Speaker Interview: Konstantin Obenland

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Our next interview for ourSpeaker Interview series is with Konstantin Obenland. He’s been a frequent and popular presenter at WordCamps.

Konstantin is a Theme Wrangler for Automattic, and has contributed to the WordPress core, amongst many other things he’s done for WordPress. He’s be teaming up with Michael Cain in the Cain & Obenland in the Morning.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

KONSTANTIN OBENLAND: The admin redesign in 2.7. I needed inspiration for an administration area for a project, and ended up using WordPress for that project because of it.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

KONSTANTIN OBENLAND: Besides Twenty Thirteen (which still runs on ma.tt by the way) probably the new Theme Directory that launched in February.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

KONSTANTIN OBENLAND: 1. Akismet for Spam protection.
2. Jetpack for Photon, Gallery Carousels, and social connections.
3. Any one of mine of course.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

KONSTANTIN OBENLAND: Wow, this is a really tough one! Maybe this:
WordPress travel made me a BBQ snob, to an extend where Bogarts ribs played almost as big a role in my decision to apply for wcstl, as the community you have here.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

KONSTANTIN OBENLAND: 1. Don’t give up, it’ll make sense eventually.
2. Don’t give up, we’re working hard on making 1. easier.

How do I get there?

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If you plan to come by car, train, bus, bike or horse you might need to check this out…

First off, for those of you are going to be using MetroLink, MetroBus and riding a bike to get to WordCamp, WUSTL has a brochure with a map that includes locations of MetroLink stops, MetroBus stops, bike racks, and more here.

 

WordCamp-map

If you’re going to be driving to WordCamp St. Louis, click “Continue Reading” for more information. Continue reading How do I get there? →

Speaker Interview: Megan Harris

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Big thanks to Megan Harris for taking part of our Speaker Interview series. Her interview is below.

Megan will be presenting on Content Marketing on WordPress. If you’d like to learn a little more about her, you can also read her speaker bio.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

MEGAN HARRIS: I became interested in WordPress when other CMS I worked with didn’t fit my needs. It is fairly user-friendly and customizable, with a lot of features that can be used by anyone, from the least skilled user to the most advanced developer.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

MEGAN HARRIS: I once worked on a video gallery within WordPress. We organized it in such a way to section it out by topic, giving the user an interactive space to learn more about the services the company offered.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

MEGAN HARRIS: Yoast SEO Plugin – It’s great to have a website, but if the search engines can’t find you, what’s the point? The Yoast SEO plugin that allows you to set up your website for SEO success following many of the most commonly agreed upon SEO standards.

WordPress Editorial Calendar – This great plugin allows you to easily organize posts and schedule ahead of time, which is great for any busy professional with a content plan but not a lot of time to sit down and organize a spreadsheet.

Google Analytics Dashboard for WP – Just as SEO is important, tracking your traffic is essential for your goals. Setting up the Analytics dashboard plugin in WordPress gives you a quick snapshot of what your traffic is doing and allows you to dive a little deeper if you want more information.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

MEGAN HARRIS: I began working in marketing writing for the wedding industry, and many of my clients used WordPress for their websites. Some of my early projects included writing website copy and blogs for wedding DJ’s and event lighting professionals.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

MEGAN HARRIS: I advise anyone beginning to use WordPress for the first time to get their hands dirty and learn by doing. Reading forums is helpful, but it’s also important to understand the CMS in order to accomplish your goals. Without understanding the CMS structure, you might have a hard time getting the most you can out of WordPress.

If you want to learn more about Megan or want to ask questions, she’ll be happy to answer them at the event or in the comments below. 🙂

Speaker Interview: John Richards II

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Next up on the Speaker Interview series is cat lover, John Richards II.

