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PreCamp
Presented by Boomer Sassmann
PreCamp: Beginner’s Day — Friday, September 11
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
PreCamp is a hands-on session for those new to WordPress. Unlike WordCamp (Sat), which focuses on presentations by various speakers and “Ask the Expert” sessions, PreCamp (Fri) is a do-it-yourself day.
Are you new to WordPress (or know someone who is) and want some hands-on support in setting up your website? PreCamp is designed to take you from a blank slate to a fully functioning website before you walk out the door. We provide almost everything* you need to get started.
If you’re a beginner who is wondering if this is the right place for you – the answer is YES! We have an amazing team of experienced WordPress users, designers and developers that have donated their time to make this an incredible learning experience for you that will definitely bring results. You’ll be guided through the steps needed to get your first website up and running. And we have enough facilitators to step in and provide some individual support if you get confused along the way.
* You will need a computer with any images and content you will want on your website, and a willingness to learn through hands-on experience (a great sense of humor and willingness to laugh while you learn is appreciated – but not required.)
Details
Day of PreCamp:
We’ll take you through:- Initial settings and basic security measures (what you need to do first thing to ensure a clean site)
- Getting content on your website – basic pages used on most websites (Home, About, Contact, etc.); your first Post, how to use Categories (vs Tags) to group similar content
- Theme Selection for the “look” you want, Sidebars and Widgets, and Social Media connections with your website
- Plugins to enhance your websites functionality and appearance
Recordings from the 2020 PreCamp Event:
September 11, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT in Other -
Opening Remarks + Keynote: Rand Fishkin
This year WC AVL is thrilled to have as our keynote speaker Rand Fishkin, of SparkToro, Moz, and Inbound.org fame, and, more importantly, an awesome human being. Prior engagements during WordCamp weekend mean we have the happy accident of hearing his keynote live in our smaller Meetup group.
Bio: Rand Fishkin is the cofounder and CEO of SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his blogging, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. When Rand’s not working, he’s most likely to be in the company of his partner in marriage and (mostly petty) crime, author Geraldine DeRuiter. If you feed him great pasta or great whisky, he’ll give you the cheat code to rank #1 on Google.
September 12, 2020 at 9:00 am EDT in Front Porch -
A Tale of Two Gutenberg Migrations
Presented by Russell Fair
The Gutenberg era is an exciting time for WordPress. But upgrading older sites (presumably those that use custom field managers) can be a daunting task. This presentation details two different migrations, each with very different approaches to migrating “legacy content” to Gutenberg.
September 12, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT in Back Porch -
Ask the Expert: Business
Presented by Nathan Ingram
Nathan Ingram is a WordPress business coach who will be fielding business-related questions from the audience. Not sure where to start? Here are some examples:
- How can I stabilize my income stream with recurring revenue?
- How do I lead efficient consulting sessions for clients?
- How do I maintain client boundaries and keep them on track?
- I struggle with client meetings. Is there a formula for success?
- What are some challenges you’ve dealt with that I can avoid?
This is an open discussion room where you can get guidance from experienced professionals. Bring your own questions, or learn from the discussions prompted by others.
September 12, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT in Other -
Cypress Testing and WordPress
Presented by Micah Wood
Cypress is a JavaScript-based automated end-to-end testing framework. Essentially, it can act like a user on your website by visiting pages, filling out forms, and clicking buttons.
Join in as we learn the basics of how to use Cypress and some of the nuances of testing WordPress plugins, themes, or websites.
Take aways:
- How to install Cypress
- Basics of using Cypress
- How to use Cypress with WordPress
September 12, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT in Kitchen (100-person limit) -
The Evolving Role of the WordPress Administrator
Presented by Cliff Seal
With each subsequent release, the WordPress community seems more and more willing to accept breaking changes—though not necessarily related to code.
Dramatic shifts in user flows are shipping with new versions of WordPress and are turned on by default, forcing users to opt out if they want their existing experience back. Clearly, the experience of new users—or users building new sites—is the priority for WordPress core. But, enterprise software companies live and die by the way they shift user experiences because disruption and wasted time are the enemy. This role of software administrator has become a necessity for large organizations using WordPress every day.
