2008 CMS Expo Program Book by CMS Association Inc

Right now, you’re a mile high...

but just wait till after CMS Expo! If we all do our job right, by the time you start work next week, you'll be even higher. So let's take it from the top... Welcome to the “mile-high” city of Denver, Colorado! Right now, you're exactly 5,280 feet above sea level (1,609 meters). That's one mile high. What better place to launch our innaugural CMS Expo than at the top? Now, it's time to for us all to reach even higher to empower you and help you reach your goals. You'll learn a great deal here at the conference in our training sessions, but don't underestimate the value of connections you'll make with the people here at this conference. Many of them could hold the keys to several of your future business, technical and creative challenges, so don't lose those business cards! We formed the CMS Association to make sure that people who take pride in their work of creating and managing content have a valuable, relevant and responsive members-first community available to them to excel professionally on a creative, technical and business level. We look forward to working with you and reaching new heights here in Denver!

5,280'

Sincerely,

John & Linda Coonen Co-Hosts, 2008 Winter CMS Expo

Business Profiles Arc Technology Group

midPhase

Specialty: Web Solutions Provider Contact: Robert Jacobi & Joe Scarry Market: Business, Non-Profit, Enterprise Location: Chicago, Illinois Website: www.arctg.com

Specialty: Website Hosting – over 200,000 Sites Contact: Joe Starcher & Nick Nelson Market: Shared, VPS and Dedicated Server hosting Location: Chicago, Illinois Website: www.midPhase.com

Based in Evanston, Illinois, with offices in Germany, Arc Technology Group serves the United States as a solutions provider. Joomla! is Arc's primary Open Source CMS solution, providing development, design, architecture, usability and business consulting services.

As all hosters know, you can have the best servers and fastest connection going, but without excellent service to back it all up, you’re out on the street. Chicago-based MidPhase started out with just a couple guys, a few servers and a customer-first approach.

One of the founding members of Joomla Chicago, Arc Technology Group distinguishes itself from other firms in that they are one of the few true full-service Joomla developers in the US, providing a full range of consultative services. They focus 100% on generating positive results for non-profits and fortune 500 corporations alike.

Now part of UK2, MidPhase has the firepower needed to expand, with over 200,000 websites (and counting). At the end of the day, even after investing millions in infrastructure, it still comes down to the same formula needed just a few short years ago, when it was just two guys and a server farm: personal service. “We like to think of ourselves as the facilitator of our customers' ideas, providing them with the application, support and hardware to make it happen.”

The More Complex the Better. If you have a complex challenge in mind which will require a great deal of custom programming, database design and bottom-up thinking to help you bring your product or service to market, then Arc Technology should be on your short list of highly qualified candidates to work on your project.

With an international support team and that same “can-do” approach toward servicing the client, they’re helping to “make it happen” quite a bit more than the days of two guys and a server farm.

CMSAwards We congratulate all the Nominees. The Spotlight Award will be presented in the following three categories: - Best Joomla! - Powered Website - Best Template Design for Joomla! - Best Extension for Joomla! See you Thursday night at the CMSAwards Banquet to celebrate the best of Joomla!

The CMS Association is proud to host the innaugural CMSAwards Banquet on Thursday. Designed to promote excellence in the professional Content Management arena, this innaugural year, the awards event is focused on celebrating the accomplishments of professionals in one CMS in particular: Joomla! In future years, this will expand beyond Joomla to feature other CMS solutions.

CMS Expo Speaker Biographies Barrie North

Tom Canavan

The CMS Association is proud to present Barrie North as our featured speaker for the 2008 Winter CMS Expo. Author of the best selling book: Joomla! A User's Guide, Barrie is sure to bring a wealth of information to the attendees of the CMS Expo. He is an accomplished educator, entrepreneur, author and outstanding public speaker. So, no matter what your background, Barrie's sessions in Denver are not to be missed.

A 22-year technology veteran and author of two Joomla! books, Tom Canavan is the top security and disaster recovery expert in the Joomla world. CIO of eWomenNetworks Inc, he is genuinely interested in sharing his years of experience. Copies of his second book, "The Joomla Web Security Guide," will be available for purchase. Tom's no-bull approach is refreshing and highly motivating to audiences nationwide. His extensive knowledge in the highly complex security field, steeped in corporate sales and technical training, makes for a totally engaging session. Top that off with a cut-tothe-chase, tell-it-like-it-is politically incorrect frankness that only an ex-corporate official can pull off with authority, and you've got Texas Tom Canavan.

