Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature's best effort yet at immortality, says sleep scientist Matt Walker. In this deep dive into the science of slumber, Walker shares the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep -- and the alarmingly bad things that happen when you don't, for both your brain and body. Learn more about sleep's impact on your learning, memory, immune system and even your genetic code -- as well as some helpful tips for getting some shut-eye.

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. How well is your WordPress site doing? How do you know? Google offers free analytics for all website owners. WordPress has several methods to set this up on our site. We will look at what you need to do to start collecting data, how to interpret what you collect and next steps for your business.

It’s the inconvenient truth that all aspiring bloggers must face – just because you write a great blog post, that doesn’t mean anybody is going to read it. You could pay for traffic through things like Facebook ads and Google Pay Per Click, but is that really a viable solution to increase your readership? If you’re like most bloggers, simply boosting your posts on Facebook probably isn’t the answer. In this session, we’ll talk about how your blog can help you build a large, loyal following of interested readers, and then what to do with those people once they get to your website.

WooCommerce 101 In this fundamentals course, we will be going over how to set up and configure WooCommerce. Topics covered will be: Why WooCommerce? How to Install A walk through the settings Set up your store and add products And how to run your store.

Mindfulness – “The quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.” Security can seem intimidating and complex for many, but we shouldn’t (can’t) let that stop us from doing everything we can to secure our WordPress sites and ourselves. After all, our websites are often part of our livelihood. In this session Adam addresses the “big picture” of personal and website security and breaks down the fundamental tasks needed for a strong security plan online. He provides an actionable checklist on what audience members can implement immediately to better secure themselves online in addition to their WordPress websites. After attending this session, audience members will have a better understanding of personal security online and how it affects website security as a whole, as well as steps they can take to mitigate risk in the future.

Has a client ever wasted your time in a consulting session? Ever had a one-hour consultation turn into 3? Have you experienced the sinking feeling that comes when you leave the consultation and realize you failed to ask a key question? This talk provides answers to these issues and more. Attendees will leave with a clear, memorable outline to manage the client consultation.

An introduction to using WordPress

Security on a Shoestring: Kim will talk about a number of free WordPress plugins for increasing website security that folks are not likely to know about. These include IQ Block Country, NinjaFirewall and iThemes Security (free version – This one is well known, but worth talking about). Also included will be a discussion of testing WordPress websites for vulnerabilities with WPScan. Kim will wrap up with a discussion of Let’s Encrypt for free SSL’s.

WordPress can do so many things – amplify your voice, sell your widgets, transform leads into customers… the list goes on. What WordPress can’t do is build, grow, or maintain itself. That’s why you hired a developer, right? Finding the right developer or agency to help you realize your website dreams is no easy feat. How do you tell the difference between “good” and “bad” developers when you’re not speaking the same language? If you’ve ever: worried that your developer would take down your site if you complain; had a project last for 3+ months more than you originally expected; sent the same question to your developer multiple times without getting a straight answer; been abandoned once a project is over, the You need a better strategy for choosing a development partner or rehabilitating your relationship with your existing developer. Her talk will cover strategies for choosing a development partner or fixing an existing dysfunctional relationship, supported by lots of cute animal gifs and practical tips for finding your Forever Home and keeping your developer happy. Target audience: WordPress website owners who outsource some or all site development & support.

Come one, come all! Grab a cup of coffee and join Automatticians Konstantin Obenland and Michael Cain for a morning show-style WordCamp talk that’s buckets o’fun for anyone and everyone. We’ll break the session into three segments: news from around the WordPress world; a special guest interview with a WordPress “celebrity”; and a “shop talk” segment about a design or development topic that we’re hoping to learn more about by pretending to be experts in front of you, our audience. There will be laughter (hopefully?), there will be tears (regrettably?), there will even be some awkward silences (definitely). But most importantly, there will be plenty of that whole-grained, balanced-diet WordPress that you just can’t get enough of.