Panel: Meetups in History and Practice

A conversation with Meetup organizers.

Speakers

Angela Jin
Chris Klosowski
Joe A Simpson Jr

Contributor Day

Opening Remarks

Thank You To Our Sponsors

Prom

WPMU Dev

As the team behind 5-star free plugins like WP Smush image optimizer, Hummingbird performance booster, SmartCrawl SEO and Defender security, WPMU DEV is giving WordPress superpowers to users around the world. WPMU DEV is a league of WordPress experts and the creators of your complete WordPress developer toolkit. Members have access to dozens of services, including managed hosting, performance, security, SEO, Multisite plugins, marketing tools, and more – all with 24/7 live support.

Pantheon

Pantheon is the website operations platform top developers, marketers, and IT use to build, launch and run all their Drupal and WordPress websites. Pantheon includes all of the tools professional developers need to build best-practice sites—like staging environments, version control, backups, and workflows. Powering over 200,000 sites and billions of pageviews a month, Pantheon’s container-based infrastructure allows you to launch websites faster, without worrying about traffic spikes, security, or performance. It’s free to develop your site on Pantheon, you only pay once your site goes live. You can scale your site on the same infrastructure from day one, and never touch a server again. Create your free account now!

Wordfence

Wordfence is the most popular WordPress security solution, protecting over 2 million sites. It includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that were built from the ground up to protect WordPress. Our Threat Defense Feed arms Wordfence with the newest firewall rules, malware signatures and malicious IP addresses it needs to keep your website safe. Rounded out by a suite of additional features, Wordfence is the most comprehensive WordPress security option available.

Learn more at wordfence.com.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the world’s largest cloud ecommerce platform for established and rapidly growing businesses. Combining enterprise functionality, an open architecture and app ecosystem, and market-leading performance, BigCommerce enables businesses to grow online sales with 80% less cost, time and complexity than on-premise software. BigCommerce powers B2B and B2C ecommerce for more than 60,000 brands, 2,000+ mid-market businesses, 30 Fortune 1000 companies and industry-leading brands, including Assurant, Ben & Jerry’s, Paul Mitchell, Skullcandy, Sony and Toyota. For more information, visit www.bigcommerce.com.

BigCommerce® is a registered trademark of BigCommerce Pty. Ltd. Third-party trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

WP Engine

WP Engine is the world’s leading WordPress digital experience platform that gives companies of all sizes the agility, performance, intelligence, and integrations they need to drive their business forward faster. WP Engine’s combination of tech innovation and an award-winning team of WordPress experts are trusted by over 90,000 companies across 130 countries to provide counsel and support, helping brands create world-class digital experiences. Founded in 2010, WP Engine is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has offices in San Francisco, California; San Antonio, Texas; London, England; Limerick, Ireland and Brisbane, Australia.

LiquidWeb

Marking its 21st anniversary, Liquid Web powers online content, commerce, and potential for SMB entrepreneurs and the designers, developers and digital agencies who create for them. An industry leader in managed hosting and cloud services, Liquid Web is known for its high- performance services and exceptional customer support. Liquid Web offers a broad portfolio designed so customers can choose a hosting solution that is hands-on or hands-off or a hybrid of the two. The company owns and manages its own core data centers, providing a diverse range of offerings, including bare metal servers, fully managed hosting, Managed WordPress, and Managed WooCommerce Hosting, and continues to evolve its service offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of its web-reliant, professional customers. With over 32,000 customers spanning 150 countries, the company has assembled a world-class team, global data centers and an expert group of 24/7/365 solution engineers. As an industry leader in customer service*, the rapidly expanding company has been recognized among INC Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for eleven years. Liquid Web is part of the Madison Dearborn Partners family of companies. Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“MDP”) is a leading private equity investment firm based in Chicago. For more information, please visit https://www.liquidweb.com, or read our blog posts at https://www.liquidweb.com/blog. Stay up to date with all Liquid Web events on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Nexcess

New technology comes with a promise. Almost 20 years ago, from a small garage in Michigan, we set out to fulfill that promise: to become a hosting provider that empowers clients to create and grow the businesses they want.

