All posts by LauraHartwigDesign

Speaker: Jesse Friedman, “UX of Real-Time Site Personalization”

speakers

We are excited to announce another amazing speaker for our line-up, Jesse Friedman.
Jesse Friedman is a veteran WordPress developer. In 2012 he wrote the “Web Designers Guide to WordPress”. With years of a experience as a speaker and a Professor at Johnson & Wales University he delivers impactful and educational talks. Currently Jesse is the Director of Innovation at BruteProtect. Jesse co-organizes local WordPress meetups, and is very active in the community. He works closely with his students and others to share knowledge and bring forth a better future for web design and development.

He will be presenting on UX of Real-Time Site Personalization. Here’s what he says about his talk:

Last year, I started building what I like to call “Dynamic Web Environments”, which are way more than just websites. My idea was to create a web environment that changes and molds itself, much like how responsive websites mold to a device, but this time to a users needs. The trick is to change the website before the user asks for it, or even before they know what they want. An experienced marketer can isolate and leverage patterns through good user data. It’s often easy to predict marketing trends around user interactions. If I buy a pair of jeans on a website, it’s likely I need a pair of shoes to go with it. Web designers, developers and marketers have been “up-selling” for a while now. This is not enough; we need to push ourselves to the next level. With a good developer, some great data and a little imagination you can start delivering impactful, intuitive, personalized websites. Websites, that bring content to users rather than making them hunt and peck for it.

Call for Volunteers

Help Out

Our schedule is really shaping up into what will be an amazing opportunity for learning and networking. But in order to make it all happen, we need volunteers. WordCamps are 100% organized by volunteers. Looking for a way to give back to the community? Please fill out our volunteer form today and share the link with all your friends.

https://2014.connecticut.wordcamp.org/volunteers/

How can you help?

Before the WordCamp: You can help with your ideas on how to conduct a WordCamp. You can also help in telling more people about WordCamp Connecticut and getting them involved. If you are a college student, then the best way to get people involved is explain about WordPress to your friends and spread the word in your college about WordCamp.

Share about the event on your social media profile and get the buzz about WordCamp started.

And most importantly help us out by volunteering your skills which can range from blogging, web design, event management and photography.

At the Event: Help us work with sponsors, speakers and participants to help everything go smoothly. We need volunteers to work with speakers and help them out while they are conducting a session, or helping people with directions to the event or offering help with transport options.

Can’t volunteer but still want to help?

We can understand you cannot commit a lot of time to the WordCamp but still want to help. We will really appreciating you taking part in discussions and spreading information on our website and official social profiles on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Speaker: Jake Goldman, “Leveraging WordPress’s HTML5 Media Player”

speakers

Incredible speakers keep joining our team to make WordCamp Connecticut into a real can’t miss event. Our newest speaker to sign on is Jake Goldman. Jake is the President of 10up, a full service digital agency that imagines, builds, and grows amazing websites with WordPress. At 10up, Jake serves brand name clients like TechCrunch, ESPN, Consumer Reports, NBC Universal, and Google. In less than 3 years, Jake built 10up from 1 to more than 50 full time employees.

Jake has been building websites since the mid 90’s, and has built web-based solutions for Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Navy, major universities, and high profile non-profits. He has been quoted on publications like c|net, written for Smashing Magazine, taught at Boston University, and presented at conferences around the country. He is a core contributor to WordPress, maintains some highly rated WordPress plug-ins, and organizes the Sacramento WordPress Meetup.

His presentation will be on Leveraging WordPress’s HTML5 Media Player

Lost in all the conversation about the post format “shuffle” in WordPress 3.6 was the addition of MediaElement.js to core, an incredibly elegant, light weight media player for video and audio assets. MediaElement.js is an HTML5 video and audio player that falls back to Flash on unsupported devices. It can be easily skinned, and has a nice little JavaScript API to control its behavior (say, auto playing a video when the visitor switches to a tab or scrolls down to a certain point on the page). If you’re still using a third party video player like JW Player, want to jazz up your product site with some local video, or just skin the native video player to fit your theme, this talk is for you!

