I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be attending and speaking at WordCamp Miami 2016. The event is February 19-21, 2016 at Florida International University. This post also marks a new page for how I will cover events in the future.
While I cover WordCamps quite thoroughly on Twitter, I haven’t done much on the website. I’m hoping that by posting upcoming events, that:
- If you’re around the area for the weekend of the WordCamp, you’ll come buy a ticket, and attend.
- If you can’t attend, put the event on your schedule to watch certain social networks.
WordCamp Miami is expected to bring in well over 800 attendees, according to one of the WordCamp Miami organizer’s, David Bisset. He also says that some of the things that attendees can look forward to seeing is the kids activities.
Bisset says “There’s a lot of kids activities like the Saturday Workshop, Sunday STEAM activities, and the Kid’s Panel at the end of Sunday.”
Ptah Dunbar, the lead organizer of WordCamp Miami 2016, says that attendees should look foward to the JavaSscript Track on Sunday. He says, “We’ve got a great lineup of quality speakers.”
Ptah says that attendees should bring the following: “Bring a friend or two! Learning new ideas and connecting with friends is always a good time. Also, bring pocket notebook and pen to carry with you (leave your laptop at the hotel), for notoriously writing down actionable advice from all the really smart people you’ll be meeting over be next 24-48-72 hours (depending on how long you stay) and their Twitter handles.”
Dunbar also mentioned, “And finally don’t forget to set aside time to enjoy the beach and explore Miami! Keep an eye on the #wcmia slack channel as we’ll be sharing announcements like things to do and other surprises throughout the 18th-21st.”
What kind of talks to expect at WordCamp Miami 2016
The WordCamp Miami 2016 has put an amazing schedule filled with a variety talks. I’m almost certain nearly every area of WordPress is being covered!
I will be speaking on How to Get the Most out of Yoast SEO. Yoast is one of my favorite plugins, and has always been really handy to keep me on target while writing my articles. I may know the plugin well, but for others, it’s not easy. I hope to help with taking away some of the frustration by giving some best practices while using the plugin.
Aside from my own talk, I decided to feature some other presenters in this post as it’s going to be awesome. I went ahead and reached out to the awesome speakers chosen for WordCamp Miami to give a short blurb about what they will be talking about. Not everyone had time to respond in the time I needed their quotes, so here are some of the ones that responded to my call.
Shawn Hooper, who is the CTO at Actionable Books, will be presenting How To Create A Multilingual Website In WordPress. Hooper says, “Are you losing business because your website doesn’t speak the same language as your visitors? I’m looking forward to teaching everyone how to create a multilingual WordPress site. We’ll look at a few plugins that can help you out, and look at the basics for what is needed to make a theme or plugin ready for translation.”
Adam Soucie will be speaking during the Freelancer’s Workshop on Friday, and relating his experiences as a restauranteur to running your own freelance business. His session is called What Running a Restaurant Taught Me About Client Relations. Soucie says, “I will share how whether you’re selling waffles or widgets, you need to relate to the customer and anticipate their needs before they even ask.”
Shayla Price, a content creator and digital marketer, will be speaking on Power of User-Generated Content. Price says, “User-generated content is a great way to spread brand awareness. In my talk, learn how UGC campaigns can benefit your business.”
Logan Kipp, who is a lead security analyst for SiteLock, says it’s his first time speaking, so come on out and support him when he presents. He will be presenting Beyond the Basics: Building Security Into Your Development Projects alongside Binod Purushothaman. Kipp says, “Our talk will be a comprehensive discussion about how to protect a website from its inception. We’ll take attendees through best practices of secure product development, including how to incorporate White box testing to ensure code security and real-life examples will be presented.”
Brand Architect, Karen Dimmick, will be speaking at the Freelancer Workshop at WordCamp Miami about Branding – Precusor to Design, Marketing, Development. Dimmick says, “Branding is about expressing the essence of your business in a way that helps people become part of your world. Your products and services let your customers actually experience that world when they use them. For example, you feel creative when you play with Lego. You feel like part of the community when you get involved with WordPress. You feel like a rebel when you ride a Harley. That is what branding is truly about.”
