Speaker slides round-up

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Here is the list of slides from the sessions, we’ll be adding the rest as they come online:

Ryan Markel – Code Review: Keeping Things Secure, Clean, and Performant

David Smith – Making Simple Things Really Complicated: High Availability for WordPress

Teresa Lane – Content Modeling

Andy Nathan – 7 Scientifically Proven Steps To Engage Your Blog Readers

Mike Hale – Automating WordPress Plugin Development with Gulp

Jason Yingling – Getting to Know Underscores

Nile Flores – How to Make the Most out of Yoast SEO

Lucas Lima – Building a Simple Project Plan for WordPress Projects

Michele Butcher – Password, Attacks, and Security, oh my!

Chris Flannagan – Plugin Development 101

Shelly Peacock – Frameworks for Freelancers

Gregory Ray – Hardening WordPress, Again

Joe McGill – Optimizing Your Themes for Responsive Images in WordPress

If you know of one we haven’t posted yet let us know @wordcampstl

Last minute notes on the After Party (and Community Day)

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For those of you going to the after party.  If you’re taking the metrolink downtown, get off at the stadium stop.  If you’re driving, Ballpark Village offers 3 hours of free parking before 9pm with validation or street parking is free after 7pm.  Of course Uber is always an option too.

And regardless of whether or not you’re able to attend tonight we really hope that you will join us tomorrow for more WordCamp, we’re going to have some more speakers, contributors day, kids camp, our second keynote from Aaron Jorbin, and an Open Discussion/AMA on WordPress.  Not to mention a delicious lunch from Pi Pizza and Fitz’s Root Beer!

#WCSTL

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WordCamp St. Louis: Happiness Bar

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Happiness Bar has been a long time feature of many WordCamps, especially WordCamp St. Louis. No, it’s not a bar with beer (lol.) It is a help desk where you can ask WordPress experts your questions.

WordCamp St. Louis will have plenty of professionals in the WordPress world that can answer just about any questions, whether it is design, development, blogging, SEO, marketing, podcasting, social media, or anything in between, that is related to WordPress.

This is an opportunity for one-on-one time. Some issues can be worked on right there, so make sure to bring your laptop so you can show our Happiness Bar helper what’s going on. We’re also going to be encouraging our speakers to send you to the Happiness Bar after their talk in case you have more questions, but had no more time to ask within their session.

If you’re new to WordPress, we can certainly help lead you in the right direction to starting it.

Our Happiness Bar will be marked, and we’ll make sure to remind you of this opportunity. Please don’t forget that on Day 2, we also have the Casual AMA (Ask Me Anything), so you can ask questions in an open forum type setting.

Don’t miss out! Buy your ticket today!

Going “green” while (Word)Camping at #WCSTL

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It’s important to stay hydrated at any event. Some of you may even need a pick-me-up caffeinated beverage in the morning. We just wanted to share with you that our local coffee connoisseurs, Kaldi’s is a sponsor, and will be providing coffee (both fully caffeinated and decaf) for the whole day during WordCamp St. Louis.

Fun fact: if you need to, you can even walk to the original Kaldi’s location and back during event’s lunch if you need to.

Kaldi’s and Washington University has a commitment to sustainability, so we’re encouraging you to bring a re-usable travel mug with you to WordCamp to enjoy the delicious brew.

We will have some disposable cups available, but they’re small (only 8oz’s.) If don’t want to miss out, but you’ve forgotten your mug at home don’t fret, Kayak’s (part of the Kaldi’s family) is only a 10 minute walk from WordCamp and they sell mugs.

#WCSTL Feature: The Job Board

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We’ve added another feature to WordCamp St. Louis, a Job board. We’ll be placing whiteboards out at the event for both job seekers, and for employers.

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The reason we’ve brought the job board idea in, is that we realize that there are a lot of businesses and freelancers that will show up. Some of the biggest questions I’ve heard at WordCamps, when it comes to business, is finding new talent that specialize in WordPress, or for freelancers looking to get a job or their next gig.

Please feel free to utilize the job board. We will be monitoring the job board, so please keep it focused on it’s true intention. It’s not for building a MLM (multi-level marketing) business, or gaining affiliates. It’s purely for getting people connected with a job that they are skilled in.

We want to thank Chris Koerner for bringing in this idea for the event, and hope it helps you, whether you’re a business seeking new talent, or a freelancer looking for work.

Aside from the job board, take advantage of networking if you happen to catch yourself in the hallways during the conference. There are lots of great business people to talk, as well as other freelancers that could prove to be perfect for collaborating.

Take advantage of this and all the awesome talks at WordCamp St. Louis by attending. Get your ticket today!

Meet the Business Panel

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At 10AM on May 15th, we’ll be holding a special panel for business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. Our panel consists of company owners, agency professionals, and entrepreneurs. They also have wide knowledge in various areas of business and WordPress.

In this panel, you can ask questions about how to get started in your own WordPress business, how to maintain and grow your business, and how to keep a positive image. We’ll start off with some prepared questions, and then open the questions to the room, so have your questions ready!

 

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Our Business Panel

(in Alphabetical order)

Michele Butcher

A self-styled, proud graduate of the University of Inspect Element — aren’t we all? — Michele is a triple threat in the WordPress world:

  • Accounts Coordinator for Valet.
  • Support Guru for Give.
  • Support Engineer for Yoast.

Hailing from Carbondale, Illinois (the other, prettier part of Illinois), she’s also the lead organizer of the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup and teaches beginners’ WordPress at John A. Logan College.

Twitter: @Michele_Butcher

Site: Can’t Speak Geek.

