Month: October 2018

Topic: WordPress 101

I wrote my first blog on self-hosted WordPress in October of 2006. Since January 2009, I have developed and maintained websites for churches, nonprofits, and other small organizations through my company, All-In Web Services. My first WordCamp was WordCamp DFW 2017. Since then I have enjoyed getting to know and share knowledge with other WordPress users and I’m honored to be able to speak at WordCamp DFW 2018.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

Back in 2004, a friend suggested that I start a blog. I looked at Blogger but I felt boxed-in with the way that platform did some things. I stumbled upon WordPress and began to acquaint myself with it; I felt more freedom than with Blogger. As I began to blog a little, I saw that WordPress could be stretched a to be more than just a blogging platform. I used a few plugins to make WordPress behave more like a full-blown CMS. I’m glad for new users that they don’t have to jump through those hoops to make WordPress do what it can do now.

What do you do with WordPress?

I occasionally blog on WordPress and technology. I also post on our church website to comment on what we’re doing with fellowships and outreaches.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

My first WordCamp was 2017. From that, I began to get involved with the WP DFW MeetUp, getting to know local WordPress users and developers. It’s a good reminder that I’m not the only person who’s working with WordPress and it’s great to have some local people who can answer questions when I run across a complicated issue.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

Just as I have benefited from the knowledge of other people, I felt that I had something to share with new users, to help them avoid some of the issues that I have had to figure out on my own.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

Again, I felt that I had something to offer to newbies, including some best practices on using WordPress.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope the audience gains a better working knowledge of the WordPress and that people are able to pick up on something new that perhaps they haven’t considered before.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: CSS Jam Session

Brent Jett is a designer and developer in Dallas, Tx and is currently the Design Lead at Beaver Builder. He likes exploring new tools and technologies for creating things on the open web as well as finding ways to bring more of traditional graphic design into the digital creative space. 
Brent is also a photography nerd and enjoys filling instagram with adorable photos of his beagle.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started working at an agency after college as a designer. We used a couple different CMSs at the beginning but standardized on WP pretty quickly. I started getting more involved with the general WP community after joining the Beaver Builder team.

What do you do with WordPress?

I’m the design lead for Beaver Builder. We make a page builder plugin that allows you to design pages visually with drag and drop elements.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I started out coming to the local Austin meetup a few times, speaking a couple times and then when I joined Beaver Builder I started going to camps with my team. At first I didn’t know anyone and it was kind of daunting because the community is very tightly knit, but gradually I met more and more people and have really been welcomed into some great circles of friends.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I love how camps work, that you can get a room full of people that want to challenge their own knowledge in different ways and learn new things. Speaking is a great way for product teams like mine to give back their time and knowledge to the community that we’ve built our business around.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I think it’s pretty crucial that web designers be more connected with the browser and the base web technologies, always learning, always looking for new ways to use the web. I stumbled into this idea of a jam session where you’re messing with websites on the fly from playing music and seeing how the electronic music space has evolved its technologies to make discovery more possible. I think the web is due for a similar shift in thinking where we all learn how to have our creative bursts in the browser rather than only in a static design application. I really wanted to explore that, see what’s possible, and hopefully show what I’ve learned.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I’m hoping that people leave the talk thinking of new things they can do with the browser, ways they can use it as part of the design process and not just for their final production websites. Also that they might gain an interest in some of the emerging web technologies and finding ways to use them sooner rather than later.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Immaterial Woo – eCommerce Without Products

Zach is the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce -focused agency that builds and maintains stores for mid-market and larger eCommerce store owners. He’s been in the digital space for the last two decades as a designer, developer, and instructor. When he isn’t sitting in front of a screen, he’s behind a camera capturing images of musicians or pretending to be a musician himself.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I had been watching the WordPress project for a number of years before I started using it professionally. It was the first release of WooCommerce that really got me to take a more serious look, since I had need for an eCommerce store for the business I was running at the time. With a background in object-oriented languages, it took me a bit to get used to PHP and the WordPress Way, but I dove in and haven’t come up for air since.

What do you do with WordPress?

I’m the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce consulting firm that helps run some of the most demanding WooCommerce sites in the world. We handle challenges in speed, scale and custom development that are only generally seen by mid-market and larger stores. Since somebody has to run the business side of Mindsize, I’ve been more focused on sales and marketing recently, but still like to experiment with coding projects on the forefront of where I see the eCommerce industry moving.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I love the WordPress community. It’s one of the most inviting communities I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met through participation in community events like WordCamps and local meetups. They’ve been instrumental to my personal and professional growth over the past six years. I encourage everyone I meet to plug in to their local communities.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I’ve been teaching and speaking in the tech space for over a decade, so I try to find any opportunity I can to share what I’ve been thinking about and working on with others. I find that the knowledge I share becomes more engrained in my head, as well. I’m also fortunate to know quite a few people in the WordPress community in Texas, so this gives me an excuse to come hang out with them and meet new people. Lastly, who doesn’t want to leave the cold of Illinois in early November?