His experience has moved him from the more conventional field of education into a more strategic business focused consulting professional for Joomla! clients. He is a partner of JoomlaShack, one of the highest traffic Joomla sites online today, providing a variety of templates, extensions and custom services.

"His one-hour session seemed like ten minutes," said one recent attendee. "I couldn't get enough truth serum from that guy!" Tom will be telling it like it is, at an intermediate and advanced level, showing administrators and business people how to effectively secure Joomla! websites; provide real-world tools to protect against hacks; and explain how to develop a business continuity plan with disaster recovery features to reduce risk and stay up and running.

Along with two books under his belt, Barrie is a serial entrepreneur, operating multiple businesses to meet the fast-growing demand in the marketplace. Barrie is a past member of the Joomla! Design and Documentation Working Groups. When he is not busy with clients, he can be found helping users on the Joomla community boards or creating quality free tutorials on his blog. Home Town: Home Pages:

South Strafford, Vermont JoomlaShack.com Compass Designs SimplWeb

Home Town: Home Pages:

Dallas, Texas eWomenNetwork.com JoomlaRescue.com

Jen Kramer McKibben

Chris Rault

For nearly nine years, Jen Kramer McKibben has been educating clients, colleagues, friends and graduate students about the meaning of a "quality website." Jen develops sites that are functional, usable, accessible, and supportive of business and marketing goals. She is a senior faculty member at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, teaching courses and workshops in web site design and management, including social networking and Joomla!

Founder of InspireChange, a web-based organization in South Africa, dedicated toward promoting volunteerism around the world, Chris Rault is one-of-a kind find in the Open Source CMS World. Anyone who's been in the Joomla world for even a short time has come across Chris Rault's extensive work, coming from the company he co-founded, aptly called “JoomlaJunkie.” JoomlaJunkie is based in CapeTown, South Africa, dedicated toward creating Joomla templates (aka “themes”) and extensions.

Jen Kramer McKibben is the Program Director for the Master's of Science in Internet Technologies program (MSIT), advising students and overseeing courses and faculty. She has previously taught at Champlain College and the Community College of Vermont. Jen is the Senior Interface Developer and co-owner of 4Web, Inc., which specializes in custom-built Joomla! websites.

If you're looking for an adrenaline junkie in the line-up of speakers at Expo, Chris is the one. Not only is Chris an avid rock climber, Chris is also a longtime entrepreneur in the high tech world, serving as partner in JoomlaJunkie, Creative Director of WebMonkeys Design Studio, and now he's branching beyond the Joomlasphere into creating themes for Drupal, Wordpress and Magento with a new company they're launching called “ProThemer.”

Jen earned a BS in biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MS in Internet Strategy Management at the Graduate Center of Marlboro College.

Rault's experience in development and design of Joomla templates and extensions has put JoomlaJunkie into a coveted position as one of the premier clubs on the market.

She runs the New England Adobe User Group and the Joomla! User Group New England. She joins Bill Tomczak and Sam Bovat in presenting the “Joomla Kickstart” Programs. Home Town: Home Page:

Home Town: Home Pages:

Keene, New Hampshire 4WebInc.com

Capetown, South Africa JoomlaJunkie.com ProThemer.com InspireChange.org

CMS Expo Speaker Biographies Blair Zykan

Steve Pignataro

A Denver native (and avid triathlete), Blair is the Managing Director of Media On-Demand at Minneapolis-based Allied Vaughn Corporation. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College with a BA in Economics, he is the past Chairman of the Board for Decatur Electronics, and past CEO at Laster Technology Inc.

Steven Pignataro has a long history in the Open Source CMS world as one of the early team members for Mambo, and then part of the communications team members for Joomla. A hard core PHP developer and CEO of an eight-person team of developers and designers in Battle Creek, Michigan called "corePHP," Steven brings a wealth of talent.

Allied Vaughn's Media On-Demand services enable businesses of all sizes the capability to offer video products for sale in their own storefront, and when an order is taken, the Video On-Demand service can either deliver content directly via the web or per customer's request, create a DVD that's ready to ship. Major benefits: custom, no inventory needed. Come to Blair's session on Video Impact: How to Use Video to Grow Your Marketshare.

