Links to Speakers’ Slides

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Gerroald Barron — Beginner WordPress Security

Patrick Bates — From LAMP to WISP – Options for Operating WordPress in Microsoft Environments

Sam Brasseale — Managing Multiple Sites Made Easy With Vagrant and Wordmove

Sara Cannon — Strategic Design: How Information Can Drive your Design Decisions to Success

George Childs — Usability Testing Workshop – Make Your Site Better in 30 Minutes (no slides available)

Nathan Ingram — Surviving a Crisis of Confidence

Kyle Johnson — Separate your Time from Your Income

Brian Krogsgard — Running a WordPress Membership Site in Real Life

Kathryn Lang — Write 30 Posts in 30 Days without Hurting Yourself

Corey Maass — Rapid Web App Development on WordPress

Evan Mullins — WP API, What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything!

Kate Newbill — Do You Really Need a 3-lb Pocket Knife? Choosing the best ecommerce solution for your site.

Kate Newbill — In Case of Zombies… Creating a Disaster Action Plan *Before* You Need It

Kristi L. Oliver — What’s the Plan for your Master Brand?

Elizabeth Pampalone — Starting your Business on a Shoestring Budget

Adam Warner — The Pitfalls of Working from Home

David Wood — I18n….what? Internationalization: Why and How

Micah Wood — Using Chrome Developer Tools

Helpful Tips for Attending WordCamp Birmingham

Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

With WordCamp Birmingham just TWO DAYS away! we wanted to share a few tips for rocking the day’s sessions as an attendee. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

  • Get here! Use the map, on this page, to get your directions. Also, once you are here and registered, look on the back of your badge to see a map of the location of lunch spots and the afterparty. The parking lot across from the Harbert Center on Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd. and 4th Avenue North will be free for WordCamp attendees.
  • Keep track of your badge. It is your admission to Harbert Center activities and contains coupons and your food tickets! We like to recycle the lanyards, so once the day is over, drop it off at the swag table.
  • Follow and use the #wcbham hashtag on Twitter. A lot of attendees will post quotes they like, photos and other fun stuff. The WordCamp Birmingham Twitter feed will also use this hashtag for updates throughout the day.
  • Follow @wordcampbham on Twitter. We will post updates and maybe even share some of your Tweets! If you post to other social media websites, such as Facebook or Instagram, feel free to use #wcbham as well.
  • Stay on track. You’ll notice the schedule runs in three columns: the first for the user/blogger, the second for a business or freelancer, and the third for developers. Feel free to use one track or mix and match.
  • Don’t forget about the afterparty! This year’s will be at Rogue Tavern starting at 7 p.m. out on the patio. Bring your WordCamp badge.

We are so excited and cannot wait for WordCamp to begin. If you have any questions, hit us up on Twitter or contact us through the form. See you Saturday!

We LOVE Talking WordPress

Wordcamp Birmingham 2016, WordPress Community

It has been so much fun finding out when folks mention WordCamp on their blogs! Here are a few where we’ve been featured so far.

– Entrepreneurs & Freelancers Rejoice: WordCamp BHAM Has Your Back

– Calligrams & WordCamp

– Pam’s 5 Reasons to Attend WordCamp BHAM 2016

–More WP REST API

We want to add more to this list. What mention did we miss? Have you blogged about it? Send us a link so that we can feature it here at #wcbham central.

Thank you so much!

Get Website Help in the Happiness Bar

Wordcamp Birmingham 2016, WordPress Community

It’s the week of WordCamp Birmingham! Saturday will be here before you know it. There are still some General Admission tickets left, if you’d like to get one of those or we’ll see you at the door.

We wanted to take a moment and mention one of the coolest features of WordCamp – the Happiness Bar.

2016_WordCamp_poster_previewThe Happiness Bar is a live help desk, where WordPress pros sit, wait, twiddle their thumbs, eat snacks just waiting for attendees to ask them a question. These helpers are often WordCamp speakers, organizers or volunteers, a wonderful group of WordPress professionals waiting around to help – YOU!

Looking for help or advice with a certain WordPress problem?
Need recommendations for plugins or themes? Having trouble configuring your theme? Got a weird shopping cart or sidebar issue you just can’t figure out?
Bring your questions a to the Happiness Bar and one of WordCamp Birmingham’s friendly volunteers will help you sort out the issue.

