Making a WordPress Plugin – Craig Deveson

Craig Deveson

Craig Deveson - Cloudsafe365

Ever wanted to make a WordPress plugin and wanted to take it a bit further as a business? Craig Deveson is doing just that with the “cloudsafe365_for_WP“. Cloudsafe 365 is a plugin that provides online backup, security and content protection for WordPress websites.

For over two decades Brisbane based – Craig has led the IT community as an evangelist in IT and Internet development and consulting.

More recently as a Cloud Expert with Google & Amazon Craig built the first Google Apps Enterprise business then sold it to Cloud Sherpa’s last year.

He went on co-found cloudsafe365 as a simple to use WordPress plugin that provides back-up, security and content protection services as a cloud based service partnered with Amazon.

So full title “Making a plugin that makes Backup & Security easy for WP Users” Craig will talk about what is involved, why they developed another plugin for managing backup, security and content protection using their plugin as a case study. More background from AFR

Website: Cloudsafe365   Craig on Twitter :@craigdeveson

 

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Making a WordPress Plugin – Craig Deveson

Security, Scaling & High End Hosting – Liz Quilty

Liz Quilty

Liz Quilty - NZ

Security, Scaling & High End Hosting especially for WordPress sites. This talk will include related topics such as back-up and other tips and strategies you can use for larger WordPress sites.

WordPress core changes pretty much at least 4 times a year and in between are plugin updates and other changes to background systems.

Liz Quilty works as a sysadmin for Rimuhosting who are based in Cambridge (Waikato) and their servers where you need them approach is very helpful for NZ companies who are born global but want a NZ company to help with that. More about Liz

When you are a Sysadmin you look for ways (clever scripts) of managing scale and keeping everything secure and stable. This talk may mention related sub topics such as:

Apache, nginx, Memcached, MySQL, APC, NFS, rsync, Git, Puppet, and Capistrano.

As local A / NZ sites get bigger there is a need for more local scaling and optimisation closest to the users. For example a CDN in the U.S might be useful there but not so much in NZ so Liz has local insights she will share.

There was a talk by Mark Jaquith at WordCamp SF last year which covered similar ground check out Coding, Scaling & Deployment if you haven’t already seen it

This talk is aimed at developers so feel free to ask plenty of questions.

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Security, Scaling & High End Hosting – Liz Quilty

How to “client-proof” your WordPress Theme – Bronson Quick

Bronson Quick

Bronson Quick - Au

Every WordPress developer should always be doing their best to reduce the number of options for clients whilst they are developing their themes.

Most developers hate support calls so it’s in their best interest to reduce those calls.

“I’ll present a talk that shows bad examples of options pages and custom post types that I’ve seen in WordPress themes and teach developers the right way to do things, so that their WordPress themes are not only easier to use but they are also “client-proofed”.

Bronson is a WordPress obsessed designer/developer from Brisbane. After working in the IT industry for many years and wrangling code in both proprietary content management systems (CMS) and other open source CMS, Bronson decided it was time to focus on the best CMS out there…WordPress!

Day to day Bronson works at a leading WordPress only design and development agency in Brisbane, Queensland.

At night he’s often found commenting and blogging on anything that’s WordPress related because he’s completely obsessed with WordPress!

Website: Sennza

 

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on How to “client-proof” your WordPress Theme – Bronson Quick

WordPress as a client friendly CMS – Aaron Rutley

Aaron Rutley

Aaron Rutley - Au

Aaron will talk in depth talk for fellow WordPress theme developers to help us build better WordPress sites for our clients.

Aaron is based in Melbourne where is  front end / WordPress theme developer. This presentation is part of the Sunday Tech meetup for deveopers.

I’ll cover the plugins & techniques I use in custom themes to achieve all kinds of complicated layouts & to ensure WordPress (as a CMS) is easy for the client to use.

I completed a similar presentation (that I’d like to update and expand on) at the October 2011 Melbourne WordPress meetup slides:

I’m a huge WordPress fan – I’ve attended two WordCamps and bunch of WordPress meetups.