His firm is uniquely positioned to deliver 100% accessible website development and design. His award-winning sites world-wide continue to set the standard by which many other firms follow. With fortune 500 companies, major non-profits and educational institutions in his repertoire, Steven hardly has time to perform the grand-scale magical illusions for which he and his twin brother have become known.

Home Town: Home Page:

Denver, Colorado AlliedVaughn.com

Battle Creek, Michigan corePHP.com

Victor Drover, PhD Victor's expertise also includes web-based application architecture and application frameworks/content management systems. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Victor donates much of his "spare time" and energy to the management and development of a number of open source projects. A native Canadian, Victor resides with his family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Victor Drover is founder of Anything Digital. He provides design and development of dynamic web sites, as well as an extensive library of Joomla! extensions. If you've heard of the #1 calendar extension for Joomla called "JCal" - then you've heard of Victor Drover's Open Source project. From his business acumen to his extensive study of various open source licenses, Victor is uniquely qualified to provide sage advice for developers and entrepreneurs.

Home Town: Home Page:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin dev.Anything-Digital.com

CMS Expo Speaker Biographies Tom Elliott

Samantha Bovat

Tom is an accomplished Web marketer for JoomlaShack, as well as Simplweb.com, a complete Joomla hosting and educational package for Joomla end users that was launched earlier this year. He is a 1996 graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. Tom's career spans the political, nonprofit advocacy, education, restaurant, and now web design and online marketing worlds.

This high-energy, creative individual brings a great deal of inspiration and passion to her work. Samantha Bovat has over seven years of content writing and marketing experience; she is a leader in her community and prides herself on providing top-notch customer service with a sense of humor. As the primary trainer for 4Web, Inc., Sam teaches clients how to manage their own website content and provides customized documentation materials. Samantha has a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree in Elementary Education from Norwich University, Brattleboro, VT and an Undergraduate Degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Home Town: Home Page:

South Strafford, Vermont JoomlaShack.com SimplWeb.com

Azrul Rahim Home Town: Home Page:

Azrul Rahim recently hosted JoomlaDay Malaysia, with over 200 participants coming from all over Malaysia for development, design and business training on Joomla! Azrul is best known for his runaway hit Joomla extension, called MyBlog and companion JomComment. Now, JomSocial is about to hit the market.

Steve Burge Steve Burge is the CEO of Alledia, a leading Joomla SEO and web marketing firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Specializing in web marketing, Steve is the author of the bestselling "Joomla SEO Book," and writes a daily blog about Joomla! and Search Engine Optimization at Alledia.com. A Brit, Steve is the purveyor of The SEO Club, and his blog is now one of the highest traffic Joomla-focused sites around.

Azrul's software solutions are some of the most popular. Why? They're well-designed, they promise as-delivered, and they're backed by development and architectural standards that are rather uncommon in the "wild west" open source arena. Come to Expo to learn from one of the masters about component design and development. Home Town: Home Page:

Keene, New Hampshire 4WebInc.com

Home Town: Home Page:

Malaysia Azrul.com JomSocial.com

Atlanta, Georgia Alledia.com

Bill Tomczak

John & Linda Coonen

Co-owner and Senior Engineer at 4Web, Inc, Bill Tomczak has racked up over thirty years in technology, and he still loves his job. He has a passion for dynamic, data-driven websites and database analysis and design. Bill programs primarily in php and javascript and has extensive experience with Visual FoxPro, VB for Applications, ASP, Cold Fusion, and AJAX.

John and Linda Coonen are the co-hosts for the CMS Expo. They are also Directors in the upstart CMS Association, focused on training for content management professionals. Partners in the Coffee Group since 1986, focused on providing consulting services for corporate and non-profit clientele, they've helped fund-raise millions of dollars for human services and arts causes, while helping some of America's best-known companies to grow and enhance their brand equity.

4Web's primary focus is creating Joomla! Extensions and sites. Bill lives in Denver, Colorado, serving national clientele. Home Town: Home Page:

Boulder, Colorado 4WebInc.com

Their passion for technology and open source software solutions is only surpassed by their passion for building â&#x20AC;&#x153;real-lifeâ&#x20AC;? communities. They have executive produced live events for small groups, mid-sized training symposiums and large entertainment venue events for over 30,000 visitors.

Ken Lyle Ken discovered Joomla's predecessor in 2004 and now works to empower non-profits and small businesses via Joomla powered web sites, specializing in Community Builder.