In this session, we’ll discuss the evolving role of a WordPress administrator and the opportunity to better serve your organization through thoughtful change management.
Take aways:
- Evaluating and categorizing changes to the WordPress experience to manage the rollout of core, plugins, and themes
- Tailoring the out-of-the-box WordPress experience to suit your organization
- Managing and streamlining user support by triaging issues and questions
September 12, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT in Front Porch -
Checking under the hood: Auditing your website for a smooth ride
Presented by AmyJune Hineline and Miriam Goldman
We often talk about websites the way we talk about cars. Are you driving a flashy sports car or a stable hatchback? And is yours a lemon, no matter how pretty the paint job? And if you just got one used, what’s going on under the hood? There’s a way to address these questions about your website, and it’s called a technical audit.
The vast majority of site owners live in fear of the day their site “breaks down.” Performing a site audit can ensure you understand the current state of your site, from the back end code level to the front end performance. It can also help you see potential problems when it comes time to add features (like that sweet audio system).Take aways:
- People attending this session will learn the basic building blocks of performing a technical audit.
- Approaches for auditing different aspects of your site: custom code, theme and front-end functionality, back-end configuration and modules, accessibility, etc.
- Tools that can be used to run these tests
- Tips on what to watch for when managing a website over time
September 12, 2020 at 11:00 am EDT in Back Porch -
SEO + Content Marketing = Success
Presented by Kate Runy
SEO and content marketing share the same goal: getting your quality content seen! Learn how these two approaches can work together so more people see the products you and your team work hard to produce. This session will show you that you don’t need to speak a computer language to get your content findable on the world wide web. Just use the formula!
Take aways:
- Why you don’t need to be a techie to think about SEO
- How SEO & content marketing approaches combined mean your content gets seen
- Tips on how to optimize your content as part of your content creation process
September 12, 2020 at 11:00 am EDT in Front Porch -
Why and how you should add structured data to your WordPress website
Presented by Josh Gellock
Join Josh Gellock of Expander Digital for a talk on why and how you should add structured data to your WordPress website. We’ll cover how structured data works, different ways to add it to your WordPress website, testing tools, and why it’s important for SEO.
Take aways:
- Users will understand how to build structured data, test structured data, and deploy structured data.
September 12, 2020 at 11:00 am EDT in Kitchen (100-person limit) -
Ask the Expert: Security
Presented by Steven Ayers
Steven Ayers is a full stack developer with a special focus on security, and he’ll be available to field your security-related questions! Not sure where to start? Here are some examples:
- What should I pay attention to when choosing hosting?
- What if the worst happens and I get hacked?
- I’m not a developer. What plugin do you recommend?
- I’m a developer. What steps should I always take when building sites?
This is an open discussion room where you can get guidance from experienced professionals. Bring your own questions, or learn from the discussions prompted by others.
September 12, 2020 at 1:00 pm EDT in Other -
Clone Yourself through Automation
Presented by Jocelyn Mozak
Ever catch yourself repeating the same task over and over again? If you can document the steps you can automate it! From high-level concepts like the development of systems and processes to detailed examples of how to harness the power of forms and Zapier to save hours of tedious work. You will leave this talk will inspire you to look at every task in your business and ask … can this be automated?
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Jocelyn Mozak
Jocelyn has over a decade of experience building, running and wrangling a WordPress Website Design Agency all while having two boys at home. In addition to running her Agency, Jocelyn is a mentor & business coach to other Creative Professionals helping them to build businesses that support the life they desire.
Twitter: @jocelynmozak
September 12, 2020 at 1:00 pm EDT in Kitchen (100-person limit) -
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Diversity in Tech Panel
Presented by Aida Correa, Aisha Adams, Joe A. Simpson, Jr, and Sarah Benoit
As one of the most affordable and accessible platforms for people interested in Technology, WordCamps are a real-life showcase of the growing diversity in the field. However, there is still more work to be done.
Why are diverse voices and experiences critical to the health of our communities and businesses? What challenges do underrepresented groups face? How can we ensure lasting change in our WordPress and home communities? Aida Correa, Aisha Adams, and Joe Simpson, along with moderator Sarah Benoit, will have an open discussion about tough topics and times with optimism in mind.
