Speaker Spotlight – Anthony D Paul

836bf4b9fd9824dadedebfdf264e8006I help build great digital experiences and software through usability research, IA concepts, and prototypes. Outside the office, you’ll find me spread across regional meetups and conferences—evangelizing IA/UX, accessibility, and a variety of open source dev projects. When I’m not doing responsible adult things, I grow the world’s hottest chili peppers and bottle my own hot sauce. I’d divulge something funny from my past, but these days the Internet does a better job of surfacing our embarrassing moments; find me anywhere by Googling “anthonydpaul”.

Anthony will be giving a talk entitled “Intro to User Journey Maps for Building Better Websites“.


What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

This is non-specific, but in general my favorite thing about WordPress has always been the community. I’ve used WordPress since 1.0 and have made some of my best friends and mentors here in meetups, WordCamps, and on social media.

Tell us a bit about your WordCamp Ottawa talk.

I’ll be speaking about how to better understand your website users with user journey maps—what they’re for, what types of maps exist, how to use them in your project, and more. This will be a good talk for UX folks, but will also be applicable to designer, developers, and product owners who have a hand in feature planning, sprints, or asking questions for context. It’ll be structured to be good for solo practitioners as well as a user representative on a larger team.

What’s your favourite thing about attending WordCamps?

I prefer WordCamps over my other industry conferences primarily because they’re so inclusive. I love seeing everyday users elevated and sharing their humble knowledge—seeing the cool things they’re doing with WordPress and related technologies, the types of problems their solving, and their growth as professionals. The diversity of talks and speakers is unmatched.

What’s exciting you about WordPress in 2016?

Definitely the API project. I’m excited to see this can of worms opened and to see the variety of experiments and unique applications that will come from it.

Recommend one to three people in the WordPress world to follow on social media!

“My friend @aaronjorbin is an easy one, less for his technical talks and more for his talks on community and diversity. The guy is a hero.

Another great person to follow is one of my DC co-organizers, @bethsoderberg who also helps lead the core training team. You’ll meet her at many contributor days, or mentoring in several groups dedicated to supporting underrepresented demographics in the tech industry.

Lastly, I’ll go with @laurenpittenger, one of the co-organizers, volunteers, and speakers at the little WordCamps in Pennsylvania. She assembles excellent talks on UI/UX design best practices, good for any WordPress enthusiast, and is a good representation of how the WordPress community isn’t confined to big cities or engineers like similar open source projects.”

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Speaker Spotlight – Miriam Goldman

 

miriamMiriam is a front-end oriented web developer who has been specializing in WordPress for the past 4-5 years. Mainly focusing on theme and plugin enhancement, she loves to share her experience with others who share the same passion.

Outside of the web development sphere, Miriam is equally passionate about her martial arts and latin ballroom dance training.

Follow @mirigoldman on Twitter.

Miriam will be giving a talk entitled “A Battle of Two Plugins: qTranslate X vs. Polylang“.


What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

The user friendly-ness, and ease of use.

Tell us a bit about your WordCamp Ottawa talk.

It’s a case study, so it’s great for coders who want to hear first-hand experience, and may be overwhelmed with the amount of plugins available.

What’s your favourite thing about attending WordCamps?

Being able to learn from so many people, everyone has such unique perspectives!

What’s exciting you about WordPress in 2016?

The constant evolution of the platform.

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Speaker Spotlight – Brian Hogg

brianBased in Cambridge, Ontario. Brian is the creator of Event Calendar Newsletter. He consults in WP and does training, speaking and courses He’s also currently the lead organizer for WordCamp Hamilton.

Follow @BrianHogg on Twitter.

Brian will be giving a talk entitled “Things I’ve Learned About Creating a Premium Plugin“.


What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Meeting amazing folks at conferences like WordCamps! All in all the WordPress community has been one of the most open and inviting ones I’ve seen.

Tell us a bit about your WordCamp Ottawa talk.

The talk starts with the story of my journey into starting my first premium plugin, and some do’s and don’ts from my experience and from people who have a lot more experience than me.  By the end I hope you’ll be empowered and inspired to create your own.

What’s your favourite thing about attending WordCamps?

Catching up with old friends and making new ones!

What’s exciting you about WordPress in 2016?

Growth in users and the slow realization that WordPress is more than a blogging platform.

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Pre-camp: 10 Reasons for Beginners and Developers To Attend

You’re a Beginner and:

  1. You don’t know what WordPress is—but you know a lot of people who seem to
  2. You know what WordPress is—but you don’t know why so many people use it
  3. You know why so many people say they use WordPress—but you don’t understand some of the terms they use
  4. You know the meaning of some WordPress terms—but you don’t know how the concepts behind the terms fit together
  5. You know the WordPress concepts—but you want to improve your ability to learn more about WordPress, quickly, at WordCamp Ottawa 2016

You’re a Developer and:

  1. You haven’t worked with WordPress—and you want to learn a bit more about it from the developer’s point of view
  2. You’ve learned a bit about WordPress—and you want to get a better grasp of some of the main developer concepts
  3. You know some of the main WordPress developer concepts— and want closer look at key topics such as theme structure, the loop and hooks
  4. You know about the key topics— and have technical questions on more obscure topics only a developer can answer
  5. You’ve learned what you can about WordPress on your own—and want to prepare yourself to learn more, quickly, at WordCamp Ottawa 2016

Register today

WordCamp Ottawa 2016 opens with optional pre-camps, Introduction to WordPress for Beginners and Introduction to WordPress for Developers. The sessions take place Thursday, June 16, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Take just a moment and register.