John and Linda are fans of Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and Joomla-powered social networking solutions like Community Builder and JomSocial to provide excellent ways to reach out to others; however, when it comes to actually touching people, nothing replaces good old-fashioned, authentic face-to-face contact to form the most authentic and longlasting relationships.

After attaining Chemical Engineering and Statistics degrees, Ken found a string of positions in Systems Analysis and projects involving OCR, ISC, PCA, and other TLAs. He worked on a GIS project for an emergency notification company, and a CUE before a Y2K project for DoD. At least two of these projects he conceptualized, sold, and implemented yielding in excess of $1 million of sales or market value. Home Town: Home Page:

Hence the reason for starting the CMS Association: to provide the best training and business networking opportunities for content management professionals world-wide.

Glen Allen, Virginia GracefulTech.com

Home Town: Home Pages:

Chicago, Illinois JoomlaChicago.com CMSExpo.net CMSAssociation.com

CMS Expo Exhibitors Do You Need Help With Your Business? Joomla extension? Are you seeking an excellent hosting solution? They're right here at CMS Expo! Come get to know the exhibitors on a first-name basis! In no time you'll quickly come to realize, these are the people you can rely on for the long-term to help you not only survive, but prosper!

You've got an excellent selection of capable companies on-hand at CMS Expo to assist you with whatever you may need. Are you planning to implement a major enterprise project? No problem. Need SEO assistance? You'll find several folks here to help you! Want help with integration or creating your very own custom

Look No Further Than CMS Expo Exhibitors* & Sponsors to Help You Get Ahead of the Rest!

Arc Technology Group midPhase Services SimplWeb Joomla Showroom

Web Development & Design* Web Hosting* Website Services* Joomla Extensions

ArcTG.com (Diamond Sponsor) MidPhase.com (Gold Sponsor) SimplWeb.com (Gold Sponsor) JoomlaShowroom.com (Silver Sponsor)

#1 Joomla Blog

CompassDesigns.net (Silver Sponsor)

4WebInc Michigan Media.Net Open Source Support Desk Anything Digital JoomlaShack

Web Development & Design Web Hosting* Support Desk for OS Companies Developers of JCal Joomla Templates

4Webinc.com (Silver Sponsor) MichiganMedia.net (Silver Sponsor) OpenSourceSupportDesk.com (Bronze Sponsor) Anything-Digital.net (Pro Sponsor) JoomlaShack.com (Pro Sponsor)

Acquity Group Alledia Ameex Technology 'corePHP' Flash-based Websites JomSocial Joomlapolis KickApps SDR News XHTML Suite

Enterprise ECM Solutions* Search Engine Marketing* Development Partners* Web Development & Design* Flash Designed Sites* Social Networking Component Community Builder* Web-Based Social Networking* Technology News* HTML Editor for Joomla

AcquityGroup.com Alledia.com AmeexUSA.com CorePHP.com TBA JomSocial.com Joomlapolis.com KickApps.com SDRnews.com in2it.com

Compass Designs

Schedule: Thursday, December 4th 7:30 – 8:25 Promenade

Attendee Sign-In & Exhibitor Welcome Coffee & Muffins Served – Booths open until 5pm

Sponsored by Michigan Media

3:00 - 4:30 Central City Ballroom Ballroom B

Session 4 Web Marketing Basics Blogging With Joomla! Business Continuity: How To Stay Tight When All Hell Breaks Loose

Steve Burge - Alledia Azrul Rahim – Azrul Studios Tom Canavan - eWomenNetwork

4:30 - 5:30 Ballroom

CMS Community Panel Discussion II Interactive discussion - Ask-the-Experts! Final New Product Announcements!

Tom Canavan, Barrie North, Tom Elliott, Jen McKibben, Azrul Rahim, Gary Brooks Kim Yancey, Steve Pignataro, Victor Drover, Steve Burge

5:30 Ballroom

Closing Remarks Thank you – Announcement for 2009!

