WordCamp Sacramento is a terrifically well-run event, and I’ve been privileged to speak there every year since 2015. This year’s event takes place September 15 & 16 at the Sacramento Convention Center, with a lineup of great speakers from California and beyond.
Meet the 3rd group of speakers for #WordCamp #Sacramento! We're excited to welcome Parisa Vassei, @jakemgold, @salliegoetsch, @learnwithmattc, Jamie Bergen, @boogah, @stacyclements, and @EricDebelak #WCSAC https://t.co/MUeP9M2tma
— Sacramento WordPress (@WC_Sacramento) June 16, 2018
Last year I talked about creating an online newsroom with WordPress. This year’s talk will be similar in some ways, since I’m speaking about Building a Compelling Portfolio with Gutenberg.
At the time I submitted the proposal, I believed that Gutenberg would be integrated into WordPress core by September.
Now, despite the suggestion at WCEU that Gutenberg, and WordPress 5.0, could appear in August of 2018, it seems far more likely that Gutenberg will still be in the plugin stages, and won’t be ready for prime time until sometime in 2019. But Gutenberg is nearing feature-freeze, which means that by September we’ll know what’s going to be available in WordPress 5.0, even if it’s not working perfectly. And the elements of a good portfolio, like the elements of a good newsroom, are not going to change anytime soon.
I can promise that no matter what state Gutenberg is in, this talk will be useful to you if you’re thinking of creating (or revising) a portfolio on your (client’s) WordPress site.
Talk Description: Building a Compelling Portfolio with Gutenberg
The purpose of a portfolio is to convince prospects to work with you. Whether your service is photography, design, development, or construction, your portfolio needs more than beautiful images. If you’re going to convince people to hire you and not your competition, you can’t just show people what you built. You need to explain the business problems you helped your clients solve and the outcomes you helped them achieve.
The first and most important step in creating your portfolio is determining what to put in it, which means knowing who your ideal client is and what they care about. But after you’ve done the content strategy work, what then? How do you create a portfolio with the elements you need, without adding unnecessary features? How do you make it easy for yourself to add new projects? And can you create it without hiring a developer?
It’s already possible to use code to customize WordPress portfolio plugins, and to use page builders to create layouts for portfolio archives and single entries. Those methods will both have a place for some time to come, but the new block-based Gutenberg editor provides a new way to build a portfolio template, and it might be even easier to use than a page-builder.
This session will review the elements of a good portfolio and explain how to combine core blocks and custom blocks into reusable block templates. The speaker will also address the question of where you might still prefer a page-builder and where you might need a developer — at least in the short term. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of how Gutenberg can make it easier to promote your business effectively.
WordCamp Sacramento Tickets
Tickets for WordCamp Sacramento went on sale on June 25th. Get yours now!
And please, come talk to me at the event. I’ll be doing a stint at the Happiness Bar to answer questions about my presentation or anything else I can help with.
As always, I will post my slides and notes here, and the video if it comes out. But it’s never the same as being there.
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