WordCamp Montreal 2014

Michal has been around the web for over a decade but has only recently decided to pursue his quest for Internet domination full-time. Having tried his hand at Office automation, Motion Graphics and 3D, he finally realized that the web is where he wants to be. Last year, he gave his first talk at WPMTL and got hooked. This year, he brought the power of Masonry to WordCamp Ottawa. When not writing code or integrating designs, Michal likes to take care of his spouse, his three cats and read comic books.

Follow @isotrope on Twitter.

Michal will be giving a talk in french titled “Comment présenter du contenu sur mesure sans vous emmêler dans la boucle“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

The new admin UI. It’s much more modern and pleasant to look at, IMHO.

The fact that you can now let users paste from Word without worrying as much as in the past. If I stretch the definition of “past year”, I’d also like to mention the “post locking” and “video shortcode” that I seem to recall being introduced in 3.6.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

Over the years, I’ve learned ridiculous amounts of stuff from colleagues, our WPMTL group and various online sources.

Giving a presentation is my own way of trying to give back a little to the community. It’s always a joy for me to find a way to share information in a fun, easy-to-understand, non-condescending manner. If I help a person or two understand the concept I’m trying to present, I’ll be going home a happy man.

What is your talk going to be about?

Show Them All of the Things! I’ll be explaining the process that happens between going from a page request to presenting the information to the visitor.

We’ll cover ‘post’ and ‘pages’ and how to present ‘anything else’ (AKA “Custom Post Types” and their accompanying additional meta information).

Whether you want to manage a catalogue of books, movies, portfolio projects or cats, you’ll learn that the basic concept is the same. To top it off, we’ll see how we can help Google understand “what” it is we’re showing it even better with microdata.

I’m going to try and deliver on my promise of NO CODE, JUST CONCEPTS.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

That you don’t need to understand code to understand the concepts behind the techniques to manage custom content.

I’d really like to try and give content editors the tools to communicate with their developers. Front-end design is definitely not the first and last aspect of putting together a website. I think it would be great if the planners had a better grasp of the structure that a project will require to better think about the content they’re preparing.

I’d also like to give beginner themers the a better grasp of custom content. If you know what a “book” is, you already know what it would need to become a “type of content” in WordPress. I’m here to try and give you the missing link between your brain and bringing your custom content into WordPress.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

I love the Montreal WordPress community.Having been around these folks for a few years now, I have to say that it’s one of the greatest professional groups I’ve been involved in. We have great organizers, a huge variety of members, a wide range of fields of expertise and levels of knowledge.I’ve learned a lot from the group page and the monthly meetups.
Everyone in WPMTL brings their own brand of awesome sauce.

This community also inspired me to quit my office job and become a full-time web worker. I can never thank them enough for that. More specifically, C. Bavota (@bavotasan), Carl Alexander (@twigpress) and a slew of other local folks deserve praise. I also like spending some time on the Advanced WordPress Facebook Group.

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

A standardized way to manage creating meta boxes for postmeta. A standardized content “modules” editing experience like CEUX. The time of using plugins to get out of the single column content box is upon us!

Elida is slightly obsessed with creating delightful user experiences and determining the best way to do just about anything. She has 15 years’ experience spanning commercial photography, digital media, design, fine arts and teaching. By day, Elida is a UX Designer at Sid Lee, an acclaimed creative agency based in Montreal. By night, she enjoys sampling fine liquids such as new world wines, craft beers and gourmet balsamics.

Follow @elida_ca on Twitter.

Elida will be giving a talk titled “Wireframe Secrets Revealed“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

The dashboard UI got an amazing facelift. The refinement of colours, contrasts, scale and alignment have all made the dashboard experience and navigation that much more delightful to use. Bravo to the team!

What is your talk going to be about?

My talk is about building a site on the best possible foundation: wireframes! Many people just dive in and start building a WordPress site on the fly. This all-in technique is great for learning, but can actually become inefficient as you go along. Using wireframes is smart planning – it saves loads of time and energy. It’s important to start out with the right tools in your toolbox.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

People who come to my talk will come away with a solid grasp on how and when to use wireframes.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

Kathryn Presner’s energy, knowledge, warmth and sense of community involvement always amaze me. I really admire her passion for helping people find solutions and encouraging women in tech.

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

I should really get on opening a core ticket to request a feature that can make me an espresso in the morning.

Meagan Hanes is a designer of digital things, photographer, blogger and all around creative gal living in Ottawa. Thorough her company Love Digimedia, she enjoys creating easy-to-use websites and technology solutions for artists, entrepreneurs and other creatives around the world. When not giving back to the community, you’ll find her behind a laptop or smartphone screen.

Follow @mhanes on Twitter.

Meagan will be giving a talk titled “To the Word and Beyond! Extending WordPress Past a Simple Blog“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

Overall I think the Auto-Update feature has been the best improvement this year. Security is really important but many people overlook its importance. More updates means less compromises!

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

I had a great time speaking at WordCamp Montreal last year, and a friend encouraged me to apply again, so I did!

What is your talk going to be about?

My talk is about three plugins that significantly change WordPress: bbPress, BuddyPress, and P2. If you’ve never heard of any of these, give them a Google and see what comes up! Or better yet, simply come to the presentation 🙂

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

I’d like people to walk away understanding the true power of the WordPress platform. It’s not just for simple websites!

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

So many people, I couldn’t list them all!