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

The primary use that people think about when they see WooCommerce is selling physical products that you need to ship to the buyer. But there’s so much more that Woo can do! I designed this new talk, which I’m giving for the first time at WordCamp DFW, to share all of the other ways, ways that don’t rely on physical products, that you can use Woo to power a business, from membership sites to booking rooms in your bed and breakfast.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

My hope is that people who have been hesitant to take a step into the eCommerce realm because there’s a lot involved in sourcing, warehousing, packing and shipping physical products are given some new ideas for how they can leverage WooCommerce to build new or augment existing businesses.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: WP DIY Gone Awry… NOW WHAT?!

Startup and Tech Enthusiast byways of San Diego, CA. WordPress was my true entry point into the world of development and I wouldn’t have it any other way… from working in agencies to now as a client facing lead for a WP development firm. I’m stoked to represent and advocate for the non-technical WordPress user.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started my first foray into WordPress while working in digital marketing. The agency realm gave me the opportunity to work on lots of different projects at varying degrees of involvement and really get my self-involved in the work. I had no training or technical background… it was truly a sink or swim situation. Having primarily worked within the startup and early-stage company space, I was given the opportunity to learn all the things required as they came up.

What do you do with WordPress?

Moving out of my agency and Marketing days, I now have the absolute pleasure of working within a WordPress services company called PressTigers. While I’m not a developer (…yet!) I have the daily opportunity to support non-technical WordPress users building their projects with our team.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

So far my WordPress Community experience has been nothing short of absolutely stupendous. I had always used WP and then consulted on it from the sidelines, which left me with a smidge of “do I really belong here?” feels. The WordPress community especially at the WordCamp level changed that completely. From the org teams to the speakers and sponsors, and fellow attendees everyone is not only welcoming and encouraging but also from such varying backgrounds and levels of involvement. It’s truly a treat to geek out about this common thing we all use and love despite our spaces and places.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

DFW was actually one of my first WordCamps ever and truly, truly the first time I felt at home being a part of the WordPress Community.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I chose my topic from sheer personal experience. While I’m not a trained developer, I’m tech savvy and an overall self-starter. I like to do things to learn them and it never hurts to have resources to fall back on when trying something new. Starting out I wish I had known the most common pitfalls and mistakes so I could avoid them from the get-go. That being said…

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I built my talk around the most common mistakes starting out and then how to remedy those mistakes. I hope the audience feels empowered to take on their imagined WP projects. There are endless resources which can be challenging to sort through and I hope I’m able to counteract the “you don’t know what you don’t know” bit of starting out.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Cut the Copy: Take Your Marketing Message from “Meh” to Mesmerizing

With a unique background which includes education and work experiences in technology, market research, and marketing communications; Summer Alexander is uniquely qualified to help businesses combine their data with their story to create client-centered messaging.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

When I decided to launch my business seven years ago, I had been laid off for a few months and my bank account had been dwindled down to less than $30. With the remaining money I had, I purchased my company domain name and found a free website template that I was able to customize on the WordPress platform. I literally could not have launched my business at that time without WordPress because hiring a website designer was out of the question. The ease of use of WordPress made it easy for me to create a professional website and it was from that website that I attracted my first clients.

What do you do with WordPress?

I use the WordPress platform for my primary website and blog and I also have several other webpages and landing pages on WordPress that I use to reach out to the various audiences I serve. Some of my websites are informational and others I use for sales and event registrations.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

My experience with the WordPress community has been fantastic. In the early stages of using WordPress whenever I had questions I would visit the community and I was always able to find help or resources. When I am updating my current websites or creating new pages I frequently refer to the WordPress.org support forums for assistance.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I have given many talks over the years and I always reference the WordPress platform as being a key factor in me being able to launch my business however, I have never had the opportunity to share this with the WordPress community. Speaking at WordCamp DFW will allow me to share how valuable WordPress is for small business owners.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

Having a great website is only one step in creating an effective marketing campaign. One of the most important factors in being able to build a connection and establish trust with your audience is having a compelling marketing message. In my session, I’ll share the steps to creating simple yet effective marketing messages designed to encourage your potential customers to take action.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

My goal is always to provide actionable steps that my audience can implement right away. I want the audience to leave my talk with an understanding of how to develop marketing messages that feel less like a targeted sales message and more like a conversation with a trusted advisor.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Working with a developer on your next website project

Sara is the owner of Graybill Creative and a WordPress developer. She creates custom WordPress websites for designers that are beautiful and easy for their clients to use. She also organizes the OKC WordPress Users Group where she works to get the word out about WordPress. When she isn’t building websites you can find Sara outside with her husband chasing their son.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I was working at a local non-profit as the website assistant (with absolutely no experience) and we needed to re-build the sites managed by the non-profit. The sites weren’t on WordPress at that time but we hired someone to re-design one of the sites and he recommended WordPress. That was my introduction to WordPress and I’ve been using it ever since.

