Session: Business Principles for WordPress Project Success
Track: Designer / Developer
Time: Saturday, December 13, 10:00 AM

John was an early adopter of WordPress. He moved his blog to the brand new platform a few short months after it was released and never looked back. After doing countless updates to his own site and those of a few dozen friends, John co-founded 9seeds.com to focus full time on WordPress development. In his spare time, John is the lead organizer of the Las Vegas WordPress meetup, blogs at vegasgeek.com and recently became addicted to CrossFit.

About John’s Session:
In this session Dre Armeda and John will talk about key areas they like to focus on that lead to successful projects. The two well known and respected WordPress entrepreneurs will share with you several of the things they’ve learned along the way. Hopefully one or two of them will save you from having to learn the same lessons at the school of hard knocks.

Your Company: 9seeds.com

Your Website: vegasgeek.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
Two things, really. I love how easy it is to set up a quick site for some silly side project that you want to test out. I also like being able to put the power of publishing in to the hands of the site owner without requiring a developer on a daily basis.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?
Gravity Forms is always a crowd pleaser, but lately I’ve been using WP Migrate DB Pro a lot and it saves our company a ton of time! Oh, and I can’t forget Restrict Content Pro. Badass membership plugin!

What should everyone know about WordPress?
We all love to say that it’s “easy to use”, but, just like anything, it has a learning curve. And, if you don’t use it on a regular basis, it’s probably always going to require a little more time to do something than you might expect.

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
I really enjoyed my family’s trip to Alaska and would love to do that again. I don’t have a specific place. I just like traveling to hang out with friends.

What do you love about Las Vegas?
I like the weather (I hate being cold), I like that it’s a 24 hour town. If I want a steak at 3am, damn it, I’m having a steak at 3am!

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
Lego Movie? That song is so damn catchy!

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
Right now I’m addicted to CrossFit. Getting in shape has been a lot of fun these past 6 months!

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Want to share what’s happening at WordCamp Las Vegas 2014 with the world?

Above our our social media sites, please use the #WCLV14 hashtag. Who will be live posting?

Session: Ten Features of Jetpack You Can’t Live Without
Track: Sunday Workshop
Time: Sunday, December 14, 2:30 PM

Here’s how Suzette describes her session:

“Since its inception from WordPress.com Stats several years ago, the Jetpack suite of plugins has matured into a well-rounded group of helpful tools that you’ll wonder how you could ever live without. A must for any self-hosted WordPress site owner, this session will cover how to leverage the top ten most useful social media features and the WordPress.com cloud-powered awesomeness to collect stats and provide feedback, such as the contact form, related posts, the top posts and pages widget, and more.

This 75 minute hands-on presentation with Q & A will cover the basics of how to get started with and how to use some of the awesome modules that come with Jetpack. Jetpack requires a WordPress.org account and a publicly accessible WordPress website, which will be necessary to participate in the class lessons. Others will be encouraged to ask questions and take notes for later.”

About Suzette Franck
Suzette Franck has been in web development for over twenty years; she started making hand-coded HTML websites on geocities with font tags and tables back in 1995. Since then, she has taught herself CSS, Sass, PHP, MySQL, as well as becoming a WordPress expert; evangelizing and presenting at over twenty-three WordCamps across the country and multiple WordPress meetups in Southern California where she resides, about all aspects of building and maintaining sites on WordPress.

Suzette is passionate about WordPress the application as well as the WordPress Open Source Community, and loves to code and teach others the wonders of WordPress. She is a purveyor of lowbrow art, and when she is not WordPressing, she is painting or visiting Los Angeles art galleries to add more work to her growing art collection.

Your Company:
WebDevStudios

Your Website:
suzettefranck.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
I found out about WordPress in 2008, but I have been developing for the web since 1996. Since then, I have used WordPress to create over 200 custom themes of all types of functionality and appearance very quickly. The ease and extensibility of WordPress, along with the amount of support online and in the community is incredible, and is the reason why I use WordPress every single day.

What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?
http://thinkspacegallery.com, I redesigned this website several years ago for WordPress. It has a very simple minimalistic design but conveys a lot of information. It works well with a variety of different artwork styles, which is important for a gallery website. I worked with this site long before WordPress came about, so to have it in WordPress is such a dream to update and mange.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?
Since I discovered Admin Columns, I find that I can’t do a simple site without it! It allows you to pick and choose the columns that are displayed in the back-end of WordPress for Post, Pages, CPTs, Users, Media, and more. It also has support for custom fields, so those may be shown in the admin listing as well which is very useful. A few other favorites are Jetpack, Advanced Custom Fields, Custom Post Type UI, and Wordfence. You can find all of my favorites listed on my WordPress.org profile at https://profiles.wordpress.org/suzettefranck.

