Greenfields or die: Modernising publishing for 2018

Peter Wilson & Ben White

Peter & Ben are joining us to tell us a story they started back in 2017, when one of Australia’s largest media companies embarked on a high risk technical project – to replace their proprietary CMS with one based on WordPress.

They’ll be covering the technical process to build an enterprise-ready CMS from both the side of the client (Ben) and the Agency (Peter). Together they’ll tell their story of what went right, what went wrong, and where their stories differ – all in the hope that their experience will help you avoid mistakes in your own projects.

Peter Wilson is a Senior WordPress Engineer at Human Made and committer to WordPress core. Peter has worked on the web for twenty years on everything from table based layouts in the 90s to enterprise grade CMS development. He’s a big fan of musical theater and often encourages his WordPress community colleagues to join him for a show or two in New York or in the West End.

Ben White is the CMS Engineering Manager at Fairfax Media Australia, and has been utilising WordPress at scale with media publishers since 2011. He likes keeping things simple and automating things that are not, so he can have more time to spend with family and play video games.

It’s not all about you – How to take an audience first approach to connecting with your customers online

Paula Glynn

Paula will be walking us through how to take an audience first approach to designing your website, and not focusing all on yourself. She’ll walk us through how to find what questions your audience are asking, what you can do to ensure your site is answering them, and not to keep them coming back for more. You’ll walk away with actionable plans and tools that you can implement on your website right away with minimal changes.

Paula Glynn is the lead Search Specialist at PixelStorm and an experienced Pay per Click Guru. For the last decade Paula has been living, breathing and dreaming PPC and digital strategy. When not optimising client’s accounts, she is reading the latest industry case studies and trends.

Podcasting with WordPress

Tony Cosentino

Tony, a podcast host from Sydney is giving us an overview of what equipment & software is needed to get started in podcasting, what services & digital assets you can use and then how to bring it all together on a WordPress website as the hub of the podcast.

Tony has been developing & building with WordPress for 10 years now in the SMB space as a freelancer based in Sydney. He attended his first WordCamp in New Zealand in 2011 and quickly followed it up by WordCamp Melbourne the same month – he was hooked! With the rise in voice technology he’s turned his mind to podcasting and hosts his own show ‘The Tony Cosentino Show’ about his and other peoples passions and obsessions including WordPress and Podcasting.

Building a community using all.the.tools

Mandy Weidmann & Paul Dunstone

Mandy, Australia’s ‘Fundraising Whisperer’ is joining us to tell us about the lessons she’s learnt building communities. She’ll share some of the best plugins she’s used, discuss her distaste for ‘funnel’ marketing and pressure tactics, and speak about how providing free content has made her happier and her business stronger.

Joining Mandy is her web developer, Paul Dunstone from OSE who will briefly cover the more geeky elements of customising a WordPress site to within an inch of its life. He’ll also share the pain of what it’s like to have an app addict as a client!

Mandy Weidmann is Australia’s ‘Fundraising Whisperer’ – publisher of the Fundraising Directory and author of the Practical Fundraising Handbook for School and Club Volunteers. Mandy believes that parent volunteers shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time and is passionate about providing resources to make fundraising easier (and more fun). She is also a self-confessed app addict!

Paul Dunstone is the founder and Managing Director of OSE Digital. Paul has over 15 years experience in web design, development and digital marketing and leads a team of experts who work to deliver WordPress and WooCommerce implementations on a daily basis.

Packaging your web design service to save time and make more money

Jane Tweedy

Jane is joining us to explain to us how to package your web services to make you more money, while at the same time saving you time. She’ll explain the hows and whys of offering tiered packages, how to determine what to include in packages, how to market the upsells to higher packages, and why your top package is probably what you currently offer as your entry-level!

Jane Tweedy is founder & lead-trainer of FAQ Business Training, with a mission to educate and empower small business owners to DIY or outsource with confidence through accurage and topical training. She’s also a part-time Business Connect and BEC Australia Approved Business Advisor for Western Sydney Business Centre, the NSW Government funded program has allowed Jane to help over 800 small business owners on an array of topics.