testing

Presented by Andrew Taylor in Workshop 2.

After deploying code, most of us go look at the homepage and other templates to make sure things are okay. It’s a cumbersome task that, let’s be honest, we probably can do more thoroughly. Andrew looks at using visual regression testing to automate this process, letting tools do the work!

 

Required skill set

To get the most out of this workshop, attendees should be comfortable editing Node.js (JavaScript) files and running commands in the terminal (command line).

Technical requirements

To follow examples in this workshop, attendees need to have a computer with Node.js (https://nodejs.org) installed, a code editor, a Git client (command-line or UI), Google Chrome, and a WordPress site with two environments (e.g., production and staging or production and local).

Core-Privacy

Presented by Heather Burns in WP Cafe.

How is WordPress making privacy better across the web? Come and meet the Core-Privacy team, learn about what we’ll be working on for the next year, learn how to get involved, and bring your tricky privacy questions.

Do it yourself: The user testing toolbox

Presented by Karin Christen in Workshop 1.

Never dismiss user testing due to limited resources because user testing need not be complicated or expensive. Instead, test your work at frequent intervals and with the tools you have at hand. Based on real-life experience working on different projects and applying design methods across a wide variety of setups and budgets, there’s a solution. Whether the test is done in house in a quiet environment or on the go with a lot of distractions, Karin has you covered with recommended tools and a step-by-step process.

 

Required skill set

None needed.

Technical requirements

Bring at least one device, either a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

Panel: Growing beyond Gutenberg. From block-based editing to site administration

Presented in Track 3.

When: Saturday 22 June at 14:00 in Track 3

WordPress success is the success of our community, and currently WordPress is going beyond its own barriers and limits. The Gutenberg project is transforming WordPress into an even more powerful editing tool that will change our idea of modern day web editors.

Whether you are familiar Gutenberg or not, this discussion panel moderated by Hannah Smith will let you know the different phases of the project and you’ll find out first hand from the experts the latest Gutenberg news and updates. Join us to find our more!

Hosted by Hannah Smith

Our panelists:

Reduce, reuse, and recycle – 7 ways to repurpose content and maximise your efforts

Presented by Yvette Sonneveld in Track 2.

Creating content that helps people know, like, and trust our business can be incredibly time-consuming. Millions of pieces of fresh content are published each day. How will you support visitors, prospects, and clients in their buyer and user journeys? Yvette will share two strategies and seven techniques that do exactly that. You’ll discover how you can take customer feedback and content with proven value and repurpose it again and again, without sounding like a broken record, because you’re offering the right content in the right format at the right time.

Travelling the web on the WordPress HTTP API

Presented by Jonathan Bossenger in Workshop 3.

As more and more third-party services (Mailchimp, Stripe, etc.) become required for our websites and for our client websites, the WordPress HTTP API has become an important tool in any developer kit. Knowing how to use the HTTP API methods to send and receive data to and from these third-party services will help you stand out from the crowd. Jonathan will teach you how to use the HTTP API to build a straightforward WordPress subscription plugin that will hook into the Mailchimp API.

 

Required skill set

A basic understanding of web development (HTML/CSS and PHP) would be useful. Working knowledge of HTML forms would also be useful. The workshop is aimed at beginners or those who’ve never used the WordPress HTTP API before.

Technical requirements

Bring a laptop with a working local WordPress.org install  and a code editor. Attendeesalso need to install Postman for testing API endpoints https://www.getpostman.com/. And it would be ideal if they have already signed up for a free Mailchimp account.

Working a world apart: Navigating remote working professional relationships

Presented by Dee Teal in Track 1.

In this global workplace, teams often only have rare occasions to meet in person. How do you make genuine connections when your only practical connection is via WiFi? How do you build trust when you are ships that pass in the night? How do you best communicate when things get tense and you need to translate intent from text and/or video communication? When your team comes from different cultures, how can you find yourselves on the same page with the fewest ‘lost in translation’ moments? Dee and Petya are from opposite ends of the globe and believe their story can help others better work together, apart.

