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Top Takeaways from WordCamp Cincinnati 2017

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black-WordCamp Cincinnati t-shirt, nametag, and bottle of Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce

Last weekend I joined over 200 WordPress users for two days of learning and sharing at WordCamp Cincinnati, held at the University of Cincinnati campus.

Three tracks, with one track including 1 ½ days of WordPress tutorials, had me hopping from room to room to catch my favorite sessions.

Here are my thoughts and notes.

Colleges and Universities: Great Venues

Tangeman University Center entrance

Tangeman University Center, where WordCamp Cincinnati was held, was an easy building to find, with signage all over campus directing attendees where to go.

Great location and the venue is perfect for sessions, happiness bar, sponsor tables, and of course, the keynote.

I’ve commented about this in the past: having a WordCamp at a college or university makes it easier for your organizers and your attendees.

Why do I say that?

  • Universities and colleges have auditoriums for keynotes, with plenty of space for attendees
  • Classrooms are already set up with chairs, desks, tables, and sound systems. You don’t have to pay extra or rent the tables, chairs, and desks.
  • Public or guest wifi is available. No extra fee to pay for wifi.
  • Technology staff is on-hand, if needed
  • Great signage on campus directing people to buildings
  • Accessible spaces and bathrooms. This is key to make sure everyone who wants to attend can attend your WordCamp.
  • Plentiful parking (though it may be a bit of a walk). Campuses always have parking structures and lots.
  • Projectors, screens are available in rooms. Again, you don’t have to pay extra for projectors.

I’ve been involved with conference organizing in the past, where our team had to deal with additional worries and costs for chairs, projectors, wifi, and accessibility.

So nice when your venue includes all those features!

My Takeaways From WordCamp Cincinnati

Here are my notes from selected sessions I attended, and one session my friend Greg Miller attended.

Become part of the WordPress Community: No Code Required

In his keynote, Dustin Hartzler kicked off WordCamp Cincinnati with an inspiring talk on how every WordPress user can get involved in the WordPress community.

I met Dustin at WordCamp Columbus several years ago and was impressed with his enthusiasm about WordPress.

He always gives uplifting talks about WordPress and shares resources I never knew about. His keynote this year was no different.

  • You’ll find a lot of inspiration this weekend. You’re going to walk around WordCamp Cincinnati and get all kinds of amazing ideas.
  • Make connections this weekend, get to know other WordPress users
  • Visit WordPress Showcase to see sites created by other WordPress users
  • Stop wasting your time, generate plugin boilerplate code at the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Generator site.
  • Keep learning! Attend other WordCamps, go to monthly WordPress meetups (one of my favorite ways to learn WordPress), join the WordPress group on Slack
  • Find WordPress developer tools and generators at GenerateWP
  • The best way for someone to learn WordPress?

Crafting an Online User Experience that Works

With my interest in user experience, Kate Mock’s talk was a session I didn’t want to miss.

In her presentation, she explained what user experience is, shared tips to improve user experience, and discussed case studies that highlighted the importance of good user experience.

  • User experience: the perception and response someone has when using your product or service. In Kate’s description, she referred to design elements of software and digital media.
  • Creating a good user experience is a four-step process: research, design, build, and measure
  • Be successful with your designs: know your end goal and how you plan to get there
  • Key elements for creating good user experience on your app or web page: visual hierarchy, good structure/layout, clear calls to action, responsive
  • Five tips for improving online user experience: 1. Know your audience, 2. Clarify your message, 3. Create visual hierarchy, 4. Be consistent, and 5. Measure, tweak, iterate

Thank you Kate, for posting your presentation slides.

Writing WP-CLI Commands that Work

I missed Steve Grunwell’s presentation on WP-CLI (Command Line Interface), but am thankful my friend Greg Miller allowed me to include his notes in this post.

  • WP-CLI is a great tool when you don’t need a fancy UI, need to write scripts to perform regular maintenance, or to provide deeper functionality to your awesome plugin
  • Why is WP-CLI useful? Easier to perform bulk items, run in a loop and programatically process it, better visibility into WordPress internals. Also, CLI is not subject to timeouts the way a browser would be.
  • Use cases: deploy WP Core updates, install/activate/update/delete themes and plugins, troubleshooting, scheduled maintenance routines
  • WP-CLI will inherently be used by more technical WordPress users, but that doesn’t mean it should be user-friendly. Check out the documentation.

Thank you, Steve for sharing your presentation slides.

Get Local and Why Schema Mark-Up is Important!

In his session on schema, Nate Driver explained what schema is, why it’s important (especially for ecommerce sites), and shared examples of schema in use on websites.

Key points from his talk:

  • Schema is microdata that provides more information about something on your page, that helps search engines better understand content. Schema can provide more description about a movie, place, product, or service.
  • See how Google pulls schema from a web page with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
  • Does schema improve your search rankings? Short answer is no, but it will help.
  • You can write your own schema. Or you can use an online tool to generate it for you. (Merkle had an online tool that Nate shared, but when I checked their site this morning, the online generator page is no longer available.)
  • Looking for a schema plugin? Check for last updated version, read reviews, and make sure the plugin uses the JSON LD format.
  • Resources to learn more about search engine optimization: SEM Rush, Moz (especially their Whiteboard Fridays), and Search Engine Watch.
  • One plugin you may want to consider is Schemify, written by my colleague Steve Grunwell

Thank you, Nate for sharing the slides from your session.

How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog

You’ve heard it from others, you may have even said it yourself: I really want to get blogging, but can’t seem to get started.

If that’s something you’ve said recently, Randy Clark had the answers to kickstart your business blogging and keep it going.

His talk had us laughing, frantically writing notes, and asking fellow attendees, I missed that tip, did you catch it?

What I loved about his session: Clark provided helpful actionable tips for blogging.

And he asked attendees to share their recommendations and suggestions. Great stuff!

  • Get your blogging action plan!
  • What can you blog about? First identify your target audience. Then identify what will interest them (that’s not only you, your services, or your product)
  • Wondering what it means to blog regularly? Clark recommends blogging once a week.
  • Strategies for staying ahead of your blog posts: guest posts, ask other in-house writers, case studies, how-to, and top ten lists.
  • One of the attendees mentioned using Content Views plugin, which lets you go beyond linking to your previously published posts, by allowing you to include a featured image.
  • Key to stay ahead of blogging: have a system, use it, don’t let it get ahead of you
  • Don’t make exceptions for missing publishing a post, because that exception will be come the rule
  • Need help writing a good headline?
  • One of the best tips Clark shared: write four complete posts before you decide to publish. That way you’ll have them ready.
  • An editorial calendar is your to-do list. Add category, tags. You can use anything for your editorial calendar. Clark uses Google Calendar and color codes the posts: idea, in-progress, done.

Did you attend WordCamp Cincinnati 2017? Any takeaways you want to add?

Related posts:

  1. WordCamp Detroit 2011
  2. Takeaways from WordCamp Pittsburgh 2017
  3. 5 Interesting Things I Learned at WordCamp Cincinnati 2016
  4. Takeaways from WordCamp Northeast Ohio 2016

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