General

“Ask the Expert & 500 Member Celebration“

We’re repeating last years successful December meeting, except this year we’ll have 300 more members, for a total of 500!  Help us break 500, tell all your WordPress friends about the group.

Chat with topic experts on WordPress and related topics.  It’s your chance to direct the discussion to what ever YOU want to learn about WordPress.  Bring all your questions, beginner to expert.  There will be 5 to 10 identified “Topic Experts” on hand to answer your questions one on one or in small groups. Of course you can discuss your questions, or WordPress or just shoot the breeze with anyone else there too!

Topic Experts:

Stéphane Boisvert was the Lead developer for the Federal Liberal Party of Canada.  He has been working with WordPress since 2009 and with PHP and MySQL since 2002. He is currently a freelancer based in Ottawa. Talk to Stéphane about: WordPress, multi-site, BuddyPress, scaleability and conversion optimization.

Meagan Hanes is a lifelong digital designer who uses WordPress to empower small business owners, artisans, and all other creatives to achieve their digital dreams. With over 15 years of design experience across all aspects of digital project management, her company Love Digimedia provide a range of online solutions, with a focus on self-empowerment through education and coaching. Talk to Meagan about: Blogging, Social Media Engagement, Extending WordPress, Digital Coaching

James Maduk has been online since 1995 and started Blogging in 2001 – yes the post is still there! A WordPress Expert, Speaker, trainer and Serial Entrepreneur – he’s got the answer to your WordPress questions.  James’ Managed WordPress Hosting Company www.FullContactSites.com makes Blogging with WordPress Hassle Free!  Talk to James about: WordPress membership sites, domain names, shared hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting for your Blog. 

Richard Martin is an online entrepreneur. He created and manages a site that provides health services to clients and continuing education training for health professionals. Before going online he did product marketing in Silicon Valley with several companies including Apple, Cisco and Broadcom. Richard now lives in Ottawa. Talk to Richard about: WordPress + how an effective blogging and video strategy can drive clients to your WordPress site.

Jamie Oastler is a jack of all WordPress trades that is content to be master of none because he knows the WP code base and ecosystem is constantly changing – he never stops learning and neither should you. He has been taking WordPress beyond its’ blogging roots for many years and is looking forward to helping you do the same. He also enjoys discussing the philosophy and impacts of open source. If you have questions or ideas about creating: custom post types, robust uses of Gravity Forms, developing plugins or WordPress-as-a-platform, get yourself a pint and introduce yourself to Jamie.

Rick Radko of R-Cubed Design Forge, is a designer and developer specializing in custom web applications and multilingual WordPress sites. He has published WordPress plugins, is a WordCamp Ottawa Co-organizer and a frequent WordCamp speaker. Talk to Rick about: WordPress, multilingual sites, multi-site, plugins, backups and site migration.

Jasmine Vesque is a natural-born communicator who enjoys helping people share their most important stories and ideas. She currently works as the Communications Marketing Manager for a group of five companies. She maintains their online presence through web design, development, and maintenance, and content marketing. The only thing she loves more than building websites with WordPress, is sharing her knowledge with others. Jasmine is a WordCamp Ottawa Co-organizer and speaker, as well as a regular Ottawa WordPress Group presenter and Ladies Learning Code mentor. Talk to Jasmine about: WordPress, Web Design, and Digital Communications.

Meeting Details:

We have a private space downstairs. Enter the main doors, turn left, and down the stairs.  Head left at the bottom of the stairs.

No donations for this meeting!  (We normally ask for a $4 donation to help cover the cost of the room and our Meetup fees, which total about $450/year)

Agenda

6:00 – General announcements

6:05 – Ask the expert and network!

8:00 – End

“Typography in Web Design“

Typography is an integral part of web design. No matter how fancy or minimalist your website design, the text on your site needs to get your message across. How the text appears is just as important as the words themselves. This talk will cover the basic best practices of typography in web design, trends for 2013, and an introduction to Google Fonts.  This is Jasmine’s presentation from WordCamp Ottawa 2013.

Presented by Jasmine Vesque a natural-born communicator who enjoys helping people share their most important stories and ideas. Her work revolves around her passions: digital communications, WordPress, and both web and print design.

LOCATION NOTE:

We’re working on a new downtown location for the regular monthly meetings of the meetup since we’ve outgrown the libraries.  As we have not settled on a new location yet, this meeting will at the James Street Pub.  We have a private space in the basement to keep the meeting separate from the regular bar patrons. (This will not be our regular location.)

For more information on our fall plans see: http://www.meetup.com/The-Ottawa-WordPress-Group/messages/boards/thread/37910832/

Meeting Details:

We have a private space downstairs. Enter the main doors, turn left, and down the stairs.

No donations for this meeting!  (We normally ask for a $4 donation to help cover the cost of the room and our Meetup fees, which total about $450/year)

Agenda

6:00 – General announcements

6:10 – Presentation

7:30 – Q&A, Mingle and Network

“The <a>,<b>,<c>s of HTML for WordPress”

HTML is one of the core languages of the Internet. You don’t HAVE to know HTML to build and maintain a WordPress website – but knowing the basic tags gives you more control over the content, presentation, and impact of your message. In this presentation, you’ll learn how to insert a link, format text size/style/position, load an image, and more, all through the WordPress HTML editor.

Presented by Meagan Hanes, Creative Architect and Founder of Love Digimedia, connects artisans and small businesses with the power of online marketing using strategic, simple, self-managed WordPress websites. We aim to answer one simple question: What’s your digital dream?

Meeting Details:

If you want to connect to WiFi, you will need your library card. (unless indicated otherwise above, laptops and connection to the internet are not required during the presentation)

Free parking is available on the neighbouring streets after 5:30pm.  Check the signs, a couple of the closest streets are limited to 1hr before 7pm.

The classroom is downstairs. Enter the main doors, head left, and down the stairs.  (Do not enter into the actual library)  Turn right at the bottom of the stairs and follow the halls to the room.

We ask for a $4 donation to help cover the cost of the room and our Meetup fees, which total about $450/year  – Exact Change would be greatly appreciated!

Agenda

6:00 – General announcements

6:10 – Presentation

7:30 – Q&A, Mingle and Network

“You Have a Backup, Don’t You?”

Could you recover your WordPress website if it was lost due to a hardware failure?  If it was hacked?  If it was corrupted during an update or plugin install?

Having good backups can make the difference between a 10 minute recovery and complete site rebuild that may take up to a week. This presentation will cover the basics of backups, and look at several options for creating and restoring backups.

Presented by Rick Radko, a developer and designer with a passion for finding solutions to difficult design problems.

Meeting Details:

If you want to connect to WiFi, you will need your library card. (unless indicated otherwise above, laptops and connectiion to the internet are not required during the presentation)

Free parking is available on the neighbouring streets after 5:30pm.  Check the signs, a couple of the closest streets are limited to 1hr before 7pm.

The classroom is downstairs. Enter the main doors, head left, and down the stairs.  (Do not enter into the actual library)  Turn right at the bottom of the stairs and follow the halls to the room.

We ask for a $4 donation to help cover the cost of the room and our Meetup fees, which total about $450/year  – Exact Change would be greatly appreciated!

Agenda

6:00 – General announcements

6:10 – Presentation

7:30 – Q&A, Mingle and Network