Dimmick adds, “Setting that up needs to come a long way before a logo, graphic design, thoughts on product creation or any ideas for marketing. The brand’s personality is what is going to drive all of that, so you avoid giving mixed messages to your market and your market can associate everything you do with the experience you create.”
Patrick Alexander, CEO of WPBICO, will be talking about How to Back up Your WordPress Site. “My talk is going to be about doing manual backups of a WordPress site, rather than depending on a plugin or your hosting provider to do it for you. After investing so much time and money into your website it’s gratifying to know that there’s one backup that you can always depend on.”
Irina Blumenfeld, a freelance front-end developer, will be presenting on Improving Your Website’s Performance. Blumenfeld says, “In this presentation I’ll go over tips and techniques that can dramatically increase your site performance.”
Blumenfeld also mentions that she’ll go into detail on why speed matters, how you can measure it, and how to improve it.
Pascal Depuhl, an award-winning visual content creator at Photography by Depuhl, is going to be presenting about How to Shoot the Perfect Video. Depuhl says, “”How do you Shoot the Perfect Video” is geared toward anyone who wants to wrap their head around what actually makes a video stand out from the pack. Since I’m talking about this at WordCamp, I figured that a great video is like a great blog post: You need an intro that peaks curiosity; a body that tells a great story and a conclusion compeling the viewer to act. I’ll also share the one super-secret ingredient, vital in creating mind-changing visual content.”
Pascal mentions that, “I’ve been producing award-winning short corporate documentary films for my clients since 2012 (although I’ve been creating photographs for over 25 years). Come to think of it, that was the same year I went to Afghanistan to film my first documentary “On Wings of Hope”.”
Pascal also said that WordCamp Miami is also bringing back the free mini-video this year. “It’s where any one who wants to have a short 20-30 sec video created can sign up and we’ll shoot them for free.”
Don’t forget to visit the WordCamp Miami 2016 Speaker page so you can check out all of the other outstandingly talented speakers.
Don’t forget to panel talks at WordCamp Miami 2016
Kimberly Lipari, co-founder and Directory of Operators for valet.io, who is on the business panel at WordCamp Miami 2016, reminded me about the panel talks. She said, “I think the panels are just as important as the individual talks at WordPress. There are always some great, well known names, but with the growth in the community we’re seeing new faces and points of view each year!”
“Whether you are freelancing or working within an agency you can’t ever have enough of other folks’ experiences to draw from. There is a wealth of knowledge in the successes and failures of others, and while you may not see yourself as being in need of business panel advice I can guarantee they have all been where you are and can offer insights that will save you time and headache somewhere along the way.”
Sunday, February 21st, 2016 will contain plenty of panel talks for you to hear a from a lot of influential people who are experts in their field.
Wow! What a lineup, and the speakers who responded in this article aren’t even a 3rd of the talks that will be at WordCamp Miami 2016.
Hope to see you at WordCamp Miami 2016! If you’re not going, please stay tune to the #WCMIA hashtag on Twitter.
Hi Nile,
I will to come their wordcamp miami and hope there will be a lot of fun to enjoy. This is wonderful post for yoast SEO what i had seen in this post.
Regards
Rama Krishna
That’s going to be an exciting moment Nile but unfortunately, I won’t be there 😉
Good luck to those who are taking part.
Nile,
Loved your presentation on WordPress SEO and the Yoast SEO plugin. There were many take-aways from your presentation, but it was SO NICE to have an Expert [that’s You!] confirm that you are NOT supposed to agonize about getting all of them lights GREEN! Hello? Do the best you can do when optimizing your page according to Yoast SEO, but don’t obsess!!! You presented a ton of information in a short period of time and I learned a lot!
It was also great to see you again, in person!
Take Care,
Jupiter Jim