Wrapping Up: Thank You, Everyone!

September 30, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Wrapping Up: Thank You, Everyone!

thank you card - pink on orange

Wow!

WordCamp Toronto 2012 has come and gone, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Thank you, everyone, for making WCTO 2012 such a hit! We’re grateful for the amazing attendees and spectacular speakers that joined us for a weekend of WordPress at George Brown College. We’d also like to say…

Thank you to our volunteers. You showed up early with smiles on your faces and were more helpful than you can possibly imagine. Your contributions made this weekend flow smoothly – we wouldn’t have been able to do it with you.

Thank you to our caterers, Espresso Bella and Tailor Made Cafe. Delicious drinks and food kept energy high and bellies full. Forkgate 2012 will go down in the WordCamp record books as a testament to the importance of utensil preparedness.

If you missed out on the presentations, don’t worry!

Videos from each presentation will be shared on WordPress.tv, and we’re hunting down our presenters for online copies of their notes and slide decks.

What’s next?

How did we do? Complete our feedback survey and let us know what we can do to make WordCamp Toronto: Developers — and WordCamp Toronto 2013 — even better.

Don’t miss WordCamp Toronto: Developers! November 3rd and 4th at George Brown College. WCTO:DEV will be geared towards the coding side of WordPress. Get your tickets now before they sell out! We’re also looking for speakers, so if you’re interested in presenting, drop us a message.

Want more WordCamp? Head to Buffalo! WordCamp Buffalo takes place on October 20th at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Registration is only $15!

Join our mailing list! Sign up for our mailing list and never miss a thing.

Join the Toronto WordPress Group! Monthly meetups, workshops, presentations, social events, and more. We have lots of big ideas for 2013, we’re open to WordPress users of all experience levels, and we want you to join. Check us out on Meetup.com!

Thanks again for making this weekend rock hard.

Your organizers,

Al, Andy & Craig

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Feedback Survey Results

October 8, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Feedback Survey Results

Voting 1

Results are in! A week ago, we started collecting feedback for WordCamp Toronto 2012. Here’s what our attendees had to say about September’s user conference:

Overall Impressions

In a nutshell: George Brown’s wireless situation was the biggest hurdle of our weekend. Luckily the excellent food kept people happy, although the lateness and ill-preparedness of our dining situation left some with a bad taste in their mouth. Our Happiness Bar needs more attention next year, and a steady stream of coffee throughout the weekend trumps fancy espressos.

Continue reading Feedback Survey Results →

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Presentation Notes & Slide Decks

September 30, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • 4 Comments

This post will be updated as notes and slide decks become available from this year’s presenters.

WordPress 101: WordPress Out-of-the-Box

WordPress 102: Customizing WordPress

WordPress 103: Beyond WordPress

Increasing your Visibility on the Web

Intro to WordPress Development

WordPress Success Stories

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Featured Speaker: Mo Jangda

September 29, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Featured Speaker: Mo Jangda

Mo Jangda wrangles code and VIPs at WordPress.com. I enjoy ice cream and other sugary things. Visit him online at digitalize.ca

 

Presentation: Giving Back: How to play your part in the WordPress community

How to get involved in the WordPress community regardless of whether you’re a user, developer, freelancer, or business and the rewards and risks that come with it.

What do you want people to learn from your talk?

That everyone can contribute to the WordPress ecosystem in their own way.

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Keeping Track of WordCamp Toronto 2012

September 28, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • 1 Comment

Good morning, WordCampers! We’ve got a couple new items for you today:

WPToronto on Rebel Mouse
The latest tweets from WordCamp Toronto (@WordCampTOR), the Toronto WordPress Group (@WPToronto), and posts to the #WCTO hashtag will appear on our new Rebel Mouse page: rebelmouse.com/wptoronto

If you’re snapping pictures during the event, share them on Twitter with hashtag #WCTO and they’ll appear on the feed!

WCTO 2012 Mobile Site
We’ve put together a streamlined version of the WordCamp Toronto 2012 website for quick access on your mobile device. It includes a full schedule and session listing, plus directions to the event & wi-fi access info: wptoronto.com/wcto12

Thanks to Peter Wooster, Valerie Crozier, Katherine Flores, and Yasuhiro Nakamura for working on this!

