Juan’s session is CSS Grid, Gutenberg, and the future of layouts.
From Juan: “NYC based web designer. Built my first table-based site in 2004. Currently designing things for FC Harlem and New York City FC. UX Design Mentor at Bloc.io.”
Why did you choose your topic?
This is the most exciting technology that’s come to browsers since CSS was released. Gutenberg now means a new wave of exciting new themes and websites!
Adrian Tobey’s session is Democratizing Digital Marketing: Why we need to create a better user experience.
From Adrian: “I’m taking my 10 years of marketing and 5 years of WordPress development experience to create new tools for the small businesses of today so that they can grow their businesses quickly without feeling as if they have to learn a whole new language.”
Why did you choose your topic?
The WordPress community has so much to offer the public in terms of both content and software. However, WordPress is losing a battle to the closed source sector.
Every year the SAAS platforms are posting larger user acquisition numbers than WordPress and affiliated platforms. I believe this is because the SAAS industry has truly raised the bar on expectations when it comes to usability.
With the advent of Gutenberg, not only is WordPress signaling to the world that they are ready to compete and deliver a stellar user experience, but they are signalling to developers and publishers alike that we need to get our act together before if we want to stay relevant in 2019.
The following is a guest post by Andrea Zoellner. Andrea is the Chief Content Creator at SiteGround, a web hosting provider that specializes in powerful tools for WordPress webmasters.
She will be presenting back-to-back sessions on content at WordCamp Toronto 2018:
Catch her at the event to talk about WordPress, content strategy, and learn more about SiteGround hosting and affiliate opportunities.
Continue reading Three Reasons to Invest in Great Website Content
Reserve your free ticket for WordCamp Toronto 2018 on Saturday, December 1, 2018 at the North York Civic Centre.
WPToronto, as a not-for-profit community group within the WordPress meetup chapter program, has reserved space for WordCamp in the City of Toronto civic centres at no cost to the group.
Our agreement with the City of Toronto states we are unable to charge for attendance to our events.
Current ticket holders will be reimbursed, and the first 350 people who register and attend are guaranteed to get in. Come early when the doors open for registration at 9 A.M. on Saturday!
WPToronto is grateful for the ongoing support from the City of Toronto, and for providing the free space to our community. It makes our many meetups, and this WordCamp, affordable and accessible to all.
Anyone who hasn’t registered yet should reserve their free ticket now before we run out of space! (Did I mention they’re free!?)
Luckily many sponsors and WordPress Toronto Supporters have stepped in to make sure we get some cool snacks and swag, plus the rockin’ after party. So we can guarantee you a good time in and out of the educational sessions.
In the spirit of WordPress and the GPL, we want to make this open to everyone. So please remember to cancel your ticket reservation if you can’t make it. You can find a cancel link in the email confirmation you receive after you register.
We’ve just published the schedule for this year’s WordCamp Toronto!
You’ll notice our theme of Gutenberg and the future of WordPress echoing throughout the sessions.
We have several developers sharing their first-hand experiences with custom block development; we have marketers talking about the impact of Gutenberg on business websites; and professionals offering their expert advice on designing for user experience and accessibility.
Ticket sales are starting to pick up, so be sure to register while you can.
In the meantime, say hello to your second wave of confirmed speakers and sessions…
With just a few weeks to go before the event, we’re excited to (finally!) announce our first wave of confirmed speakers for WordCamp Toronto 2018. It’s a great lineup of WordPress talent from around the Toronto area and abroad.
We’ve also published the first version of our schedule, which will be updated as our sessions and timings are finalized.
This year’s WordCamp Toronto will focus heavily on Gutenberg and the future of WordPress. We’re working with all of our speakers to ensure there’s a relevant tie-in between their session and this central theme.
If you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, now’s the time to register!
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Andrea is the Chief Content Creator at SiteGround and the lead organizer for WordCamp Montreal. She trained as a broadcast journalist and worked in corporate communications before trading it for a career in tech. Now she spends her days developing brand messaging, copy editing and blogging. When she’s not at home in Montreal, she’s sampling the digital nomad life and documenting her adventures on her travel blog.
