The sessions at WordCamp Nederland 2016 in Utrecht have shown: WordCamps are no longer exclusive events for die-hards. Every agency, every web designer and every store operator who seriously wants to be successful with WordPress can gain inspiration and knowledge at WordCamps.
First of all, we must express our great praise at this point: WordCamp Nederland 2016 in Utrecht was superbly organized. The location of the conference venue, the location, the catering, the lecture rooms, the technology: everything was impeccable. The team on site was also extremely professional and authentic.
And this is how WordCamps should be perceived: as professionally organized and conducted specialist conferences where WordPress users of all levels of knowledge can gain valuable experience. And not least because of the very good presentations, almost all of which are held in English.
Today we would like to introduce you to the topics and presentations of WordCamp Nederland 2016 and show you why a WordCamp is always worth a visit. Especially if you use WordPress professionally and want to earn money with it and at the same time be part of an authentic and warm community.
How did we realize growth for WordCamp Nederland 2016? #wcnl https://t.co/VCUz3LS9xu pic.twitter.com/WDuzEbdTMZ
- Marcel Bootsman (@mbootsman) October 20, 2016
Performance, security and organization are the perennial hot topics - SEO, e-commerce and WP business also in focus
Some topics are represented in one form or another at almost every WordCamp. These include WordPress performance, WordPress security and organizational matters. In addition to sessions on topics such as "How to achieve the best possible Google PageSpeed Score" or "Slack and Beyond: Internal Communication for Distributed Companies", we particularly noticed the many presentations on SEO, e-commerce and WordPress business at WordCamp Nederland 2016.
The SEO topics were obviously thanks to the main sponsor of the WordCamp, Yoast. With "How to Write an Awesome and SEO-Friendly Blogpost" and "Shop SEO", the two Yoast speakers were able to present their core competencies well. For anyone who has already spent an hour or two on the Yoast blog, such presentations may not bring much new information, but that doesn't make them any less relevant.
Blogging and e-commerce are also topics that are always covered in detail. Of course, it always depends on the speakers and their expertise. The quality of the presentations is usually very good, but their practical added value can vary depending on your own level of knowledge.
Note: The videos of the first camp day are now available on wordpress.tv. There you can watch the sessions in full length and with all the material at your leisure.
Lots of inspiration for agencies
A handful of sessions dealt specifically with the problems and working methods of WordPress agencies. The tenor: Agencies in particular need expertise in development, security and performance. After all, they could build better sites faster with the right use of functions and designs and thus set themselves apart from the competition.
In his session, Luc Princen will talk about the sense and nonsense of a separate plugin environment for agencies, for example. He developed his own plugin editor for his employer, with which individual functions can be added to WordPress sites with pinpoint accuracy. At 1,500 man-hours, this was an enormous - and, as he himself admits, disproportionate - effort. However, the example shows that by reducing plugins to the functions that are really needed, time and money can be saved overall and the quality of the pages produced increases.
In his session on reusable code, Alain Schlesser raises awareness of good documentation and the added value that can be gained from it. If well-written code is available and searchable, this not only increases the quality of the pages produced, but also the speed of production, according to Schlesser.
The most important insight for us: Agencies that work with WordPress can improve their work processes through appropriate expertise. If they take care to design their code sustainably and build sites that are specifically tailored to a particular purpose. Such WordPress projects do not suffer from unnecessary ballast that makes them slow, insecure and inflexible.
Of course, agencies and web designers need time for this. The sessions also take this fact into account to some extent and emphasize awareness of the quality criteria of service providers. In his session "Privacy by Design: 7 Things You Can't Afford to Ignore", for example, Danny Dagan will discuss the characteristics of a secure WordPress environment. These include simple SSL integration, protecting the WP core and corresponding activity logs. This makes it easier to find service providers that actually save time and money and don't cause more work than they promise to save.
Shopowner(@BBQuality1) Customer and Marketingagency(@chefduweb) on the same podium #wcnl @wordcampnl
- Luc Princen (@LucP) October 16, 2016
WordCamp Nederland 2016 with tips for WordPress businesses
In addition to these rather abstract sessions, two presentations stand out in particular, which provide concrete benefits for WordPress entrepreneurs: The presentations by David de Boer and Chris Vermeulen.
In "Trends in Online Payments, From Donations to Recurring Payments", David will look at the possibilities of setting up a subscription model. The aim of the session is to raise the audience's awareness of the importance of a stable recurring monthly revenue (MRR) and to show solutions on how this can be implemented in WordPress.
In his session "3 Ways You Can Increase Your Revenue Starting This Monday Morning", Chris reveals three specific levers with which you can quickly increase your own revenue. He provides good approaches for a quick assessment of your own company and possible optimization approaches. And it encourages you to think about the state of your own WP business.
WooCommerce operators in particular benefit from WordCamps
Another focus of WordCamp Nederland 2016 was on WordPress and e-commerce. In addition to store SEO and introductions to WooCommerce, Joel Bronkowski's contribution "Multichannel Ecommerce: The Many Ways To Sell With WordPress" is particularly noteworthy here.
We expect that the proportion of e-commerce sessions at WordCamps will continue to increase in the coming years. For one thing, WooCommerce is a very active international WordCamp sponsor. The makers of the e-commerce plugin of the same name are part of Automattic, the company owned by WordPress co-developer Matt Mullenweg. On the other hand, the topic is of course of interest to anyone who wants to earn money on the Internet.
The recent experience of @joelbronkowski with @Shopify in the WordPress context for #ecommerce #wcnl pic.twitter.com/ARiA2kYuh5
- Mario Y. Peshev (@no_fear_inc) October 16, 2016
Conclusion: Full of inspiration but little detail on technical topics
In addition to many agency heads and web designers, we also met some developers. Their conclusions were mixed: The performance and security sessions in particular had little new to offer for experienced developers.
In contrast, the discussions and sessions on WordPress specifics may seem too detailed. However, as these are an elementary part of every WordCamp, we can only recommend these presentations to all participants. One thing can be said, however: A WordCamp is not automatically the best place for advanced training in the field of development.
With its content, WordCamp Nederland 2016 provides plenty of inspiration for agencies and web designers who not only want to delve deeper into the WordPress ecosystem, but also want to boost and scale their business with the CMS. A look at the session plans for the 2017 WordCamps is therefore definitely worthwhile for agencies and store operators who work with WordPress. You will certainly get enough input and ideas, whether in Vienna, Utrecht or at one of the German WordCamps.
Have you had experiences with WordCamps in other European countries and can contribute further impressions to this recap? We look forward to your feedback!