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Sponsor Spotlight: Code Poet

September 27, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Sponsor Spotlight: Code Poet

wcto-sponsor-codepoetIf you build things with WordPress, either professionally or as a hobby, you should add Code Poet to your list of go-to websites. (You should also subscribe to their mailing list!)

Managed by the Automattic team, Code Poet provides a bevy of resources for those who make a living by working with WordPress. Interviews, guides, e-books, and useful tips abound.

Some highlights include:

A big thank you to Automattic and Code Poet for helping make WordCamp Toronto 2012 possible. For all attendees: Don’t forget to grab your free stickers on Saturday morning!

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Featured Speaker: Paul Bearne

September 27, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Featured Speaker: Paul Bearne

Paul Bearne is a coder and team-leader at a Toronto start-up called Enginuity Group. He has been working with WordPress for 10 years, during which time he has created a number of themes and plug-ins. Paul is the maintainer of the Author Avatar list plugin and the creator of the theme used on the Hirshhorn Museum website.

Presentation: WordPress Child Themes

So the new theme on your site is almost right! In my workshop, you will learn how to safely tweak your child theme while still getting updates from the parent theme you have chosen.

What do you want people to learn from your presentation?

How you create child themes, and what you can do with them.

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Sponsor Spotlight: BraveNewCode

September 26, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Sponsor Spotlight: BraveNewCode

What’s the simplest way to make your WordPress site mobile? Easy answer – use WPtouch, the so-simple-it’s-crazy plugin that turns your WordPress site into an iOS-styled application when accessed on a mobile device.

If you’re already using WPtouch, you’re definitely not alone. It’s one of the most popular plugins in the WordPress repository, having been downloaded more than 3.5 million times.

wcto-sponsor-bncWhat you may not know is that WPtouch is only one of three awesome WordPress products from Ontario dev shop BraveNewCode. The other two are:

  • WordTwit Pro – Adds powerful Twitter integration to your WordPress site.
  • Piggy Pro – Mobile access to sales data for popular WordPress e-commerce plugins, inlcuding WooCommerce, Shopp, and Cart66.

BraveNewCode co-founder Dale Mugford has been an active participant in Toronto’s WordPress community, presenting at WCTO 2011 and Toronto WordPress Developer meetups. He’s back for 2012, presenting on going mobile with WordPress.

We’re extremely grateful to have Dale & BraveNewCode taking part in WordCamp Toronto this year.

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Featured Speaker: Ruth Maude

September 26, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Featured Speaker: Ruth Maude

Ruth Maude of Dandelion Web Design has been designing and building websites since the late 1990’s. Now Ruth works primarily in WordPress. She loves WordPress because it’s open source, user-friendly and so good for SEO. You can connect with her on Twitter @dandelionweb.

Presentation: Moving from WordPress.com to .org

Which WordPress is right for you? We’ll compare the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org to help you understand if you should stick with WordPress.com or move to a self-hosted WordPress.org installation.

Bloggers who start out on WordPress.com may later decide that a self-hosted WordPress.org site is a better choice for them. If you’re in that position, this session will help you to make the move.

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Featured Speaker: Sean Nilsson

September 25, 2012 by Andy McIlwain • Comments Off on Featured Speaker: Sean Nilsson

Sean Nilsson has been providing online marketing consulting for 3 years with a client list that includes IMAX Theatres, Museums and the Grand Canyon National Geographic Visitor Center.  Before going out on his own he spent 10+ years at IMAX Corporation overseeing online marketing and creative services.  Sean has been building web sites for 15+ years and loves the collaborative community that surrounds WordPress. When Sean isn’t working on the Web he can be found strumming his guitar and fronting the indie folk band Sheltered in Sound.

Presentation: Spend Wisely: How to choose a Premium Theme

There are hundreds of thousands of WordPress themes floating around and a whole cottage industry built on theme selling. This presentation is about how to evaluate a premium WordPress theme and what to look for when shopping for a theme. This presentation focuses on tradition themes and will not go into detail on frameworks such as Headway, Thesis, etc. The presentation assumes participants are fairly new to WordPress.

What do you want folks to learn from your presentation?

Don’t fall for the flashy stock photos!  Look at the bones of the theme and the support available if something goes wrong or needs adapted.

Continue reading Featured Speaker: Sean Nilsson →

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