Sep 30 & Oct 1
Hello WordCampers!
The videos from this year's WordCamp are now online. Head over to https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-toronto-2017/ and take a look.
There were 41 talks this year, and I was able to post 31 of them. The ones not posted were, mostly, because of audio issues, where the audio quality was non existent or not at a level which would be understood.
Tweet to me (@xxowe) if you have any questions or comments.
Hi folks!
A Big THANK YOU to Conrad and the ~60 volunteers who made this Toronto WordCamp a wonderful learning/sharing experience. 🙂 Endless hours are invested in the execution of a conference of this magnitude. I tip my hat.
I’ve also personally enjoyed speaking with the sponsors at the sponsor tables. I found them all engaging, genuinely happy to be there and zealously answering any/all participants’ questions. Kudos to them.
Whether or not you attended my session (“Secrets to a Successful Website Building Business“), if you have questions feel free to contact me. I’d be more than happy to chat and answer them. I’m passionate about the subject and love to share.
Cheers!… and see you at WCTO 2018,
Gilles – gilles@gillesgagnon.com
Every so often, something happens which makes you smile in appreciation of someone’s thoughtfulness.
As a speaker in #WCTO 2017 next month, I received an email a few weeks ago from Martha Chan offering to put up a speaker in her home and save the expense and bother of a hotel for the two nights of the conference. She included a drive in on both days.
I couldn’t resist replying just to express my appreciation for her offer notwithstanding that I’m in Toronto and not in need myself. She replied and, in our exchange, it occurred to me Continue reading “The spirit of community is alive at WCTO”
Has #WCTO become so big the City has to stop traffic around the venue?
No joke. Saturday, 30 Sep, Bay St. is closed between Dundas St. W. and Richmond St. W. starting at 8:00 am.
Queen’s Park Crescent (around the parliament buildings) is closed starting at 3:30 pm.
And Queen St. W. is closed from Yonge to University starting at 6:30 pm.
They’re shutting down the streets around us! But is it for us? And what does this mean for parking at the event?
There are a couple of things happening at the same time as WordCamp Toronto.
The closing ceremonies of the Invictus Games happen Friday, 30 September at the Air Canada Centre (ACC). The ceremony starts at 7:30 pm.
Traffic in and out of downtown is going to be slow. Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams and Kelly Clarkson are just three of the entertainers at the Invictus Games closing. And you can bet the TTC is going to be crowded, too.
Prince Harry is also here for the Invictus Games. Expect road closures and extra security around the ACC.
The #WCTO Welcome Dinner starts at 6:30 pm. We’re at Yueh Tung restaurant at Dundas St. W. and Elizabeth St. – very much downtown. Be sure to give yourself extra time to get there.
The Welcome Dinner is for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers. It’s the final opportunity for people to meet each other before #WCTO. You’re welcome to bring a date. Just pick up a +1 ticket.
Road closures for Nuit Blanche start Saturday morning.
Since Bay St. is closed beside the venue, you can access the Green P parking under City Hall via Chestnut St. Go two blocks west on Dundas St. W. from Bay and turn south. Chestnut St. runs directly into an entrance to the Green P parking.
There is also parking at the Eaton Centre. The entrance is off Yonge St. at the corner of Yonge and Shuter. It’s on the east side of the Eaton Centre between Queen St. and Dundas St.
You have closed streets to walk along at the start of the scavenger hunt. There may also be crowds.
Two of your first stops are City Hall and Old City Hall. There is likely to be a crowd at City Hall getting ready for Nuit Blanche. Of course, the real crowd starts after sunset.
Nuit Blanche runs from sunset Saturday to sunrise Sunday. And it happens all around the #WCTO After Party.
The after party happens at the Duke of Devon, 66 Wellington St. W. Nuit Blanche happens on Front St. to the south, Queen St. and Bay St. to the north, and Queen’s Park Crescent even farther north.
The scavenger hunt takes you from #WCTO to the after party. Then you go from the after party to Nuit Blanche in a few steps.
