2012 content ideas
From WPUK wiki
Post session ideas for WordCamp Edinburgh UK 2012 below.
- Precede names with flags to indicate:
- Idea - My idea and looking for speakers.
- Speaker - Will lead the session (if jointly post all names).
- Sessions are normally 50 minutes long. In rooms 2 and 3, as an option, shorter 30 minutes sessions can take place.
- Tag ideas with type and level
- To lead a session you must have a ticket for the event and, obviously, be present for the relevant session.
- The inclusion of any topic at the event will be confirmed by listing in the running order.
- To avoid breaking links do not edit the previously posted h2 session headings on this page.
- If you want to change the session heading create a new session with a different heading to avoid breaking links.
- Always add new ideas at the end.
Site doctors: Let the experts help you!
- Does your site feel off-colour? We can help! An active group discussion on how to improve your site including some great tips and tricks for any WordPress user, designer or developer.
- A call for sites to be submitted will be made nearer the conference - don't be scared, we are here to give you constructive feedback to improve your site!
Idea: Tony Scott Speakers: Jonny Allbut - theme design/creative) ADD YOUR NAME HERE!
Tags: Beginner, Intermediate, CSS, Themes, Plugins, SEO
Secure from the start
Want to keep your WordPress site safe from hackers? This session is for you. A security orientated talk covering
- Risks and Pitfalls
- WordPress configuration
- Hosting considerations
- Must have plugins
- Additional config options
Speaker: Kieran O'Shea
Tags: developer, intermediate, advanced, plugins, security, hacking
A tour 'round the core
- A guided tour by a core contributor around the core code, highlighting things (processes, classes, hooks, etc.) of particular importance for theme and plugin developers.
- Tips on exploring further on your own.
- Maybe a guide to using Trac?
Idea: Steve Taylor
Tags: Intermediate, Advanced, Developers
Happiness Bar
This will be an area were a number of experienced WordPress users will attempt to resolve, on a one-to-one basis, any WordPress questions and problems.
- Effectively genius bar, as previous years.
- Staffed throughout the two days (barring WC-wide session times)
- Designed to be as accessible as possible to the more inexperienced users
- See SxSW, WCSF, WCMTL, and many others for past examples
Tags: Beginner, Intermediate
Turbo-charged theme design
- Learn ways of working efficiently in WordPress theme design
- Discover how to use WordPress core theme functionality to make flexible themes and options
- Tricks to solve common theme design challenges
Speaker: Jonny Allbut
Tags: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
ThemeHack
- A focused 2 hour (possibly on Saturday AND Sunday) group collaborative session for theme designers and coders.
- How far can we modify the latest core theme distributed with WordPress together?
- No plugins allowed! Just CSS, theme files and a functions.php!
Idea: Jonny Allbut
Tags: Intermediate, Advanced
WOW plugins
Showcase of really useful and excellent plugins people may have missed or are just unaware of.
Idea: Michael Kimb Jones
Tags: beginner, pro, plugins
Show me how did you do that
A structured BarCamp-style session where people could demonstrate/discuss their solutions and tips/tricks in 10-minute quick-fire blocks.
A suggestion from WordUp Glasgow (thanks @kevinjohng) is to sandwich these events in between the longer talks.
"I suggest that in future these 10 minute sessions come after a 30 minute presentation. Effectively alternating between the two."
Idea: John Adams
Tags: Developer, Novice, Blogger
Getting involved in WordPress
The aim of this panel is to show the range of ways anyone can get involved in the WordPress projects and give back. Each of the panelests is active in the community from BuddyPress/WordPress through to translations, WordCamp/meetup organisers and theme reviews.
The format will be a Q & A with each panelist being given a short amount of time to introduce themselves and what they get involved with. I'll be asking some questions to each panelest and then open it up to the room.
Idea: Tammie Lister
Speakers: (*so far) Paul Gibbs @pgibbs, Joeke-Remkus deVries @defries, Taryn Wallis Phenomenoodle
Tags: Community
Designing for communities with BuddyPress
People have needs and communities are full of people - so what does a community need from a design? This presentation is part dabble in psychology, part design and part BuddyPress love all wrapped up in a bit of how to and design ideas.
A community can thrive or die by a bad design, but bad design doesn't just mean what it looks like. Design matters in all areas of a community. I'll show how good design can silently help a community.
I'll look at those doing it right, ways you can do it wrong and what tools BuddyPress gives you out of the box and what cherry on tops you can find with themes and plugins already released. There will also be some design basics covered that anyone can implement to help their community.
I hope to show how diverse design can be with BuddyPress - it's not just about being a child of BuddyPress default or attack of the clones.
This is aimed at all ranges not just at designers or community owners.
Idea: Tammie Lister
Speaker: Tammie Lister.