Eleven Media was founded in November of 2008 by graphic designer Blaz Robar and web developer Aaron Rutley (that’s us!). It was only a few months earlier that we were working separately as freelancers, but after collaborating on a number of projects together we saw the amazing potential in joining forces.

It was this humble beginning at a small Clyde Road office, that would set the foundation for our business, which today, has serviced over 300 clients!”

Twitter:@aaronrutley    Aaron is also co-founder of Eleven Themes

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on WordPress as a client friendly CMS – Aaron Rutley

Build Your WordPress Business – Troy Dean

Troy Dean

Troy Dean- Au

UPDATE: 5th April – Unfortunately Troy has had to cancel his trip to WordCampNZ so this talk is off the schedule now. Apologies to all.

Full title is “Build Your WordPress Business on Your Terms for Devs” by Troy Dean will be on Sunday morning for developers and advanced tech users.

Troy’s  presentation is designed to help WordPress developers leverage WordPress to deliver better user experiences in less time so they can make more money and reclaim their social life.

And who doesn’t want to do that ? Any WordPress developer who wants to grow their small business on their terms benefit from this talk. This presentation (or variations of it) was given at WordCamp Melbourne and WordCamp Gold Coast 2011.

Troy is Director of Geeky Stuff at Tonto Digital, a digital marketing and coaching company based in Melbourne, Australia.

We have clients all over the world including Jessica Watson, the 16 year old Aussie girl who sailed solo, unassisted and non-stop around the world. We looooove building websites on WordPress. I wrote my first E-Book (which was 6000 words) in less than 24 hours and have recorded countless hours of training videos for clients.

I am the co-founder of Video User Manuals, a company that makes a video tutorial plugin for WordPress that teaches small businesses how to use WordPress, saving developers hours of training time per project. We also have clients all over the world.

I lecture in E-Business at JMC Academy in Melbourne, teaching our future entertainment industry leaders that Facebook is not just for organising parties (although knowing how to do that that can be helpful if you work in marketing).”

Check out Video User Manuals for more Twitter: @troydean

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Build Your WordPress Business – Troy Dean

WordPress By The Numbers – Alex Shiels

Alex Shiels – Akismet – Au

Alex Shiels – Akismet – Au

Alex is Reverse Engineer at Automattic where he has worked since  2007 as lead at Akismet “. Based in Melbourne, Alex will give us a bit of a showcase on WordPress itself such as general stats about global WordPress usage, the number of sites running WP, version distribution, where they’re hosted, that sort of thing.*

He will also explain briefly how we’re collecting that info, and what we’d like to do next. (*As much as he is allowed to say that is.)

If you use WordPress you probably use Akismet.

“Akismet filters out your comment and track-back spam for you, so you can focus on more important things.”

Previously we’ve asked Alex to talk about Akismet but for sensible reasons there is not much he is allowed to say although we do know “24,322,830 spams got stopped today so clearly the team is very busy.

Blog: Flight Path
Automattic’s first Australian, first Alex, and first vegetarian. Melbourne born and raised, Alex writes code and fights crime. He has two inventive young children, and roasts his own coffee.

 

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on WordPress By The Numbers – Alex Shiels

Coffee & After Party

One of the essential WordCamp items is great coffee. Part of the reason we are in a downtown location is precisely for the coffee and food. Being on one of the best squares in the city is also a key factor. Freyberg Place is the best square in Auckland city. We are hoping for a fine day so we can use the square fully.

We could have used an academic lecture theatre but lets face it no one ever goes to a uni (in NZ anyway) for the food or the coffee and those lectures theatres can get a bit stale and isolated so High St it is.

So we were delighted when the new Johnny Wray’s Coffee kiosk opened on the square. The coffee is roasted by the top team at Karajoz led by Derek Townsend and so we will have special wordcampnz coffee deals on the day at Johnny Wray’s.

