Sessions

What are coding standards, and why should you bother?

Presented by Carme Mias in the Development track.

If you are a freelancer, adopting Coding Standards for the first time is a bit like taking up exercise: you know it’d do you good, but there’s always some urgent deadline or something else more important to do. After all, your code works, right? So, why bother?

In this talk, I will tell you why it matters, explain my experience of the process, including the ups and downs, and share a few tricks I have learned on the way that will make your work better and your life easier.

What WordPress can learn from behavioural Psychology – How to Hack the Brain

Presented by Kenda Macdonald in the Community track.

As businesses we can all too easily get focused on conversion rates… and when we become obsessed with CRO – we tend to forget all about the consumer and their needs and wants. Have we become too focused on the tech and forgotten about the consumer? I’ll share what can we learn from behavioural psychology – and how can we use those lessons to build relationships that last with the people who visit our websites. I’ll discuss how we really make decisions (and how this impacts SEO), what goes into a buying decision, and how to adapt sites and pages to make your audience more likely to convert – and stick around. We did not evolve to click around webpages – we evolved to survive – and that has serious implications for how we browse. I’ll show you how to think about how your audience thinks, and how to hack the buyer brain.

Improving the User Experience of your WordPress sites

Presented by Neil Scott in the Community track.

WordPress is known for pre-made themes that make it easy to get started. However, after a while you might wonder why certain design decisions have been made, how they affect your users, and what you can do to make the site better.

This is where User Experience (UX) design techniques comes in. UX is way of bringing together user needs and business goals through research, testing, and design.

This talk will introduce the concept of UX and provide practical tips for improving your site.

Using Security Headers to help secure your site

Presented by Tim Nash in the Development track.

From HSTS through to CSP and almost every acronym in between security headers, are simple HTTP Headers, sent with requests from your server to the browser but they can be a valuable piece in hardening sites if implemented correctly what’s more for most of them it’s simple to do. In this talk Tim going to go through various security headers explaining how and when to use them and some of the pitfalls. It’s a journey that will take us through HTTPS and into a world where we need to consider carefully what third party content is being used.

How To Integrate WordPress’ GDPR features into Your Project

Presented by Rhys Wynne in the Development track.

In WordPress 4.9.6 a lot of new privacy features were introduced into WordPress that made working towards GDPR compliance just that little bit easier. In this talk, I will walk you through how I integrated the WordPress privacy features into my plugin.

The User Experience and Accessibility of Gutenberg

Presented by Claire Brotherton in the Community track.

The new Gutenberg editor is a key part of WordPress 5.0 which is going to change the user experience of WordPress, for better or for worse. I will take a look at how Gutenberg has developed over its iterations as a plugin, examining how it works in terms of usefulness, desirability, usability, and findability, with a special focus on how accessible Gutenberg is for disabled users.

How I became a core contributor and an expert on WordPress transients – a developers story

Presented by David Artiss in the Development track.

This wil be a technical talk about WordPress transients and caching in general, and how to best use them. I will also flag up some of the pitfalls to avoid.

Don’t worry, it’s not too boring. I’ll explain my story with a number of amusing tales about how I got involved in the subject and ended up contributing to core as a result. Maybe you’ll start contributing too!

How the heck do I choose a plugin?

Presented by Jeremy Davis in the Community track.

With ‘only’ 56,000 plugins to choose from, how hard can it be to choose the right plugin for your WP project?
There is no magic button to press, no silver bullet.
But there are some basic tips you can follow that will help you decide if a plugin is going to actually do what it promises.
This talk is designed to walk you through the process and make your decision-making process much, much easier.

Automated Deployment with WP-CLI and Aliases

Presented by Edmund Turbin in the Development track.

WP-CLI has introduced new ways of working with WordPress via automated commands and scripts. Aliases allow WP-CLI commands to be run on remote servers. Put them together and you have a powerful foundation to run automated processes remotely on multiple servers.

This talk will focus on using WP-CLI to automate deployment of a WordPress database between a development and production website. WP-CLI commands will be joined together in a BASH script that can be executed from the command line.

Tales From the Edge – Practical Advice from 10 Years in the WordPress Field

Presented by Ross Steedman in the Community track.

I started working with WordPress 10 years ago – and I started my agency round about then too.

Join me for 30 minutes as I take you through the highs and lows of running a WordPress business. I’ll outline what I believe are some of the key things I did wrong, and I’ll provide you with a takeaway list of solutions to common problems, so you can avoid making the same mistakes I did.