John lives in St. Louis, and is a developer from Washington University. You can find out more about John in his speaker bio. He’ll be presenting on WordPress Rest API.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

JOHN RICHARDS II: The speed at which a new site can be started and the incredible community available around it.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

JOHN RICHARDS II: I recently had the chance to work on publichealth.wustl.edu where I had the chance to try some new technologies I hadn’t had a chance to use before, like the Jetpack Infinite Scroll.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

JOHN RICHARDS II: I don’t have any consistent plugin that I have always used though Advanced Custom Fields is probably the closest. Currently my first plugin install is the JSON REST API until it gets pulled into core.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

JOHN RICHARDS II: I love playing board games and have helped develop a way to play some of them online.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

JOHN RICHARDS II: First, don’t be afraid to jump in, the best way to learn is to dive in and start working on a project. Second start going to a WordPress Meetup or make friends who use WordPress, being able to bounce ideas around is a great way to learn new ideas.

Please don’t hesitate to leave comments below or ask him questions at WordCamp St. Louis. 🙂

Speaker Interview: Mary Baum

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We know there’s been a lot of posts being published and shared to your inboxes in such a short time, but we’re a little half-way through our Speaker Interview series. We really hope you’ve enjoyed some of them and have learned something behind each individual.

This interview is with well-connected local, Mary Baum. Mary is a really spunky lady with a lot of knowledge of St. Louis and even design. You can find out more about her in her speaker bio.

Mary is scheduled to present – Structure, Style, Story: What Goes Where?

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

MARY BAUM: I was involved with a hardcore direct marketing group, and it was becoming clear I needed to be able to design for WP – it was a problem that I’d never done anything with the platform to speak of.

Suddenly, the summer I turned 50, I had three WP projects: A news site for the mayor of U City, a blog for my SIL and the branding of your pal and mine, Retail Rich. (Note: Mary and I worked with Retail Rich.)

As freaked out as I’d been over turning 50, suddenly I had a whole new challenge: PHP. (And at that point I was only fair to middling with my CSS.)

Further, I had started using a purported no-coding solution for functionality – commerce, email marketing, events – and was paying a fortune for no support, even when something broke. Also, their no-code/shortcode system was plenty convoluted – it’s really just as simple to learn PHP and to tweak plugins.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

MARY BAUM: Porting Frontenac Racquet Club to Genesis in fall 2012 from static html. I was doing it for my own reasons, so the design needed to look exactly like the previous version. It took me two tries and some CSS3 nth-child shenanigans, but it lives and breathes.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

MARY BAUM:1. Reveal IDs, because I like to be SURE what categories (etc) I’m targeting for blog-page and other layouts.

2. iThemes Security, because: I really don’t ever want to hear about a hacking from the client.
Also, my fighter pilot did get hacked – while another security plugin was running. And, while I know he’s left iThemes, Chris Wiegman is a Twitter bud. He’s often the only one to answer when I have a question or make comments on my VERY twisted perspective. And he’ll politely tell me when I’m wrong.

3. Regenerate Thumbnails, because I change image sizes a lot.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

MARY BAUM: Everybody on Twitter knows how proud I am of my daughter the sportswriter.

Well, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree:

  • In college in Rhode Island (she went to school in Boston),
  • I did sports on the radio (she was sports editor of the paper)
  • and was a student of pro football (she’s a huge baseball fan).

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

MARY BAUM: Learn some CSS, even if you’re not a designer, so you can make simple tweaks without bugging your developer (you’ll save money, too.)

Security, security, security:

  • Install a security plugin and learn to configure it.
  • And I don’t care if a name like Adminonnia or Vicadminnius has been in your family since the Hundred Years’ War – NOBODY registered on the back end should have the letters ‘admin’ as any part of their user name, their real name or their dog’s name. It’s the one thing that makes it way too easy to get compromised.

You can kick it with Mary at WordCamp St. Louis on March 14th and 15th. She’s really witty and you’ll learn a lot. You can also reach out to her in the comments below. 🙂

Speaker Interview: Jason Yingling

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St. Charles resident, and Cardinal’s fan, Jason Yingling is next up to bat in our Speaker Interview series.