Bringing people to WordCamps

Presented by Ines van Essen in Track 3.

Ines will explain how DonateWC was born and how the foundation aims to diversify the speaker pool for WordCamps. She will tell her personal story of being a single mom, starting out in the WordPress world without a penny to her name, the effort it took to save up and attend the Community Summit, and changing her life. DonateWC will bring more voices to the WordPress community by levelling the financial playing field, and this benefits us all in the long run.

How to engage your online audience: Lessons from the field of education

Presented by Jesse van de Hulsbeek, Marieke van de Rakt in Track 1.

Whether people are browsing your website, reading your content, or using your product, you have one vital and universal requirement to fulfil as a creator: Anything you present to your audience should be clear and understandable. Surprisingly and often, this proves to be a tough challenge. Users are overwhelmed by design, shy away from difficult copy, and become frustrated with features that aren’t intuitive. Marieke and Jesse explore learning and information processing theory and practices, so you can bridge the gap between you and your users. You’ll get lots of practical tips you can apply immediately.

More aim, less blame: How to use postmortems to turn failures into something valuable for your team

Presented by Daniel Kanchev in Track 2.

Mistakes and failure are inevitable. Instead of being afraid of them, we should use them as lessons that help identify weak points in our organisations and systems. One way to do this is by writing blameless postmortems. Daniel details exactly how postmortems can help organisations and teams focus on improvement, and how that boosts work morale, makes products better, and strengthens your relationship with customers.

Representing WordPress in the political arena

Presented by Morten Rand-Hendriksen in WP Cafe.

Governments all around the world are making decisions directly impacting WordPress itself, the WordPress community, and anyone working or interacting with the web and the internet. With the power of +30% of the web comes great responsibility as they say. WordPress can be a voice for the open web and those who rely on it for their communication, their communities, their organizations and businesses. The question is how we can speak on behalf of WordPress at the tables of power, and what it means to “speak on behalf of WordPress.” Bring your experiences, ideas, and questions, and let’s have a conversation about how to move the web and web policy forward with WordPress together.

Designing in the open, remotely

Presented by Mark Uraine in Track 3.

Designing for open source is all about designing in the open. Mark will talk about sharing your work and progress from remote locations in public channels through the course of a design project, explaining how this works, where to start, and why it’s good practice for all designers. He will also discuss how you can give back to the WordPress community through design contributions to Core and WordPress.org. Designing in the open is good. Designing remotely is awesome!

From WordPress to blockchain: The future is 100% open source

Presented by Sebastiaan van der Lans in Track 1.

What if businesses, planet earth, and the galaxy operated with the friendliness and openness of the WordPress community? We conquered the CMS market, why not take over everything else? In this 30-minute talk and Q&A, Sebastiaan will take you on a journey to a 100% open-source world! How open source and, specifically, the WordPress community can protect against the misuse of data, unfair distribution of wealth, and censorship from closed-source monopolies such as Facebook, Uber, and AirBnB. Also included is a sneak peak at a WordPress agency and WordPress freelancer in 2030. Spoiler: It will be cool, fair, and inclusive.

Progressive WordPress

Presented by Pascal Birchler in WP Cafe.

A progressive web ecosystem encompasses the development of user-first web experiences using modern web platform capabilities and best practices. In this session we’ll discuss the role of WordPress in such an ecosystem and how we can help advance WordPress in it.

What got you here won’t get you there – moving from developer to WordPress business owner

Presented by Kevin Stover in Track 2.

Kevin had no clue what he was doing when he wrote the code that would become Ninja Forms six years ago, and not just as a developer. He didn’t know that the plugin would go on to be installed on millions of sites and become a sustainable business. He didn’t know the changes he’d need to go through to become a good business owner. Early on, his partner handled everything related to running the business and Kevin felt like the lesser part of a 50-50 partnership. Now Kevin is involved in all aspects of the business and will talk about the transition from developer to business owner.