Sessions

The Future of WordPress in Nashville

Presented by John Housholder • Beginner / Intermediate Track

John will present on the future of WordPress in Nashville. He will address the Nashville Meetup, WP Nashville, and future business opportunities within the WordPress community in Nashville. John runs Ah So Designs, a Nashville WordPress design and development company and teaches WordPress development at the Art Institute of Tennessee.

Target Audience: WordPress Newcomers, Content Writers/Publishers, Developers, Designers

This talk will be held in the user track space and will be streamed in the developer room. Randy Hicks will moderate the developer track discussion.

LESS, JS & WP

Presented by Russell Fair • Developer Track

Explore the power of LESS and how, what and when you can use it with WordPress.

Target Audience: Developers, Designers.

Skill Level Required: WordPress Professional (advanced)

Search Engine Optimize Your Site in Three Easy Steps

Presented by Anna Belle Leiserson • Beginner / Intermediate Track

Giving your site good Google juice is not rocket science. What it takes is TLC. This session will cover SEO fundamentals, what to look for in a WordPress theme, how to leverage WordPress plug-ins and more.

Target Audience: WordPress Newcomers, Content Writers/Publishers

Skill Level Required: No Experience Required (beginner)

Dependency Injection for WordPress Plugin Development

Presented by Michael Toppa • Developer Track

This presentation is an in-depth look at a powerful object-oriented programming technique: dependency injection. Michael will review the basic concepts behind writing small classes for WordPress plugins and how to get your objects working together through the use of an injection container. He’ll then proceed to more advanced techniques for managing multiple object dependencies, dependencies within dependencies, and class autoloading.

Target Audience: Developers

Skill Level Required: WordPress Professional (advanced)

Making the Leap: From Hobbyist to Professional

Presented by Brad McCarty • Beginner / Intermediate Track

Brad will talk about ways that blogging hobbyists can take their passion to the next level. Topics will include workflow, search engine utilization, content sharing networks, how to approach larger publications for guest posting and potential revenue sources.

Target Audience: WordPress Newcomers, Content Writers/Publishers

Skill Level Required: Basic WordPress Experience (intermediate)

Otto and Nacin Show

Presented by Andrew Nacin, Samuel Wood • Developer Track

So you’ve been developing in WordPress for quite a while, or maybe you’re just getting used to the paradigms. WordPress packs a powerful punch, but just how far have you ventured into the codebase? Let Otto and Nacin explain and demonstrate some of their favorite concepts and tools available.

Copyright and Other Legal Basics for Bloggers (and Developers, too)

Presented by Rick Sanders • Beginner / Intermediate Track

A basic introduction to copyright law as it affects blogging and, to a lesser extent, software and application development. Emphasis on fair use, free speech and licensing. May touch a bit on trademark and publicity law if there’s time (or demand).

Child Theme Frameworks

Presented by Ryan Green • Developer Track

This presentation will discus the most prevalent WordPress theme frameworks and the pros & cons of each through the lens of a User Experience professional.

Target Audience: Developers, Designers

Skill Level Required: Basic WordPress Experience (intermediate)

A Beginner’s WordPress Bootcamp

Presented by Joel R. Norris • Beginner / Intermediate Track

As the title implies, this is the entry-point for all those new to WordPress. If you think posts are for fencing, and you’re wondering how it pressess all those words, you’ll be whipped into prime WP Shape and ready to hit the ground running by the close of this one session.

Target Audience: WordPress Newcomers

Skill Level Required: No Experience Required (beginner)

The Blank Screen: Overcoming Fear of ’Pressing From Scratch’

Presented by Mitch Canter • Developer Track

Nothing is more intimidating than looking at a blank screen when you’re starting a WordPress theme. As you begin theme development, even as a designer, ask yourself questions: What’s so different about WordPress vs static HTML development? Can I work from my Photoshop theme? What if I need options? And how do I even structure this theme? Mitch Canter will take you from the blank Dreamweaver / Notepad++ file to a fully functioning theme, discussing theme structure, the loop, and best practices for theme development from scratch. He’ll also show examples of a WordPress from PSD conversion .

Target Audience: Developers, Designers

Skill Level Required: Basic WordPress Experience (intermediate)

Categories, Tags, and Custom Post Types! Oh my!

Presented by Kenneth White • Beginner / Intermediate Track

With so many ways to organize the information in a WordPress site, it’s almost impossible to tell when to use which method. This session will discuss the differences between categories and tags as well as when to use custom post types, taxonomies and post formats.

Target Audience: WordPress Newcomers, Content Writers/Publishers, Designers

Skill Level Required: No Experience Required (beginner)