🇺🇸 WordCamp Kent Online 2020

This presentation covers how to create consistent lead-generating content. This social media overview will help any entrepreneurs struggling to make an impact online understand social media more. Topics covered include:
– How Social Media works and how you can make it work for you
– The Facebook Algorithm and what features will work for your business
– The influencer model and how to use it to grow your Instagram following and create engaging Instagram Content

As we navigate the new terrain of hosting a 100% online event for 2020, we are excited to announce our keynote, who is an experienced speaker and a familiar face to past WordCamp Kent attendees. This year’s keynote speaker is Steve Grunwell!

Steve is a Senior Software Engineer at Liquid Web, working primarily on the Managed WordPress and WooCommerce platforms. Specializing in WordPress and web application development, he has a passion for teaching and contributing back to the development community through speaking, blogging and open-source work. 

Get to know Steve in our Q & A below, in which he shares more about his background and what inspired his keynote session, “The World Beyond WordPress.” 

Q: How did you get your start with WordPress?

A: My first development job was at a small agency, and we took great pride in building custom content management systems for clients. While it was a great way to learn, there was an awful lot of code copied between projects, and this was an environment where package management was non-existent and version control was a foreign concept.

One client came to us and wanted a blog, and had heard about this tool called “WordPress.” We decided to give it a whirl, and though I absolutely butchered the site, I was a huge fan of not having to rewrite everything from scratch. When I moved to a larger agency a few months later, I quickly became the go-to on WordPress-related issues after I published my first plugin, which then snowballed into more plugins, blogging, and eventually speaking.

Q: What got you interested in speaking? 

A: I have a theatre background, so being on stage isn’t really a big deal. I had also wanted to be a teacher for some time during high school, so when I realized I could teach one session at a time and get to travel I was all over it.

Clients can be the best and worst part of running a WordPress business. While it’s impossible to avoid problems with client entirely, many of them can be short circuited before they happen. In this talk, Nathan will suggest strategies and practices to help prevent the most common problems freelancers face when dealing with clients.
Key Takeaways:1) Nine of the most common problems we encounter when working with clients2) Clarity about why each of these problems occur3) A strategy to prevent each of these problems from happening in the first place.

Has a client ever wasted your time in a consulting session? Ever had a one-hour consultation turn into 3? Have you experienced the sinking feeling that comes when you leave the consultation and realize you failed to ask a key question? This talk provides answers to these issues and more. Attendees will leave with a clear, memorable outline to manage the client consultation.
Key Takeaways:1) Why you need a strategy for the initial client meeting2) The purpose of the initial client meeting: what it is and isn’t3) A memorable outline to manage it

We have all either experienced or provided customer support. It’s one of the most sneakily difficult, yet widely overlooked jobs. As the internet unites us and changes our expectations, our preconceived notions about customer support need to change and evolve. In this talk, you’ll learn how you may be doing support wrong, and how you can make it a powerhouse of revenue for your business.

What is the WP REST API and how can I use it to make forms and pages that don’t need to do be reloaded?

In this talk, we will look at what the WP REST API is, how to modify existing ‘endpoint’s as well as creating our own custom endpoints.

We will also make a small WP REST API site that carries out GET and POST requests for forms and pages as well as use the WP-Nonce security mechanism.

All code files will be available so that you can start to use the WP REST API right away!

When I took up a job at a WordPress company, little did I know that my entire way of thinking was about to be changed. In this talk, I’d like to share my experience in dealing with what seemed like a whole new way of life, how I adapted to a full-time job and paved my way through my ADHD and anxiety. I’d also like to talk about the amazing WordPress Community and how interacting with the Community has helped me become a better person.

It’s not beautiful unless it works beautifully. Learn to design and develop WordPress websites and themes that generate leads for your business.

I will present real examples and proven design patterns that will ensure your next WordPress project pays for itself over and over again.

Many people say that the service (web, mobile, and digital marketing) industry is saturated & getting a project is very tough. There is a huge competition and there is no client or projects available in the market. But it’s not true. This is the best time for this industry as everything and everyone is going digital. It the best time. Sales don’t happen automatically. In this talk, I will be sharing the strategies and changes that we can implement so that we get the required visibility, reach and much-needed sales.

