Author: Heather Cygan

Sponsors aren’t only for companies! Our five Swamp Rabbit sponsors gave us $100 to help support this year’s WordCamp Greenville conference.

This sponsorship level is comprised of medium to small WordPress-based businesses and individuals who want to give back to the local WordPress community.

The quality of our event wouldn’t be possible without all our generous sponsors and donors.

Kudos to our Swamp Rabbit sponsors — we value you!

• William Ingogly
• Bradley Durham
• Josh Gellock
• Alex Smith
• Heather Cygan

If you meet any of our individual sponsors during WordCamp please extend your thanks.

We are grateful for all our WordCamp Greenville sponsors because they make this event possible in our local community. Our valued Reedy Rip’er sponsors this year are GoWP, Sandlapper Creative and Rocín Media.

These sponsors provided $250 each to support this year’s event, which features speakers tailored to attendees from beginner to advanced track — there’s truly something for everyone.

Check out these sponsors’ sites to see how they might fit into your WordPress platform and strategy.

GoWP

White label WordPress maintenance and support.

GoWP is the complete solution to outsourcing your agency’s maintenance and support needs.

Our expert engineers work as an extension of your team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We take care of the updates, security and backups that keep sites running smoothly. And we’ll handle the content edits and other issues that come up.

Let us take care of your WordPress maintenance so you can focus on your agency’s growth.

Sandlapper Creative

Sandlapper is a web design and development collective based out of beautiful Greenville, SC. We specialize in custom-built websites powered by WordPress that are search engine friendly and engage your audience.

Get in touch today: SandlapperCreative.com

Rocín Media

Rocín Media understands the synergistic ecosystem of marketing tools that produce the best results for our clients. Forget the fragmented approach of hiring multiple companies to manage different aspects of your marketing efforts.

Our in-house subject matter experts work closely with you to help you achieve all of your short and long-term goals.

Get in touch: RocinMedia.com

Ben Meredith will discuss “Leveling Up Your WordPress Troubleshooting Skills.”

What makes a guy with a bachelors in religious studies and no formal web training into a web developer with hundreds of thousands of downloads of his projects?

WordPress does.

Meredith is a developer, focused on the human interaction with WordPress. He thrives on making users (and their sites) play nicely with developers (and their products) — like an ambassador from one to the other.

He works full time for Give, the donation platform for WordPress, where he spends his time wowing customers, cracking jokes and solving problems.

Q: Why is it important for us to learn about this topic today?

A: It’s important for folks to learn that they can help with technical troubleshooting, even if they aren’t coders.

Q: What is the most important takeaway from your talk?

A: You will walk away with the difference between technical troubleshooting and coding.

Q: Which resources should we follow on this topic?

A: One great resource is the Give troubleshooting page.

More about Ben Meredith

A graduate of the University of North Carolina and a lifelong North Carolinian (if you don’t count four years in Middle Tennessee), he is a father of two plus a foster toddler, and a husband of one very patient wife.

When he’s not working, he’s likely parenting and reminiscing about having free time to play disc golf and guitar.

Fun facts: Once he gave a Bible to a drunken former KGB agent who was nearly naked. He flew east all the way around the world (with the help of commercial airlines) one summer. He used to have significantly more hair to an embarrassing extent.

Mark Marzeotti will tackle “Getting Started with Gutenberg Blocks.”

He started using WordPress in 2012 and began building basic custom themes at a small agency. Now he builds themes, plugins and blocks for large-scale websites.

Marzeotti will speak about building blocks for WordPress’ block editor, Gutenberg.

During his session, he will briefly review building traditional blocks using React and Create-Guten-Block. Then, he will approach it from a more familiar side with PHP and Advanced Custom Fields.

Q: Why is it important for us to learn more about Gutenberg today?

A: Gutenberg and the block editor are here to stay. It’s an incredibly powerful tool and a lot is being invested in its improvement and continued development.

As the WordPress ecosystem changes over the next few years, blocks and the block editor will eventually become unavoidable.