What should everyone know about WordPress?
Using WordPress is definitely what is happening now and in the future of web publishing. It is the most widely used and supported web software in the world, and the community is always there to help with problems. Especially if you are not using a CMS of any kind, once you get past the learning curve which is not very high, you will be amazed with what WordPress can do.

What do you love about Las Vegas?
Las Vegas has a great WordPress community, and I am happy to be presenting to them at this WordCamp. Besides that, it is a lot of fun to see the awesome lights, especially vintage neon signs. I hope to get a chance to see some awesome shows and art exhibits while I am there.

Are there any fun activities you have planned while you’re in Vegas? If so, what are they?
I’d really love to go see one of the Cirque Du Soleil shows and visit one of the local art museums while I’m here.

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
I find that I am too busy to go to the movies, but one I’ve been wanting to see is “The Lego Movie”, it looks fun and I hear I will love Unikitty.

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
I am a closet-crafter. I love painting, creating things, baking, and I also have a website that showcases my creations: http://suzettefranck.me.

What are three of your pet peeves?
Cable TV is really annoying, 500 channels and still nothing to watch. I do not subscribe, and I would rather put my cable subscription money towards independent film makers or public broadcasting by supporting local radio stations like KCRW. Not being able to connect to WIFI is a big pet peeve of mine, but we do the best we can with what we have. Using a Windows PC use to be a huge pet peeve, but now that I’ve switched to Mac I find that I am much less irritated by hanging applications. I guess my pet peeves are minor and luckily, most can be avoided, I’m pretty blessed.

Anything additional that you would like to add?
“Never stop learning and being curious, self-education is the key to a happy and fulfilling life.”

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: A Website Is Not A Poster: Designing Successfully For The Web
Track: Developer / Designer
Time: Saturday, December 15, 1:00 PM

About Michelle Schulp
Michelle is an independent graphic designer who recently relocated to Minneapolis from Chicago. She was formally schooled in design including print, branding, packaging, etc., with additional education in Psychology and Sociology, all tying together in a love of How To Solve Problems. Lately she has been specializing in WordPress websites, infographics, and high-end presentations for her clients. She loves the WordPress community and speaks/volunteers/organizes at WordCamps and events around the country.

Here’s how Michelle describes her session:

“In the world of print, designers have control over every point and pica, but with all the variables inherent to the web, that same desire for control leads to headaches, frustration, and bad practices. You will learn specific guidelines to let go of that control and design more effectively for the web, as well as how to collaborate with developers to ensure a successful project without all the usual struggles.”

Your Company: Marktime Media

Your Website: marktimemedia.com and mynameismichelle.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
It can be as simple/out-of-the box or as complex/custom as you need it to be… and supported by a fantastic community that are more than willing to help at all levels.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?
I make extensive use of Gravity Forms, Advanced Custom Fields, WooCommerce, BackupBuddy, Events Calendar Pro, and WP101 on client sites. Of course there is also Comic Sans Roulette and the upcoming Developer Fuel plugin if you like truly awesome ones 😉

What do you love about Las Vegas?
Honestly? The environmental design (interior design, architecture, lighting, and the psychology of how people interact with spaces). It’s like a real life UI experiment everywhere and it’s fascinating #designNerd All the food, drinks, and fun stuff to do don’t hurt either.

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
Lots of great ones, but can’t go wrong with the sequel to How To Train Your Dragon (I’m an animated movie buff).

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
A shockingly large amount of my fun activities (travel, friends, etc) are related to WordPress nowadays. But I love to ride my bike, paint, and play the flute.

What are three of your pet peeves?
Miscommunication-induced drama, inefficient use of time, and excessive disorganization.

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Video in Your WordPress Website
Track: Sunday Workshop
Time: Sunday, December 14, 4:00 PM

Chris Rogers is a Las Vegas Renaissance man. Accomplished actor, check. Presentation builder and video editor, check.

Here’s how Chris describes his session:

Creating video is hard enough! Chris will show you how to easily get your freakin’ video file into your WordPress website. He will also show you how to create video content with equipment you (probably) already own, ie: mobile devices, software, yada.

Company:
CHRMEDIA

Website:
www.chrmedia.com

What do i love most about WP?
The open, sharing, positive community of everyone involved. I would not be where I am without help from WordPress pros who have been doing this much longer than I have. I’m very grateful and want to pay it forward.