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May 30 Deadline for WordCamp T-shirt Orders, Special Order Sandwiches!

About WordCamp Ts

We’d like to order one of our coveted, official WordCamp Ottawa 2016 T-shirts just for you. And we’ll be able to—if you register for the event by May 30 at 3:00 p.m.

After that, we won’t be able to order more of our Ts—and those who register for the event from then on almost certainly won’t receive one of the Ts so many of the rest of us will proudly wear.

Register before May 30—and get your T.

(If you’ve already registered, don’t worry. Your T-shirt will be waiting for you at the event.)

And Special Order Sandwiches

We’d also like to be able to meet certain special dietary requirements.

But requests for special order sandwiches need to be in by May 30 at 3:00 p.m.—and we can’t place an order for someone who isn’t registered for the event.

So if you plan to attend WordCamp Ottawa 2016 and have special dietary requirements, please register now.

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Announcing WordCamp Ottawa 2016 Sessions

We’re proud to offer informative sessions suiting the knowledge and experience of a wide range of WordPress users at this year’s WordCamp Ottawa.

You’ll find a closer look at the various sessions as we publish details about them on our Sessions page. Here’s a list of the sessions described in greater detail there so far:

  • 10 quick tests to enhance your site’s accessibility, presented by Toufic Sbeiti
  • A Battle of Two Plugins: qTranslate X vs. Polylang, presented by Miriam Goldman
  • Analyze, Plan, and Execute — SEO Action Plan, presented by Ryan Erwin
  • Don’t get left behind: Keeping your site up-to-date, presented by Mike Dickson
  • eCommerce 101 for WordPress, presented by Jai Sangha
  • Engage your audience now: purposeful content design for beginners, presented by Alison Knott
  • Free SSL for WordPress with Let’s Encrypt, presented by Jordan St Jacques
  • Giving Back to WordPress.org — No Code Required!, presented by Meagan Hanes
  • Google Analytics: Uncovering Your Website’s Secrets, presented by David Bird
  • Hidden Features of WordPress, presented by Michelle Ames
  • How to catch regression faster using acceptance testing, presented by Jonathan Bardo
  • Intro to User Journey Maps for Building Better Websites, presented by Anthony D Paul
  • Support, eh? Why you should care, presented by T-Rave
  • The Techie Continuum, presented by Kathryn Presner
  • Things I’ve Learned About Creating a Premium Plugin, presented by Brian Hogg
  • You can write 30 features in 30 lines of code today and other WordPress Enhancements, presented by Jamie Oastler
  • WordPress Code Performance, presented by Stéphane Boisvert
  • WP-CLI — Super Admin Level Tips and Tricks, presented by Jonathan Perlman

Be sure to return to our Sessions page for updates — and when you find presentations you’d like to sit in on take just a moment and register!

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Thank You, Early Sponsors of WordCamp Ottawa 2016

If you plan to take part in learning and networking at WordCamp Ottawa 2016 — or just appreciate support for WordPress — we hope you’ll join us in thanking the following:

These businesses took the important step of becoming our conference’s Early Sponsors — and we’re grateful for their support. Be sure you say hello to these Early Sponsors of ours when you see them at WordCamp Ottawa!

As a Sponsor, you can make a difference

Please note that we’re still accepting applications from potential sponsors. To learn more, take a look at our sponsorship options.

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Speakers Line-up Update

The response to our call for speakers has been fantastic.

Speakers and sessions

We’ve started presenting details about our speakers and sessions, and plan to complete the line-ups soon.

Meanwhile, here’s a list of confirmed speakers along with a little information cribbed from our Speakers page, where you can learn more about them.

WordCamp Ottawa 2016 speakers announced so far include:

