HTML5 Video for WordPress

The future of web video is here and its name is HTML5. With the release of Internet Explorer 9 this year, this iPhone compatible language will be essential to getting your WordPress video to the masses.

This session will help you upgrade your WordPress video to HTML5 by providing multiple video player plugin options, strategies for encoding the necessary video formats, and tips on building your own HTML5 video player.

A Blurb About the Speaker:

Steve is the creator of the popular HTML5 video player VideoJS, has written for Digital Web Magazine, and presents on the topic of HTML5 video at conferences like the Open Video Conference by Mozilla, and Streaming Media East.

Find a music sample of Steve’s old rock band using one of these links…

Company Website: http://videojs.com/
Personal Website: http://www.steveheffernan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/steveheffernan

Adrift in a sea of templates. Or, how to be different – like everyone else

Explore what shapes visual culture, how ideas spread, and what this means to those who make decisions about design in this talk led by two creative graphic designers, Alex Nelson and Beau House.

This discussion-based session will cover the different ways of approaching the design process and how people (sometimes unconsciously) decide whether or not they like something. The audience will leave with an appreciation of differentiation and a better understanding of how to diverge from the pack.

A Blurb About the Speakers:

Alex and Beau are both formally educated graphic designers holding degrees from Emily Carr University, and have professional experience in print, identity, and interactive design.

See what makes Alex and Beau special using one of these links…

Company Website: http://post-projects.com/
Personal Websites: http://alexnelson.ca/ & http://beauhouse.ca/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alexnelson

Possibly the Strangest WordPress Project You’ve Ever Seen in Your Life

The session title itself is odd, but wait until you see the site Mark developed for Governor General Award-Winning Artist John Oswald! Mark pushes the limits of the web browser and employs the latest JavaScript and CSS techniques using WordPress to produce his latest work.

Aside from the intrinsic entertainment value of an interesting client and rare client scenario, this session offers an uncommon perspective on user experience and encourages the audience to break away from convention when approaching the web. The session will cover technical aspects of the project as well as custom interface-related JavaScript development.

A Blurb About the Speaker:

Mark is a Partner and VP of R&D at BNOTIONS, the co-founder and curriculum developer for the Yorkville Media Centre, and a Professor of Design and Web Development at Seneca College School of Communication Arts in the Media Fundamentals, Independent Photography, and Acting for Camera and Voice Programs.

Mark hasn’t used ICQ in eight years, so we’ve listed these links instead…

Company Website: http://www.yorkvillemediacentre.com/
Personal Website: http://www.bnotions.ca/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/markreale

Challenging Traditional WordPress Design

Do the elements that make a WordPress site readily identifiable as such really contribute to the overall reader experience, or do they detract from it? Catherine believes a blog shouldn’t have to look like a blog and sets out to prove this with data and history in an informative session designed to challenge traditional practices.

In this session, Catherine will contrast “traditional” blog designs with the emerging trends towards minimalism and simplicity, and cover topics such as RSS, modern web fonts, centuries-old typographic techniques, and how the art of usability ties them all together.

A Blurb About the Speaker:

Catherine is a designer and developer specialising in multiuser community sites. She has spoken on topics ranging from the social aspects of Second Life to Drupal module development to the design opportunities afforded by WordPress. By night, she likes to complain about usability on Twitter.

Some people know Catherine as “Catherine Omega” and not because she changed her maiden name. Find out why using these links…

Company Website: [Catherine likes to keep a secret]
Personal Website: http://www.catherineomega.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/catherineomega

Extending WordPress Themes

Learn how to extend the features of existing WordPress functions to create a great user experience in this session devoted to exploring the potential of the platform.

This session will focus on the goal of efficiently outputting semantically valid HTML, and manipulating that with CSS and JavaScript (mostly jQuery) on the frontend. The audience will gain understanding of how to create common site features such as slider galleries, using only the functionality already built into WordPress. The session will also explore the data structures that image attachments are stored in and how to write small helper functions to extend them.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Cam has been building sites since 1995 and currently teaches third level Interactive Software Application courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Graphic Design for Marketing degree program.

Cam gets excited about doing the dishes (weird, right?). You can find more quirks using these links…

Company Website: http://www.reactionlab.com/
Personal Website: [Cam doesn’t want to be stalked]
Twitter: http://twitter.com/camcavers

Using Information Architecture to Build a Content Strategy for Your WordPress Project

What good is killer content if it’s un-organized and discombobulated? Learn how to use information architecture to get your thoughts in order and create an effective website at this session led by two very cheeky monkeys.

Creating a blue print for your thoughts using information architecture allows an entire team to stay focused on the website’s key goals, and enhance user experience. This session will cover how the brains behind Cheeky Monkey Media use information architecture to layout the foundation of a site and ensure that all stakeholders are clear on the goal and focus before construction begins.

Blurb About the Speakers:

Rick founded Cheeky Monkey Media in 2008 and excels at building user-oriented websites with clean accessible code. Gene has spent the past decade developing sites and is now an Account Manager for Cheeky Monkey Media.