What do you do with WordPress?

I develop custom sites for my clients and I help them to use their websites strategically to reach their organization’s goals.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The community has been critical for me getting to where I am today. When I started with WordPress the only experience I had with websites was a one-semester class in high school that had me swearing I would never touch another website again. It’s so nice to have people I can reach out to when I get stuck and just need to bounce ideas off of someone. There’s always someone ahead of me willing to stop and help me figure something out. In return, I try very hard to help those who are just starting out. That’s one reason I love organizing the OKC WP Users Group. It lets me give back to a community that has helped me to get where I am.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I’ve been speaking at smaller events for a couple of years now and I love being able to help people and answer their questions. I spoke at WCDFW last year and loved it, I want to continue to speak at more WordCamps if I can.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

A lot of the work I do is for website designers that need someone to bring their design into reality. A lot of them have struggled in the past with their developers or don’t really know what to expect when working with a developer. I want to help clear up the confusion and make it a better process for everyone involved and ultimately a better product for their clients.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope they come away with a few ideas on how to improve their process when they work with a developer.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Community Impact: Using WordPress to build 48 websites for 48 nonprofits in 48 hours

I’m a Business Consultant for the Digital Marketing agency Sideway8. National Committee member for the nonprofit 48in48. Organizing Committee of WordCamp Atlanta and Atlanta WordPress Meetup. I’ve been a WordPress advocate since I started using it in 2008 and fell in <3 with the WP community at my first WordCamp in Savannah 2010. Outside of the internet, I’m a musician, producer, and audio engineer making weird sounds with weird people.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

When I first came across WordPress, I was building websites for family and friends back in the mid 2000’s. I was learning PHP and had started to create my own CMS in an effort to streamline some of my work. Stumbling on WordPress, I realized there was an entire community already focusing on building such a great platform. I quickly scrapped my CMS and started using WordPress. From there I started diving in to the local WordPress community here in Atlanta.

What do you do with WordPress?

Today I am more of a power user (Dashboard Champ!), but for a long time, I was a developer.

I am currently responsible for scoping and pricing projects for the digital marketing agency Sideways8. A decade of using and developing with WordPress gives me an upper hand for strategy and problem solving using resources that already exist in the platform itself, and an understanding of its capabilities.

The nature of the work we do has me in the backend of multiple WordPress sites every day. Our own and for our clients.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

Amazing!  I knew for sure that I wanted to be a part of this community after my first WordCamp in Savannah 2010. Considering that there were noobies like me at the time, all the way up to the highest tier, including Mr. Mullenweg, that says a lot.

I literally was talking to everyone (having no idea who they were in the WordPress world), and never once was I snubbed, looked down on, or turned away. At one point I was talking with Mark Jaquith about securely wrapping form field data. When I looked him up after the event I realized how involved he was. In many other communities, people at that level wouldn’t even give someone like me the time of day.

Since then I’ve been a participant and speaker at many other WordCamps. I’ve wanted to give back to the community the way it’s given back to me. I’ve literally built my life and business because of this platform and community.

The past two years I’ve been a part of the organizing committee for WordCamp Atlanta and spent several years as an organizer of the Atlanta WordPress Meetup.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I really want to speak at all WordCamps!  It’s such a great way to see new places and meet new people.

We’re (48in48) also strongly considering Dallas to host one of our events next year. For that reason alone it made sense for me to show up, even if I wasn’t speaking, to build awareness and hopefully make some new friendships.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

While I am not a founder of 48in48, I have been involved since the first event. I showed up to the event as a volunteer, I quickly saw where my skillsets could be used and ended up diving in as far as I could. At this time I’m a member of the global committee.

I chose this topic in an effort to spread some awareness not only about the event(s), but about the impact it has had on my own life and the lives of those people these nonprofits are reaching.

My company, Sideways8, has been the driving force behind the technical part of the platform that allows us to build 48 websites in 48 hours. It’s all built around WordPress and a heavily curated set of themes and plugins. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the kind of impact it has on the community, both for the nonprofits and the volunteers that participate.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

My hope is that the audience leaves inspired to do something bigger than themselves.  I want people to know that even doing a little bit can go a long way. It’s possible to use their skill set, and this amazing community, to have a global impact and make a positive difference in the world.

We are so fortunate to live in a country with a thriving economy. With that, we also have more opportunities than most to make a difference in someone’s life that may not have those same opportunities. I feel like we, as a community, are in such a great place right now and I just want to do my small part to keep driving that home.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!