Take aways
- A deeper understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
- Strategies for making WordPress, tech, and business communities more inclusive
- Ideas on how to get involved in causes to help others and impact lives
September 12, 2020 at 1:00 pm EDT in Front Porch -
Make it Fast and Make it Last
Presented by Justin Ferrell
Can you really say you’re building websites if you’ve never gotten a call about a website feeling slow? For years, performance on the web has been one of those things that many have tried to quantify. Like reproducing a tricky bug, nailing down how and why things on the web feel slow is usually harder than actually speeding them up. In this talk, we’ll run through examples from real WordPress sites and dig into how we can speed up our websites and make sure they stay that way.
Take aways:
- How can I measure the performance of my website in a way that is consistent and actionable?
- How can I meaningfully improve the performance metrics I capture?
- How can I continually monitor the performance of my website over time?
September 12, 2020 at 1:00 pm EDT in Back Porch -
Ask the Expert: SEO
Presented by Rich Owings and Leah Shapiro
Rich Owings, owner of Local Is Where Its At, and Leah Shapiro, SEO Manager at Seer Interactive, are ready to field all your SEO questions! Beginner, technical, local, international, broad or nitty gritty — bring any question and be ready to get nerdy! Not sure where to start? Here are some examples:
- Can I modify my business listing on Google/Google Maps?
- What extra steps do I need to take as an YMYL site?
- Do reviews make a difference?
- Are backlinks worth the effort?
This is an open discussion room where you can get guidance from experienced professionals. Bring your own questions, or learn from the discussions prompted by others.
Feel free to email your questions ahead of time to Rich at rich@localiswhereitsat.com.
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Leah Shapiro
As SEO Manager at Seer Interactive in San Diego, Leah builds actionable content strategies that support client goals and serve audience needs. Although she was an early adopter of Ask Jeeves, Leah started her career in print, with stints in book publishing and journalism. As chief editor for an award-winning arts and culture magazine in Asheville, North Carolina, Leah wrote stories about entrepreneurs and organizations, while managing a team of freelance writers and interns, and dabbling in photography. After five years in print, she turned to digital marketing in 2016 as a content creator at a Certified B Corp agency with clients primarily in tourism, impact, and health. It wasn’t long before the agency’s SEO division piqued her curiosity, and she was hooked. Her knowledge in SEO strategy, technical SEO, and content development helps Leah focus on the details and keep in mind the larger context.
Twitter: @ovaryexcited
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-shapiro-b290884b/
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Rich Owings
Rich Owings is a local SEO specialist, focusing on improving local business’s visibility on Google Maps, improving their organic rankings, their online reviews and their mobile presence. He has been involved in Internet marketing since 2005 when he started a technology blog that he took full-time in 2007, and sold in early 2014. That site fueled his interest in and knowledge of SEO and location-based services, and he now focuses on sharing his knowledge with local businesses.
https://localiswhereitsat.com/
Twitter: @richowings
September 12, 2020 at 2:00 pm EDT in Other -
Making Your Contact Forms Land in an Inbox
Presented by Aaron Reimann
Websites with a contact form, order forms or e-commerce solutions, it is important that the customer receives a response. It has become more difficult to make this happen every time. I’ll walk you through setting up DNS correctly dealing with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and the like. I’ll also touch on 3rd party mail services.
Take aways:
- How to troubleshoot and set up email
- Which plugins to use to make sure mail lands in the inbox
September 12, 2020 at 2:00 pm EDT in Front Porch -
What should good WordPress developers know and learn?
Presented by Emanuel Costa
In this online talk Manny Costa will bring questions and answers about WordPress development. Such as:
- How to be a WordPress developer?
- What are rookie mistakes to avoid?
- What is the list of required knowledge and technologies that good WordPress Developers know or try to learn? (Spoiler alert: It’s a long list.)
- How to become a better WordPress Developer?
- How to identify a good WordPress Developer?
Take aways:
- Learn from others mistakes.
- Be a better WP Developer.
- Raise awareness.
September 12, 2020 at 2:00 pm EDT in Kitchen (100-person limit) -
⚡Brand Identity Witchcraft
Presented by Aviva Campbell
Leverage the sorcery and science of data-informed creativity to bewitch your audience and enhance your web presence.
