{"id":941,"date":"2018-11-05T12:47:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T17:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/?p=941"},"modified":"2018-11-05T14:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T19:59:42","slug":"speakers-sessions-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/speakers-sessions-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakers &amp; Sessions: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With just a few weeks to go before the event, we&#8217;re excited to (finally!) announce our first wave of <a href=\"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/speakers\/\">confirmed speakers<\/a> for WordCamp Toronto 2018. It&#8217;s a great lineup of WordPress talent from around the Toronto area and abroad.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve also published <a href=\"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/schedule\/\">the first version of our schedule<\/a>, which will be updated as our <a href=\"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/sessions\/\">sessions<\/a> and timings are finalized.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s WordCamp Toronto will focus heavily on Gutenberg and the future of WordPress. We&#8217;re working with all of our speakers to ensure there&#8217;s a relevant tie-in between their session and this central theme.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t grabbed your ticket yet, <a href=\"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/tickets\/\">now&#8217;s the time to register<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">###<\/p>\n<h3>Andrea Zoellner<\/h3>\n<p>Andrea is the Chief Content Creator at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siteground.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">SiteGround<\/a> and the lead organizer for <a href=\"https:\/\/2018.montreal.wordcamp.org\">WordCamp Montreal<\/a>. 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\u2019s not at home in Montreal, she\u2019s sampling the digital nomad life and documenting her adventures on her travel blog.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Andrea&#8217;s talk:\u00a0Copywriting for better UX<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Anthony Burchell<\/h3>\n<p>Anthony is a WordPress Innovation Developer at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpengine.com\">WP Engine<\/a> and a core contributor to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordpress.org\/gutenberg\/\">the Gutenberg Project<\/a>. He spends his free time thinking of new and interesting ways to utilize WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Anthony&#8217;s talk: Building Gutenberg blocks &#8211; the Playlist block story (Case Study)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this talk, I will outline the story and what we learned from building the <em>Playlist<\/em> 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\u2019ll explore local development tools and design patterns used in block creation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Christie Witt<\/h3>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Christie&#8217;s talk:\u00a0Migrating 1,300 websites from HTML to WordPress (Case Study)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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 [&#8230;] Finally, learn how I would have evaluated the impact of Gutenberg on the migration had it been released prior to the project.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Juan Pablo Gomez<\/h3>\n<p>From Juan: &#8220;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloc.io\/\">Bloc.io<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Juan&#8217;s talk:\u00a0CSS Grid, Gutenberg and the future of layouts<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Released last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/snippets\/css\/complete-guide-grid\/\">CSS Grid<\/a> 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\u2019s the solution for which designers have been asking. It is here to stay and right now is the perfect time to learn it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Mike &#8220;Demo&#8221; Demopoulos<\/h3>\n<p>Mike volunteers with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joomla.org\/about-joomla\/the-project.html\">The Joomla! Project<\/a> as the treasurer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensourcematters.org\/\">Open Source Matters<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Mike&#8217;s talk: Addressing Gutenberg facts &amp; fears<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Traditionally, WordPress doesn\u2019t 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? [&#8230;] 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 \u2014 guaranteed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Rebeca Godin<\/h3>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/geekychicklabs.com\/\">Geeky Chick Labs<\/a>, a digital marketing agency that turns WordPress websites into digital hubs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Rebeca&#8217;s talk: WordPress as a digital marketing hub (Gutenberg edition)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Ryan Moore<\/h3>\n<p>Ryan is the co-founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncannyowl.com\/\">Uncanny Owl<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Ryan&#8217;s talk: Building &amp; automating WordPress workflows<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this session, we\u2019ll 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\u2019ll also look at the implications arising from the release of WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Thiago Loureiro<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tloureiro.com\/\">Thiago Loureiro<\/a> is a freelance full stack developer based in Toronto. He\u2019s been hacking and developing for WordPress since 2010. He\u2019s worked on a number of marketing campaigns for high profile clients and made a core commit in version 4.6.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Thiago&#8217;s talk: Building my first Gutenberg block<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Troy Fawkes<\/h3>\n<p>From Troy: &#8220;I\u2019ve managed and developed just under a hundred personal and client websites in WordPress over 8 years. I run a 7 person <a href=\"https:\/\/dg.agency\/\">digital marketing agency<\/a> that conducts SEO, paid ads, email marketing and conversion rate optimization campaigns on all types of sites, the majority of which are WordPress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Troy&#8217;s talk: Gutenberg&#8217;s marketing toolbox<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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 &amp; Gutenberg support them through various stages of complexity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">###<\/p>\n<p>A big thanks to all of our speakers for volunteering to share their time, knowledge, and experience with us this year.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll have another group of speakers &amp; sessions to announce soon.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/tickets\/\">don&#8217;t forget to register<\/a><\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With just a few weeks to go before the event, we&#8217;re excited to (finally!) announce our first wave of confirmed speakers for WordCamp Toronto 2018. It&#8217;s a great lineup of WordPress talent from around the Toronto area and abroad. We&#8217;ve &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/speakers-sessions-part-1\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"assistive-text\">Speakers &amp; Sessions: Part 1<\/span>  <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6358608,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1ZDU-fb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":836,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/what-to-expect-at-wordcamp-toronto-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":0},"title":"What to expect at WordCamp Toronto 2018","author":"Andy McIlwain","date":"October 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"WordCamp Toronto is an annual, volunteer-run conference for all things WordPress. Hosted by members of our\u00a0local WordPress meetup group, it brings together WordPress users of all skill levels and experiences from around the Toronto area (and further away, too). What's WordPress? WordPress is free software for building websites. It's more\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/10\/cropped-cn_tower-fav.png?fit=512%2C512&resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":703,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/gutenberg-wordpress-tomorrow-theme-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":1},"title":"Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow theme announcement","author":"robin_wp","date":"September 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"TL;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. The theme in brief\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/10\/cropped-cn_tower-fav.png?fit=512%2C512&resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":567,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/speaker-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":2},"title":"Speaker Information (Update 1)","author":"robin_wp","date":"September 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the current version of the speaker information post having been updated once. The update added the theme announced for the event. Introduction The Benefits of Speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2018 The Selection Process What We\u2019re Looking For Your Role As A Speaker What You Need To Know About\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/10\/cropped-cn_tower-fav.png?fit=512%2C512&resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":565,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/call-for-speakers\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":3},"title":"Call for Speakers (Update 2)","author":"robin_wp","date":"September 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the current version of the call for speakers post having been updated twice. The latest update added the theme announced for the event. The first corrected several URLs. Are you ready to speak on the largest WordPress stage in Canada? WordCamp Toronto 2018 is on Saturday, December 1st,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/call-for-speakers\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/09\/facebookSharedLinkImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/09\/facebookSharedLinkImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/09\/facebookSharedLinkImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/09\/facebookSharedLinkImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/files\/2018\/09\/facebookSharedLinkImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":593,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/call-for-speakers-update-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":4},"title":"Call for Speakers (Update 1)","author":"robin_wp","date":"September 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Call for Speakers for WordCamp Toronto 2018","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2018.toronto.wordcamp.org\/files\/2018\/09\/call_for_speakers_01b_405x200_c-300x148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1772,"url":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2018\/kudos-wordcamp2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":5},"title":"How was your WordCamp?","author":"Alex Sirota","date":"December 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With WordCamp Toronto 2018 in our rear view mirror we celebrated another milestone in the WordPress community:\u00a0WordPress 5.0\u00a0was released on December 6, 2018. The new editor (aka Gutenberg) has now been deployed widely and being used around the world! 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