I’ll be covering a wide range of topics including how we charged for work in the past and how we charge for work now.

This is a practical talk, for business owners who are starting out as freelancers, or transitioning between freelancer and small agency.

How to kick off your WordPress project the right way

Presented by Steven Jones in the Community track.

Before you start your next WordPress project, stop. Have you got a clearly defined scope? Are your requirements well defined? What assumptions are you making? There are many reasons why projects fail – we’re going to look into how to kick off your project the right way to increase the chances of success and keeping your clients happy.

Transitioning to a block-based editor in a pre-Gutenberg world

Presented by Mark Wilkinson in the Development track.

How do we move towards a block-based admin UI in a pre-Gutenberg WordPress?

With the rise of page builders and ‘block-based’ layouts, and the imminent arrival of Gutenberg – WordPress’ new block-based editor – we needed a solution for transitioning towards this new way of editing content while sticking with the mature and stable technology stack that we know and love.

We, therefore, set out to find another solution and this led to the development of the HD ACF Blocks plugin that we use on most sites today.

This talk introduces the plugin, how we built it, how it works, and how it provides value to our clients and our business.

A Digital World for All

Presented by Luna Carmona in the Community track.

I will talk about digital inclusion and its value. I think we need to start conversations about the barriers that the digital world is setting for many people and what impact this can have in their self-esteem, social inclusion and active participation into their communities.

Working for a local charity in Glasgow with kids and young people from deprived areas, digital inclusion has become one of our priorities. We are aware of the lack of skills and access which means that, for instance, we have to encourage young people to come to the office to make their CV and we educate them on basic tools that they might need to use in future jobs.

Not only that, but digital inclusion also means that we have had to re-think how we communicate to ensure that our multiple audiences can access our services and receive the information and details that they need to know about. That means to always think out of the box and keep our service users in mind.

I would like to talk about the value of digital inclusion for all companies and share my experience, some of the difficulties and break some of the most common assumptions. I think it is important to break the barriers that are separating so many people from being part of the conversation and raise awareness of the challenges they face. In times when everything is digital, there is something fun and beautiful about coming back to other forms of communication, as well as allowing the access to the digital world to those who are struggling.

Lightning talks

Presented in the Development track.

Lightning talks are 10 minute talks delivered in an unconference style. We’ll have a whiteboard up at registration at the beginning of the day – put your talk ideas up! Attendees will vote on what they want to see.

Workshop: Let’s make a website together

Presented by Kayleigh Thorpe in the Community track.

This talk is a hands-on workshop aimed towards new WordPress users. Kayleigh will walk you through the first time you login to WordPress, where to find popular features in the dashboard, and how to find some more hidden settings.

She’ll also cover how to install your first couple of plugins and include some tips on how to find good and useful plugins.

Bring your laptop!

Workshop: Setting up the local WordPress development toolset of your dreams

Presented by Luminus in the Development track.

Whether you’re a seasoned plugin/theme developer, a freelancer just starting out with building/customizing sites for clients or a technical support engineer that needs to replicate the setup of a client’s site, a local WordPress development environment is a critical part of your arsenal and there are a number of solid tools to pick from as the core of your setup.

I’ll introduce you to a nifty option that prioritises extreme speed and is light on resources. I’ll also take you through some interesting little tricks that make starting a new project as well as contributing to an existing one faster and way more fun.

Hold on to your hats and scarves and let’s jump right in. It’s a hands-on workshop, so bring your laptop!

Panel discussion: Gutenberg

Presented by Marcus J Wilson, Edd Hurst, Mark Wilkinson in the Development track.

Gutenberg is WordPress’s new content editor. It’s a game changer for developers, for WordPress businesses, and for content creators. This laid-back panel discussion will explore Gutenberg from each of those perspectives, featuring Mark Wilkinson on development, Edd Hurst on business, and Marcus J Wilson on content.

Panel: Using WordPress to create amazing content

Presented by Colin Gray, Kayleigh Thorpe, Kenda Macdonald in the Community track.

WordPress lets you publish excellent content, but how do you make that content shine? This panel will discuss hints, tricks, and tips on writing content people want to read, sharing and publicising your work, and making the most of WordPress’s tools.

Gutenbar

Presented in the Development track.

The Gutenbar is like the Happiness Bar, but for Gutenberg-specific issues. Whether you need to configure it or just learn it, we’re here to help.

Happiness Bar

Presented in the Community track.

The Happiness Bar is not a pub. It’s your chance to bring your laptop and your WordPress problems! We’ll walk you through any issues you might be having getting your sites configured.