Presented by Beth McKeon in Sprint Accelerator.

The way that people spend their money has changed. Our marketing should change, too. Instead of blasting messages at customers, we should invite them to engage with us in conversation. This is where inbound marketing plays a part. Learn about inbound marketing strategies, content creation, and some great apps that have WordPress plugins to help get your content out there. This applies whether you are B2C or B2B, because we are all really P2P.

Presented in Town Square.

Presented by Breht Burri in Brush Creek.

We will walk through a list of tips and techniques tailored for podcasters and podcasts including search engine optimization for podcasters, content marketing, long form content for seo, video and audio all tailored to the needs of an Audio or Video Podcaster’s WordPress Website.

Presented by Rob Walch in Brush Creek.

This session will go over why Podcasters should podcast. How to best add a podcast your wordpress site.
How iTunes works – why it is so important and how to optimize for it.
Plus an overview of other places to submit your podcast like Google Play Music and Stitcher.
And of course a Q&A for the Audience.

Presented by Mary White in Brush Creek.

Images are easy to add to a WordPress website, but if you add a lot of image to your website you can be slowing down your website.

• Why you should optimize image
• How to optimize images
• Programs to use
• Plugins that help
• Ways to determine what size an image should be

Presented by Andrea Zoellner in Brush Creek.

Revamping the design of a website can be a fun and exciting project. Hopefully, the result is a prettier and more user-friendly site. But don’t forget about content! It’s easy to be consumed by theme design and features while overlooking the impact of a content review on the success of your website redesign.

I’ll share best practices for good website content, audits, and page rewrites while handling the challenges of simultaneous design and text overhauls.

This talk is aimed at webmasters, small business owners, web developers, or anyone interested in tips for effective copywriting, information hierarchy, and project management.

Presented by Michele Butcher in Brush Creek.

Jetpack is WordPress’s most popular plugin but most do not know everything it can do. We will dive in and take a look at all the features Jetpack has to offer and even debunk some of the myths.

Presented by Dave Navarro Jr. in Brookside.

Using the REST API to communicate from one web site to another for sharing data. In this discussion, I’ll demonstrate how to use a central web site to push posts to one or more other web sites when published on the “HUB” site.

Presented by Kevin Killingsworth in Brookside.

Have you been hearing about the WordPress REST API? It’s an exciting way for plugins and standalone apps to utilize the power of WordPress and extend its functionality. This talk not only shows you the API and what is needed to make use of it, but will also bring you through example code you can use to bring the power of the REST API to your own plugins using simple jQuery AJAX calls.

• Slides

Presented by Frankie Jarrett in Brookside.

In this session we will explore what it takes to create your very own custom commands for WP-CLI: the WordPress command line interface. Whether you’re a plugin developer wanting to incorporate custom commands into your product, or just a developer who uses WP-CLI in your workflow, learning about how commands are made just might inspire you to build something amazing!

Presented by Scott Schaper in Brookside.

With nearly 150 WordPress installs, representing 90% of Unravel clients, our team is mastering the Art of the Process. By standardizing EVERY phase of digital delivery, Unravel can easily manage another 100 installs. Unravel goes live with a new domain every 6 business days. From selling to contract creation, project management to install, plugins, licensing, theming, design, and content ideation — everything that can be “process-ized” or automated – is. From client engagement, to DNS changes to going live, nothing is left to chance.

Add to that client training, support and finally attrition. The entire life cycle is processed out. Clients can leave any time for 100 different reasons. If you can make sure you aid in a speedy exit transition, THAT makes a really great selling point. We have automated our client-exits to a few clicks.

WordPress has unique challenges regarding security, hosting, core updates, licensing changes, paid plugins, plugin updates, backups, uptime, page speed and disaster recovery. With browser differences and changing design landscape (mobile)…repeating that process well over and over is daunting and to do it right requires forethought and process.

During my talk I will live demonstrate my 10-second WordPress Install which includes all plugins, themes, licenses and accounts putting us in design-phase in moments. Also during my demo, I will live-cripple our corporate website bringing it down in front of the audience and show the notification process that happens within seconds, then live demo our restoration process. No scary phone calls, no pit-the-stomach, no domain forensics, no FTP. Just a few clicks on my iPad and the site is up. All before the client is aware ANYTHING happened.

This talk will show what is possible from a WordPress Management process standpoint…and will encourage all businesses representing the stability of WordPress to tackle their most challenging issues by creating processes to manage those challenges.

Presented by Tabytha Rourke, Erin Thompson in Brookside.