So stop by the Happiness Bar at this year’s WordCamp, get some tech support for your site and experience what the WordCamp community is all about.

Help out & get a FREE ticket to WordCamp

Volunteers, Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

We love the WordPress community that is growing all over the South. We are currently looking to round out our team with those who can help make WordCamp Birmingham 2016 a wonderful experience for all. (Tip: read through to the bottom on how to get a FREE ticket to WordCamp next weekend.)

We want you to volunteer!

  • We have one-hour shifts for those who want to help keep the event moving during sessions on October 29th.
  • We also have 4 spots for Room MC’s. You’ll get to introduce speakers, make announcements, help with video recordings and work with the speakers.
  • We have spots open on the Registration Desk as well to help WordCampers get their day started right and to help answer questions.
  • We also have a position for All Day Volunteer. You’ll have to click through to the official Volunteer Sign-Up post to get the details on that one.

There are only two requirements to volunteer:

  1. Smile a lot.
  2. Adhere to the code of conduct.

Also, we know you have a winning attitude and a giving spirit, and we want to give you the chance to show that off at WordCamp. In fact, we’ll give you a coupon code for a free ticket if you sign-up to volunteer for 4 hours on October 29th. What do you think? Got the time? Got the smiles?

That’s it. Are you up for it?

Check out all of the official details, sign up (ask  any questions you have) and we’ll see you on October 29th.

Meet the Speaker: Kyle Johnson

Speakers, Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

Kyle Johnson will be speaking as part of the Freelance and Business Owners track this year. He will outline strategies for adding ‘products’ and ‘product thinking’ to the existing list of WordPress-related services freelancers provide.


Kyle works at Ninja Forms and is host of the Plugin Architect podcast. He was kind enough to answer a few questions so we can get to know him better before he takes the stage on October 29th.

Q1: Why do you choose to participate in WordCamp? What is the impact of plugin architect WordPress/WordCamp for you?
A1: Before getting into WordPress I spent some time looking into Drupal, which has a surprisingly large developer community in the Chattanooga area. Looking to move from all custom work to using a CMS the community aspect and the resources of a local camp were much desired. Shortly after that camp I discovered a local WordPress meetup hosted by a company in my home town, the WP Ninjas. This was my first real introduction to WordPress, and while I was looking at Drupal, the local WordPress community pulled me closer. WordCamps are the recurring representation of the community that I saw in WordPress and my chance to meet more people in that community.

Q2: How do you primarily work with WordPress?
A2: My day to day is developing for Ninja Forms, the drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress. We recently released a sweeping UI and codebase change with Ninja Forms THREE that has kept me more than busy for the past year. Outside of that I maintain a website for my developer podcast, Plugin Architect, and build sites for Non-Profits and small businesses on the weekends.

Q3: What have you learned is the most helpful “rule of thumb” in managing a freelancer-lifestyle?
A3: By far, scheduling seems to be the most important consideration, as it can be one of the biggest factors to your success, but also your biggest downfall. Every client loves a freelancer that can keep a schedule, but failing to do so will lose many projects over time. This affects more than just the workday and can bleed into your social life, or lack there of, if not managed correctly.

Q4: Any apps/tools you find super helpful?
A4: phpStorm with XDebug has changed my life (thank you Iain Poulson!). Also, laracasts.com is a fantastic resource for PHP developers, second to none.

Meet the Speakers for the Developer Track

Speakers, Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

The past two days we introduced you to the speaker lineups for Track 01 and for Track 02. Track 03 for Developers is another rockstar roster full of highly skilled and technically-minded folks.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into WordPress and crack open what makes it tick, this is the track for you. Track 03 will be brimming with acronyms, work environments, optimization tips and command prompt tricks. So check out the Developer track if you want to learn more or simply want to learn what all that means.


EVAN MULLINS – Evan blogs at circlecube.com and has even been known to dream in WordPress. With a background in digital media art, he now embraces the dark side and has found a strong creative outlet programming websites.


MICAH WOOD – Micah currently works at Narwhal Digital as the team lead for enterprise WordPress projects and helps organize a local WordPress meetup group.


COREY MAASS – Corey is a full-stack web developer with a love for entrepreneurship and minimum viable everything. He built his first website in 1995, his first SaaS app in 2003, and his first WordPress plugin in 2009.