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

A true and full mobile experience, both for readers and authors.

Yannick Lefebvre is an author and plugin developer who has released eight projects to the official WordPress repository to this day. His book, WordPress Plugin Development Cookbook, is available from Packt Publishing. His first creation, Link Library, has been used on WordPress sites around the world. With a background in Computer Science, he started writing plugins for his own WordPress site in 2004 and quickly started sharing his creations with the community. You can find out more about him and his plugins on his blog, Yannick’s Corner.

Follow @ylefebvre on Twitter.

Yannick will be giving a talk titled “So, you want to be a plugin developer?“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

As a plugin developer, I am always looking for features that will help me improve my plugins. My favorite improvement was actually introduced by the latest Jetpack version, and that’s the new admin styling with the tab layout. Very styling and looks great with the new admin style.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

As a long-time WordPress user and plugin developer, I always look for ways to give back to the WordPress community, and I feel that sharing my knowledge around plugin development is a great way to do this. Many have expressed curiosity to me over time about making some of their work public and I hope to encourage them to do so.

What is your talk going to be about?

My talk will cover everything you should consider when thinking about making a plugin and releasing it to the WordPress community. This includes finding an idea for a plugin, an overview of coding standards and design decision, promoting your work and monetization strategies, as well as post-release concerns like support, testing and update strategies.

While my talk is addressed at developers, the topics that I will be covering are all around high-level organizational and business-related aspects of plugin development.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

That creating plugins involves a lot of work but is very rewarding and can become quite approachable once you understand all tasks involved.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) for his vision and leadership, Chris Bavota (@bavotasan) for his great theme and sharing an understanding of user support, all of the Montreal Automatticians

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

WordPress always feel very full-featured to me. That being said, I feel that they could do better at incorporating tiny features that small plugins add. This way, users and integrators won’t have to worry about constantly re-installing and updating certain plugins on each site they work on. This includes things like display item and category IDs in the editor, or enabling shortcodes in text widgets. These are simple things that could be addressed in the core of the tool.

As an experienced Internet marketing entrepreneur, consultant, speaker, and author, Brian has spent much of the last 17 years helping companies excel online. He’s the head of well-established brands such as Uniseo (a boutique Internet marketing agency) and RedstoneX.com (a web design and online marketing company), where he brings a hype-free, seasoned approach to working with clients. You may have caught his appearances on CTV News or local radio shows. He writes about SEO, content marketing, social media, business, and entrepreneurship, among other topics. His work has been used by USA Today, ABC News, Social Media Today, Search Engine Journal, Business 2 Community, and other prominent sources. Brian holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides training services on topics such as SEO, content marketing, and social media. His love affair with WordPress began in 2005 when he started with version 1.6!

Follow @brianrotsztein on Twitter.

Brian will be giving a talk titled “Grow Your Audience with Content Marketing“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

The overall direction that WordPress is moving in has helped my team get the most out of it.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

WordPress is the best open source content management system on the planet. I’m proud to say that my team specializes in WordPress-based web and responsive design, programming, and consulting, and training. Thanks to WordPress, we’ve been able to offer clients high quality products and services. Preparing a talk and speaking at WordCamp is my way of giving back to the community which helps keep it strong and moving forward.

What is your talk going to be about?

I’ll be talking about specific methods that can be used to grow an audience with WordPress. It will be mostly based on content marketing with a little search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing thrown in for good measure.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

Anyone can create content but if no one sees it, it won’t help get your business increase revenue. I hope people will gain a new appreciation for growing an audience while learning about content marketing.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

I’ve spoken at WordCamps in Montreal Toronto, and Ottawa, and have a true appreciation for what it takes to put on these conferences. The teams behind these events are inspirational.

I’ve given talks at events that charged upwards of $2,500 per ticket that didn’t even come close to the quality of events that these WordCamp teams have put together for an incredibly affordable $40. Kudos!

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

As long as WordPress moves in the direction of increasing flexibility, I’m satisfied.

As a recent convert to freelance web design and development at Molecularcode, Alex now uses WordPress to create fun and interesting websites, frequently perusing the WordPress Plugin repository in search of those little nuggets of gold. Having been so well supported by the WordPress community at the beginning of her new career, she enjoys sharing the knowledge she has acquired with other people passionate about populating the web with clean, functional websites. Alex is also a huge 3D Printing enthusiast and enjoys sharing her love of the technology with anyone who will listen.

Follow @molecularcode on Twitter.

Alex will be giving a talk titled “There’s A Plugin For That“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

Making the WordPress backend responsive in 3.8 has greatly improved the experience of working on mobile devices or smaller browser windows. Now I can at least make some changes to sites from my phone while I’m out and about and away from my laptop.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

The WordPress community has been so supportive and helpful whilst I’ve been getting to grips with the platform and, now I feel I have something useful to give back, I want to share what I’ve learnt with others.

What is your talk going to be about?

Finding the right plugin for the job in order to get your WordPress site to do exactly what you want it to. There can be so many choices that sometimes finding the perfect plugin feels more like dating than an exact science. We’ll explore some basic guidelines you can follow to weed out the duds and I’ll share some of my ‘must-have’ plugins.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

A list of basic guidelines to follow to help you narrow down your plugin selection and filter out the weaker options.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

The many core and plugin developers who contribute their time, expertise and passion to continually improving and expanding the WordPress platform.

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

The ability to create custom post types built into the backend.