Speaker: Alex Miranda, “Case Study: Optimizing Your WordPress Website To Rank On The First Page of Google”

speakers

alex-mirandaWe are proud to announce another incredible speaker that will be joining us at WordCamp CT- Alex Miranda, a seasoned WordPress SEO and Digital Marketing guru at Marknet Group Inc.  Alex has been optimizing websites and getting them to rank on top of Google since 1998.

He is a highly sought after WordPress SEO trainer and has spoken at universities, WordCamps, conferences and corporate workshops. His “Google Loves WordPress” presentation was voted at WordCamp NYC 2012 as ‘Top 10’ by WPMU.org.
A former executive chef, he enjoys dabbling in the kitchen during his spare time and is a master at dancing on rollerskating.
Alex will be presenting  “Case Study: Optimizing Your WordPress Website To Rank On The First Page of Google”.  A  live case on how he took a website from having zero keywords to having over 590 keywords ranking on the first page of Google without any link building or social media marketing. For the first time ever, Alex will give you a step by step insiders view on how he made this happen

Included in his presentation will be:
  • WordPress SEO site structure
  • WordPress Plugins you will need
  • Keyword research
  • On-page optimization

Included in his presentation, will be 5 killer WordPress SEO tips you do not want to miss.

What is WordCamp?

Uncategorized

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps include sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively, beginning plugin and theme development, advanced techniques, security, etc. To get an idea of the types of sessions typically seen at WordCamps, check out the WordCamp channel at WordPress.tv.

Who Goes to WordCamp?

WordCamps are attended by people ranging from blogging newbies to professional WordPress developers and consultants. Whoever you are, you’re welcome here.

How much does it cost?

The best bargain you’ll get all year. WordCamps are not meant to be big, fancy, expensive conferences. WordCamps are meant to be low-key local gatherings that are affordable — cheap, even — to allow people from all walks of life to attend, meet, share, and learn. Sponsorships and donations make this possible, keeping ticket prices low. Ticket prices for this full day event are just $20 and include lunch and a great t-shirt. WordCamp is one of the best bargains around.

This is really a thing?

The first WordCamp was organized in San Francisco by Matt Mullenweg in 2006. Since then, local communities around the world have organized over a hundred WordCamps, and we anticipate that number will pass a thousand within the next couple of years.

Volunteers everywhere.

It is generally acknowledged that participating in WordCamps is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to give something back to the WordPress community. Each WordCamp is operated by tireless volunteers, from the organizers who plan it all to the volunteers who work the event and the speakers who donate their time to teach you new things. It takes a lot of people to make a WordCamp happen, so remember to thank the volunteers who made it possible. And if you haven’t already, you can still sign up to help make WordCamp CT a reality: https://2014.connecticut.wordcamp.org/volunteers/

Fun. Fun! More fun!!

We almost forgot to mention the most obvious part of WordCamps: they’re fun! Getting to geek out for a day or two with other people just as obsessed with WordPress as you are is just plain awesome. You’ll meet people who are crazy smart, insanely inspired and inspiring, and maybe even a handful of talented singers. WordCamp CT will be followed by an after party, right here at the Innovation Center where you can have a few drinks with your new friends and hatch your (WordPress-based, of course) plot to take over the world. We hope to see you there!

Call for Speakers

Uncategorized

WordCamp Connecticut is now accepting speaker applications. Speakers for other WordCamps have included core WordPress developers, people building successful businesses on WordPress, popular bloggers, people from related projects and businesses…you name it. For our first ever WordCamp CT, we have only 24 slots available for the day of Saturday, May 10.

And we need your help spreading the word. We are looking for a wide variety of speakers including people who can cover topics for WordPress beginners through advanced WordPress users. We want to hear from professional bloggers, eCommerce specialists, specialists, etc. We are looking for people who want to share their love and knowledge of WordPress, not people who are purely looking for a plug for their business, although a little of that is allowed too. If you think you’d make a good addition to this year’s roster, please fill out our Speaker Submission form. Or, if you know someone who would be a good speaker – please direct them to our page. Thanks for your help making this and incredible day!