Tags: Community, BuddyPress
WordPress for mobile - 2012 update
This talk will give an update on the developments in this area since my talk last year, and build in some of the content and code discussed in last year's talk. It will cover:
- Mobile first
- Advances in handling images for mobile devices
- Themes and plugins released in the last year which help in this area
- A recap of some of the key points from last year, in particular on responsive design
Idea: Rachel McCollin
Speaker: Rachel McCollin
Tags: Developer, Intermediate, Themes, Plugins
Customizing WordPress admin like a boss
This talk will go through the main concepts of editing the WP admin area (mainly with custom post types), giving people ideas, tools and snippets to walk away with :
- Why customize?
- WP core functions for manipulating CPT's
- jQuery UI (with examples)
- LESS CSS (with examples)
- ... and more
Idea: Noel Tock
Speaker: Noel Tock
Tags: Developer, Interface, Intermediate, Advanced, Admin
BuddyPress 2012
An update on the BuddyPress project; about our current version and what's going to be in the next version. We see a lot of questions about how or why BuddyPress does things in the way it does, so we'll be sharing the team's views on both technical and general aspects of BuddyPress.
Idea: Paul Gibbs
Speaker: Paul Gibbs
Tags: Community, Intermediate
Lazy smart shortcodes
Ideas for reducing development time by using lazy, smart shortcodes. Lazy - the code's only loaded when the shortcode is used Smart - the shortcode understands the invocation context
Idea: Herb Miller
Speaker: Herb Miller
Tags: Intermediate, Advanced, CSS, Developer
WordPress for a family history project
Using WordPress to tell the story of my grandfather's Great War, in letters and postcards. The presentation looks at the features of WordPress that make it easy to tell the story, including a review of some very useful plugins.
(suitable for a 30 minute slot)
Speaker: John Adams
Tags: Intermediate, Blogger, Plugins
Using BuddyPress to build a community
A case study of a small volunteer-driven NGO using BuddyPress to help manage it's activities. (Subject to actual success in making it happen)
(suitable for a 30 minute slot)
Speaker: John Adams and Ian Rankin (the architect, not the author)
Tags: BuddyPress, Community
The EU Cookie Law and WordPress
When the conference takes place the cookie law will have been on the books for two months. The presentation I gave at WordUp Edinburgh in February, in advance of the law going into effect, can easily be updated to reflect how things (will) have changed with the law in actual force and what lies ahead for it.
Idea: Heather Burns
Speaker: Heather Burns
Tags: Law, legal, compliance, plugins, intermediate
WordPress SEO challenge
Novice to practitioner in three months
- Record starting position.
- Setting objectives.
- Deciding on measurement techniques.
- Finding best practice.
- Tools of the trade.
- Doing the actual work.
- Blogging how it goes.
- Recording the final position.
- Conclusions and feedback.
- Recommendations
Idea: Jim Convey Speaker: Jim Convey
Tags: SEO, developer, beginner, intermediate, plugins, measurement, marketing, project management
Writing awesome docs for your code
This talk is aimed at developers, business-people, theme designers, and anyone who has a WordPress product or business. I'll look at how you can write useful documentation for your users that will help them to properly use your product. The talk will go roughly as follows:
- Why good documentation is important for your business
- How different people approach learning
- The different types of documentation that you could produce
- Tips and techniques for writing good docs
- Plugins to help you produce documentation.
Idea: Siobhan McKeown
Speaker: Siobhan McKeown
Tags: intermediate, advanced, developer, documentation
Emperor's new clothes (or how I learned to ask "is the cool thing the right thing")
Platform and technology agnostic where possible, by drawing on strong examples from WordPress, this presentation aims to show how we've moved from asking: Are we doing the right thing, or the newest/coolest thing? Designed to kick-start conversations rather than consensus, I choose 10 slides from a deck of about 50, tailored to the conference and audience. Already given to great reception at DrupalCamp, WPScotland, PHP2012, WhiskyWeb, DigitalBarn, 3F, ScrumAllianceAtlanta and J&Beyond.
Idea: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Speaker: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Tags: intermediate, advanced, developer
Hacking WordPress to not fail for a high volume website
How PWB turned a failing website punching above it's weight into one of the most commented on blogs in Europe: 2k non-spam comments and 75k hits per day. (30 or 50 mins)
Idea: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Speaker: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Tags: intermediate, advanced, developer
What is Agile really, and how can we use it?
A Certified Scrum Practicioner, Product Owner & Scrum Master, Kevinjohn founded Pure Web Brilliant on the premise that using a pragmatic Agile approach could deliver real change to organisations.
- What is Agile?
- How does it work in theory and in practice?
- How can we adapt it to work for us?
- Making the mental leap.
- I'd like to follow this up with a 1 hour practical workshop (and Q&A) in the genius bar.
