Sessions

Christina Workman
Friday, May 10 | 11:00am | Burnswest

The DYK (Did you know) for DIY. WordPress can be a great platform for anyone to create a website. It’s easy to install and and create content with. But what about all the other “stuff” you eventually realize you should know? Domains, hosting, themes, plugins, best practices….is your head swirling yet? This talk will cover things people say they wish they knew when they started.

• Slides

Aida Marie Correa
Friday, May 10 | 11:00am | JOW Gallery

Have you ever wanted to start a blog, but were too reluctant because you don’t have writing skills?

In this talk, I’ll share different types of blogs you can start that can be fun, authentic and engaging to your audience – even if you’re not a traditional blog writer. Starting with WordPress as our platform, we’ll talk about picture blogs, poetry blogs, vlogging, blogs that showcase your favorite things and so much more. I’ll visually demonstrate some simple examples of what those blogs could look like, then take you step-by-step with simple instructions you can use to start a blog today!

Roya Chalaki
Friday, May 10 | 11:00am | JOW Gallery

AmyJune Hineline
Friday, May 10 | 12:00am | Officer’s Mess

Job postings, among so many other things, can be unintentionally exclusive.

“We are currently looking for the next Rockstars to join our stellar team! All employees must have killer work ethic and offer fanatical customer service.”

Inclusivity is at the heart of an effective content strategy. Accessible code may be imperative for inclusion, but all the code in the world doesn’t do any good if the content is not meaningful to our readers. 

In this session, we’ll go over what we can do as content authors to ensure our readers feel that we are speaking with them, not at them. We’ll look beyond the semantic markup and structured content to see the strategic value of inclusive, well-written content.

Discussion points will include:

• What makes content inclusive? Including definitions, clarifications, and real-life examples
• Why is inclusive language important?
• How we can embrace accessibility for those with every sort of ability
• Why awareness and acceptance isn’t enough — how to shift to being more process oriented

Along with awareness, there is acceptance and action…

David Andrew Wiebe
Friday, May 10 | 12:00am | Burnswest

You spend a lot of time on your content. We all know about the long-term benefits of SEO, but there are no guarantees. And, the competition for ranking in the top 10 spots on Google is fierce. But there’s a lot you can do in the immediate to get more attention for your content, drive traffic to your website and get more backlinks. It’s just a matter of getting help from others (especially team members), building partnerships and distributing your content more widely. This talk is about how to turn your WordPress blog into a content distribution machine.

Lorraine Watson
Friday, May 10 | 12:00am | JOW Gallery

Converting website traffic into customers takes more than ranking #1. The connection you form with visitors once they reach your website will be grounded in their overall experience, if they relate to you and how well you resolve their problem or question. Search engines know this too. Delivering a better user experience will help improve your appearance in search results. But what does a better experience really mean? In this session we’ll address often overlooked elements that can detract from people engaging fully with your website and by extension your SEO efforts.

Nathan Knowler
Friday, May 10 | 2:00pm | JOW Gallery

• What is Git (and Version Control)?
• Why use Git for your WordPress project?
• Making a proper .gitignore for a WordPress project (i.e. what not to track).
• Branching and pull requests

Tom Drake
Friday, May 10 | 2:00pm | Officer’s Mess

Want more readers? From social media to SEO, this blog promotion strategy will run through a checklist of how we drive thousands of new visits to each new post.

• Slides

Michael Bourne & Paul Thompson
Friday, May 10 | 2:00pm | Burnswest

Worried about the fundamental changes in Google’s content guidelines? Many are. The game has changed in 2019, and we’re going to talk about content as more than just keywords and blogs. We’ll show you a framework for making your content work for both visitors and search engines.

• Slides

Miriam Goldman
Friday, May 10 | 3:00pm | Burnswest

Being a lead developer not only means being responsible for clean and optimized code, it also means mentoring and teaching junior developers. Having been a karate sensei for almost 9 years, come learn how I took cues from my time at the dojo, and applied it to helping junior team members. From learning styles to patience, and to self-confidence, much can be learned from the martial arts.

• Slides

Sean Leonard
Friday, May 10 | 3:00pm | Officer’s Mess

The static web is slowly dying. The age of a website that is the same for everyone is ending. Building a WordPress site that adapts in real time to the buyer profile and the stage of the buyer journey is going to be the expected behaviour of all websites. What are the challenges in pulling this off today with WordPress? What is the immediate benefit to the visitor if this is done right?

Jaime Wedholm
Friday, May 10 | 3:00pm | JOW Gallery

Visual Brand Designer Jaime Wedholm shares helpful tips for Website Design.

Learn to create a site that is visually appealing, while keeping functionality and simplicity in mind.