Now, from our Southfield, Michigan headquarters, we hold data centers around the world that offer the best in terms of performance, reliability, and control.

By embracing complexity, providing stability, and working with our clients, partners, and team members, we’ve managed to create innovations that have changed the face of web hosting support and management forever.

Experience the promise of technology with Nexcess. Together we can do it better.

Bluehost

Bluehost has been a WordPress partner since 2005 and powers over 1 million WordPress sites worldwide. Their objective is to help customers, whether novice or pro, create a thriving online presence at an affordable price. With a team of in-house tech experts available 24/7, Bluehost dedicates time and resources to providing the best support and services in the industry. Join millions of other site owners and see what Bluehost can do for you and your online presence.

WooCommerce

Jetpack

Transform how you work with your WordPress sites and rest easy knowing they’re always firing on all cylinders. Jetpack connects your site to the global services, community, and support provided by WordPress.com so you can focus on the stuff that matters.

Jetpack automatically shields your site from the unwanted attention of spammers, hackers, and malware, while real-time sync and backup means you don’t have to worry about data loss. Straightforward traffic-building tools help you attract the attention of readers and search engines. Pages and videos are delivered at high speed from a global, ad-free content delivery network.

With Jetpack’s Affiliate program you can earn 20% for every sale of Jetpack to your customers and clients. And with unlimited referrals, the sky’s the limit! Refer as many clients and contacts as you can, and get paid for every sale you generate.

Make your site work for you. Get your Jetpack today at Jetpack.com

Homecoming

Green Geeks Web Hosting

GreenGeeks is an independently owned and operated hosting provider.

Our specially engineered platform offers WordPress users web hosting that is designed for the fastest, most secure and scalable hosting available in multiple data centers. Our WordPress hosting makes deploying and managing WordPress websites easy with automatic 1-click install, managed updates, real-time security protection, SSD RAID-10 storage arrays, PowerCacher and expert 24/7 support to make for the best web hosting experience.

Since our launch in 2008, GreenGeeks has been the industry’s leading eco-friendly web hosting provider putting back 3 times the power we consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy. We are based out of Los Angeles, California with a global workforce that provides a better web hosting experience to customers from over 150 countries.

GreenGeeks is actively engaged within the WordPress community and is a proud sponsor to various WordCamps around the world.

Galvanize Phoenix

Galvanize is a collection of modern, urban campuses where people can access the skills and network they need in-person or online to level up in tech. Our culture is a dynamic learning community in technology shaped by first-time entrepreneurs, growing startups, and Fortune 1000 companies.

Galvanize is an ecosystem where education and industry collide. Central to the emerging warehouse district, Galvanize is home to diverse enterprises of various sizes. Entrepreneurs who are both leaders and learners come here to connect. Businesses seeking top-level talent find their gaps filled. A technology environment for creative minds. An innovative hub putting community in workspace.This is Galvanize.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy Pro offers a robust suite of free tools to web developers & designers to help them save time managing all their clients and sites. With GoDaddy Pro, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage all their WordPress websites from one place. Exclusive time-saving tools let you update WordPress core, plugins and themes with one click, as well as automate WordPress backups, cloning and migrations. Get real-time performance, security and uptime monitoring across all your websites. Additionally, your free membership includes advanced 24/7 technical support.

When you pair GoDaddy Pro with GoDaddy hosting products, the benefits are even greater.

Check out the Free Tools

Winter Formal

Qualpay

Qualpay provides a modern REST API based payments platform with enterprise-level features, paired with a merchant account, that is easily adaptable to the unique needs of a business. Store Builders, Developers and ISV’s can join our Partner Program and provide value to their customers while enjoying a competitive revenue share. We offer Hosted Payment Forms, Advanced Reconciliation Reporting, Subscription Management, Recurring Billing, Customer Vault & Invoicing through our Free WooCommerce Plugin and also have connection points to the most popular WordPress platforms. All of our features are also available via API for merchants and software providers looking to create their own custom solution. Best of all we help businesses lower their credit card and ACH processing costs through interchange optimization. In 24 hours we can provide a cost savings analysis that typically saves a business over 30% off their processing costs. Top that off with a dedicated merchant and partner support, you will never have to speak with a chatbot working with Qualpay.