Take aways:
- Discover why the most influential brands employ both analytical savvy and creative magic to spellbind their consumers
- Learn how to conjure relevant data
- Wield the power of research to create transfixing content
September 12, 2020 at 2:00 pm EDT in Back Porch -
⚡Images: Usage, sizing, and compression
Presented by Wesley Lewis
Want your site to be blazing fast? Pick the right image for the right place! If your site is sluggish you probably have improperly formatted, sized, and compressed images. Optimizing your images is one of the easiest and most effective ways you can speed up your site, give your users a better user experience, and help your SEO. I’ve got the quick tips to help you get started.
Takeaways
- Understand Image types and their place
- Get help with plugins!
- How images help to site speed, accessibility, and SEO.
September 12, 2020 at 2:30 pm EDT in Back Porch -
Ask the Experts: Pagebuilders
Presented by Michael Cremean, Cassandra Hendrix, and Jocelyn Mozak
3:00 – 4:00 PM Eastern // Salon
Do you use, or are you thinking about using, Elementor, Divi, or Beaver Builder? If so you probably have some questions! Luckily we’ve gathered the pros to get your questions answered — Michael Cremean, Cassandra Hendrix, and Jocelyn Mozak.
This is an open discussion room where you can get guidance from experienced professionals. Bring your own questions, or learn from the discussions prompted by others.
September 12, 2020 at 3:00 pm EDT in Other -
Cover Your Assets: WordPress Accessibility Images, Videos, and More
Presented by Joe A. Simpson, Jr
Whether you are a beginner or not, most WordCampers know what an image ALT tag is or have seen closed captions on our television shows or YouTube videos. But the majority of you reading this STILL skip these critical first steps in making your client or personal WordPress sites accessible and perform markedly better.
In this interactive WordCamp online presentation, we’ll also cover the basics:
- What the first 4:44 seconds of the Lion King can teach us about accessibility;
- How to find WordPress themes and plugins to get you started on being accessible right “out of the box”;
- How to avoid generating creating “craptions” and tools to improve YouTube’s auto-captioning;
- How, as a beginner, how you handle images and videos in a more mobile-first world can improve your site performance in SEO ranking; and
- How accessibility is often seen as an inconvenience but actually enhances your website performance if done correctly
Take aways:
- Importance of advocating for and how to add accessibility technique to your process, increasing your value
- How making your WordPress site accessibility increases your customers
- Better accessibility improves site performance and SEO
September 12, 2020 at 3:00 pm EDT in Front Porch -
Level Up Your Coding: The Whys and Hows of Local Development
Presented by Miriam Goldman
Many developers know to NEVER do changes directly on a live website, lest we break it.
What if though, you don’t have access to a staging or development environment? Or even if you do, what happens if you are in a situation where you do not have reliable internet access! Local development environments to the rescue!
We’ll touch on why it’s so important, and discuss the plethora of options available. Please note all examples will be shown from a Mac OS, but environments for Linux and Windows will be discussed.
Takeaways
- Why you should develop locally
- Tools to use
- How to get a development workflow going
September 12, 2020 at 3:00 pm EDT in Kitchen (100-person limit) -
Web Vitals and WordPress
Presented by Adam Silverstein
Web Vitals (https://web.dev/vitals/) is an initiative by Google to provide a great user experience on the web with measurable quality signals. Site owners should not have to be performance gurus in order to understand the quality of experience they are delivering to their users. The Web Vitals initiative aims to simplify the landscape, and help sites focus on the metrics that matter most.
Core Web Vitals are the subset of Web Vitals that apply to all web pages and each of the Core Web Vitals represents a part of user experience that is measurable in the field. Site owners should pay attention, because an upcoming Search ranking change incorporates these page experience metrics (https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/05/evaluating-page-experience.html).
This talk explores how WordPress developers and website owners can check, monitor and improve web vitals.
Take aways:
- What are Web Vitals and why do they matter.
- How to measure and monitor Web Vitals.
- Fine tuning WordPress for Web Vitals.
September 12, 2020 at 3:00 pm EDT in Back Porch
WordCamp Asheville 2020