Of course, remember that #WCTO starts at 10am Sunday. You might want an hour or two of sleep before starting Sunday.
WordCamp Toronto is two days of all things WordPress. Join us for an intense weekend of networking, fun, and discovery.
By Robin Macrae
Can a professional website be created by the ultra low cost freelancers sourced in
one of the many freelance marketplace sites?
Why not find out first hand?
That’s the task that Guy Gentil, a WordPress freelancer recently arrived in Toronto, set out for himself. Have a site built with a commercial theme, a custom logo and original content. Use offshore freelancers with whom he would Continue reading “Outsourcing a WordPress site build, a show and tell story”
By Robin Macrae
You’ve seen in Google search results those product prices, sports event dates and teams playing, star ratings, recipe cooking times and other nuggets of useful information displayed for some pages. They are rich snippets and a valuable SEO enhancement you can add to the content of your site and its pages.
Rich snippet is the term used to describe the structured data markup that can be added to a page’s existing HTML, which in turn allow search engines to better understand what information is contained on the page. S: A Beginner’s Guide to Rich Snippets – Unamo Blog.
There’s no mystery why and how these pages have this advantage. By adding structured data— aka schema markup—to your content, you can make Continue reading “Scheme your way to more SEO traffic with structured data”
by OnTheGoSystems
Sometimes WordPress users may think that multilingual websites are not necessary for their audience. However, there is a huge potential of targeting a much larger audience by going multilingual, even for small businesses.
WPML makes it easy for you to translate web pages, posts, custom types, taxonomies, and even more, into different languages. It offers more than 40 languages to choose from and you can even add variants of languages, such as Canadian French or Colombian Spanish, to enable localizing your content and targeting the right market.
Imagine you’re a restaurant owner in an area visited by people from many countries. Naturally, you will want to translate your menu into the most prevalent languages. You want to reach out to as many people as possible, right?
That’s exactly the same situation for your WordPress site. If you provide your website visitors the content in their mother tongue, you are not only cultivating their trust but getting closer to them. You are generating new opportunities to expand your influence.
As you can see, in a globalized world, becoming multilingual is no longer an option but a necessity. Are you ready to become multilingual?
Be sure you have your ticket to WordCamp Toronto #WCTO. Join in the fun and discovery of growing your business with WordPress.
By Robin Macrae
We all want to be heard. Sometimes we have very little control over how that gets done. ClickToTweet puts some of that control back in our hands.
ClickToTweet comes in two forms:
The plugin is great when you control the site. It’s the service you need when control is in someone else’s hands. That might be because you’re posting on someone else’s site. It might be because, like WordCamp sites, you are unable to install plugins.
Every WordCamp site is part of a multi-site installation. That means you get whatever plugins are installed by the super-administrator of the multi-site. For WordCamp, that means your only Continue reading “ClickToTweet – Because Everyone Wants To Be Heard”
I am so excited! KidsCamp, is set to run Saturday, September 30, 2017. I can’t wait to meet the next generation of WordPress experts.
This is the first time we’ve tried this in Toronto and we’ve put our own touches on it to make it a really special part of WordCamp Toronto 2017.
For kids aged 7-14, accompanied by a parent, we’ve created an all-day workshop where kids can create their own blog from scratch. Don’t know WordPress? No worries there – this workshop expects no previous Continue reading “KidsCamp is coming to WordCamp Toronto”
For attendees, see the companion post, 5 keys to a rewarding and enjoyable WordCamp experience, and note that these tips are of potential value in having reasonable expectations for what you’ll get from a WordCamp event.
When you’ve put the time and effort into a WordCamp presentation, don’t misfire on some basics in delivering it.
This post has tips on making the most of your WordCamp speaking opportunity. It’s not a guide or advice on preparing the presentation itself but rather, having developed a good one, getting the most from it. There are lots of tutorials, guides and advice specific to Continue reading “10 tips for making the most of your WordCamp speaking opportunity”
WordCamp Toronto 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!