What should everyone know about WP?
With a little time and effort, you can have a decent looking website.

Favorite place to visit:
Miami Beach. The weather (and people) are gorgeous.

What do i like about LV?
This is one of the most unique, bizarre places in the world. They totally get the importance of Customer Service.

Favorite movie in 2014:
20 FEET FROM STARDOM that my friend Doug Blush edited.

Fav non-W activity?
health/working out. I’m also a working actor, so anytime i get to act.

Additional:
I was born and raised in the South. So if anyone wants to bring me some homemade pecan pie or… 😉

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

For those of you who do not live in Las Vegas, you may be surprised to know that it actually gets cold here in the winter.

Take a look at the image to the right. That’s right, it will be in the 50s during the day AND the 30s & 40s OVERNIGHT!

Please bring warm clothes to WordCamp Las Vegas 2014.

Don’t be afraid. To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World
Track: Sunday Workshop
Time: Sunday, December 14, 9:00 AM

Along with Rosario Grajales and Charlie Bass, Scott Roeben is a panelist on the Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World panel. Our three panelists describe their session as:

Most of us have a simple goal for our blog:

starting small and blowing up big!

Of course we all know its not that simple…BUT it can be done through amazing content, personal branding, strategic marketing, and relationship-building.

It’s all about blogging with a purpose. Laying the groundwork, starting modestly with small, attainable goals, content generation, marketing and networking, and cross-pollination with other audiences. Lather, rinse, repeat.

About Scott Roeben:

Your Company:
VitalVegas.com

Your Website:
http://www.vitalvegas.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
Honestly, that someone with little or know knowledge of Web design or the technical aspects of creating Web pages (like me) can have a beautiful Web site or blog that works without breaking the Internet every 15 minutes, and I don’t mean in a Kardashian way.

What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?
How can you tell it’s a WordPress Web site? They should have to carry IDs or something.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?
Everyone’s going to say the Yoast plug-in (WordPress SEO Plugin), and there’s a good reason for that. It’s changed everything. Everyone’s an SEO superstar if they use that plug-in.

What should everyone know about WordPress?
There have been three great inventions in the history of Humankind. One is air conditioning. The second is Captain Morgan spiced rum. The third is WordPress. And we could probably live without air conditioning and Captain Morgan.

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
Downtown Las Vegas. And that was my answer long before I started working there.

What do you love about Las Vegas?
People love parties. It’s one of the things that make us human. Las Vegas is a non-stop party. Actually, it’s better than a regular party because there are people who help clean up afterward. I love gambling, I love drinking, I love that the talent pool’s so shallow, I love that people walk around with 20 grand in hundreds on them, I love the 24-7, I love that penicillin is so readily available, I love the colorful characters trying to be somebody they’re not, I love the cheesiness, the over-the-top, the absolutely horrible public relations machine, I love the utter lack of chastity and sheer quantity of unnaturally large breasts, I love the weather, the grime you get on your hands from machines that pay with coins, I love the fact nobody’s actually from Las Vegas, I love the awful shows that thrive for decades here, I love the sound of people screaming when they’ve won a jackpot, I love even the things I hate. That’s what I love about Las Vegas.

Are there any fun activities you have planned while you’re in Vegas? If so, what are they?
I live here. Which is a blessing and a curse. Every day is fun. But you have to keep replacing your liver every 3-6 months, and lots of times those aren’t under warranty.

Favorite movie in 2014 and why?
Let’s Be Cops. That film did incredibly well at the box office despite never once showing in Ferguson, Missouri.

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
Blogging. Which is really separate from WordPress in that I would do it even if I had to type things up on a typewriter and Xerox copies of them and just distribute them to friends and family one-by-one. Which I did. So there.

What are three of your pet peeves?
Bloggers who attack other bloggers. Public relations people. Photo thieves.

Anything additional that you would like to add?
Thank you for putting on WordCamp! Giving people a conference about WordPress empowers them to self-express, one of the two most important human pursuits. The other one is being swallowed by an anaconda. I’d love to attend a conference about that, so please get on it.

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World
Track: Sunday Workshop
Time: Sunday, December 14, 9:00 AM

Along with Charlie Bass and Scott Roeben, Rosario Grajales is a panelist on the Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World panel. Our three panelists describe their session as:

Most of us have a simple goal for our blog:

starting small and blowing up big!

Of course we all know its not that simple…BUT it can be done through amazing content, personal branding, strategic marketing, and relationship-building.

