Speaker Spotlight: Rachel Nabors of Smashing Boxes

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Steve M

Rachel is a web comicker turned front-end developer and UX enthusiast. Rachel still draws comics on the weekends, and WordPress is her CMS of choice. Also, Rachel loves tea and reading comics in Japanese.

Rachel will be presenting on the topic of Simple Steps to WordPress Security in the Users track. Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Rachel:

We all know WordPress is easy to install, but do you know if your WordPress site is equally easy to hack? When it happens, a security breach can devastate your online reputation. You can end up with a corrupted database, infected files, even banned from Google altogether.

Sadly, security is often the last thing we think about during the 5 Minute Install. But, there are some simple steps that we can take to protect ourselves. And you don’t have to be a web developer to implement many of them! With proper precautions, a few tweaks, and a handful of plugins, you can block 99% of all threats to your site’s security.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Rachel. Don’t forget to follow her on Twitter – @CrowChick

SitePoint Podcast returns to WordCamp Raleigh for live show

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Steve M

We are extremely excited and pleased to announce that for the second consecutive year, the SitePoint Podcast will host a special live show at WordCamp Raleigh.

Last year’s show, the first ever live, in person episode of the podcast, was a big success, with a face to face audience of 80-120 people and a live online audience in the hundreds. So, we’re doing it again!

The Details

The SitePoint Podcast will be live on Saturday May 21st for two hours, starting at 1 PM ET (GMT/UTC -4) in the room dedicated to the Users Track. They will have prizes, special guests and a lot of fun and conversation. You will need a conference pass to attend the podcast in person so register today if you haven’t got your ticket yet!

Just like last year, the live Podcast will be hosted by Patrick O’Keefe (@ifroggy), Brad Williams (@williamsba) and Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves). Unfortunately, their newly anointed co-host Louis Simoneau (@rssaddict) will not be making the long trek from Australia to join them. Dave Moyer will be helping out again on the technical end.

Following the podcast, both Brad and Patrick will be speaking in the Power Users track, with Brad leading with he session “Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse using Custom Post Types and Taxonomies” and Patrick closing out the afternoon with “Comment Moderation 201.”

Special Guest: You

The SitePoint Podcast team are still working out the logistics, but they’ll be pulling at least one member of the audience up on stage to be a guest on the show and, if you attend, it could be you.

Listen Online or In Person

The show will be broadcast online, so if you can’t make it in person, we encourage you to join live on the SitePoint Podcast homepage. The show will be recorded so that it can be released as a regular podcast, but we hope to have you here with us for the fun, whether for the whole show or just part of it.

Speaker Spotlight: Dave Moyer of Bitwire Media

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Steve M

Dave is a blogger, podcaster, web developer, radio host, actor, YouTuber, musician and photographer. He’s the founding President of Bitwire Media, the producers of blogs, podcasts and new media programming including WordCast and Making My Life.

Recent speaking credits include:
– WordCamp Developers (Vancouver, BC)
– Library of Congress Teacher Librarian Day 2011
– CSIA DEMOGala 2010
– OpenCamp Dallas 2010
– WordCamp Reno 2010
– WordCamp Raleigh 2010

When not on the road, Dave resides in Denver, CO. He’s also 18 years old.

Dave will be presenting on the topic of WordPress Multisite: The Why and How of WordPress Blog Networks in the Users track. Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Dave:

Since version 3.0, the multisite functionality of WordPressMU is built into every WordPress install. Do you know how and why to create a network of sites? In this session, we’ll take a look at the basics of WordPress multisite. More importantly, do you understand how to take advantage of multisite technology to turbocharge your content? We’ll review the mistakes and misconceptions that make so many multisite installs irrelevant and painful wastes of time. Networks aren’t just for the geeks anymore! Use this power for good.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Dave. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @davemoyer

Speaker Spotlight: Aaron Jorbin of Clearspring

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Steve M

Aaron is an engineer with Clearspring where he works on AddThis and a WordPress Core Contributor. He has spoken to multiple User Groups and at WordCamps in four time zones. When he’s not busy creating and fixing bugs, Aaron helps run an educational simulation conference for over 1500 college students. He’ll gladly toast to the GPL any day of the week and happily will discuss whisky, quality beer, or the upper peninsula of Michigan with anyone that wants.

Aaron will be presenting on the topic of Debugging and filing bug reports for WordPress in the Developers track. Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Aaron:

Debugging is one of the most important skills that any developer can have. It doesn’t matter what your niche, if you write software, you’ll face bugs. In this presentation I will go over tools for debugging, common types of bugs, and testing methods.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Aaron. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @aaronjorbin

Speaker Spotlight: Chris Jean of iThemes

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Steve M

With six years of experience developing and maintaining a closed CMS, Chris finally saw the light in 2008 and shifted his focus over to WordPress. As a member of the iThemes team, his focus is creating themes and plugins that allow users to have advanced control over their site without knowledge of code. Whatever that means. When he’s not on a bash shell or coding away in Vim, he can be found watching anime or playing TF2.

Chris will be presenting on the topic of Standardized Loop API: The Next Big Thing in the Developers track. Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Chris:

Themes used to be the wild west of WordPress with everyone doing their own thing. Over the years, APIs for widgets, comments, menus, featured images, post formats, and so on were added to tame themes with a consistent set of tools and features.

This presentation makes the case for and shows examples of a possible next step for evolving the theme API: a loop API and standard.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Chris. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @chrisjean