John & Linda Coonen - CMSA

Steve Burge - Alledia Tom Canavan - eWomenNetwork Barrie North - JoomlaShack

Kim Yancey - eWomenNetwork

Session Descriptions Joomla Website Planning 101 Date: Thursday, December 4th Track I - Joomla Basics

Time: 9:30am – 10:30am Instructor: Jen Kramer McKibben Audience: Administrators, Content Producers, Developers

Introduction to website planning: where to begin and how to implement strategies for developing a successful web presence. Gathering information before you start building a website is the most important lesson you can learn going into your next project. So, before you decide what color the site needs to be, you need to ask a lot of questions. This session is based on 3 out of 5 of Jesse James Garrett's 5 S's of planning a website: Strategy, Scope, and Structure. What problem are you trying to solve? Why is a website, more specifically, a Joomla! powered website a good solution to this problem? How does the website support organizational and user goals? How do you spec the website, and how do you develop a site map? Those who attend this session will walk away with a new perspective on how to approach the development of a website. ● Introduction to Jesse James Garrett's 5 S's of Website Planning ● Questions to ask before you start building a site ● How to create a site map based on the specs

Content is King Date: Thursday, December 4th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 9:30am-10:30 am Audience: Content Producers

Instructors: Tom Elliott & Samantha Bovat

Compel your visitors to take action by providing relevant, engaging and easily accessible information. After all, a website isn't just a pretty face, it's what's on the inside that counts. Understanding and crafting search engine friendly content is the tip of the iceberg when content is concerned. Not only do you need to know what to include, you need to know where it will make the most impact for your marketing goals. Throughout this session, you will learn some tips for making your content stand above the rest. Create a more powerful presentation with effective headline writing, bulleting, choosing the best hero and "money shot" images, image location/choice and multimedia use. This session will offer you some creative techniques for developing the kind of content that will complement that beautiful marketing presence. ● ● ●

How to write for the web Tricks to deep linking Animation and video where it counts

Advanced SEO Techniques Date: Thursday, December 4th Track III – Advanced

Time: 9:30am- 10:30 am Instructor: Steve Burge Audience: Administrators, Business Marketers, Content Producers

Why struggle so hard to attract visitors if they're not buying products when they arrive? We will address issues of Search Engine Marketing and how to integrate analytics, PPC and email marketing within Joomla to increase your conversion rates. You'll learn how to: ● ● ●

Track whether visitors are doing what you want them to do. Determine where your site is flawed. Know how to test improved versions.

Joomla Components, Modules, Plug-ins, Oh My! Date: Thursday, December 4th Level I: Joomla Basics

Time: 10:30am – 11:30am Instructor: Bill Tomczak Audience: Developers (especially beginner programmers)

What's the difference between a component, module, plugin, and extension? Welcome to the world of Joomla! Join Bill as he introduces the various cogs that drive the Joomla machine. Find out what do they do and why are they so great. Once you have an understanding of these parts, you will find out how to choose the right extensions for your site and where they make the most sense. This session will provide participants with a foundation to how these pieces work together in the development of a dynamic website. ● ● ●

The Joomla breakdown Standard functionalities Top choices for components, modules, plugins and extensions

Must Have Extensions Date: Thursday, December 4th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 10:30am – 11:30am Audience: Administrators, Developers

Instructor: Ken Lyle

Joomla is a very powerful software solution that can be extended in many ways. Ken Lyle, will show you how to extend the Joomla core and configure your new website for optimal performance measurement and management. What makes a Joomla extension a "Must Have"? This talk will address at least 3 categories of "Must Have" Joomla Extensions: ● ● ●

Universal - extensions that no site should be without; the ones that make things work better, either on the front-end OR the back-end Function Specific - best of breed extensions to address site functions that you may or may not need Vertical Market - if your business or organization falls into certain "vertical markets", you will want to have these extensions

No matter what kind of Joomla website you have, these are the very basic extensions that you should install first on your websites. Note: Those who have bravely offered previous lists of similar nature will be acknowledged. In anticipation that there may be some controversy surrounding selections, presenter will wear a Teflon suit and security will be high, so attendees are advised to be on best behavior.

Advanced Joomla Component Development Date: Thursday, December 4th Track III – Advanced

Time: 10:30am - 11:30 am Audience: Developers

Instructor: Azrul Rahim

Come to this extremely valuable session on how to create Joomla Components, instructed by one of the Joomlasphere's top developers, Azrul Rahim. Some of Joomla's top components have been created by Azrul and his team at Azrul.com, including myBlog, JomComment, and announcing AT CMS EXPO, the highly anticipated JomSocial social networking component. This is an hour-long program, consolidated from a 2-day program which Mr. Rahim teaches on advanced component development, in which participants learn to create extensions for Joomla 1.5. Participants will learn how to create components, modules and plugins that implement simple business logic and work with the database. You will also be introduced to the Joomla API and important system resources and services. This training is for advanced users and site administrators of Joomla with at least some knowledge of the PHP language. Developers, new or experienced, should feel comfortable in this training, and enthusiastic users of Joomla who want to learn more about the new Joomla 1.5 framework are also encouraged to attend. Topics that will be covered during this session include: ● ● ● ●