Learning more about it now and how to modify and extend it will benefit you and your clients now and set you up for long-term success.

Q: What is the most important takeaway of your talk?

A: Use the block editor. Use it with ACF the way you might have used the Flexible Content field.

Q: Which resources should we follow to stay current on Gutenberg?

A: Marzeotti suggests the following resources:

• Subreddit r/Wordpress
• Subreddit r/ProWordPress
• Download the Gutenberg plugin. Now that Gutenberg is part of core, the plugin now contains the latest release to test things before they are merged into core.
• You can follow him on Twitter @MarkMarzeotti.

Words do not adequately express the magnitude of our gratitude for our sponsors. And TypeRocket is one of our special event sponsors for WordCamp Greenville 2020.

TypeRocket is not only a Liberty Bridger but also a Premier sponsor this year. Each sponsorship level is worth $500, so they provided $1,000 to help us bring you this year’s WordPress event.

We use the funds to provide a venue, food and sessions to help you learn new tips, tricks and ideas from local and national WordPress experts. Please check out TypeRocket to see how they might fit into your WordPress stack.

TypeRocket

TypeRocket is the extreme WordPress framework for pro developers. A framework created to let pro developers push the limits of what is possible with WordPress.

By elegantly packaging in one place all the modern tools you need, TypeRocket saves you hours so you can do more of what you love. As a professional developer, you gain powerful features, and an aesthetic continuity that numerous paid and free plugins cannot deliver when combined.

TypeRocket offers:

• SEO
• Speed
• Elegant design
• 27+ custom fields
• Advanced custom post type UI
• Powerful CLI
• Laravel like MVC and routing
• Robust user security policies
• Supercharged theme templating
• Theme options
• Customizable page builder
• Composer access
• SQL query monitoring
• Powerful debugging and dev tools
• So much more

TypeRocket is an open-source project developed by Robojuice. Robojuice takes the worry out of the web. You understand the importance of the web for business, so we provide you a plan and a solid platform so you can focus on growing your business.

The digital marketplace moves too fast for you to figure it out as you go and try random, unplanned tactics. A solid plan and roadmap take the worry out of the web. At Robojuice, we lead the digital planning process and provide direction for companies that want to win online.

Shelly Peacock will educate us about how to “Pre-Load Your Sites for Lightning Fast Deployment with Page Builders.”

Peacock has been building WordPress sites for a decade, both as an agency and now with Zimmer Broadcasting. Zimmer offers WordPress development, digital marketing, SEO, SEM and other digital goodies that build business for clients.

Q: Why is it important we learn about page builders today?

A: Page Builders are the best thing since sliced bread!

Q: What is the most important takeaway from your talk?

A: Page builders provide ease of use and lots of resources to get the job done quicker.

Q: Which resources should we follow to stay current on page builders?

A: Peacock suggests you follow the resources recommended by Beaver Builder here.

Aida Marie Correa’s talk will address “A Seat at the Table — Diversity and the Inclusion of Emerging Minorities.”

Correa is the owner of LoveBuilt Life LLC — A Creative Arts and Lifestyle company.

Q: Why is it important for us to learn about diversity and inclusion?

A: The WordPress community is a great example of how people from differing backgrounds and from all walks of life can work together, but it still can be even more inclusive.

It’s important that we look at not just who is present, but also look for who is still missing.

Q: What is the most important takeaway of your talk?

A: This talk is interactive, so it will give participants an opportunity to be part of the larger solution of making everyone feel welcome.

Q: Which resources should we follow to stay current on this topic?

A: Correa intends to have a list of resources for you to use during her session. In the meantime, you can look at the works of companies like:

• Yoast
• GreenGeeks
• Create My Voice
• People of Color in Tech
• Black Girls Code
• Equity Over Everything

We rely on the support of our generous sponsors for WordCamp Greenville. Our Liberty Bridger sponsors — TypeRocket, Liquid Web and GreenGeeks — each gave $500 to help us bring this annual conference to your local community.