Custom post types simplify the process of adding and managing content in WordPress. In this talk, we will show you what they are, what you can use them for, and how to integrate them into your WordPress themes.

Presented by Jason Yingling in Brookside.

This topic will cover tips and tools for getting better at WordPress development. I’ll cover the following:

– Organizing and planning development projects
– Tools to improve workflow and where to learn them (Git and Grunt)
– Understanding the WordPress Coding Standards
– Breaking down the WordPress template hierarchy
– Sanitizing data for use in WordPress themes
– Helpful plugins for WordPress development: Advanced Custom Fields

Presented by Andrea Kirsch in Town Square.

In a business where content is king, it can be difficult to direct your business’ audience towards what they should be seeing on your social media platforms and website. That’s where the art of email marketing comes in. Andrea Kirsch, CEO and co-founder of local digital marketing and web development agency MAKE Digital Group, will share her approach to harnessing the power of the email list to direct followers to where you want them and how SEO optimization can play a big part of finding success in today’s digital marketing world.

• Slides

Presented by Nicholas Liddeke in Town Square.

Doing a site redesign on a tight budget? New to WordPress and looking for a shortcut to a polished, professional site?

Look no further than Divi. This theme gives developers the tools and ease-of-use to create stunning webpages without advanced knowledge. Learn how UMKC Online brought their department website up-to-date in record time using the premium Divi theme from Elegant Themes.

Presented by Meredith Lowry in Town Square.

Social media and influencer marketing are great at reaching customers, but there are marketing pitfalls if you aren’t aware of the regulations from the Federal Trade Commission. Meredith Lowry gives an overview of the dos and donts of social media and influencer marketing.

Presented by Kristin Falkner in Town Square.

If you work with clients, (hopefully) you know that having a contract in place is a must! I’ll walk through the important elements of any contract and special considerations that you may want to factor in if the project involves WordPress. This talk will ideally be useful whether you are a beginner putting together your first contract or you have an established contract where there may be something worth amending your contract to include.

Presented by Brian M. Hilliard in Town Square.

Congratulations! You started a business doing what you love…

And you picked up some clients along the way! The only problem is, this “sales” thing can be a little tricky.

On one hand you’re a super nice person who wants to help others succeed.

But at the same time, as a Developer, Designer or WordPress Professional, you realize you can’t keep doing that unless you get new business, and are fairly compensated for your work.

So the question becomes: How can you get more clients and be paid what you’re worth, while still being nice and helping tons of people?

During this fast-paced, business building workshop, Author Brian Hilliard shows participants:

• How to get more business through an easy going, easy to follow, Consultative Sales approach,
• How to be nice and still get paid what you’re worth,
• How to ask for the business without feeling pushy or over the top.

Presented by Marianne Worthington in Town Square.

Q: What do you do?
A: I’m an expert.

You have to be an expert in your field. If you aren’t you will fail. But by expert I don’t mean an expert in WordPress. Instead I mean an expert in your client’s field. There are a billion WordPress people. What will separate you from the rest is finding a niche market and going after it with everything you have. The narrower the market, the better.

This is counter intuitive to startups in the service industry. By the end of this session participants will know how to start finding their niche, questions they need to be able to answer in order to better serve their market, how to create multiple revenue streams within this market, and have the the courage to say no to that which doesn’t serve their business.

Presented by Andrew Taylor in Brookside.

With all the buzz around the REST API maybe it’s been awhile since you took a look at WordPress core’s JavaScript-driven single page application (SPA), the Customizer.

In this talk we will explore how to use the Customizer to improve the user experience for theme and plugin settings.

Presented by Ethan Clevenger in Brookside.

Google likes fast sites. You like fast sites. Your users, your clients and their users like fast sites. One of the biggest hindrances to site speed is having too many requests on your page. This talk looks at not only enqueueing scripts and styles the WordPress way, but how to do it most efficiently in the context of both themes and plugins. We’ll cover WordPress’s helper functions, conditionally loading scripts, troubling real-world examples and the power of build tools.

Presented by Jeremy Green in Brookside.

AMP is an open spec for lightweight, mobile-friendly pages. You can use it as the mobile view on your site, and having it enabled actually allows the AMP version of your page to be used by Google for search previews and in other places on their platform. In addition, many SEO experts recommend adopting AMP as Google is likely to reward those who do in terms of rankings.

You will learn why AMP is important, how to easily add it to your WordPress site, and different techniques you can use to customize it to your specific needs.

Presented by Jim Grant in Brookside.

