WordCamp Phoenix 2012 was an extremely valuable learning experience for me. I have been using WordPress for a long time and consider the software to be extremely powerful. This weekend I just realized just how powerful. Aside from the technology the presentations was very good as well. I was impressed with the passion, enthusiasm and expertise of each of the presenters. Here are the three presentations that I felt were the most compelling:
Next Generation Web: What HTML5 and Responsive Design Can Really Do by Jake Goldman
Jake is the owner of 10up LLC, a web agency focused on awesome WordPress implementations. He gave a very good overview of HTML5/CSS 3 and demonstrated its versatility by creating a video game on a website using these two technologies. He addressed the font issue in the presentation as well (something designers are always discussing). Take a look:
http://10up.com/blog/2012/02/next-generation-web-html5-css3/
Design Swoon by Sara Cannon
Sara is a website designer and developer out of Birmingham, AL. She is a WordPress core contributor working with the UI group. Her whole philosophy of incorporating “responsive design” (I heard that a lot this weekend) was impressive. Response design is the concept of creating websites that are responsive to the needs of each device type and the users on these devices. Here presentation included links to some innovative “responsive designs”, check it out:
http://www.slideshare.net/saracannon/design-swoon-visual-trends-wordpress
Extending Multisite for Community Engagement by John Hawkins
John is a WordPress expert extraordinaire based in Las Vegas. His presentation was an overview of WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress. One of the main benefits that I saw from these technologies was the ability to make mass updates to plugins from one main installation. You could also setup unique GA tracking for each installation. It looked like a good fit for one of the projects I have involved with right now. Here is the presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/vegasgeek/an-introduction-to-multisite-wordcamp-phoenix
Congratulations to Dallin Harris and his team at Skyhook Internet Marketing as well as all the volunteers for their great work.