You can read more about Jason in his speaker bio too. Jason will be presenting on Advanced Custom Fields’ Flexible Content Field.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

JASON YINGLING: My first experience with WordPress came while trying to set up a site I could easily update and manage content on back when I was only familiar with basic HTML and CSS. I kept seeing WordPress pop up as a suggestion and decided to try to figure it out.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

JASON YINGLING: At Red8 Interactive we recently launched a large site at BishopRanch.com. It’s got tons of custom functionality and has the biggest ecommerce setup I’ve ever worked on. It also was created to use reusable templates so they can add new pages of any kind in the future using Advanced Custom Fields and flexible content fields.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

JASON YINGLING: Advanced Custom Fields is number 1 and 2 through 3. But instead of cop out on the question I’ll say Gravity Forms as number 2. Although it’s not the most fun to customize styles on. And for 3, I’ll throw out Easy Footnotes if it is a blog, because I built it, and I use it in every post I write.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

JASON YINGLING: I developed and write for a St. Louis sports based site called ViewFromThePine.com. Although I guess that is not really that interesting.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

JASON YINGLING: If you’re a developer get familiar with Advanced Custom Fields, it will save you tons of time. As a user, learn some basics of development. It’ll save you time and money trouble shooting small issues.

Looks like his presentation, you’ll all have to take some great notes. Feel free to ask Jason questions in the comment area below or at WordCamp St. Louis.

Speaker Interview: Ryan Markel

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Ryan Markel is a Happiness Engineer for WordPress.com VIP and a St. Louis local. I’m happy to be able to slip him some questions for our Speaker Interview series. I hope you enjoy it too.

You can read more about him at his speaker bio. Ryan will be presenting on Jetpack.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

RYAN MARKEL: I had been involved in blogging basically since it was a thing, and tried pretty much everything available at the time. WordPress is what “stuck.” I’ve been using it ever since.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

RYAN MARKEL: I work daily on WordPress.com VIP, which is by far the most interesting thing I have ever done with WordPress. We support high-traffic and complicated WordPress sites for major publishers and companies, all on WordPress.com.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

RYAN MARKEL:1. Jetpack – the essentials for almost all WordPress sites. It covers so much of the necessities and makes WordPress better out of the box.

2. WP Super Cache – at least for shared hosts, having static caching is a must for site speed. This is usually the second thing I install.

3. Akismet – because no one likes spam. 🙂

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

RYAN MARKEL: I participate in a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network every year called Extra Life – it raises money for local hospitals. In the last two years, I’ve raised over $1500 for St. Louis hospitals. It’s a great program that has real benefits for kids who need treatment for various illnesses.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

RYAN MARKEL: CREATE! You should start creating, writing, and posting as soon as possible when you start a site, and do this as often as you can. Experiment. Shotgun code and design. See what sticks.

The more you actively create, the better you will come at creating and the less work it will seem to be.

Speaker Interview: Nile Flores

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Our next person in our Speaker Interview series is Nile Flores, and since it would be a little odd to have her ask herself these questions I went ahead and asked for her thoughts.

Nile is going to be talking about Blogging and Content Creation

wcstl-speakerinterview-nileflores

AARON GRAHAM: What got you interested in WordPress?

NILE FLORES: I used b2 cafelog prior to WordPress. I got into b2 because I manually blogged before that. Manually blogging means that I wrote my post onto a page and had a 3rd party comment script like Haloscan. What sold me on b2 cafelog at the time was a combination of things- 1, a stable platform that could save comments and posts, and 2- Emoticons!

One of my favorite plugins at the time was b2 grins (eventually called wp grins) by Alex King. I had made smiley graphics (emoticons) in many different styles, and gave them for free. I even told people how to change the built in ones that came with b2 and how to add even more. 

Eventually, I got the news about WordPress and made the switch. It took rolling back b2 to a non-hacked version so I could smoothly transition. Since then, I’ve been happy with WordPress.

AARON GRAHAM: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

NILE FLORES: I think the most interesting project I’ve worked on is when I worked on Melinda Emerson’s website. Melinda is Forbe’s #1 Small Business Expert. While I was merely the developer hired for the project, I got to speak directly with Melinda and learned a lot from our talks. 

AARON GRAHAM: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

NILE FLORES:
1. WordPress SEO by Yoast – I may work for Yoast, but I’ve been using WordPress SEO for years. It’s a great tool and always first on my recommendation list.