We use the funds to help us attract quality speakers and sessions to teach you to take your WordPress knowledge to the next level. Please check out their products to see how they might fit into your WordPress workflow and strategy.

TypeRocket

TypeRocket is the extreme WordPress framework for pro developers. A framework created to let pro developers push the limits of what is possible with WordPress.

By elegantly packaging in one place all the modern tools you need, TypeRocket saves you hours so you can do more of what you love. As a professional developer, you gain powerful features, and an aesthetic continuity that numerous paid and free plugins cannot deliver when combined.

TypeRocket offers:

• SEO
• Speed
• Elegant design
• 27+ custom fields
• Advanced custom post type UI
• Powerful CLI
• Laravel like MVC and routing
• Robust user security policies
• Supercharged theme templating
• Theme options
• Customizable page builder
• Composer access
• SQL query monitoring
• Powerful debugging and dev tools
• So much more

TypeRocket is an open-source project developed by Robojuice. Robojuice takes the worry out of the web. You understand the importance of the web for business, so we provide you a plan and a solid platform so you can focus on growing your business.

The digital marketplace moves too fast for you to figure it out as you go and try random, unplanned tactics. A solid plan and roadmap take the worry out of the web. At Robojuice, we lead the digital planning process and provide direction for companies that want to win online.

Liquid Web

Experience Managed WordPress from Nexcess, a member of the Liquid Web Family of Brands. When digital professionals want to optimize site performance, increase security, and scale to grow with the best support in the industry and access to the latest technology stack, they choose us.

For 20 years we’ve provided agencies with the ability to deliver the outstanding experience their clients expect. Built on the four pillars of speed, security, scalability and service, our solutions are designed to help every website realize its potential. Visit Nexcess.net today to get started.

GreenGeeks

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, automatic install/renewal of Let’s Encrypt Wildcard Certificates, 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 more than 150 countries.

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

Twitter Handle: @goGreenGeeks
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/greengeeks

Erick Arbé will discuss “WordPress to Static Websites: How Freelancers and Agencies Can Reduce Server Costs and Complexities.”

Arbé started his web agency 10 years ago and has built hundreds of WordPress themes for clients across the country. He also is a PGA golf professional and runs GolfWebDesign.com

He will speak about how to turn your dynamic WordPress website into a statically generated website to make it faster and more secure.

Q: Why is it important for us to learn about this topic today?

A: With the rise in popularity in WordPress, more and more plugins are being improperly used. This often leads to slow, less secure websites.

By using statically generated websites, you can decrease security risks, increase speed and even reduce your carbon footprint!

Q: What is the biggest takeaway from your talk?

A: One of the biggest takeaways is you will know what a statically generated website IS and how to create one from your WordPress website.

Q: Which resources should we follow to stay current on this topic?

A: There are not a lot of resources on the web about this subject because it’s still gaining popularity. However, try searching the web for “JAMStack” and read up on those results.

Netlify, Cloudflare and Smashing Magazine also are a few great resources.

Kevin Dees will discuss “Pro Developer Tools to Modernize Your WordPress Development.”

Dees is a speaker, entrepreneur, blogger and developer who is best known for his work in WordPress and podcasting for the retired SitePoint show.

He has developed sites for Verizon, Denny’s, RIDGID, Michelin and others. Currently, he is working on TypeRocket and TypeRocket Pro, which power more than 7,000 professional websites and products internationally.

Q: Why is it important for us to learn more about this topic today?

A: The ability to compose powerful and beautiful WordPress experiences can set you apart. But it’s hard to achieve when you use several plugins and frameworks installed with conflicting opinions about design and functionality.

If you want to overcome plugin madness and craft extremely modern and elegant sites in WordPress, this is a talk for you.

Q: What is the most important takeaway from your talk?

A: Being a pro developer doesn’t involve leaving WordPress. It involves leveling up your tool set and mindset.

Q: Which resources should we follow on this topic?

A: Dees suggests you follow his two websites to stay up to date on this topic:

• Kevin Dees’ blog: Follow his blogs here.
• Follow Dees on Twitter: You can follow him @kevindees.