Chris Flannagan

Raised in South Alabama, I started toying with computers at a very young age. By 12 I was building geocities websites and the rest is history. I picked up on WordPress in the mid 2000’s and really got serious about it a few years ago. I’ve been the Webmaster for Sarasota Memorial Hospital and University of South Florida (I won bid to bring first WP Campus to our school this July!) since living in Sarasota. I’ve developed plugins available at WordPress.org and been featured in blogs such as WordImpress! Shiny New Toys.

Website: http://whoischris.com

James Hipkin

James is an accomplished, forward-thinking marketing professional with 25+ years of multi-disciplinary experience in marketing and marketing communications companies serving high-profile, global brands and B2C clients in consumer packaged goods, durables, transportation, telecommunications and financial services.

He has been involved in digital for more than ten years, first as President of a direct marketing agency in San Francisco, where he led the evolution of the agency from traditional direct marketing to digital. Clients included Apple and Wells Fargo online bank. And then as the head of a mid sized agency’s interactive group, with Toyota as the main client. He joined Red8 Interactive, a long term vendor, as an owner and managing director, five years ago.

Shelly Peacock

Shelly Peacock, AKA @Spinbird, has been in sales and graphic design since 2001, moving focus to include Social Media Management and Digital Marketing in 2007. She built her first WordPress site in 2009- as a way to make her designs “do stuff”, and as a portfolio for her art business. Shucked it all to run The SpinBird Group, a WordPress consulting and design business. She likes short walks on the beach, cabanas, and shooting opossums off her back deck with her shotgun. Daily Mantra: Life is short- GET #FIERCE WITH IT.

Our Moderator: Chris Lema

chrislemaChris Lema is a storyteller – and a storytelling evangelist.

You heard that right.

He tells stories about the importance of storytelling.

Until mid-April the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite, Chris has spent the last two decades managing high-performing teams who build software products. (Largely, by telling them stories.)

Usually, that’s been SaaS products across a variety of B2B vertical markets. But the description also applies to his coaching practice, as he’s helped startups – in recent years primarily WordPress startups – develop more viable products and take them to market faster. You can find his blog at ChrisLema.com. Follow him on Twitter at @chrislema.

 

Don’t miss out on all the awesome information that this panel will unleash, buy your WordCamp St. Louis ticket now!

Getting to WordCamp

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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 Getting to WordCamp →

Meet The Blogger Panel

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At 4PM on May 14th, we’ll be holding a special panel for bloggers and content creators. Our panel consists of bloggers with a lot of knowledge and experience. They also have wide knowledge in various niche.

In this panel, you can ask questions about how to make money with your blog, SEO, and anything dealing with blogging. We’ll start off with some prepared questions, and then open the questions to the room, so have your questions ready!

 

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Our Blogger Panel

(in Alphabetical order)

Michele Butcher

michele-butcherA self-styled, proud graduate of the University of Inspect Element — aren’t we all? — Michele is a triple threat in the WordPress world:

  • Accounts Coordinator for Valet.
  • Support Guru for GiveWP.
  • Support Engineer for Yoast.

Hailing from Carbondale, Illinois (the other, prettier part of Illinois), she’s also the lead organizer of the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup and teaches beginners’ WordPress at John A. Logan College.

You can follow her blog at CantSpeakGeek.com, and on Twitter at @Michele_Butcher.

Nile Flores

10371583_10202981429234451_7549174180863520095_nNile Flores is a long time WordPress designer and Developer. While she grew up a military brat, she eventually settled in the St. Louis metro east region. Nile blogs at Blondish.net, where she covers topics on WordPress, Blogging, SEO, Social Media, and Web Design.

She also loves contributing to WordPress, and that includes speaking at WordCamps across the United States. She loves helping people and supporting Open Source projects.

In other news, Nile is a proud support member at Team Yoast. She also runs a 8,000 member Facebook group dedicated to helping WordPressers, called All About WordPress. Nile is also the 2014 and 2015 Community Choice Winner at the Small Business Influencer Awards, hosted by Small Business Trends. When Nile isn’t knee deep in coding and design, she’s spending time with her son, who is also a WordPress user.

You can follow Nile on Twitter at @blondishnet.

(Nile started off as a hobby blogger over 14 years ago.)

Chris Lema

chrislemaChris Lema is a storyteller – and a storytelling evangelist.

You heard that right.

He tells stories about the importance of storytelling.

Until mid-April the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite, Chris has spent the last two decades managing high-performing teams who build software products. (Largely, by telling them stories.)

Usually, that’s been SaaS products across a variety of B2B vertical markets. But the description also applies to his coaching practice, as he’s helped startups – in recent years primarily WordPress startups – develop more viable products and take them to market faster. You can find his blog at ChrisLema.com. Follow him on Twitter at @chrislema.

Andrew Nathan

andynathaIn the last five years, Andy Nathan has worked with hundreds of clients in more than 75 different industries, helping them improve their blogging and social media.

In that short period, he’s also personally written more than 4,000 articles for clients and his own projects.

That level of productivity has drawn Andy a lot of attention from news organizations of every size, including some major players: on the national level, Fox News and WGN have interviewed him about his approach to content. Closer to home, AM 560 the WIND, and many more have brought Andy’s story to their audiences.

You can find Andy on Twitter at @andynathan.

Our Moderator: Chris Miller

chrismillerChris Miller is the founder of . He’s a social network and app reviewer, a videocaster/podcaster, and a constant link giver.

You can follow him on Twitter at @idonotes

 

 

 

Don’t miss out on all the awesome information that this panel will unleash, buy your WordCamp St. Louis ticket now!