Sessions

If you’ve ever been curious about developing your own theme, you won’t want to miss this super technical session where Aurooba shares her theme development process from start to finish.

Slides: auroobaahmed.com/wordcamp17/

Site Clinics are always a popular session at WordCamp. Chris will analyze sites from actual WordCamp attendees who are brave enough to share with the world. See your site from a fresh perspective. Chris will apply his world class knowledge to help your website reach new heights. If you’re too chicken to put your site up on the big screen, you can still learn from the mistakes of others!

Everybody wants more conversions – but how do you get customers to take action on your site? If you’ve ever stared at that blinking cursor of death wondering where to begin, this session is for you.

Joel Klettke covers a proven process for collecting valuable customer feedback and translating it into copy that drives customers to action – whether on your home page, landing page, or in an email.

You’ll learn…

• The four most important things you need to learn about your customers to get them to convert
• Four powerful channels for collecting customer feedback
• A better way to interview your clients (and get juicy details in the process!)
• Specific tactics for turning feedback into headlines and calls to action

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/JoelKlettke/mind-reading-101-how-to-write-copy-that-converts-wordcamp-yyc-2017

Content marketing is content + marketing. It’s the marketing part that many people struggle with. In the last few months, I’ve been exploring tools, plugins, social networks, article sites, press release distribution sites, SaaS apps, and just about anything that enhances, streamlines, or automates the distribution and syndication of content to help it get more exposure. And, my focus has been on free or low-cost options. This would be a buffet of a presentation – take what you want, leave what you don’t.

Developers tend to gather helpful little tips and code snippets that make their lives easier and their code more elegant and usable. Tammy Valgardson, Development Director at Kick Point, will be sharing some of the most useful WordPress-related tips from her personal code library that will help developers with Google Tag Manager, Advanced Custom Fields, filters, mu-plugins, the Theme Customization API, and more!

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/TammyValgardson/a-pocketful-of-protips
Code Snippets: https://gist.github.com/tammalee

Rhett will discuss how he, at RealAgriculture, uses WordPress as an API—both technically (our apps and potentially our site some day) and metaphorically (how we use and re-use our content on multiple platforms). He’ll do an overview of the challenges we face and how we take the idea of an API (likely further than it can be stretched) to achieve our goals of being the best source of information for our users.

He’ll examine how to look at the challenges of running a successful publication.

This presentation will focus on providing attendees with the information and step by step process needed to migrate their websites to HTTPS with an SSL certificate. It will cover why HTTPS is becoming essential, how to choose the appropriate SSL certificate (free or paid), and how to adjust the website to work effectively under SSL.

We’ll discuss the actual code and configuration changes, and in particular we’ll also discuss the additional steps necessary to insure not only the functionality, but the critical SEO and marketing values of the site are preserved throughout the migration – essential steps that many often miss. We’ll also go over the steps necessary to follow up on the migration to insure everything is working as it should.

The majority of the talk will be geared to the understanding level of general users, but even experienced devs will discover critical information they were likely unaware of when it comes to HTTPS migrations. The end result will be a step-by-step implementation plan that even less experienced users will be comfortable with.

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/thompsonpaul/migrating-yuor-wordpress-site-to-https-getting-it-right-the-first-time-word-camp-yyc-2017

You can launch the best-looking WordPress site ever, but if it’s not easy to use, it’s not going to be successful. Learn to think like a user and uncover usability problems that might not be apparent at first glance. Find out some basic improvements you can implement to make your site more usable and accessible. User experience isn’t just for designers to think about: everyone who works on a website has the opportunity to make the user experience better. Even little changes can make a big difference.

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/clarissapeterson/designing-for-users-how-to-create-a-better-user-experience

Website optimisation from the ground up, focussing on the major milestones needed by all websites. Starting from choosing the right host, planning for speed (images, embeds, plugins), caching options (server and plugin), and CDN solutions like Cloudflare and KeyCDN.

Slides: u6d.us/wordcamp

WordPress can be the power horse behind your successful business… when you marry strategic technology with your well-told brand story. In this interactive presentation, learn how a non-expert WordPress user delivers expert-level marketing by leveraging WordPress basics to deliver your business story and experience. Kim will identify key fear triggers to blogging and sharing your brand, then provide examples of WordPress-based marketing systems that show how to tell & sell your story with skill.

Alliteration aside, every day I see a lack of planning prevent ‘good’ websites from being truly ‘great’. While everyone correctly assumes planning starts at the beginning, you would be amazed how many people start designing, building, installing plugins… just kind of ‘making up a plan as the project goes’.

I have seen this in everything from people just starting out, to larger companies who should know what they are doing.

This talk is for businesses that use WordPress, professionals that help people succeed with WordPress, or anyone who just wants a better idea about how to approach a project so they can maximize success.

Key takeaways include:

• An understanding of planning a successful site at a high level.
• Why you should start with narrative, and map out from there.
• How to build value proposition into your project from the beginning.
• How making plans based around business/site goals is key (and why).

Video & resources: asolidsite.com/wc2017

With the another round of municipal elections set in Alberta for October 2017, we are about to be bombarded by candidates vying for our votes and attention. But what makes a good Political Campaign Web Site? What makes people take notice of a candidate? And are there lessons about design, branding and functionality that we can learn from campaign web sites to enhance our own business and non-profit web sites. This honest and frank talk will dive into the world of political web design to provide you with ideas on how better tell the story of your organization and get people to buy in to your message.

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/ConnorTurner/campaigning-with-wordpress-design-and-story-telling-lessons-from-the-world-of-political-web-design

A cautionary tale of what happens when you ignore or phone in performance considerations. Dana will explain how performance is a driving force for better user experience and search engine traffic.

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/ditomaso/fast-but-still-furious-why-speed-isnt-enough
Links/Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XJ5ke8MuiCNjVOA4XdnMnZK9ML5MUR18KXOO97AlmGE/edit