  • Michelle Ames, the owner and marketing diva at Marketing by Michelle, where she makes a living though WordPress
  • Jonathan Bardo, a senior product engineer at GoDaddy who engineers and scales WordPress products, and enjoys crunching data
  • David Bird, the owner of Bird’s Eye Marketing who uses data to guide content development and better marketing decisions
  • Stéphane Boisvert, a team lead for WordPress.com VIP who consults clients on architectural decisions and helps review code for security and performance
  • Mike Dickson, a programmer and WordPress web developer who has contributed to the WordPress core and engaged in custom theme and plugin development
  • Ryan Erwin, a web strategist at Orbit Media and CTO of Internet Marketing Chicago who is the lead organizer of WordCamp Chicago and Startup Weekend Chicago
  • Miriam Goldman, a front-end web developer specializing in WordPress and focusing mainly on theme and plugin enhancement
  • Brian Hogg, the creator of Event Calendar Newsletter who is a lead organizer of WordCamp Hamilton and a WordPress consultant
  • Alison Knott, a web designer who runs the WordPress Halifax Meetup as well as E3C, a meetup for visual artists
  • Jamie Oastler, lead WordPress developer at Innovapost who works as a front-end designer, plugin developer, DevOps resource or solution architect
  • Anthony D Paul, who builds great digital experiences and software through usability research, IA concepts and prototypes
  • Jonathan Perlman, a web develop and teacher at Dawson College who builds custom web solutions and creates custom themes and plugins
  • Kathryn Presner, a theme whisperer with Automattic, where she helps folks with customization, configuration and troubleshooting
  • Rick Radko, owner of R-Cubed Design Forge, where he develops custom plugins, themes and multilingual web sites, and a WordCamp Ottawa 2016 organizer who led the launch of the first Ottawa WordCamp and is a founder and organizer of the Ottawa WordPress Meetup
  • Jai Sangha, who writes posts for two eCommerce blogs, works in the digital strategy team at TD Bank in Canada and does freelance web strategy
  • Toufic Sbeiti, manager of the web operations team at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada managing day-to-day postings to web sites, leading major web projects, and providing guidance and recommendations to implement web accessibility standards and responsive design approaches
  • Jordan St Jacques, owner of Digitera Interactive and founder of LottoProxy.com who currently is extensively researching web security for WordPress sites
  • T-Rave, a happiness engineer at Flywheel managed WordPress hosting who dabbles in code when time allows
  • Jasmine Vesque, a digital and design officer at the Micronutrient Initiative and a freelance web specialist, consultant and trainer who is in her third year as a WordCamp Ottawa organizer

Ticket sales

With speakers being announced and the schedule nearly ready, tickets are going to sell fast. Don’t miss out—get yours now!

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Why Attend WordCamp Ottawa 2016?

You may be thinking of attending WordCamp Ottawa 2016 to learn about WordPress.

But let’s face it you can learn about WordPress just by reading.

So, why attend?

Experts

To start with because the WordPress experts speaking there will share lessons based on their experience—and you’ll be able to ask them questions, just as you’ll also be able to ask questions of the WordPress experts you’ll find at our Happiness Bar. A few words with an expert has helped many get more from WordPress.

Topics

You don’t have to be a WordPress expert to find topics of interest at WordCamp Ottawa 2016. Look over the sessions and ask yourself if knowing more about some of them wouldn’t help you use WordPress more effectively.

Community

At WordCamp Ottawa you’ll find yourself among those whose WordPress skills range from extremely modest to extremely polished. There will be people you can help, people at your level of understanding and people who can help you. Reach out a little—offer help or ask for it—and you just may find a place in our community.

Networking

WordCamps have been known to bring together those seeking and offering WordPress help. You may find a new customer, contractor or business partner during the sessions or in the halls, at lunch or at the networking get-together.

Value

The price stands at $40 for a full day of talks and a shorter day of panels or workshops led by experts, plus opportunities to get answers at the Happiness Bar, plus lunches on the Saturday and Sunday, plus WordCamp swag and an invitation to our networking get-together.

Join us

WordCamp Ottawa 2016 is an informal, affordable event that brings together those offering and seeking knowledge about WordPress. Whether you’d like to learn how to get more from WordPress, take part in our community, for business opportunities or for the value, we hope you’ll join us.

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Call for Sponsors for WordCamp Ottawa 2016

Why does it make sense to become a Sponsor of WordCamp Ottawa 2016?

  • The company we keep—We’re planning to host more than 300 WordPress bloggers, designers, developers and entrepreneurs
  • The interest we stimulate—Our experience suggests thousands of visits to the WordCamp Ottawa website
  • The recognition we give—We recognize Sponsor support before and during the conference

As a Sponsor, you’ll support the WordPress community and have an opportunity to connect with your audience, to help grow your business.

WordCamps and Sponsors work brilliantly together!

WordCamps are run by volunteers who depend on Sponsors to provide a supportive environment for learning, meeting and networking. Our Sponsors help us offer comforts, such as all-day coffee and a delicious lunch, to our attendees.

At the same time, attendees are drawn to the learning, business cards, stickers and swag they find at Sponsor tables. This year, Sponsors with a table can hand out promotional material, such as a promotional card with a coupon-code, or have a mailing list sign up. This is a fine year to be a WordCamp Sponsor!

Learn more

If you’re considering sponsorship, you’ll want to look over our sponsorship levels.

When you do, please take a moment to look over this year’s additional sponsorship opportunities:

  • Printing Sponsor—to help cover the cost of creating our prized WordCamp badges
  • Speaker’s Dinner Sponsor—to help pay for the special dinner honouring our speakers
  • Networking Get-together Sponsor—two sponsorships that help pay for appetizers and drinks during the first two hours of our Networking Get-together event
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