In the WordPress post-Gutenberg world there are fundamental shifts in both user and development workflows, and moving forward that means how we develop themes will also change. Let’s look at the current status of theme development and how you can get started taking advantage blocks, block templates and block patterns to create stunning themes for the future. Specifically, we’ll cover:
• What’s the difference between block templates and patterns.
• Why adding templates and patterns to your existing themes can improve user experience.
• Building block templates and patterns for existing Themes.
• How you can plan to take advantage of upcoming core enhancements like Full Site Editing.

Picture come in all sizes, shapes, color, and contrasts. When you have an image and online it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t look right, you just don’t get the warm fuzzies and you want to change it. Download the free software known as “GIMP”. It will change your imaging world.
GIMP has the power to change curves, colors, contrast and sizes. The newest GIMP was released in February of 2020 and is a huge leap forward. This is a quick start to using GIMP for your everyday image processing.
Join us for journey in the open!

Through redesigns and many “adopted” websites, I’ve seen dozens of themes and hundreds of plugins. Most of what I’ve learned is through trial and error and plenty of “oh __!” moments. Through it all, I’ve developed some go-to processes for hunting down common issues, determining user-error from glitches, figuring out who to turn to (hosting provider, theme developer, plugin developer?) and how to get the fastest resolution.

When designing WordPress themes, one of the biggest challenges stems from a core component of WordPress itself: the ability for site owners to change, modify, and build new content themselves. After all, modern web content needs to be flexible and evolving, but not everyone is a developer who can build custom layouts to fit each use case.

As content and functionality become even more modular thanks to advances like the Gutenberg editor, theme designers will have to accommodate even more flexible ways of visualizing and presenting information. How do we anticipate and accommodate the needs of a constantly evolving website while providing visual solutions that are clean, thoughtful, and consistent?

In this talk, we’ll discuss the principles of Atomic Design, how to stop thinking of your content as “pages” and “posts” in favor of the concept of “building blocks,” and how to extend this mindset to utilize the potential of Gutenberg as it is now, and where it might be going in the future.

Ever spend hours on an estimate only to discover that your idea of a “reasonable budget” and theirs were so far of base it’s not even funny? Or worst yet, crickets?

Well, that ends today!

During this talk you’ll learn the 5 essential questions you need to be asking on a sales call to not only ensure you don’t waste your time, but that you land the project.

Are you working hard trying to grow your agency / freelance business but things just aren’t gaining momentum? Let’s look at seven steps to sustainability that I’ve learned in my time as the co-founder and CEO of a WordPress shop. We grew from our couches to a full crew to acquisition in just five short years. I’ll share these key concepts with you in hopes of helping you drive sales, improve process, and increase your margins. If you’re a project away from dusting off your resume to get a “real job” – attend this workshop to see if you can make impactful changes to keep your entrepreneurial dream alive!

You know you should be doing Video for your Website, what’s stopping you??? If you (or your clients) already have the responsibility of adding content to that WordPress site, then video will more than double your exposure when done correctly. Video now consumes more than 85% of the eyeballs on the internet and that’s expected to continue to rise. Whether you’re on a small biz budget or can afford to go big, I’ll teach you a foundation for what it takes to do video right.

In this session we’ll discuss lighting, sound, and all the basics that make for good video. I’ll share my 10+ years experience in creating videos that people will actually watch. Plus, I’ll show you how to dramatically increase your SEO engagement. I’ll teach you how to deliver video to the web to optimize your search capabilities, and what it takes to build a following not only on your blog, but YouTube as well. With a YouTube channel that has 6 Million views and approaching 23,000 subscribers, I can also show you at least 2 new revenue streams for your business, or for you personally – if you’re doing it just for fun!

Who doesn’t want to work in exotic locations and from parts unknown, traveling and hitting the open road? But it’s not as simple as throwing a few things in a suitcase and heading out. Laptop lifestyles are always touted as fun and carefree until you need to run a business to pay for the adventures and excursions.

In this session, we’ll cover what’s it’s like working from the open road, surviving in tiny spaces or working from a backpack. You’ll discover helpful tools, systems you should have in place, and tidbits on working smarter so you can plan harder.

Without a solid understanding of our audience and regular reminders of their likes, dislikes, and problems; we can easily miss the mark with content. Enter the tool called a persona. At every UX-related job, I was in some way involved in creating personas. Yet this key tool in the UX playbook often sits unused on our virtual shelves or becomes out-of-date and ineffective. I will touch on how to quickly create brand new personas, update existing ones, and (most importantly) how to regularly use them in projects and content creation. Key tools & tips will include helpful data sources, determining the right data points, using empathy maps, validation techniques, and creating processes to integrate persona insights.