It’s all about blogging with a purpose. Laying the groundwork, starting modestly with small, attainable goals, content generation, marketing and networking, and cross-pollination with other audiences. Lather, rinse, repeat.

About Rosario Grajales:
Rosario was born in the Republic of Panama, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Columbus University in Panama. She moved to Las Vegas in 2008 where she has been involved with the Hispanic community, focusing on communications: commercials, hosting shows and events, journalism, and serving as a media and marketing adviser. She fell in love with journalism at age 13 and decided her goal would be to make it her profession.

Rosario was a news anchor in her country of Panama.

She runs two websites:

• www.rosarioknows.com – which focuses on news and activities around Las Vegas
• www.rosariograjales.com – where she offers Spanish communication services for people and companies

Rosario interviews artists, celebrities, and important national and international figures locally here in Las Vegas as well as from Panama and from all around the world.

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World
Track: Sunday Workshop
Time: Sunday, December 14, 9:00 AM

Along with Rosario Grajales and Scott Roeben, Charlie Bass is a panelist on the Taking Your Blog Global: First Conquer Locally then Dominate the World panel. Our three panelists describe their session as:

Most of us have a simple goal for our blog:

starting small and blowing up big!

Of course we all know its not that simple…BUT it can be done through amazing content, personal branding, strategic marketing, and relationship-building.

It’s all about blogging with a purpose. Laying the groundwork, starting modestly with small, attainable goals, content generation, marketing and networking, and cross-pollination with other audiences. Lather, rinse, repeat.

About Charlie Bass:

Charlie has been an internet developer and entrepreneur since 1994 and is one of the original ASP developers in the country, foundin the ASP Developers Conference and the WEB Developers Conference in the late 1990s through 2002, when he moved to Las Vegas from Denver.

In 2002, he founded the Las Vegas Internet Chamber of Commerce and built it to the second largest Chamber of Commerce in the Las Vegas area. Since 2004 he has run the very popular online entertainment oriented podcast “Vegas Talk Radio”. Five years ago, Charlie moved all of his domains to WordPress and has never looked back!

Your Company:
Vegas Talk Radio

Your Website:
http://VegasTalkRadio.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
Flexibility and speed to implement

What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?
All of mine – LOL

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?

• Contact Form 7 & DB
• Wordfense Security
• Shareaholic

What should everyone know about WordPress?
Design ease and extendability

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
Australia – 3 times

What do you love about Las Vegas?
Entertainment and weather

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
don’t watch many movies

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
Playing Racquetball
Attending shows

What are three of your pet peeves?
Politicians
Stupid people (kinda the same as above)
???

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Why You Don’t Need A Framework
Track: Developer/Designer
Time: Saturday, December 13, 3:30 PM

To Framework or not to Framework, that is the question. But actually, the first question should really be: what is a WordPress Framework? wpbeginner.com defines it as:

“WordPress theme frameworks are intended to be used as a parent theme template where all the functionality resides. Developers can then create a child theme to add custom styling while leaving the functionality aspects of it to the framework. This allows for a centralized location where all the functions are hosted.”

http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-a-theme-framework

So how do you decide if you need a Framework or not? Actually, Justin doesn’t think you need one.

Here’s how Justin describes it:

Frameworks are great. Using them can be immensely beneficial. However, they’re not always necessary and something you build could be the answer you’re looking for.

Justin specializes in creating custom theme solutions for a variety of clients, namely agencies. Over the past decade, he’s worked with and for various agencies while holding numerous lead positions.

About Justin Tucker:

Your Company:
Certain Strings

Your Website:
certainstrings.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
Easy of use and theming. I’ve been using WordPress for roughly 4 years and I’m still learning things.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?

• Custom Post Type Generator – handles a lot of heavy lifting
• Uploads by Proxy – so handy
• Simple Custom Post Order – I don’t understand why this isn’t in core

What should everyone know about WordPress?
Everyone should know about it’s ability to empower people, in both giving people a voice and an appearance on the internet.

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
England so far, but I’m sure that will extend to Europe overall.

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
Guardians of the Galaxy. It was really well done and didn’t seem have a lot of cheese like the other superhero movies.

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
Riding my longboard

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

They just arrived! Everyone who attends WordCamp Las Vegas 2014 will receive a special T-shirt available in both Men’s and Women’s sizes.

These beautiful T-shirts from American Apparel are 100% combed cotton and BEAUTIFUL!

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: WordPress eCommerce with WooCommerce
Time: Saturday, December 13, 10:50 AM

Some people use WordPress to run a blog. Some people use WordPress to run their company website. Some people use WordPress to run an eCommerce business. Michael Cremean is an expert in all these uses for WordPress.