Creating Components Creating Modules Creating Plug-ins Packaging Extensions

Session Descriptions Joomla Website Planning 201 Date: Thursday, December 4th Track I - Joomla Basics

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30 pm Instructor: Jen Kramer McKibben Audience: Administrators, Content Producers

Putting it all together. Now that you have a strategy in place for organizing your website, it is time to create the look and feel. As a continuation of Joomla Website Planning 101, we will look at the final two S's from Jesse James Garrett's model: Skeleton and Surface. In this session we will take the defined strategy, scope, and structure of website and begin to plan the look and feel. Given the modules and components you wish to include, how do you choose a template that "works" for your site goals? How do you put it all together in a cohesive package? Joomla Website Planning 201 will answer these questions. Attendees of this session will walk away with: ● ●

Understanding of Joomla Templates Knowledge of Module Placement

Maximum Video Impact: How To Use Video to Grow Marketshare Date: Thursday, December 4th Track II - Intermediate

Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm Instructor: Blair Zykan Audience: Businesspeople, Content Producers, Developers

Come find out what's happening on the video-side, such as video content delivery trends (what's getting delivered, how is it getting delivered, new technology, new delivery tools, etc. Why it's important for the website developer or owner to understand these trends and their impact on the site's success. Next, learn how and why video is converging with Internet marketing. What are the tools that site owners and developers can and should use in conjunction with video to drive web traffic? Blair will provide examples of sites large and small, using video to expand their reach. Learn how to get started on a shoe string and the importance of social media and networks. If you're in business, you'll want to attend to find out how video can deliver more web traffic from your target audience. Developers and Content Producers will be interested in how they can incorporate some of these tools/techniques into their offering to make their services more effective and valuable. People with moderate to advanced knowledge of video and internet marketing will find great value from this session.

Rapid Template Development II: "From the Napkin to Completion" Date: Thursday, December 4th Track III – Advanced

Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm Audience: Developers, Designers

Instructor: Chris Rault

Chris Rault will continue beyond the introductory phase, to advanced rapid template development. “From Code to Completion” is an interactive real-time demonstration presented by Chris, showing how a template goes from “napkin” sketch to code; then, from code into a full-blown working Joomla template. (Note: We highly recommend taking this session after participating in its companion session, Rapid Template Development I). Attendees of this session will walk away with: ● ● ●

Advanced template-building techniques Technical requirements for Joomla templates Creative and strategic processes for template theming

Clear, Concise Content for the Web Date: Thursday, December 4th Level I – Basics

Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Audience: Content Producers

Instructor: Samantha Bovat

Get right to the point with powerful content. Even though it is nice to have an aesthetically appealing web presence, if the content isn't there, what's the purpose? Writing for the web is definitely not the same as writing brochures or ads for a paper. Your visitors are sufing so fast through the web that if you can't tell them what it is you are selling right up front- you will lose them forever. In this session you will be taken step by step through the development of effective content for the web as well as some simple evaluation techniques. From good word choice to the amount of information you really need on a given page, Sam will introduce some tips to writing for your target audience. This common sense approach to putting words on the page will inspire participants to get writing! Attendees of this session will walk away with: ● ● ●

Understanding the term "content" Tips for content evaluation and development Effective use of content on your website

Creating a Pure CSS Template For Joomla! Date: Thursday, December 4th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Audience: Designers & Developers

Instructor: Barrie North

Demystifying proper template creation to enhance the capabilities of any Joomla site is the underlying premise of this discussion. Laying a foundation for an understanding of both the functionality and the design of templates, Barrie will provide answers to some of the questions you that have been nagging at you. In the functionality department, he will introduce such topics as: files that make up a Joomla template and the functions they perform; understanding the implications of table-less design in Joomla and the relationship between W3C standards, usability, and accessibility; the basic CSS styles that should be used with Joomla; and what really are the default styles that are used by the Joomla core. As Barrie explains how to build a pure CSS layout template, he will show how this fits into the larger picture of Joomla 1.5's new template overrides and how these can be used to create different rounded corner module techniques and modified content layout. Attendees of this session will walk away with: ● ● ●

Joomla templates defined Functions performed by a Joomla template Proper steps to create a pure CSS Joomla template