2. FooBox – I do write a lot of tutorials and sometimes the screenshots are really big. FooBox by FooPlugins has been a great addition

3. Plugin Organizer – I don’t have tons of time writing conditional statements to prevent specific scripts from loading on a single page. This plugin has allowed me to shut down unnecessary scripts from running, while allowing me to optimize web page speed.

AARON GRAHAM: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

NILE FLORES: Hmmm… what doesn’t the community know that I haven’t already said? That’s kind of tough. So, I guess, what people don’t know is that while I am a 1st Dan black belt in Shoren Kempo (I’m working toward my 2nd Dan), I also study Kyusho, which is the study of vital points. Kyusho, if done properly has medical applications. It can also be used in offensive moves of martial arts (in fact, well done kata can also clue Kyusho practioners on vital points) and works well with joint locks.

AARON GRAHAM: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

NILE FLORES:
1- You don’t need to be perfect at writing. Just write. You can always go back to edit it later.

2 – Always have a back-up plan for your WordPress site!

Don’t forget that you can ask Nile questions here or at the event, so please don’t forget to buy your ticket.

If you’ve got any more questions for Nile, free to post them here in the comments.  Or if you’ve got your tickets, you can stop by and ask her at her session or the happiness bar.

Speaker Interview: Chase Replogle

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Our next person in our Speaker Interview series is Chase Replogle.

Chase builds websites for a living. He’ll be presenting a beginner track on Planning Your Website. 🙂

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I got interested in WordPress while in college. Being open source and free, it was the perfect foundation to learn on.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I’m currently working on an application which allows brand designers to build online brand guides and share with clients. Instead of passing logos back and forth over email, designers can manage all of a brand’s assets online. The whole application with monthly membership fees, a user management system, and front-end posting is built on WordPress Multisite.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

CHASE REPLOGLE: Gravity Forms, Advanced Custom Fields, and WP Migrate DB Pro

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I listen to a lot of Bluegrass and am slowly working on my mandolin skills.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

CHASE REPLOGLE: “Not all themes are created equal.” Really do your homework when picking a theme or having one built. WordPress’ best asset is its flexibility, but that can often lead to challenges when learning the platform, complicated further by poorly organized and documented themes.

Don’t forget that you can ask Chris questions here or at the event, so please don’t forget to buy your ticket.

Speaker Interview: Lucas Lima

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As part of our Speaker Interview series, Lucas Lima lives in St. Louis, but is from Brazil, and participates in both the St. Louis WordPress community, and WP-Brazil.

Lucas is extremely enthusiastic about being involved in all that is WordPress, and especially the philopsophy of Free Software. You can read more about Lucas in his bio. He’ll be presenting – Managing WordPress Projects.

At the event, Lucas will be helping with Kids Camp.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

LUCAS LIMA: I’m advocate of the Free Software philosophy and democratization of the internet. WordPress was my first and only choice when looking for free software tools that could empower people that need a space in the web but don’t have the necessary knowledge or money to get a website. In addition to that, the strong community and sense of fellowship made me really think that WordPress is the right tool to democratize the web publishing possible.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I work with many interesting projects with my colleagues at Brasa and each of them has challenges and something cool to learn.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

LUCAS LIMA: Contact Form 7​: Amazing plugin, really flexible and with wonderful support documentation.

Jetpack: Wonderful set of tools that can accomplish many of the basic requirements.

Hello Dolly: Which symbolizes the enthusiasm of the ones behind WordPress.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I practice Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art created by African Slaves in Brazil as a means to protect themselves from their oppressors over 400 year ago. Capoeira creates a strong sense of community and develops self discipline, the difference from other martial arts that I know is the mix of agile movements and music which is played when players are in the game called “Roda”. In 2014, Capoeira became Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I would say to take advantage of this great community of supporters behind the tool to understand better all the possibilities to leverage WordPress for you objectives. There are a lot of people out there willing to help, you just need to find them and ask. :)​

If you’ve got questions for Lucas, feel free to ask here on the website, or wait until the event. He’ll be happy to answer. 🙂