🇺🇸 WordCamp Montclair 2022

Blocks don’t have to be a huge hassle, nor do you need to struggle with cutting-edge JavaScript and React in order create your own. In this presentation, Jason will show you how to create complex blocks quickly and simply using the very popular Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin. If you already have some experience with ACF, you’ll love how easy it is to apply what you already know… but to blocks!

In this session, I will review how to use Google Optimize to run tests on sites and improve performance.

Google Analytics is free because it uses your site data to build better ad tech. Governments have figured this out and now you’re responsible for the technical debt of making your site compliant. By moving away from Google as your primary analytics source to an open-source version, you can respond to market changes efficiently. I’ll walk through how Google Analytics works, how alternatives work, and the process involved in making the switch.

As we venture into the future, we lean on history. The original Internet Artists, or Net Artists, working in the early 1990s, created artworks using the internet. Before the New York Times got online, artists like Mark Amerika, Olia Lialina, and JODI were using the internet as their artistic medium (demos included). For them, the internet was a new frontier – novel and unexplored. But, this was before WordPress and before most of us were truly aware of the internet and its capabilities. Last year 2021 was a big moment for WordPress. With the full-site editor providing a true no-code experience to website creators everywhere, more people have the opportunity to create online and actively participate in the internet landscape. Everyone can start an internet company and create internet art. But what do we actually do once we rediscover the original Internet Artists? At DigitalCube, we’re using it to drive innovation and experimentation. We’re recreating some of the famous Net Art pieces using today’s technology like Artificial Intelligence (demo included). This year, we’ve also launched a new artist residency program where we invite artists to come and make internet art with us and teach us their creative ways. A renaissance is upon us and its name is WordPress.

Since COVID19 hit, most organizations are facing ever-tightening budgets, while demands on Marketing and Communications (MarComm) increase at an even greater rate. Combine MarComm’s need for agility and speed to IT’s desire for long term stability, and you end up with a recipe for frustration, in-fighting, and ultimately missed opportunities. How can institutions balance these competing demands, while also facing a budget shortage? Enter GitOps, an evolution of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps best practices. In this session, we’ll explore the idea of GitOps, using Git as the single source of truth; discuss the principles, processes, and practices of building a GitOps workflow; explore if GitOps is right for your team (if your infrastructure is already in the cloud, then the answer is most likely “yes”); and how GitOps can empower your MarComm developers to respond to requests faster, improve security and reliability, and ultimately do more with less.

Google has set a deadline for the transition to Google Analytics 4, a dumpster fire of a tool that pretty much every human on the planet hates with a passion. To make things even more fun, on the day of the deadline, they are going to immediately stop collecting data in the current version of GA, which is called “Universal Analytics.” But wait, there’s more! Just to pour some more salt in the wound, Google will be DELETING your historical Universal Analytics data, WITHOUT importing it to GA4! This means that you need to act fast to start preparing your site and archiving your data for this impending disaster. In this presentation, I’ll walk you through the steps you’ll need to do to seamlessly transition to GA4 and back up your historical Universal Analytics data.

Agile development is hugely successful and has been revolutionary in Software Development and Project Management. But how do you get the benefits of Agile Methodologies in a larger company with executives who want to know what they are going to get and when? How can you put the principals of Agile in place and still meet hard deadlines? Hear how Hybrid Agile has been successfully utilised at larger companies such as Penske Media and the BBC, and how you can get the benefits of Agile whilst keeping execs at bay.

For WordPress and the WordPress ecosystem to be truly accessible, it has to be available to everyone. When we talk about accessibility, we do mean accessible to those with disabilities (and we often focus on screen readers, etc.). But what if I told you that people in the BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Neurodivergent, and even older communities (like me), often find the way to success paved with roadblock after roadblock? And just like the tales of our parents “it’s uphill both ways.” This talk will bring forth the struggles that people in our community experience in finding success, as well as ways we can all be advocates for one another, and make room at the table for all.

The WordPress block editor empowers designers and content creators of all skillsets to create interesting, unique layouts. These layouts can be packaged and shared as “patterns,” which can help you kickstart your next website project and inspire others. Come learn about block patterns, hear some tips on designing beautiful patterns, and find out how you can submit and share your designs in the WordPress Pattern Directory.

Learn how to create a block! In this talk, we’ll go over the basics of building a block: from getting started using `@wordpress/create-block`, exploring different ways of saving your content & when to use them, to using existing components and tools to avoid reinventing the wheel. We’ll also learn about the Block Directory and how to submit blocks for other people to use.

Burnout is REAL! The question is: can you avoid it, and if so, how? To avoid burn out, you have to be more strategic with your daily activities. In this session with the presenter, you will learn how to maximize your daily 24 hours so you can do your best work and live your best life.

The presentation will be an intimate discussion showcasing the challenges faced by the presenter that both tested and tempered his commitment to launch More Jersey; a video-first media start-up dedicated to creating and distributing content to inform, connect, and inspire NJ residents. Topics covered during the presentation include:

• Building a local brand
• Setting accessibility standards
• Developing custom WordPress Gutenberg Blocks
• Leveraging free content publishing tools
• Publishing priorities: website first and social media second