PLUS: Case study breaking down the most effective elements of Landing Page design.

• Slides

A frank discussion moderated by Miriam Goldman, with women coming from a variety of backgrounds, sharing how they got involved in WordPress, their achievements, struggles, and advice to women (of all ages) who want to get started in the WordPress sphere.

This session is in the Burnswest Theatre.

A tour of the new reusable blocks that are built into the new WordPress editing experience (formerly known as Gutenberg). This new feature lets you reuse content on the fly, quickly and easily without any special skills and without copying and pasting. Find out how to make the most of it!

This talk will feature how-tos and tips for users, but also include suggestions for designers and developers who want to make reusable blocks work with their themes. 

Shannon Smith is a platform services specialist with WordPress.com VIP. She delivers content solutions to some of the biggest names in media, marketing, and enterprise. Shannon has over 15 years experience in open source web development. She is a long-time supporter of diversity, accessibility and internationalization, and was a WordPress Montreal community organizer for seven years. Shannon is also a hiker, poet, and mum of four.

• Slides

Freelancing is a great way to leave the 9-5 grind, but you need systems in order to really succeed and make it sustainable for the long term. Come learn about productivity hacks for the modern freelancer. We will cover strategies and software to help you build sites faster, get approvals and feedback quickly, build re-occurring revenue and get paid on time.

Christina Workman
Saturday, May 11 | 11:00am | Officer’s Mess

Kevin Brennan
Saturday, May 11 | 12:00pm | JOW Gallery

Do you have any specific WordPress questions or a nagging problem with your own website? The extremely intelligent (not Geniuses™) volunteers at the Happiness Session will help you solve the website issues you’re having.

Each person looking for help will have 10 minutes with the volunteer to review their website and the problems they’re having with the website.

Time is limited, so to ensure everyone gets looked after, we ask that you respect the 10 minute time limit.

Mariama Barry
Saturday, May 11 | 12:00pm | Burnswest Theatre

A brand’s visual identity is an important factor in your overall strategy to get recognized online. 

We will go over:
=> the importance of visual elements 
=> What does my visual brand identity need
=> How to create a strong visual brand 
=> and a few examples to illustrate.

• Slides

Christina Workman
Saturday, May 11 | 12:00pm | Officer’s Mess

Ian W. Bowden
Saturday, May 11 | 2:00pm | Burnswest

WP page builders and plugins help designers create better websites faster – but this comes at two costs: the websites take longer to load and WP websites are relatively insecure and thus require ongoing maintenance.

Making a website static essentially reduces it to HTML, CSS, and JS – the way all websites were at the dawn of the web. Such websites run very quickly and are bulletproof from a security standpoint. They also require next to no ongoing maintenance.

The vast majority of WP websites could be made static, but nobody is jumping on the bandwagon because it’s a bit unorthodox.

My presentation would outline my quest for learning more about and implementing these fast and secure websites, all built using standard WP tools and plugins.

Do you have any specific WordPress questions or a nagging problem with your own website? The extremely intelligent (not Geniuses) volunteers at the Happiness Bar will help you solve the website issues you’re having.

Happiness volunteers will be available between 2pm and 4pm in the main floor hall on Saturday.

Christina Workman
Saturday, May 11 | 2:00am | Officer’s Mess

Kevin Brennan
Saturday, May 11 | 2:00pm | JOW Gallery

Would you like an honest but constructive critique of your website? Do you mind having your site reviewed in front of an audience? Chris Garrett will review your site based on its design, functionality and usability. All you need to do is provide him with your website address and what goals you have for the website or company.

If you don’t want to submit your site, there’s still lots to learn from the sites we’re reviewing.

Submit Your Site

Gutenberg was recently introduced and is rapidly evolving. I’ll go through the current Gutenberg features and what’s available in decent detail. Then we’ll take a look at the Gutenberg roadmap and what’s being tackled right now for coming releases and what’s planned for further down the road. This talk will help alleviate any fears site owners have about Gutenberg and how they can keep their website updated with Gutenberg becoming more and more important.

Slides: https://westartwithgood.co/wcyyc2019

• Slides

Christina Workman
Saturday, May 11 | 3:00pm | Officer’s Mess

William Jackson
Saturday, May 11 | 3:00pm | JOW Gallery

There is a growing need for content creators from diverse backgrounds to tell their stories. These stories are from the diverse backgrounds of men and women, culturally diverse backgrounds. 

WordPress provides a stable and scalable platform that can magnify a voice towards social, cultural and gender issues. The “Me Too” movement is not the only movement that is using Social Media to share its voice and supporting the voiceless, there are other groups that are demanding attending and action. 

WordPress is a platform that allows for the acceptance and tolerance of the human story.