Joshua Wold – Featured Speaker

Joshua is coming to Toronto from Idaho. He is speaking Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm in Rm 147. His topic is Sketches in which he shows you how to lay out a project (or problem) with simple sketches. Let’s get to know him…

When I was 16 I was hired as a lifeguard for the summer and was excited to take the job. However, at the same time I got offered a job as a graphic artist at a screen printing shop. After some deliberation I chose the design job. I’m thankful for that decision as it has helped shape much of my life since, including how I met my wife!

I enjoy spending time in bookstores, running, drawing, playing with Lego (now that I have a 4 year old son I can use him as my cover to keep buying them), playing old computer games with friends (looking at you Age of Empires 2!), and much more.

As a teenager I decided Continue reading “Joshua Wold – Featured Speaker”

Rodrigo Donini – Featured Speaker

Rodrigo comes to us from Brazil. He is speaking Saturday at 4 pm in Rm 149. His topic is Tips To Shield Your WP Site. Let’s get to know him…

“I started my life with WordPress eight years ago, and on the beginning like anyone, I’ve studied, tested and understood how it works this CMS and from this point I start to create my own things like themes, plugins and others.

I’m a nerd, software engineer, husband, father and curious about everything is around me, not necessary in this order.

Currently I’m a global speaker, teacher and WordPress evangelist. I’m a person very involved with the community.

Also I’m one of the organizers of the WordCamp Porto Alegre in south of Brazil.

Currently I’m Software Engineer and Technical Screener at Toptal.”

My presentation have main focus in help WordPress user in general, developers and sysadmins to Continue reading “Rodrigo Donini – Featured Speaker”

To Be or Not To Be Multilingual?

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.

  • Regarding e-commerce alone, customers are aware that they have multiple options available for buying online. One way to increase your customer satisfaction is showing that you are prepared and willing to make them special, by making it easier for them to place orders in the language they are most comfortable with. This is an important first step.
  • You are also increasing the possibilities of being discovered in countries which rely mainly on local search engines. This way you are also increasing your credibility. Your users will appreciate the time and effort you are making to become multilingual.  They will realize that, by taking this step, you are committed to managing a genuine, long-term business.
  • Additionally, you can take it a step further by localizing or adapting your content according to the country. For example, you can adapt your content to Colombian or Mexican Spanish, showing your audience in a practical way that you understand their culture and that they are important to you.
  • Finally, you can translate your website in accord with the culture and legislation of the country, sending the right message to the right audience.

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.

Conrad Hall – Featured Speaker

Conrad is one of our local speakers. He is speaking Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm in the auditorium. His topic is the launching of new programs in Toronto. Let’s get to know him…

My favourite thing to do is grooming; not mine though. I have just enough hair to cover my head and it requires very little care.

Growing up with horses, I used to wile away hours brushing them and talking to them. When Silas was with me (a black lab), I brushed him every day. There is something soothing in the activity.

In the more mainstream line of activities… Reading tops my list (a good thing since I’m an author). Walking, hiking, camping are near the top. I enjoy cooking and baking, but I do a lot less of it now since I’m single. If I cook/bake it now – I end up eating it!

I’m doing a presentation Sunday afternoon on the future of WordPress in Toronto. That probably sounds all official, but it’s Continue reading “Conrad Hall – Featured Speaker”

Sponsor Spotlight: A2Hosting

A2 Hosting logo

WordCamp Toronto 2017 is grateful to A2Hosting for contributing to this event. Let’s remember that these informative and educational events bringing the whole WordPress community together wouldn’t be possible without our great sponsors!

Who is A2hosting?

A2Hosting has blazing fast solutions for your hosting needs. WordPress users account for approximately 70% of their new customers. Due largely to its popularity, both in the industry and among their customer base, they have a WP optimization department and have developed their exclusive A2 Optimized WordPress setup.

A2 Optimized WordPress is a result of their team testing a number of WordPress configurations to determine the one with the best speed and security settings.

Users who choose A2 Hosting get this configuration by default. Anyone can use a limited version of the A2 Optimized plugin; however, A2Hosting customers get Continue reading “Sponsor Spotlight: A2Hosting”

Yep! You’ve got Robots! How to identify the bots infesting your analytics

This post was first published on the wearecircus.ca site.

Yep! You've got Robots

Do you have a lot of website visitors, but they’re only staying for a matter of seconds? Are you finding visits from across the globe, but your site is only in English? You likely have a robot problem.

No, not those programmable machines that will one day take over the world. We mean the digital critters that crawl across the web… and who are taking over your website and email database.

Robots sometimes crawl across the web for good Continue reading “Yep! You’ve got Robots! How to identify the bots infesting your analytics”

How to Get Started as a WordPress Contributor

First published on the DreamHost blog.

By Megan Hendrickson

If you’re DreamHost fan, you probably know that we freaking love open source.

image of contributor community
People Meeting Brainstorming Business Plan Startup Concept

And WordPress — the behemoth that powers 28 percent of the internet — is the ultimate open-source project. That means it’s developed and maintained by a dedicated community of contributors — awesome people like you and me — rather than a for-profit company.

Even better? Becoming one of those stalwart WordPress contributors and shaping the future of the platform is easier than you might imagine. Plus, there are many excellent avenues for contributing. Along with the obvious coding and development roles, you can get involved in design, translation, community outreach, and much more. Continue reading “How to Get Started as a WordPress Contributor”

Sponsor Spotlight – OnTheGoSystems

This content was first published with WordCamp Vienna

We are OnTheGoSystems, the creators of WPML and Toolset.

WPML – the WordPress Multilingual Plugin.

Every time you think about WordPress multilingual, you associate it immediately to WPML. Why? Because WPML makes it possible to have your WordPress site ready to provide content in different languages quickly and easily.

WPML has evolved to become the most complete tool to translate your WordPress site. Nowadays, you are not only able to have a site completely translatable, but  you can also count on local or external translators to provide the best content for your users. If you are thinking about running a multilingual Continue reading “Sponsor Spotlight – OnTheGoSystems”

Toronto Wapuu Drawing Contest

Toronto Wants A Wapuu

What’s a Wapuu, right? It’s okay. Everyone looks at me funny when I say “Wapuu.” It sounds very video game.

Here’s Wapuu:

Original Wapuu image
Original Wapuu

Cute little guy, isn’t he?

Ottawa has a Wapuu.

Montreal has a famour poutine eating Wapuu.

In fact, Montreal has two Wapuu. The 2016 Wapuu is munching a bagel.

Halifax has a Wapuu.

And yes, to be fair, Ottawa actually has 3 Wapuu.

Heck! Nuremberg has 7 Wapuu!!

Toronto has none. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkiss. A nineteen hand (for all you cribbage players). Have a look at all the Wapuu. (All links open in a new tab.)

Toronto Wapuu Drawing Contest

It’s open to everyone. Every age. Every location.

Draw a Wapuu that represents Toronto.

Maybe it’s hugging the Skydome or Continue reading “Toronto Wapuu Drawing Contest”

ClickToTweet – Because Everyone Wants To Be Heard

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:

  1. Plugin
  2. Service

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”

WordCamp Toronto 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!