Speakers – WordCamp Calgary

Sponsor Spotlight: Paperleaf

We’re showcasing all the amazing 2017 WordCamp Calgary sponsors. The people and companies that help make it possible to bring together the WordPress enthusiasts of Alberta. Today’s sponsor spotlight is Paperleaf.

Since 2009 Paperleaf has been producing some of the best websites to come out of Edmonton, Alberta. Lead by partners Jeff and Andy Archibald, their team is a tight-knit group of 9 who focus on solid strategy, great design and well executed code.

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

We’re a passionate, experienced team who specialize in the strategy, planning, and execution of award-winning websites, applications, and brand identities. Our core values drive everything we do – those values being quality, collaboration, progression, and play. We work with clients big and small, as well as local and international.

You can see their work on sites for the University of Calgary Student Union, Alley Kat Beer and Kunitz Shoes.

Thank you Paperleaf for sponsoring WordCamp Calgary once again.

Sponsor Spotlight: Lighthouse Labs

Who are Lighthouse Labs? You probably know the answer to that question already but we’re going to tell you anyway.

Lighthouse Labs is a place to learn. The run their signature event, The HTML500 and it’s a huge success. It is a free, one day crash course in HTML & CSS created with the goal of inspiring more Canadians to shape their community through code. How awesome is that?

Lighthouse Labs was started by a group of coders in 2013 and has its main campuses in Vancouver and Toronto. They also have satellite campuses in cities throughout the country, Calgary being one of them. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Our mission: to continuously find the best ways to train the next generation of developers and to transform the way tech education is delivered.

That’s a great mission to have and we’re so happy to have them as sponsors again this year.

Want to Speak, But Not Sure What to Talk About?

There is an old saying that more people fear public speaking, than they fear death. So for those folks, I suppose the classic nightmare where you’re speaking naked in front of a classroom of your high school peers would be pretty traumatic…

Luckily, speaking at WordCamp Calgary is a much different experience. First, we let you keep your clothes on… in fact we insist. Also, the lunch is a lot better and your peers aren’t jerks!

Even still, people tell us that they are nervous about speaking at WordCamp. They’re worried that they might choose a topic that nobody will come to.

So, the good news is that we actually know what the burning questions inside our local WordPress community are.

For a little insight into what our community wants to know, we turned to our trusty photographer, Reg Tiangha’s Flickr account for clues…

For several years now, we have had our “Wall of Questions” return in one form or another at WordCamp YYC. It was a chance to post anonymous sticky notes under such provocative banners as…

What do you hate about WordPress?
What do you want to know about WordPress?
When will WordPress become self-aware and democratize robot slavery?

Here’s what our community of WordPress users are asking…

How do you create and use a child theme?
Tell us what your best practices are for managing your theme and functions changes.
How do you run WordPress on a local machine and push it to a host?
There’s more options than ever – tell us how you chose your favourite way to work locally.
How do you start learning JavaScript – what language, and how does it relate to WordPress?
Matt Mullenweg wants us to learn JavaScript bigly… I mean deeply. So, what does that really mean?
How do you manage recurring memberships with WordPress?
Can it be done with API’s, and CPT’s. If you know WTF that means, that could be a good talk too.
“Can you send a newsletter with WordPress?”
Is this a great idea, or a ticking time bomb? I don’t know! You tell me.
How do I move my WordPress site to SSL?
Now that everyone is terrified about the new Google updates, how do we convert over to SSL?

This is just a list of ideas. We encourage you to speak about topics which you can build a compelling narrative around. This usually involves solving a problem and explaining how you did it, what you learned and what you might do differently next time. Remember, all speakers must abide by our speaker guidelines, which are posted on the speaker application page.

If you have a topic you’d like to see covered in a talk at WordCamp YYC, please tweet us your idea @WordCampYYC!