With just about 2 months to go until WordCamp Brisbane 2019, we’re happy to announce the first 3 presentations!

What goes in to $50K+ WordPress website

Jen Jeavons

How much is a website worth? Isn’t WordPress just templates??  Jen Jeavons will showcase just how much you can do with a custom WordPress site. She’ll show you how the team at Pixel Palace build premium custom WordPress websites that are worth every cent to clients and how to escape the race to the bottom in terms of price.

Jen Jeavons is the founder and Managing Director of Pixel Palace (a digital design agency here in Brisbane specialising in custom WordPress and Strategic Marketing) in 2009. With a successful creative career path spanning the music industry, fashion, web & digital design and budding coffee empire, Jen’s colourful lifepath has given her valuable insights that she’s passionate about sharing.

WordPress, GatsbyJS and Splendour in the Grass

Phillip Johnson

In 2018 Splendour in the grass approached Phillip’s team at Bolster to rebuild their website for 2019. Their approach was to create a headless WordPress instance that used GatsbyJS to compile down to a hybrid static website.

He’ll share the benefits and challenges of using headless WordPress with ReactJS + GatsbyJS, dive into 3 areas of the site development, frontend development, backend development and the share the result for the end user.

Phillip is the Head of Client Web Development at Bolster. Working in web development for 10 years and now specialises on music, festival and event websites, and has recently moved back to Brisbane to start up a Bolster Brisbane team.

30 WordPress website audits in 30 days. The lessons I learned

Tony Cosentino

We all know how to build a WordPress website right?
Wrong.

Tony recently reviewed 30 websites in 30 days and found it was a journey of discovery. He saw the good, the bad, the ugly and a site with over 100 plugins. He’ll share the 10 main problems that he saw in all these websites. 10 issues to avoid. 10 fixes to fix. And get a checklist to ensure every site is everything it can be and more.

Tony has been a WordPress developer since 2008, and his latest passion is doing website health checks to give any WordPress website a thorough checkup for the owner or even a developer for a 2nd set of eyes sanity check. 

These are just 3 of the amazing talks that we have lined up for WordCamp Brisbane 2019. Subscribe or follow us on social media to be the first to know when the next round of speakers will be announced.

Do you have knowledge that would benefit the WordPress community? WordCamp Brisbane is now accepting speaker applications for WordCamp Brisbane 2019.

WordCamp Brisbane speaker applications ARE CLOSED. Voting is complete and we are currently getting in touch with speakers to confirm. Final advice will come soon.

Speakers are the lifeblood of any WordCamp providing a chance to be involved, give back and shape the future of WordPress in Australia and around the world.  We’re looking for talks on a variety of topics to cover different stages of the WordPress journey from beginner to expert.

Once submissions close, the selection process will commence and we’ll contact everyone as soon as possible via email to confirm details once our voting has been finalised. Keep an eye on our social channels, and you might see an update on our voting progress.

Topics should be related to WordPress.  Past topics fell broadly into themes such as WordPress development, copywriting, blogging, design, business and workshops.  For some inspiration, take a look at past WordCamp talks over at WordPress TV.

• Front end development
• Back end development
• Writing copy and content
• WordPress business topics

We’re also specifically interested in any talks on the following topics

• Site creation case-studies
• WordPress & Javascript development (Gutenberg, etc)
• Talks aimed at WordPress beginners
• Talks covering a topic you wish you had heard before you started out in your own WordPress journey

Length of talks This year we’ve got two talk lengths, 30 minutes plus 10 min for Q&A or 15 minutes plus 5 minutes for Q&A. You should practice your talk to ensure you keep within these timeframes.

Both experts in their field and first time speakers are welcome.
Whilst the location can be a little daunting for first-timers, you won’t find a friendlier crowd for your first public speaking jaunt. We also have advanced speakers well known in the WordPress community who return to share their experience.  This balance is one of the aspects that makes WordCamp such an invaluable conference for the entire community.

Remember when you were a WordPress beginner at your first WordCamp?
Think about what you didn’t learn that you wished you had, Now submit that as a talk!

Why Should I Present at a WordCamp?

There are so many good reasons to share your knowledge in the WordPress community but a quick poll of past speakers told us this:

As a WordCamp speaker you have an opportunity to give back to the community,  empower others and shape the future of WordPress in Australia. This alone is the greatest reason to share your knowledge –  step up, get out of your bubble, give back and be part of something bigger than yourself.

The learning and perspective that comes from teaching others and the reflection this requires when writing a talk is an invaluable experience for anyone using WordPress or making a living from WordPress related products or services.  It’s a great way to deepen your own knowledge and help others at the same time. Win.Win.

You will undoubtedly connect with others and extend your network in Brisbane and further afield. People come from all over Australia to attend WordCamp Brisbane and one of the great things about the conference is that it’s one of the most non-salesy, ego-free conferences you will ever find. This aspect breaks down the usual barriers of ‘networking’ and makes for a fun and friendly environment to connect with others.