About

Carrie has been working with web technologies since the late 1990’s, but met and fell in love with WordPress in 2012. She works independently as a front-end developer and has a passion for educating others. She hosts OfficeHours.fm, a podcast about running a WordPress business, and teaches WordPress courses at Lynda.com. When she’s not working or attending a WordCamp, she’s hanging out with her husband and loving on her two rescue labs. She can be bribed with craft beer and candy.

Keynote Topic: Decisions, Not Options

In this presentation, Carrie shares how you can lead your clients, your site visitors, and yourself to better choices by narrowing the field of available options.

About

Lauren has been building WordPress websites for almost a decade and is currently part of the OnTheGoSystems WPML Customer Support team. She enjoys creating WordPress websites and has worn many hats in the world of web development including Project Manager, Customer Service Representative, Account Strategist, and Web Designer.
Originally from New England, she now lives in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Lauren enjoys sharing her knowledge along with tips and tricks that she has learned either through furthering her education or personal experience.
Lauren is the organizer of WordPress Meetup Myrtle Beach, a co-organizer of WordCamp Wilmington, a WordCamp Speaker and a lover of all things WordPress.

Topic: The Power of a Video Library

In this session, I will be discussing the impact that a video library can have on your website. A video library is a collection of videos, typically organized into categories and groups, that members can view directly on your website. There is a place for video in almost any website, from marketing to content to customer service.

About

Alex Zuniga is a premium support specialist for the Austin-based, managed WordPress host, WP Engine. He is somewhat new to the tech scene having attended CodeUp’s 2nd cohort in 2014. Immediately upon graduation, he began developing front-end WordPress sites for a local marketing agency, Düable. His tech journey later allowed him to become one of the first eight employees of WP Engine’s San Antonio office in December of 2015. Alex loves finding local libations and hidden eats around town with his wife. Any suggestions are always welcome!

Topic: Git and WordPress: Concise versioning for all developers

WordPress has many moving parts that can be updated at the click of a button through its native tools. Keep your repository up to date by learning how to optimally configure your local .gitignore file. Benefits include: less merge conflicts, greater collaboration between developers and environments and of course, ease for clients and end user experience.

What should you be versioning? Answer: YOUR themes or plugins you develop.
optimizing your gitignore to version only the relevant code per your project, or directories can assist with allowing customers to update other features, such as WordPress Core and plugins that are not designed by your team. Your repository is then more streamlined and focused on code. This also excludes any configuration files that would cause issues between development environments. In the long run, you have less code to review/version and customers have the ease of use to know that only code is being updated for the theme and no potential issue with pushing anything unnecessarily.

About

Bill Gadless is the President and Co-Founder of emagine, a 50+-person WordPress-based Digital Agency.

As a non-developer and a quasi-designer at best, Bill has always focused on being on the forefront of the business side of the web industry. Observing a lack of content and thought leadership for web entrepreneurs, Bill has dedicated a significant portion of his time to speaking on issues of entrepreneurship, sales, marketing and business strategy for freelancers and small web agency owners. Obsessed with everything sales and marketing, Bill’s insights have appeared on various occasions in MarketingSherpa, dozens of industry sites and publications and on the national speaking circuit. Prior to emagine, he developed his marketing expertise while building a highly successful direct marketing venture at 20 years old.

With a focus on emagine’s core industries and national expansion, Bill has focused obsessively on building emagine’s brand within the B2B, High-Tech and Healthcare sectors. Starting in the Boston region, Bill has successfully taken emagine from a regional player to a national leader in emagine’s target industries.

Bill is laser-focused on evangelizing WordPress as more than a “blogging tool” or “mom-and-pop website platform”. He and emagine have been instrumental in the adoption of WordPress by companies that previously would have resisted, from large hospitals to pharmaceutical companies to multi-billion dollar B2B enterprises.

Bill tours the WordCamp circuit nationally speaking on issues related to growth strategy for WordPress entrepreneurs. He resides in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife Krystal and regularly travels back and forth between emagine’s Florida and Massachusetts offices.

Topic: Crank up the Volume on your WordPress Business!

You know the expression “in the right place at the right time?” Well, Congrats, that’s where you are … right now. The demand for Digital services, from web development to design, UX, SEO, PPC, etc. continues to grow at impressive levels. Add to that the prevalence of WordPress as the world’s most popular web platform – we couldn’t be in a better industry, at a better time. It’s time to challenge yourself:

• Are you doing everything you can do maximize the opportunity around you?
• Are you too busy working on your business when your business could actually be working for you?
• What and where are the most viable opportunities to seriously impact your life? (not just financially but lifestyle as well)
• What’s next? Where is the industry headed and how you can be on the forefront of the evolution?