Johnny Wrays Coffee

There are other coffee places nearby on High St, Vulcan Lane and Chancery Square but we think this one has the best roast.  Also plenty of great food around the square such as Wishbone in Vulcan Lane.

After we finish on Saturday we have booked space at Cassette 9 from 6-9pm and all wordcampnz attendees are invited to that. Cassette 9 is legendary for pizzas, the “sick disco” and other music. Upstairs on Vulcan Lane is easy to find. See you on Sat 21st of April.

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Coffee & After Party

Online Business Panel with Vaughan, Simone, Giapo & Bill

Last year we had a panel discussion chaired by Lance Wiggs which was an awesome look at a number of issues around online content.

This year we are delighted to have experienced journo Bill Bennett asking the questions of Vaughan Rowsell, Simone McCallum, Giapo Grazioli and maybe some others to do more of the same.

The general theme of questions are the changes and impacts of online business including all online activities that the panel gets asked about.

Giapo Grazioli

Giapo Grazioli - Italy / NZ

Simone McCallum

Simone McCallum NZ

Vaughan Rowsell

Vaughan Rowsell NZ

Bill Bennett

Bill Bennett - NZ

Many of us know Giapo from his organic gelato’s but really his business is so much more than 20 new flavours a week. Innovation and a genuine love for people drives the Giapo business and nothing less than reinvention of the whole world of ice cream is his game.

Vaughan Rowsell rode a bike from Bluff to Cape Reinga but you should know him because VendHQ is transforming the point of sale business globally – a giant killer business and a magnificent moustache.

Simone McCallum is everywhere online. Storify, pinterest and 5 other social media platforms you may not have heard of. More innovation and more going where the customer is and working out how best to surpass expectations online. Just back from SXSW where she was a Fin Tech Rockstar.

Bill Bennett…is a freelance journalist. Contributes to ITJourno and NZ Business. Writes about technology and business. Lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Wrote a best-seller for children.Reads about 80 books a year.

Perfect. We have a panel of game changers / online innovators and a ringmaster. What other questions should we ask? Comments below please. Please join the circus.

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Online Business Panel with Vaughan, Simone, Giapo & Bill

Analytics without the Fuss-Dan Hesson

Dan Hesson

Dan Hesson - NZ

Impress your clients with a visual interpretation of your websites analytics. Trust me this will be cool!

Do you really know what to do with those analytics graphs and reports you get each week. Dan does and he will show us how to make better sense of them in lightening fashion.

Daniel David Joseph Hesson founded a tv production company called freq TV, produced, directed and presented 5 series on local telly.

Co-founded freq records producing a CD via SONY music and 3 E.Ps consisting of Australia and New Zealand dance music. Wrote for REMIX magazine.

Did a radio show on George FM and 95bFM and my love for radio started…. Went to ad school and did a diploma in Advertising. Produced an ad that made it in TIME magazine.

And yes that is an elephant trunk in the photo…

Websites:http://www.freq.co.nz and Www.danhesson.com

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Analytics without the Fuss-Dan Hesson

Effective WordPress Video – David Blair

David Blair

David Blair Video NZ

David Blair will talk about  simple steps that will make your video much more effective in delivering your message and engaging your viewers.

This includes how to use a video camera effectively, sound and lighting considerations, editing, plus some guidance on script development and presenter delivery.

This talk will be suitable for new users and content managers.

For the more technically minded, I’ll introduce more advanced ways of positioning video (including overlaying content) and adding functionality through JavaScript. I’ll show some easy steps to add JavaScript without getting too complicated, and discuss how this added interactivity can add to viewer engagement.

I will deliver my presentation with WordPress, so that some of the ‘how to’ can be directly demonstrated from the wp-admin environment.

David has extensive experience with digital video, starting with the introduction of QuickTime(tm) in NZ for the Apple distributors, and then working for Terabyte Interactive and Fortune International in the development, production, and delivery of video-based training resources.

Website: david.co.nz

Personal Web Presenter

Posted in 2012 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Effective WordPress Video – David Blair