Andrea’s talk: Copywriting for better UX
“This presentation offers copywriting and communication tips that will immediately improve your user interface microcopy so your users experience is a more delightful and less frustrating one. The talk will focus on interface copy for end-users and note where elements can be edited with Gutenberg.”
Anthony is a WordPress Innovation Developer at WP Engine and a core contributor to the Gutenberg Project. He spends his free time thinking of new and interesting ways to utilize WordPress.
Anthony’s talk: Building Gutenberg blocks – the Playlist block story (Case Study)
“In this talk, I will outline the story and what we learned from building the Playlist block for the Gutenberg editor. We will explore both the epic wins and failures in the course of building our first block. If you are learning Gutenberg or React and have hit road blocks in understanding the flow, data or tools available, this talk will clear the air on many of those issues. We’ll explore local development tools and design patterns used in block creation.”
Christie recently audited the business processes surrounding the migration of 1,300 websites from HTML to WordPress. She specializes in corporate brand implementation across both print and digital platforms. Christie graduated from the Graphic Design course at Algonquin College, specializing in web/interactive design and motion graphics. Her hobbies are fine arts, traveling, and being a CSS whiz.
Christie’s talk: Migrating 1,300 websites from HTML to WordPress (Case Study)
“We migrated 1,300 websites from HTML to WordPress. Learn how I assessed the business processes beforehand, conducted a company-wide process audit and implemented improvements involving the client services, business account managers, sales, finance, marketing and IT teams […] Finally, learn how I would have evaluated the impact of Gutenberg on the migration had it been released prior to the project.”
From Juan: “NYC-based web designer. Built my first table-based site in 2004. Currently designing things for FC Harlem and New York City FC. UX Design Mentor at Bloc.io.”
Juan’s talk: CSS Grid, Gutenberg and the future of layouts
“Released last year, CSS Grid changes everything for the web and the WordPress community. It means that, for the first time, we can think of layout on posts and pages as two-dimensional and fully responsive. CSS Grid is not another plugin hack or bootstrap patch. Quite simply, it’s the solution for which designers have been asking. It is here to stay and right now is the perfect time to learn it.”
Mike volunteers with The Joomla! Project as the treasurer of Open Source Matters (the not for profit organization for Joomla!) as well as serving on the Joomla! board. Mike Demopoulos has spoken on various open source topics including WordPress and Joomla! in addition to marketing related talks which have included A/B testing content.
Mike’s talk: Addressing Gutenberg facts & fears
“Traditionally, WordPress doesn’t make breaking changes. But with the upcoming release of the Gutenberg editor in WordPress 5.0, how can we realistically adjust both our attitudes and our workflows? […] In this talk, we will spend some time discussing the actual risk-benefit assessment of WordPress 5.0. You will leave with a better outlook — guaranteed.”
Rebeca has been a WordPress developer for a little over 3 years. In that time, she realized that just creating websites for her clients was not good enough to help them with their business goals. She recently founded Geeky Chick Labs, a digital marketing agency that turns WordPress websites into digital hubs.
Rebeca’s talk: WordPress as a digital marketing hub (Gutenberg edition)
“We will cover plugins for reputation management, email marketing, social media feeds and sharing, retargeting, SEO and analytics. You will learn how to use plugins we recommend to get the desired exposure to get business growth.”
Ryan is the co-founder of Uncanny Owl, a Toronto-based WordPress agency. In building eLearning and automation solutions that are used on over 10,000 WordPress sites, Ryan has unique insights into the challenges faced when building complex WordPress sites.
Ryan’s talk: Building & automating WordPress workflows
“In this session, we’ll look at ways that tools can help you build and automate workflows to make your user experience as seamless as possible as well as keep your admin effort to a minimum. We’ll also look at the implications arising from the release of WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg.”
Thiago Loureiro is a freelance full stack developer based in Toronto. He’s been hacking and developing for WordPress since 2010. He’s worked on a number of marketing campaigns for high profile clients and made a core commit in version 4.6.
Thiago’s talk: Building my first Gutenberg block
“This technical session is for developers as well as users with at least a little coding experience. After a brief introduction to what Gutenberg is and what it can do, the presentation will show simple bits of code and demonstrate how these bits of code translate into a Gutenberg block.”