DreamHost

Since 1997 DreamHost has helped individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers worldwide bring their dreams to life on the Internet. A leader in Managed WordPress hosting, over 400,000 customers trust DreamHost to be their online home. Supporting the open source community with dedicated resources and a passionate team, DreamHost believes in the power of the Open Web and the people that make it happen. Learn more at DreamHost.com.

Sadie Hawkins

Yoast Academy

As the well-known saying goes; “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That’s exactly what Yoast Academy is all about. Instead of fixing the SEO of your website for you once, we’ll teach you how to do it yourself forever. If you’re new to SEO, the best start is our Basic SEO course, followed by the Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training with personal configuration review which teaches you how to configure our popular Yoast S EO plugin on your website. After mastering these basics, you can take the deep dive with Technical SEO, SEO copywriting, multilingual SEO and many other courses.

And the more knowledge you have, the better we can work together on making the web a better place for everyone!

Showit

Most photographers feel stuck with a website template. Showit created a website builder that gives them the freedom to create a site that reflects their brand so that they can connect with their ideal client. Showit also integrates with WordPress to allow creative freedom in the design, with the power and flexibility of WordPress for blogging and content management.

RadiateWP

RadiateWP offers comprehensive maintenance and support plans for WordPress site owners offering no-contract monthly subscriptions.

NorthStack by Pagely

Pagely is the WordPress hosting market leader in innovation, speed, scalability, and security, with thousands of clients trusting our impressive and forward-thinking infrastructure. Our clients range from the largest tech companies, to universities, creative agencies, city and state governments, magazines, ski resorts, and other large and midsize businesses. We’ve done it by sticking true to the singular focus of treating our customers right.

Pagely is pleased to introduce NorthStack: the first serverless hosting platform designed specifically for WordPress.

Mode Effect

Mode Effect began in 2010 by Cody and Raquel Landefeld. After spending over a decade in the website design industry, Cody moved to solely focus on providing solutions in WordPress and leveraging the strength of the world’s most useful CMS to help grow the businesses we work with. In January of 2019, they announced their new partnership with John Morrison.

Our professional team includes world-class web designers, developers, copywriters, web optimization experts, and web strategists. We truly love what we do and enjoy helping our clients transform their businesses using WordPress.

We pride ourselves on being a key partner for e-commerce and enterprise companies looking for an experienced and expert WooCommerce and WordPress consultancy. We focus on taking your business to the next level!

JavaScript for WP

JavaScript for WordPress is an online learning site for educator Zac Gordon. Learn vanilla JavaScript in depth, how to make decoupled WordPress REST API powered sites and work with the new React Driven Gutenberg editor.

Online Courses, Bootcamps, Shows and more is available to help you learn JavaScript for WordPress Deeply.

Aspen Grove Studios

Founded in 2015 by David Blackmon and Cory Jenkins, Aspen Grove Studios is a leading WordPress development company that specializes in creating products designed to help web designers build web presences both better and faster.
As well as general WordPress products, Aspen Grove Studios – and its partner company, Divi Space – are leaders in the Divi community specializing in crafting products for use specifically with the Divi theme, as created by Elegant Themes. These products range from plugins to child themes, layout packs, online course, resources and more.

On top of developing products, Aspen Grove Studios is also a web design agency that creates memorable, custom-coded, brand-led experiences for their clients.

For more information about the Aspen Grove Studios brand, our WordPress products and web design services, please visit aspengrovestudios.com and divi.space.