DAVID WOOD – David is a web developer with over 7 years of development experience. He has spent much of his career working with WordPress, writing everything from custom plugins and themes to highly specialized code for unique situations


PATRICK BATES – Patrick began his Internet career with becoming his hometown’s first ISP in 1995. He first became involved with WordPress in 2011, which then led to him co-founding Project Nami (a port of WordPress to SQL Server) in 2013.


SAM BRASSEALE – Sam is a Birmingham based web developer working at Cayenne Creative managing a team of developers who build client sites primarily using WordPress.

Many of these developers will be hanging out all day. A few will even be helping out in the Happiness Bar. So be ready to ask questions or chat them about all things WordPress. Buy your tickets today!

 

Meet the Speaker: Sam Brasseale

Speakers, Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

Sam Brasseale will be speaking as part of the Developer Track on October 29th. He’ll be helping us learn how to manage multiple sites with Vagrant and Wordmove.


Sam is a Birmingham based web developer working at Cayenne Creative. He has been working as a web developer since 2009. Since then he’s worked at various agencies around town, founded a startup, Freshfully, based in Avondale, and now manages a team of developers building client sites primarily using WordPress. He was kind enough to give us a few minutes to answer some questions so that we can get to know him better.

Q1: Why do you choose to participate in WordCamp? What is the impact of WordPress/WordCamp for you?
A1: I chose to participate in WordCamp partially due to peer pressure, ha!. I also have always wanted to find a way give back to the community of developers in Birmingham. I’ve been toiling away in my little bubble of influence for a while now with no real benefit outside our client base. I feel it’s important for us to share what we know to help others get there faster. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Q2:  What is the impact of WordPress/WordCamp for you?
A2: WordPress has impacted me personally for a number of years. I’ve been employed as a WordPress developer for going on 7 years now. I’ve basically built my life around creating great user experiences for my clients and their clients using WordPress as a platform. I also landed one of my early jobs after attending WordCamp many years ago. WordCamp has always been a great example of providing ongoing learning for both developers and those who need websites.

Q3: How do you primarily work with WordPress?
A3: All of my work with WordPress is custom development. We will use some off the shelf plugins for functionality, but most of that functionality is heavily modified or created from scratch.

Q4: What is the most powerful tool or strategy for someone managing multiple WordPress sites?
A4: Well, as it so happens, my talk at this year’s WordCamp will be specifically about that topic. I’ll be speaking on using Vagrant and Wordmove to manage multiple websites with relative ease. There are a few tips and tricks involved in setup and day-to-day usage, but pretty much anyone familiar with developing sites locally should be able to pick up the techniques and run with them on day one.

WordCamp Focuses on Business & Freelancers

Speakers, Wordcamp Birmingham 2016

Yesterday, we we introduced you all to the Track 01 speaker lineup. Today, we want you to meet the speakers coming into Birmingham and leading the sessions for Track 02 aimed at Businesses and Freelancers.

There is so much practical and real world experience listed below. No matter what stage you find yourself – a 10-year freelance veteran or simply dreaming of the day someone would pay you money to do some WordPress work – the folks listed below are the ones you would want to buy a cup of coffee with and pick their brains.


NATHAN INGRAM – Nathan is a regular instructor at iThemes Training where he teaches WordPress and freelance business development topics via live webinar.


ELIZABETH PAMPALONE – In 2007, Elizabeth started her first company, Jax Computer Chic. She started out making house calls for sick computers and branched out into teaching classes at the local High School.


BRIAN KROGSGARD – Brian is the editor of Post Status, a news and information website for WordPress professionals. It’s a community-centric project with more than 700 members doing incredible things with WordPress.


KRISTI L. OLIVER – Kristi is a serial entrepreneur, public speaker, and professionally known as The Brand Visibility Expert™. Like many of her fans and clients, she is passionate, results-oriented and operates her brand and businesses in a spirit of excellence.


ADAM WARNER – Adam  discovered the world of WordPress in 2005 and has been working within the community ever since founding several WordPress-focused businesses providing education, plugins and consulting services for online business owners.


KYLE JOHNSON – Ninja Forms Senior Developer and host of the Plugin Architect Podcast.

So buy your ticket today and come on out to WordCamp Birmingham 2016 to learn from their successes, failures and bags of tricks.