From Troy: “I’ve managed and developed just under a hundred personal and client websites in WordPress over 8 years. I run a 7 person digital marketing agency that conducts SEO, paid ads, email marketing and conversion rate optimization campaigns on all types of sites, the majority of which are WordPress.”
Troy’s talk: Gutenberg’s marketing toolbox
“Can WordPress be the one stop shop for your marketing needs? Is it going to be there for you as you grow from a small business to a large one or will it let you down along the way? This session covers four critical digital marketing categories and how WordPress & Gutenberg support them through various stages of complexity.”
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A big thanks to all of our speakers for volunteering to share their time, knowledge, and experience with us this year.
We’ll have another group of speakers & sessions to announce soon.
In the meantime: don’t forget to register!
WordCamp Toronto is an annual, volunteer-run conference for all things WordPress.
Hosted by members of our local WordPress meetup group, it brings together WordPress users of all skill levels and experiences from around the Toronto area (and further away, too).
Continue reading What to expect at WordCamp Toronto 2018TL;DR This post announces WordCamp Toronto 2018’s theme and provides the first details of the speaking opportunities. Updates to the call for speaker, speaker information and talk ideas posts (the speaker package) are being published as a result.
Apply now to speak at WordCamp Toronto 2018.
We decided on the Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme this week and so are quickly resetting our speaker and session scheme and updating the posts in the speakers’ package.
In addition, we’ve rushed this and the updated posts so we’ll provide more information for potential speakers in the days and weeks to follow. In short, stay tuned.
The theme is about what WordPress will be in 2-3 years and what it will be like when we get there. Given the imminent arrival of Gutenberg* and its potential to fundamentally change WordPress, it’s timely to focus on it in this way.
The theme has two parts. Half of our sessions are devoted to Gutenberg* and the other half to other popular topics.
The Gutenberg sessions will span the gamut of things people want and need to know to understand and adopt to the change. They will cater to the whole range of people, experiences and skills in the WordPress community.
The other sessions will be roughly equal in number, one session per broad topic category. In other words, assuming we have the sessions proposed by potential speakers, there’ll be one in authoring/publishing (with only a minimum on Gutenberg), marketing/SEO, site administration, plugins, site and page builders and so on.
There is one key difference from sessions in our past WordCamps. Speakers on these other topics are required to devote at least a third of their session to the future of WordPress and that, necessarily, includes Gutenberg.
The theme isn’t what the future of WordPress is or may be but what it will be like when the changes we can expect have occurred. That may sound like a distinction without a difference but what we want to avoid is navel gazing, starry-eyed glimpses of a future. Instead, ask yourself:
For the Gutenberg sessions, our goal is to provide the best one-day learning experience available in our community for the arrival of this important change. In broad terms, we aim to deliver a basic introduction, the current state of its implementation and the extent to which it realizes its goals, the impact of Gutenberg on themes, plugins, etc. and what new capabilities and opportunities Gutenberg represents.
If you’re interested in proposing a Gutenberg session, then pick one of the following topics and develop it in your submission:
You are free to propose another Gutenberg topic that addresses some important aspect that these don’t and that complements the others.
The Gutenberg sessions would have a mix of content to span beginner to expert in each session. In other words, each session will have a mixed audience in terms of skills and experience. The ratio may vary session to session but the idea is that anyone and everyone can and should attend all of them.
Note that, as a group, we’re committed to Gutenberg and its successful adoption and ongoing development. For that reason, skip the comparisons to the Classic Editor and page builders and why either may have advantages except in the context of a transition to Gutenberg.
As stated, there are 2 groups of sessions. (They could be called tracks except that term usually refers to the room to which a session is assigned). What would be different about these other or non-G sessions is that approximately a third of each session is required to answer the question, How does this affect Gutenberg and the future of WordPress?
We’ve added to the talk idea post a list of broad topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions. Each has a group of sub-topics. These are examples and and no session proposal would be expected to address them all.
We’re still working on the theme details and the assistance we can provide to potential speakers. There’ll be announcements and posts to help you understand our theme and how you can work with it. A theme makes different demands on event organizers as well as potential speakers than the usual WordCamp so we’re open to ideas and recommendations to make this our best one ever.