GitHub Updater

GitHub Updater is an Open Source project by Andy Fragen. It’s a simple plugin to enable automatic updates for your GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Gitea hosted WordPress plugins, themes, and language packs. It also allows for the remote installation of plugins or themes. GitHub Updater has many advanced features such as branch switching and RESTful endpoints that can be used with webhooks.

GitHub Updater is and has been a project that has taught me much and more importantly helped others with their work. Try it out and see if it doesn’t save you time and energy with your own development projects and clients.

Find GitHub Updater at https://github.com/afragen/github-updater
Find Andy Fragen and say “Hi”.

LifterLMS

LifterLMS helps online course creators convert their expertise and life experiences into income by creating impactful online courses. If you are an expert, teacher, coach, trainer or just interested in building an online business based on what you know, check out the engaging learning platform and coaching programs you can create with this powerful WordPress LMS. Learn more at LifterLMS.com

WordHerd

WordHerd migrates websites and stores from any CMS to WordPress and WooCommerce, providing a number of custom services that plugins do not provide, in order to ensure that your new website maintains all the functionality and design of the old one.

WordHerd’s most frequently used services include:

• Retaining existing content and HTML structure, such as titles, copy, and excerpts.

• Migrating assets with their respective content and media hyperlinks, such as images, PDFs, and documents, into WordPress’ media library.

• Migrating meta titles, descriptions, and keywords into the Yoast SEO plugin, preserving SEO schema.

• Implementing 301 redirects to retain SEO equity.

• Validating all content through the WordHerd processing tool and minifying for site speed, which can also include attribute and tag exclusion to clean migrated content.

• Converting all existing web forms to Gravity Forms, tables to TablePress, and custom content to Advanced Custom Fields.

• Maintaining existing design and optimizing for mobile, tablet, and desktop displays.

Officially launched in 2018, WordHerd now offers CRM data migration to it’s list of services; including Contacts, Notes, Deals, Deal Pipelines, Email Templates and Landing Pages to platforms such as SharpSpring, Marketo, HubSpot and many more.

Learn more about WordHerd’s services and migration industry innovations at: https://wordherd.io/innovations/

Divi Life

Divi Life by Tim Strifler is a leading product add-on creator for Divi, the most popular WordPress theme in the world. Divi Life strives to make web design easier by providing Divi-specific plugins, child themes, layouts, tutorials, and online courses for the thriving Divi Community. Divi Life’s products empower users to do more, becoming an essential part of ever Divi web designer’s toolbox.

Visit DiviLife.com for more info and freebies!

SiteGround

SiteGround is a web hosting company founded in 2004 by a few university friends. In most recent data, it reports servicing more than 1,800,000 domains worldwide. It provides shared hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated servers as well as email hosting and domain registration.

FanSided

FanSided is the fastest growing independent network of fandom-focused sports, entertainment and lifestyle sites on the Internet. Today, the company is a thriving collection of over 300 communities dedicated to bringing together fans to share their common passions.

EasyWP by Namecheap

Namecheap delivers domains, hosting, cloud and security services and now Managed WordPress to our global audience. We believe and fight for a free and open internet and have developed EasyWP to make Managed WordPress accessible and affordable to all.

A2 Hosting

Since 2003, A2 Hosting has specialized in Linux-based, developer-friendly hosting. We cater to the WordPress community by offering robust servers and hosting accounts at an affordable cost. We back up our hosting with 24/7 support available by phone, ticket, or live chat.

A2 is active in the WordPress community – we dedicate a percentage of our development time to WordPress as part of the Five for the Future initiative, and we are active in many WordCamps.

Skyhook Interactive

Skyhook is a high performance website development firm based in Phoenix. During the 10+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve planned, designed, built, and maintained hundreds of websites for national brands like AT&T, NFL, American Express, LifeLock and Subway, as well as local stars like Arizona State University, Banner Health, City of Phoenix, Pink Jeep Tours, and more.

InKind

StickerGiant

StickerGiant is an e-commerce company that prints custom stickers and product labels. They make it fast, fun and easy to order with quality guaranteed. Every sticker has a story. What’s yours? Learn more at StickerGiant.com

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