This talk is aimed at all freelancers and business owners in the WordPress community who are motivated to maximize their potential and benefit from the enormous demand for their talent and skills. Whether you remain an independent freelancer or you wish to grow your business into a full-fledged agency, the time is now to create (or evaluate) your roadmap for success.

About

Aaron Watters is the Vice President of Leadhub. He joined the company in February of 2012. Before that, he spent six years working for a website development and hosting company. Aaron is a graduate of Texas State University.

Topic: Gravity Forms: Email forms for beginners and experts

In the past I’ve worked with a lot of different email form solutions, most of them have been cowboy-coded by developers but each has varied in ease of management. Our agency has been using Gravity Forms on all WordPress websites since 2013 and I’d love to share our insights on an incredible email form solution. A few topics I’d love to discuss are:

1. Initial Plugin Integration
2. The Proper Form Setup (with a few pro tips)
3. Email Form Creation
4. Confirmations
5. Notifications
6. Mind-Blowing Add-Ons

I may choose to scale the topics down depending on timeframe. I’m not a traveling speaker, I run an agency here in San Antonio so I’m always busy working in and on our business. I’m looking to help anyone I can from beginners to experts and love seeing tech grow in SA.

About

Scott Croom has been working in the Web Design industry for 4 years. Both humble and humorous, he guides his design team to creating swift and clean designs for small to large businesses. Scott got his start in Wall St management but being a lover of technology, he later taught engineering and programming. It was while coaching a winning robotics teams that Scott really became truly aware of how critical having systems in place was the foundation of a project’s success. Scott currently manages a web development team that will frequently juggle dozens WordPress projects at a time as well as a member of the Project Managers Institute.

Topic: Pain Free(ish) Project Management

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Way too many otherwise talented WordPress businesses get bogged down in development hell. Pain Free(ish) Project Management is a product and method agnostic approach to setting goals, getting systems in place, and following through with consistent execution. The talk includes ideas and samples of flowcharts and systems that people can use on their own projects at no or low cost. This talk is not only for businesses but also great for anyone building a WordPress site or doing any type of project.

About

Claudia is a customer service addict. She’s worked for some of the largest companies in I.T. and throughout her career, Claudia has focused her work on proactively finding solutions for her customers. She believes that, by giving customers a channel to voice their feedback, businesses can improve their processes and features.

Topic: Digital Business: Making IT personal

During my presentation I plan to touch on examples of customers going from a churn risk to a promoter. My intention is to educate business owners and entrepreneurs that learning from their customers will open the door to revenue streams that no amount of advertising or marketing campaigns can bring in. You’re only a great company if your customers agree.
It’s no secret, businesses need customers to be successful– so why not give them a channel to be heard? The cost of acquiring a new customer outweighs the cost of keeping and maintaining a relationship with a long-time patron– and long-time patrons become Promoters. Continuously learning what your business and team can do to be better in your customers eyes SHOULD be your #1 priority.

About

Taylor Bare is CEO of TaylorMade Web Presence, a website and online presence development company. He has an extensive background in search engine optimization, WordPress site development and web tools training for entrepreneurs. He’s also helped companies reach the first page of Google and increase their online conversion rates through split testing. At TaylorMade Web Presence Taylor and his team provide authors, speakers and coaches with the tools and training they need to build their platform, get paid and make a difference. Because Taylor believes small business owners and entrepreneurs should be able to make website changes on their own timetable, he teaches them how to take control of their web presence through the power and simplicity of WordPress. With a certification in advanced search engine marketing techniques, Taylor knows how to bring targeted website visitors, and as a certified Guerrilla Marketing practitioner he knows what it takes to turn visitors into sales.

Topic: Setting up your WordPress website for success

A website is much more than an online business card. It is the central hub of your online presence and the face of your business to thousands of potential clients. To effectively reach your audience, you must have the proper elements in place, as well as the tools that will allow you to manage your WordPress website with the greatest of ease, functionality and power.

Join Taylor in this presentation to learn the elements that every WordPress website must have. You will learn how to:

• Ensure an SEO-friendly website
• Keep track of where your visitors are coming from
• Start building a marketable email list
• Use the tools that will save you time and headaches
• Make your website and blog posts more engaging

And much more!