See what the monkeys are up to using these links…

Company Website: http://cheekymonkeymedia.ca/
Personal Website: http://rickbjarnason.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CheekyMonkeyMed

Developing a Control Panel for Multiple Sites Using the Same WordPress Theme

If you have friends who like to send you links to funny videos, you’ve probably come across Toby’s work. Developer at I Can Has Cheezburger? and FAILBlog comes an informative session on how to run multiple WordPress sites using the same theme with individual customization.

CheezCap was developed to make Cheezburger Networks’ WordPress theme configurable across 45 different sites. The framework can be used to incorporate options and customizations into your own theme ultimately saving you time and Tylenol.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Toby is a WordPress Developer for Cheezburger Networks, the company responsible for FAILBlog, I Can Has Cheezburger? and dozens of other sites that generate over 300 million pageviews each month.

Creep Toby and his cat using these links…

Company Website: http://cheezburger.com/
Personal Website: http://tmckes.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/trademark

Tackling Javascript for WordPress

Get a grip on JavaScript with Allen’s in-depth session tackling everything from the basics to objects and scopes of this familiar yet elusive language.

Allen’s session will quickly cover the basic syntax of JavaScript that most PHP developers are familiar with, and then jump into objects and scope – something more confounding in JavaScript than in most languages. You’ll cover functions in JavaScript, their first-class nature and the power of closures before diving into the “gotchas” of the language such as global variables, semicolon insertion, fuzzy equality, and how JSLint can help you avoid them.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Allen has been writing entire apps in JavaScript since 2008 and runs the VanJS meetup group – one of the largest JavaScript meetups in the world. Before founding Steam Clock Software, Allen worked for Apple as a Software Engineer.

Stalk Allen using these links…

Company Website: http://www.steamclocksw.com
Personal Website: http://www.antipode.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apike

WordPress E-Commerce

With the brand-new Cart66, Shopp and the recently launched WordPress E-Commerce 3.8, there are more e-commerce options for WordPress than ever before. In this session, we’ll be comparing and contrasting these three popular e-commerce plugins for WordPress. Unpacking the pros and cons of each, we’ll investigate what’s possible and what tools are available for developers.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Justin Sainton is the founder of Zao Web Design, LLC, a web firm based in Portland, Oregon.

Working exclusively with WordPress and an array of other open-source technologies, Justin and Zao have provided creative and effective solutions for a wide variety of companies and associations ranging from Targus to Pitney Bowes to the National Education Association to HTC.

When not managing Zao or spending time with his beautiful wife and lovely one-year-old daughter, Justin can be found enjoying the finest coffee Oregon has to offer.

Shadow Justin online using these links…

Company Website: http://zaowebdesign.com/
Personal Website: [Justin doesn’t want to be stalked]
Twitter: http://twitter.com/js_zao

Integrating Forum APIs into WordPress

Turn your WordPress site (or blog)  into a real community by discovering how easy it is to add forum plugins / widgets, integrate SSO (single-sign-on), and take advantage of popular API’s.

Brendan’s session will illustrate the benefits of adding a community forum to your WordPress blog / site by looking at real world examples of high traffic WordPress communities and the features and tools they use.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Brendan has been an interactive designer, developer, author and teacher for over 10 years. He has taught web design at Long Island University Brooklyn campus, and was a professor at Seneca College in the School of Communication Arts for over seven years. Brendan has contributed to many open source projects including papervision3D, red5, Firefox, WordPress, and Drupal.

Keep track of all the events Brendan attends using these links…

Company Website: http://vanillaforums.com/
Personal Website: http://brendanserashriar.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/digibomb

HTML 5 & CSS3 Integration for WordPress

Introduce yourself to the future of the web and learn how to integrate HTML5 and CSS3 into your WordPress projects today with this session by Lynda.com author, Ray Villalobos!

HTML5 and CSS3 along with JavaScript present a new opportunity for web designers and developers. New semantic tags allow you to simplify the way you code, while new media tags make it easy to support mobile devices. CSS3 brings user-friendly animation and transition effect, and features like local storage and geolocation allow your websites to behave more like Apps. This session will cover techniques and examples of what you can start using today.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Ray is the Director of Multimedia for Entravision Communications Corporation and author of Exploring Multimedia for Designers, and Lynda.com’s iOS Web App Development with HTML5 and CSS3. Before becoming a hugely popular Lynda.com instructor, Ray developed immersive multimedia projects and editorial projects for the Tribune Network.

Get the dirt on Ray using these links…

Company Website: http://www.lynda.com/
Personal Website: http://planetoftheweb.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/planetoftheweb

Moving Wordpress (bbPress, BuddyPress) to Mobile

Discover the best options for moving your WordPress site mobile in this comprehensive session covering everything from theme switchers, plugins, and hard core theme work.

This session is a medium to advanced overview of the challenges of working with phone environments, and how to overcome them with solutions like WP Touch Pro, Media Queries, and Mobify. Design differences and how to test on several handsets are also discussed.

Blurb About the Speaker:

Curtis is the Creative Lead for SFNdesign with a passion for making user-friendly sites that drive conversion. When he’s not in front of his computer, chances are that you can find him paddling off a waterfall.

Curtis has pizza every Friday night and you’d know that too if you clicked on these links…

Company Website: http://www.curtismchale.ca/
Personal Website: http://www.curtismchale.ca/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/curtismchale