Information for beginners to intermediate users on securing your WordPress website.  We will discuss the potential vulnerabilities, how to protect, scan and repair or restore your site.  Of course we will go over a few helpful WordPress plugins to use on your site!

Presented by Michael Black in Town Square.

SEO isn’t all smoke and mirrors. There are some basic things that any site owner can do to give their site the best chance possible to rank well in the search engines. I will discuss identifying keywords that could drive traffic, basic website optimization, content optimization and a few WordPress plugins to make your life easier. Many websites don’t maximize their potential because they miss these important fundamentals.

Presented by Chris Brown in Town Square.

Everything web designers, developers, and copywriters do will be impacted by the law to some degree. While many people don’t think too much about it, they really should. Issues like copyright and trademark infringement, how to comply with terms of service and privacy policies, and other legal issues should be a part of your plan when providing services to clients. This talk will help answer common questions about websites and “the law.”

Presented by Marc A. Benzakein in Town Square.

“Ideas must work through the brains and arms of men, or they are no better than dreams” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So you’ve decided it’s time to spread your wings and start your own company. Good for you! What’s next?

Does this sound similar to your business plan?

Step 1: Come up with a great idea
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Profit!

It’s not uncommon to think that if you create a product or service that’s needed, it will automatically translate to profits. And while recognizing and fulfilling a need is a good first step when it comes to creating a sustainable business, it is really no more than the beginning. Building a company that’s profitable takes a lot more than simply having something other people may want (Step 1).

I’ve been mostly self-employed since before I was considered a legal adult and I’ve had a lot of business experiences; several of which might fall under the category of “epic failure.”

As a member of the WordPress Community for some time now and witnessing the pain points for many small business owners, whether they are one-person freelance shops or multi-person agencies, I’ve found that the challenges are largely the same. They may have a great concept, but no real idea of monetization (they discover that simply, “if you build it they will come” doesn’t exactly make for a healthy bottom line), and learn that as a result, the end game is not attainable.

This presentation will cover not only many of the mistakes that are so common when building a business, but some practical advice on how to build the foundation, roadmap and a company that makes it to step three (PROFIT!).

Presented by Rebecca Haden in Town Square.

It’s exciting to have a new WordPress website. Then you try to install a plugin and all your pictures disappear. Or your fear of updating anything leads to hacking and your snazzy new website is suddenly advertising Viagra,

This presentation will tell you what you should be doing to make your website successful without destroying it.

• Slides

Presented by Jamie Smith in Town Square.

What makes a good website? What components are a must-have for an effective website? Jamie will discuss how to decide what pieces your website needs and provide tips for producing the best version of each component. This session is designed mostly for the company or organization that is creating their own website using WordPress, or at least is providing most of the content for a designer who is creating the website.

Presented in Sprint Accelerator.

The Professional SEO Panelists

• Michael Black, SEOMike
• Nile Flores, Blondish.net
• Breht Burri, InfoDeli

This panel will be moderated by Travis Pflanz.

Presented by Brigid Greene in Sprint Accelerator.

I will use data generated by the WordPress site – Google Analytics – and visualize the results to show insights in a new way.

The visualizations will be interactive and will allow for drill down and research on the spot.

I might look at traffic overlayed with blog activity, visitor demographics, traffic trends.
If it seems appropriate, I might look at social media activity related to web traffic.

I would like to be able to do something in 10 minutes but am not sure I could.

Skill level is everyone – target consumer of this is probably a business owner.

Presented by Zack Pike in Sprint Accelerator.

WordPress is the world’s leading open-source content management system and is capable of creating some of the most dynamic websites on the internet. Yet, none of that matters unless you’re properly optimizing your website for user engagement. In this session, Zack Pike, Alight Analytics’ Director of Client Solutions, will offer a deep dive into tools such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, giving tactical steps on how to customize your tracking strategy to stimulate user activity and interest, as well as measure website goals.

In this session you will learn:
-How Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager can be implemented on your WordPress site
-How to create a proper tracking strategy to fulfill the goals of your website
-Workarounds for WordPress plugins that have yet to fully integrate with Google Tag Manager

Presented by Nile Flores in Sprint Accelerator.

Yoast SEO is one of the leading WordPress SEO plugins in the WordPress world. It has so many options. Aside from that, you’re trying to juggle your own SEO knowledge.

With so many options on Yoast SEO, there’s a lot to get confused about.

I’m going to go over some basic SEO tips, specifically best practices for using Yoast SEO.

Hopefully using the plugin will be a lot easier after this session.