Idea: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Speaker: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Tags: intermediate, advanced, developer
Let's chat about "WordPress has left the building"
WordPress has left the building caused some contraversy in January this year. As fans of WordPress we'd love the chance to answer many of the questions raised at the time. So many valid conversations became lost is all the noise; and so many myths are still spoken about as facts. (30 mins)
Idea: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Speaker: Kevinjohn Gallagher
Tags: intermediate, advanced, developer
Grid
Any blank sessions at the beginning of the WordCamp will be filled using a BarCamp style grid.
Idea: Tony Scott
Tags: Meta
Open discussion
Open discussion on the weekend, the next event and related issues.
Speaker: Tony Scott
Speaker: Tony Scott
Tags: Meta
WordPress UK local groups
Open discussion on the WordPress UK local groups.
Those involved in local groups are invited, along with those interested in setting up new groups.
This will allow different organizers from all around the country to share ideas on how they got started, how they lead and plan their local sessions and what can be learned by others experiences.
This session will also interest those who wish in set up their own local WordPress meetups.
Idea: Michael Kimb Jones Chair: Tony Scott
Tags: wordcampuk, local
How I made WonderThemes (AKA building a theme marketplace with WordPress)
WonderThemes was launched last year and sponsored the WordCampUK event in Portsmouth (anyone still got a t-shirt?).
In this session I want to talk about the process of building WonderThemes - From inception to reality and the road to frustration. It will be an honest and straightforward breakdown of the work involved in creating an online (digital) marketplace using WordPress as the base platform and how it was done in my spare time with a meagre budget working alone.
Includes the initial idea, R&D, cost breakdowns, development issues and how I sometimes felt like I was punching myself in the face.
The session will be an hour and topics will consist of:
- The idea
- How the idea evolved from single theme site to marketplace after R&D and the run-up to my talk at WCUK 2010 (How WordPress themes changed the World)
- Naming and domain-ing (September 3rd 2009)
- Looking for partners and collaborators
- The Wonderflux (previously 'Flux') framework idea and connecting with @jonnyauk
- Going it alone and dancing like nobody is watching
- GPL, frameworks, and fairness, some things never change
- Support, support, support. Fixing the problem of theme support
- The build process
- Bootstrapping? Don't make me laugh (making the best of what you have or can get your hands on)
- Using WordPress as the base, the whys and hows and the wait for the MultiSite merge (WP v3)
- Why MultiSite is the most exciting part of WordPress but also the most frustrating
- WPMUDev plugins + some hacking + some more hacking = major headaches
- bbPress 2.0 is awesome, or is it? (sort of)
- I hate eCommerce (how does it work?!)
- The money/split/percentage conundrum (um, thanks PayPal!)
- How it works
- A look around the site and admin panels
- Live demo of how to become a vendor and upload a product
- Live demo of buying a product and the process of downloading
- Details of the PayPal money split system (um, thanks again PayPal!)
- What it cost in time and money
- Breakdown of development costs (freelancers) hosting, extra design work testing costs (PayPal)
- Promotion costs (t-shirts?! FFS!)
- Breakdown of time spent from inception of idea to now and how time spent dipped AFTER launch (when the most work should really go in)
- Number of 'real' (test sales excluded) sales since launch 12 months ago
- How much money has come in (stop chuckling at the back)
- The reality of building a marketplace (or any other webapp)
- If you build it, they won't come
- Done is better than perfect and other bullshit quotes that you should take with a pinch of salt
- Managing a project is not the same as running a business
- Being first doesn't matter but taking on the establishment is more than just having a better idea
- How some problems do not need fixing
- Holy s**t everyone already went GPL
- Frameworks are great, but they aren't for everyone
- Support, support, support. How smart theme developers like @ormanclark did it right
- Realising that your competitors are not evil (Aw ThemeForrest, gimme a hug)
- How my vision of a simple, lean marketplace isn't everyone's cup of tea
- What would I do differently
- The future
- Derp/herp and a Q&A
Idea: Michael Kimb Jones
Speaker: Michael Kimb Jones
Tags: themes, marketplace, multisite, business, headaches, development, design
Why you don't make enough money - and how to fix it
Since moving into the web and WordPress market it's shocked me how little money people make - us included!
This talk is all about the risks and problems we face in the industry, along with the possible solutions.
This year there won't be Skittles, but there'll probably be something even better...
Idea: David Coveney of interconnect/it Speakers: David Coveney
Tags: Business, Finance, Marketing, Fun, Money
Do I need an app?
- How to tell whether a project needs an app, or if a mobile site be enough (potential to link into http://wiki.wpuk.org/2012_content_ideas#WordPress_for_mobile_-_2012_update Rachel McCollin's talk here)
- What does a good app need?
- Which platforms should you target?
- How do I market it?
