{"id":1679,"date":"2015-06-09T14:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T19:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/?p=1679"},"modified":"2015-06-09T10:15:27","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T15:15:27","slug":"speaker-spotlight-mary-baum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-mary-baum\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Spotlight: Mary Baum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/speaker\/mary-baum\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1680\" src=\"https:\/\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Mary-Baum-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Mary Baum\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/files\/2015\/06\/Mary-Baum-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/files\/2015\/06\/Mary-Baum-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/files\/2015\/06\/Mary-Baum.jpeg 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>We&#8217;re happy to introduce Mary Baum to our WordCamp Kansas City attendees. She got her start\u00a0in print media and marketing, so we asked her to give a little more insight into how she got where she is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: How did you get started in your current field?<\/strong><br \/>\nA:\u00a0<span>I&#8217;m trained as a print designer and worked as a combination art director and copywriter in advertising, in the 80s.\u00a0In the 90s I worked with Maritz &#8211; still all in print, but growing my chops in digital design and production.I started doing sites in 1998, but did them in GoLive (wrong!) until 2007. That was when the Adobe Creative Suite switched to Dreamweaver, and I took that as a sign it was time to learn real html\/CSS.<\/p>\n<p>I was 47, and the first site I wrote that way was frontenactennis.com (Shocker!)<\/p>\n<p>Once I had static sites down, I recognized I needed to offer more functionality &#8211; and flirted with Business Catalyst for a couple of years. Meanwhile, I was aware that I needed to start being able to design WP sites.\u00a0I started my first few in summer 2010 (the year I turned 50, btw.)\u00a0After a few CSS struggles and the realization I needed to learn php, I was done with Business Catalyst and committed to WP exclusively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In 2012, the last site I converted to WP was frontenactennis.com.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Describe your \u2018ah ha\u2019 moment about WordPress?<br \/>\n<\/strong>A: There have been several:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>The first was opening a second Genesis child theme and seeing its CSS was organized exactly as the first I&#8217;d opened was.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Another was answering a tweet with a joke that was a made-up php function about Keurigs.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Still others have happened every time I realize I just might have the hang of this hooks thing.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>And then there have been all the times I&#8217;ve thought, &#8220;I&#8217;m a themer.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?<\/strong><br \/>\nA:\u00a0<span>Skip BC. Learn php already.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.<\/strong><br \/>\nA:\u00a0<span>Designing for conversion: The design decisions we make absolutely affect conversion. They tell a person this site is for them, or no, it&#8217;s not, with a million elements that combine to make one impression.\u00a0But it&#8217;s copy that will seal the deal &#8211; especially such seemingly trivial copy as UI copy &#8211; the words on links, buttons and more.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?<\/strong><br \/>\nA:<span>Designing for conversion: intermediate designer, beginning developer, marketing junkie.<br \/>\nMobile-first: intermediate designer, intermediate developer, advanced analytics junkie. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>This post is part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/spotlight\/\" target=\"_blank\">multi-day series<\/a> featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015.\u00a0Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re happy to introduce Mary Baum to our WordCamp Kansas City attendees. She got her start\u00a0in print media and marketing, so we asked her to give a little more insight into how she got where she is. Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0I&#8217;m trained as a print designer and worked &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-mary-baum\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Speaker Spotlight: Mary Baum<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10573955,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,8335],"tags":[491539,27085,471983,14],"class_list":["post-1679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speakers","category-spotlight","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-kansas-city","tag-mary-baum","tag-wordpress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UiQo-r5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1637,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-brian-bookwalter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":0},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Brian Bookwalter","author":"Josepha","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A long time supporter of WordPress Kansas City, Brian will be joining us to talk about bit about page builders. We know you've got questions, so we learned a little more about him below! Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0I worked as a print graphic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brian Bookwalter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Brian-Bookwalter-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1563,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-kim-beasley\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":1},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Kim Beasley","author":"Josepha","date":"June 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Our own Kim Beasley will be joining the Kansas City WordCamp speaker list for the first time. She'll be brining some knowledge for beginning to intermediate site creators, so we wanted to know\u00a0a little more about her! Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0I've been developing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kim Beasley","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Kim-Beasley-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-marianne-worthington\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":2},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Marianne Worthington","author":"Josepha","date":"June 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0We welcome Marianne to WordCamp Kansas City to share tips on building your team. She has a lot of experience and she was kind enough to share with us a little more about her history here! Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0I spent 10 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marianne Worthington","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Marianne-Worthington-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1560,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-andy-brudtkuhl\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":3},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Andy Brudtkuhl","author":"Josepha","date":"June 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Andy is a web developer from Des Moines, Iowa who came to WordPress after a lot of other work. He gave us a little insight into his work so that you could get to know him better! Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0I started my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Andy Brudtkuhl","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/06\/Andy-Brudtkuhl-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-rebecca-haden\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":4},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Rebecca Haden","author":"Josepha","date":"May 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Rebecca Haden will be joining us again this year to talk about SEO, content, and collaborating in a distributed\u00a0company using WordPress. We asked her a few questions about her work and her presentation so that you could get to know her better! Q: How did you get started in your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rebecca Haden","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/05\/WCKC-Rebecca-Haden-e1431921328304.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":959,"url":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/speaker-spotlight-eric-huber\/","url_meta":{"origin":1679,"position":5},"title":"Speaker Spotlight: Eric Huber","author":"Josepha","date":"May 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Eric Huber\u00a0is a\u00a0teacher at heart and a regular presenter for tech conferences in Northwest Arkansas. We talked to Eric about his background in design and how he started working with WordPress. Q: How did you get started in your current field? A:\u00a0In 1997, I attended a design conference in Little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/category\/wordcamp-kc-news\/speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eric Huber","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2015.kansascity.wordcamp.org\/files\/2015\/05\/WCKC-Eric-Huber.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10573955"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1681,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kansascity.wordcamp.org\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}