Michael is the Founder and CEO of Quadshot Software, LLC. a WordPress and eCommerce development company based in Las Vegas, NV. Since 2009 Quadshot has helped customers ‘full stack’ creating WordPress websites including planning, design, development, launch and beyond.

Michael’s company uses WordPress and WooCommerce to help companies start and grow their eCommerce businesses. His WordCamp Las Vegas 2014 topic is: WordPress eCommerce with WooCommerce. Here’s how Michael describes it:

This presentation will cover:
This presentation will cover:

• functionality of WooCommerce for physical and virtual products
• how to best use it for your business or clients
• what you can do to extend it to solve real world problems using OpenTickets as an example of a product integrated with WooCommerce

We’ll cover some useful tips on setup, operating and extending this powerful platform.

About Michael Cremean:

Your Company:​
Quadshot Software, based in Henderson. ​

Your Website:
​http://quadshot.com​

What do you love most about WordPress?
​It’s free, powerful, easy to operate and open-source.

What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?
​Our customers 🙂

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?

• ​WooCommerce ​
• Gravity Forms​
  ​

• Projects, Team, Features and Testimonials by WooThemes
• WP Super Cache (for smaller sites)
• iThemes Security
• Wordfence
• WordPress SEO by Yoast
• Google Analytics by Yoast
• P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler)
• Slimstat (disclaimer – I’m biased, one of our developers wrote it)​
  ​

• OpenTickets Community Edition (see above disclaimer)​

What should everyone know about WordPress?
​WordPress is free. If it doesn’t do what you want, you can change it. WooCommerce is also free.

​Good developers aren’t free, but will make your life easier than doing it yourself.​

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
​Auckland, New Zealand tied with Rome, Italy (so far)
​
What do you love about Las Vegas?
​Entertainment, no traffic (compared to my old home of Los Angeles), great food, low cost of living and a tech business friendly environment. ​

Favorite movie in 2014 and why:
​Guardians of the Galaxy. Action, humor, great story and amazing soundtrack.​

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
​Music. I play percussion, bass and guitar. (and a mean cowbell!) Produced a couple albums this year.​ (Record release party Sunday night Dec 14th at E-string at 6pm for Jaelyn Denise “Dweebalicious”. She’s awesome. Free concert. )

What are three of your pet peeves?

• People that code in base theme and not Child (yes, STILL happens often)
• Tailgaters. (We’ll all get there soon, Slappy, relax on my bumper….)
• Haters in Plugin Comments and News Websites. (I think Comment Haters are also likely angry drivers and Tailgaters)​

Anything additional that you would like to add?
​Organizing events is often a thankless task, so THANK YOU WORDCAMP ORGANIZERS!​

(Aw, shucks! Thanks Michael!)

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration

Session: Next Generation Monetization Opportunities with WordPress
Track: Business / User
Time: Saturday, December 13, 10:00 AM

John Lynn blogs about a lot of different subjects, and he’s an authority in all of them. That’s what expert bloggers do – they run blogs on topics they are an authority in and they monetize them.

John is no stranger to Las Vegas and WordCamp Las Vegas and this year his topic is: Next Generation Monetization Opportunities with WordPress. Here’s how John describes it:

In this presentation I’ll talk about the next generation of blog monetization opportunities. We’ll talk about the way to structure and sell an integrated marketing package that uses content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and more. We’ll also talk about how to show advertisers the value that these ad packages provide.

About John Lynn:

Your Company: KillerBlogging.com and VegasStartups.com (among others)

Your Website: http://www.killerblogging.com

What do you love most about WordPress?
I love that WordPress has made it dead simple for me to host a blog. I never knew I’d be a blogger when I grew up, but it’s a pretty amazing career.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins?

• Duplicate Post – It’s saved me literally thousands of hours.
• Any Stats Plugin (Jetpack is my most used)

Where is your favorite place to visit in the world?
Italy! I have a massive addiction to Italy after having lived there for 2 years and been back twice since. The Amalfi Coast is heaven to me! Plus, I ADORE Italian food.

What do you love about Las Vegas?
No state tax. Great shows. The people!

Favorite non-WordPress activity?
Ultimate Frisbee (Come join us. It’s fun!)

Anything additional that you would like to add?
Check out my latest blog: Crash Dad. Yes, I’m officially a daddy blogger! Don’t be jealous.

To register, please visit vegas.wordcamp.org/2014/registration