- Starting an app from a WordPress site (and maybe bbPress and BuddyPress too...)
Idea: Rikki Tooley
Speakers: Potentially Rikki Tooley depending on university work
Tags: beginner, developer, mobile, apps, business (maybe), marketing
Developers are people too
- Just an idea for a talk so far...
- Essentially, would be an extension of this blog post
- Feedback welcome, I am aware this idea isn't especially fleshed out yet...
Idea: Rikki Tooley
Speakers: ?
Tags: developer, community
Trending now
- Another idea...
- A group discussion/ presentation on exciting new things since the last WordCamp, and what to look out for in the next year (would be good as a recurring talk, so next year we could evaluate our predictions).
Idea: Rikki Tooley
Speakers: No single presenter - ideally five - ten people (chosen beforehand) would mention their favourite trend from the last year, and what they're excited about for the next.
Tags: predictions, year in review
Starting out with WordPress Workshop
- WordPress from the very beginning. If enough people are interested, I will run this as an extended session/workshop in a side room for a couple of hours. Where people can bring their laptops and get hands-on practice. I'd like to limit the places for the workshop, Otherwise, I can do a 50-minute presentation.
Idea: Mike Little
Speakers: Mike Little
Staying safe in your search for free WordPress themes
Everyone loves a freebie, and one of the things that we all love about WordPress is that not only is the core software free, but there are lots of lovely free themes and plugins that go along with it. Although WordPress users are encouraged to search the theme repository for new themes, there's always that temptation to input "free WordPress themes" into Google and see what lovely designs appear. This talk will be an update and expansion of a blog post I wrote last year. It is aimed specifically at beginners and intermediate WordPress users who are always on the hunt for free WordPress themes.
What I'll cover:
- Searching Google for themes - looking at how easy it is to pick up spam and malware
- Checking out what some of the encrypted code does
- Using plugins to analyse what's contained in a theme's template files
- Safe places to find themes
This talk may include a live demo (if I'm feeling brave enough!)
Idea: Siobhan McKeown
Speakers: Siobhan McKeown
Tags: beginners, themes, security
State of WordPress eCommerce in 2012
WordPress has fast become a major player in the field of eCommerce over the past few years. Nobody even tried to use WordPress for a professional shop two or three years ago, today there are plenty of successful + feature-packed plugins available. What are the differences and how do they compare to dedicated eCommerce software like Magento? This talk covers that and much more, bringing you the State of WordPress eCommerce in 2012.
What I'll cover:
Past
- WordPress was not suitable for e-Commerce due to lack of quality plugins and (im)maturity of the platform
- But credit is due to the pioneers
Present
- Plugins - with 3.0 we saw eCommerce plugins rise in number and credibility. I'll compare current WP eCommerce plugin options plus a quick look at alternative platforms
- Theme + plugin integration - set up professional shops on a budget
- Security - A concern for anyone running an online store
- Extensions - Taylor your store to match your needs
Future
- What we’re doing at WooThemes with WooCommerce
- Magento, the current No. 1 eCommerce platform now recommend their hosted product to vendors turning over <$1m - where do the (majority of) users, who don't want a hosted solution go? Are we witnessing a paradigm shift?
Idea: WooThemes
Speakers: Coen Jacobs
Tags: eCommerce, intermediate, plugins
WordPress and Web Accessibility: Why It's Important
- Approx 10 million people in the UK are officially viewed as disabled
- The disabled represent a market worth £80bn per year
- 83% of disabled people will not return to a business that does not meet their accessibility needs
Three stats chosen from many which underline why accessibility is important for your WordPress sites - and the ones you build for your clients. Turnover is always important for a business, especially at the moment - so how can you make sure that you're not shutting out potential customers? Let me help demystify accessibility and show you some simple but important things you can do on your sites to make them more accessible.
What I'll cover:
- What does web accessibility mean?
- Why it's important
- Types of disability and how they use the web
- WordPress and Accessibility - Themes, Plugins, Content
- Simple things we can all do
- Examples
- Resources
Presentation will be slide based but with demonstrations of real examples and screen readers etc.
Speaker: Graham Armfield
Tags: users, developers, themes, plugins, accessibility
So you want a WordPress, huh?
- Many talks/ presentations presume basic - advanced knowledge of WordPress
- Many companies are still not using WordPress
- Many people presume it's difficult/ expensive to get online with WordPress
The famous 5 minute install broken down into a 2 minute install for those that need the cheapest, most easiest way to get online with WordPress. Aimed at 100% total WordPress newbies looking to get online quickly and easily.
What I'll cover:
- Installing WordPress the CPanel way
- Installing my first theme
- Installing my first plugin
Presentation will be quick, in plain English and straight to the point. Attendees would be best to have a computer handy although not required.
Speaker: Lee Rickler
Tags: beginners, installation, themes, plugins