So stay tuned and make sure you’ve subscribed to this blog to receive notifications of new posts by email.
The Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme phrase was inspired by Morten Rand-Hendriksen‘s 2018-01-06 Gutenberg And The WordPress Of Tomorrow | YouTube video of his WordCamp presentation.
Turns out Something of Tomorrow is itself borrowed (e.g., “world of tomorrow” (images); the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair promised visitors they would be looking at the “World of Tomorrow.” (s)).
*In case you’ve been living on another planet, Gutenberg is the new authoring UI/UX due in WordPress 5.0 that is expected to be released just before or after our event. It’s causing quite a stir in the blogosphere. There are lots of resources but you’ll find The new Gutenberg editing experience | WordPress.org and Gutenberg | WordPress.org are good starting points. The WordPress 5.0 release date query will lead you to the latest.
What are you waiting for?
Apply now to speak at WordCamp Toronto 2018.
Important dates:
Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.
If you have any questions, contact me at mailto:wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.
Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018
The announcement email a few minutes ago in regard to this post had links from a version of that post that hadn’t been updated. The new email announcement has the correct links. Apologies for the error. RAM
Are you ready to speak on the largest WordPress stage in Canada? WordCamp Toronto 2018 is on Saturday, December 1st, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario.
Submissions will be accepted until Sunday, September 30th, 2018.
Have a great idea for a talk? We want to see it!
We are excited to once again showcase the passion, talent, and skills of our Toronto WordPress community—and we want you to be a part of it!
Are you passionate about WordPress? Whether you are a content creator, a designer, a developer or a user and community member, we want to we want to hear your story. We are looking for speakers on a wide variety of topics and backgrounds. What do you love about WordPress? Do you have expertise in a specific field or an interesting project to share?
View some talk ideas.
As a Speaker
Why speak? Yes, presenting at WordCamp takes some work but the effort is very rewarding. Share your passion, convince people you’re worth hiring and help everyone learn about WordPress—all at the same time.
We are looking for speakers able to engage our attendees and teach them something about WordPress. Thank you for being willing to share your knowledge and expertise with our attendees, in person and on the live stream. We’re showcasing the best WordPress talks from our community and we want your contribution.
View speaker information.
Follow the updates by subscribing to the site’s feed.
If speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2018 is for you, what are you waiting for? Apply now!
Important speaker dates:
Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.
If you have any questions, contact me at wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.
Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018
This is the current version of the talk ideas post having been updated once. The update added the theme announced for the event and a second list of topics to consider.
The theme of the event is Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow.
Read about the theme and what it means for speaker submissions in the Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme announcement post.
Apply now and submit your talk.
The WordPress ecosystem encompasses a broad and diverse range of topics as befits the world’s most popular authoring and publishing platform. If you are stuck for ideas or to get the ideas flowing for our themed event, here is an alphabetically ordered list of broad topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions. Each has a group of sub-topics. These are examples and and no session proposal would be expected to address all or even most of the sub-topics in any one of them.
This alphabetically ordered list of generic topics for the non-Gutenberg sessions is not exhaustive. It’s to spark your imagination. If you have any other topics you think our attendees will love, submit your talk idea.
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Apply now and submit your talk.
The survey we are conducting contains an extensive list of topics. In regard to the survey, see Have you filled out the WordCamp Toronto 2018 survey? | WPToronto.
The talk ideas provided for WordCamp Europe 2018 speaker applicants is another useful source of topics.
Submitting a talk on plugins or tools? We’re looking for talks that informs our audience of their options so they can choose what is best for them. For example, consider a talk on form plugins. We would expect you to compare/contrast/cover an array of options such as Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WP Forms, Contact Form 7 and so on. If you’re addressing premium/paid plugins, remember to cover at least one of the free alternatives.
Important dates:
Please understand that, as volunteers, we won’t not be able to provide a detailed response to each submission.
If you have any questions, contact me at mailto:wcyyz18+speakers@gmail.com.
Robin Macrae
Co-Organizer, WPToronto & WordCamp Toronto 2018