WordCamp Switzerland 2015

I always enjoy meeting new people and catching up with good friends in the European WordPress community. This past weekend I went to WordCamp Switzerland, a very well-organized, fun WordCamp.

One track for all

The single-track lineup, a mix of full sessions and lightning talks, was excellent, for one because the selection of topics was diverse and more so because all speakers shared their personal experiences on the topic they spoke about. The event venue was setup perfectly to connect with many of the 200 attendees in between sessions and during breaks.

WordCamp Switzerland 2015 – Q&A with WordPress Experts Pascal Birchler and Konstantin Obenland
WordCamp Switzerland 2015 – Q&A with WordPress Experts
Pascal Birchler and Konstantin Obenland

I had the pleasure to speak at the event and share my experiences working remotely as a WordPress freelancer. I shared reasons why I love working remotely and the challenges it come with. How I stay motivated and find community. You can find my slides on Speaker Deck.

WordCamp Switzerland 2015 – Petya Raykovska
WordCamp Switzerland 2015 – Petya Raykovska

Contributor Day

The Contributor Day Sunday drew quite a lot of experienced and first-time contributors. It’s always great to see more people getting involved and giving back. Petya gave a great intro and her enthusiastic nature draws you right in! I decided to join the Polyglots team this time and really enjoyed translating 400 strings of the iThemes Security plugin into German. If you speak multiple languages and you’d like to contribute to the Polyglots team as well, you can find more information at: https://translate.wordpress.org

A huge thank you to all the organizers (Karin, Silvan, Noel, Andrew, Pascal, and the rest of the amazing team), the volunteers and sponsors for putting together such an amazing event and fun after-party!!

See you again next year!

WordCamp NYC 2014

WordCamp New York City is only a few weeks away and we’re busy with the final organizing stages of the event. We were very excited to announce an amazing line up of speakers and Saturday’s and Sunday’s schedule.

We are also planning a Contributor Day Friday! Make sure to sign up and join us in making WordPress even more awesome!

If you don’t have a ticket yet, make sure to get your ticket soon! We’re selling out fast!

I’m Attending WordCamp NYC – August 2-3, 2014

 

Image credits: New York City Skyline by Wikimedia Commons

I’m volunteering and speaking at WordCamp Seattle 2014

 

I’m excited to volunteer and speak at WordCamp Seattle for the first time this year! The event takes place on June 28th filled with great sessions and a Contributor Day on Sunday. I like Seattle a lot – to me it is such a relaxing place, so I can’t wait to visit again.

My session is called “UX – A Checklist for Real Websites“, please stop by if you’re attending the event.
There will be a live stream of the event, so if you can’t be there, feel free to tune in!

Hope to see you in Seattle, make sure to say hi!

UX in the Real World – Presentation at WordCamp Philly 2014

It was a pleasure and honor to speak at WordCamp Philly this year! Attending and speaking at WordCamp’s is always a great opportunity to meet the local community and share ideas with other WordPress Designers and Developers.

It was my first time at WordCamp Philly and Brad, Liam, Doug, April and the rest of the organizers and volunteers did an amazing job! The sessions were well curated and the hallway-track was a great opportunity to make new friends.

This year I spoke about User Experience and WordPress. Everybody is always talking about User Experience, but what is it and how can you improve the usability and user experience of your website today? I shared practical, real-world examples and tips to boost your WordPress design skills. The premise is, to not just build pretty websites, but to make smart design decisions and add UX best practices to your workflow. Asking questions like: Do I really need a large slider on my homepage? Are there clear nav menus and Calls-to-Action to guide my visitors? How does my site displays on other devices? A good UX job continues after launch using Google Analytics and other tools to analyze and iterate.

Here are my slides from the presentation:
Don’t Just Build Pretty Websites — UX in the Real World

 

 

I’m speaking at WordCamp Philly about User Experience and WordPress

I’m super excited to be speaking again after quite a while and I’ll be kicking it off at WordCamp Philly Saturday morning. I’ll be speaking about User Experience Design and WordPress, best practices and why you shouldn’t just build a pretty website!

If you don’t have a ticket yet, make sure to get one, they go fast: http://2014.philly.wordcamp.org/register/

Hope to see you there!

speaker-badge