Guest post by Kelli Wise, Agency Owner, WordPress Community Activist, and WordCamp Seattle 2017 Speaker.
Like so many of the speakers and attendees at WordCamp, I’m self-taught.
When I first started using WordPress, learning it meant reading a lot of different blogs, articles and Codex entries. My first website with WordPress took 3 days to setup since I was figuring it out as I went along and I didn’t want to mess it up.
Since then, I’ve installed and setup WordPress hundreds of times. I’ve broken it dozens of times. I’ve fixed it dozens of times. Not every site is a learning opportunity for me, but most of them are.
My first time speaking at WordCamp in Seattle was a walkthrough of how to setup a WordPress install as a website. It was my workflow and a recap of everything I had learned. With Q&A, it was less than 45 minutes long. I had a packed house and many of the attendees told me later that it was the first time they had ever had all of the instructions laid out for them in one place.
It was a talk I wish I had had available to me when I was getting started.
It would have saved me a lot of time and mistakes. It’s also why I love speaking and teaching at WordCamp.
I don’t give ‘developer’ level talks.
I like to teach the beginning and intermediate level stuff to get people unstuck or build their confidence to use their websites.
I teach my web design clients how to use their WordPress sites, so WordCamp gives me a first hand look at what my clients need from me. What confuses them? What intimidates them? What do they need to know to keep their sites current? What do they need to know to prevent breaking things? My audience are my instructors so I can be better at helping my clients.
This year, I’m really excited to be running a hands on workshop.
My attendees won’t just be sitting there passively listening to me yammer on. They will be working along with real WordPress sites. Not their live websites where they might make a mess, but live sandbox sites where they are free to make a mess without hurting anything important.
Learning the basics of using your website can be intimidating. There are books, websites, online classes and more. The flood of information can be overwhelming. So most users simply leave things as they were setup by their web designer. They don’t ever log in to make updates or edits.
What they need is a safe place to practice and someone to walk them through what is safe to do and what should be left alone.
My goal for the workshop is to have everyone leave feeling more confident about logging in to their site and using it. After all, a website can be a tremendous tool for a small business owner or entrepreneur. You need to make the most of it.
What makes me qualified to teach this class?
Well, I’ve been using WordPress for several years now. I’ve lost track of when I started using WordPress but it was around 2009 or 2010. I was designing websites long before that, but WordPress was a better choice for my clients.
I teach all of them how to use their sites. I’ve also taught this material for the local SBA. I’m one of the organizers for the Olympia WordPress meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Olympia-WordPress-Meetup-OlyWP/), and I speak there on a regular basis.
I’m a trained and experienced public speaker, so I won’t bore you to death – but I do still say ‘um’ too frequently. I used to speak at the Intel Developers Forum, the Intel Technology Symposium, and at AT&T sales functions back when I had a corporate job.
Being an introvert, I’m more comfortable on a stage than one-on-one, so if you see me around, you’ll probably see me sitting by myself. Come say hello because I’m a bit too shy to say hello to you.
You can find me online on twitter or my websites https://pintsizedsites.com/ (for DIYers) or https://kattero.com/ (my design agency).
I’m hoping you’ll join me first thing Saturday morning at 10 am.
Bring your laptop and your questions and be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get your digital hands dirty.
You’ll have some time before the keynote to come to the room and get setup – things like getting your laptop connected to wifi and getting your sandbox site ready to go. After the keynote, we’ll dive in and start getting confident with WordPress.
Kelli’s Learn to Use Your WordPress Workshop is Saturday at 10am, right after the keynote. Seats are first come first serve that morning, but please let us know if you’re interested in attending it when you …
photo credit: Ed Gregory
I’m looking forward to this! I’m a total newbie and looks like the right place to start. Thanks!
I’m looking forward to seeing you there, Michelle!