He founded the North East Ohio WordPress meetup in 2009 and is on the committee of WordCamp North Canton. He’s a featured consultant in WordPress For Dummies and manages his own consulting company eHermits, Inc. LTD.
Speaker Session
It’s ALIVE!!! – Using AJAX to bring WordPress sites to life. in the Beginner Developer track.
About your session
Just as WordPress’s technology has advanced over the years, gaining new featured and abilities, so have the other tools used to create websites. AJAX is a combination of several technologies that integrated with WordPress can be used to bring your website to life. I will be discussing how to use AJAX in WordPress themes and plugins to create dynamic, interactive sites.
What do you want people to learn from your presentation?
I want this presentation to inspire developers and designers to use AJAX in new and creative ways on their WordPress sites. Attendees will have the tools at their fingertips to new add features and improve their site’s behavior.
Why did you decide to speak?
I take the opportunity to speak at WordCamps and meetups because I have benefited from the expertise of others who have done the same. The supportive nature of the WordPress community is a draw for many people. We help each other openly and eagerly and so all gain as the community grows.
What attracted you to WordPress in the first place?
In 2004, I needed a tool that could create a dynamic website (not a blog), allow multiple non-technical people to edit the content of the site and that could be easily customized with new functionality. This combination of flexibility and power is why I chose WordPress and why WordPress has grown to be the most widely used CMS tool in the world.
What’s your favourite WordPress plugin or theme, and why?
My favorite plugin is Gravity Forms. I have used it for everything from Contact Forms, to powering small eCommerce sites, to populating legacy MS SQL database systems.
What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Toronto?
Reconnecting. I have many friends in the Toronto technological community that I haven’t seen face to face in many years. I can’t wait to reconnect and see what they have been doing in the last few years.