Strategic Code: Extension Development For Highly Successful Results Date: Thursday, December 4th Track III – Advanced

Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Audience: Developers

Instructor: Chris Rault

“Start with the end in mind.” One of business guru Steven Covey's famous “seven habits of highly successful people” applies toward third party developers too. This session is designed for advanced and expert-level Joomla 3rd party extension developers. Chris Rault, Partner of ProThemer.com (and JoomlaJunkie.com), will present strategic and systematic coding principles to help 3PDs to code in such a way that not only encourages theme developers to theme their products, but to do so in a way that is semantic and highly user-friendly. Developers and theme Designers will get a front-row seat as Mr. Rault lays out this approach toward coding in far more effective fashion to deliver exponentially more favorable results. A “must-attend” for developers! Attendees of this session will walk away with: ● ● ●

Strategic and tactical recommendations for coding practices A better understanding of how coding affects usability An end-first approach toward extension development

Session Descriptions Administrator's Guide to Securing Your Joomla Web Site Date: Friday, December 5th Track I - Basic

Time: 8:30am-10:00am Instructor: Tom Canavan Audience: Administrators, Business People, Content Producers, Developers

We all know that security should be an immediate priority for your website, right? Before SEO, before content and before you take a single name, conduct a single e-commerce transaction or even allow your site on the Internet. Yet, why do so few of us follow our own advice? In this session, you will learn the basic security measures in place, no matter what version of Joomla you're running. Security expert and CIO Tom Canavan will show you, in very basic terms, how to approach your site's security, helping you stay proactive on your web site's administration. He'll help you understand commonly missed steps in your security set-up - a common culprit in many attacks. Tom will help you understand how to review your log files, which can often warn you of impending doom. Learn to plan your backup and recovery, a critically important step toward a successful recovery. In case of an attack, you'll also learn some immediate steps you should take "posthack." Attendees are encouraged to purchase the book Joomla! Web Security from Packt pub in advance. Books can be purchased at the conference. Attendees will walk away with the following knowledge: Setting up basic security of your site Understanding permission marketing ● You've been Hacked - Now what? ● Picking a GOOD host vs a BAD host ● ●

Online Community Building with Joomla Date: Friday, December 5th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 8:30am - 10:00am Instructor: Barrie North Audience: Administrators, Business People, Content Producers, Developers

Unless you have been under a rock for the last two years, you'll know that the holy grail of websites these days is an online community. Whether you are building a blog, an Internet Learning Environment, a user group or an informational sharing site, transforming it into an online living community can grow it beyond your dreams. One can argue that the two concepts of community and user generated content are what is powering web 2.0. Look at any site from Digg to Flickr and you'll see these two factors at work. But launching and growing an online community is about more than Web 2.0 Ajax widgets, its about putting the individuals of the community first and empowering them to drive the development of your site. This session will be filled with creative ideas and concrete examples of how to successfully implement a community element into your Joomla site. From understanding the importance in todays online environment to choosing the tool to get the job done, Barrie will open your eyes to the possibilities. Attendees will walk away with the following knowledge: Online Communities defined Strategies you can use to drive traffic ● Understand who makes up your community ● ●

Promoting Your Website: Tools & Tricks to Build and Keep Your Audience Date: Friday, December 5th Track III – Advanced

Time: 8:30am – 10:00am Instructor: Tom Elliott Audience: Business Marketers, Content Producers

"Build it and they will come" doesn't work for Web 2.0. To build and retain your website's audience, you need to attract their attention and then earn the right to keep it. This session will overview many proven techniques and useful tools to build and retain your audience, including use of email newsletters and autoresponders, contests surveys, giveaways, sales & promotions, RSS and social bookmarking, banner advertising, Adwords, creative partnerships, social networking, earned media, and more. Discover how email communication can be your best friend. We'll teach you tools, techniques, and tricks for building lists and keeping them coming back to your site again and again. Attendees will walk away with the following knowledge: How to promote your site with social bookmarking, social networking, RSS feeds Advertise your site using Google Adwords, Banner ads, contest, giveaways, and other paid media ● Gain attention through earned media like reviews, press releases, and press coverage ● ●

How to Make Google Love You Date: Friday, December 5th Track I- Beginners

Time: 10:00am - 11:30am Instructor: Steve Burge Audience: Administrators, Business Marketers, Content Producers

This beginner course will cover the basic SEO concepts you will need to know before launching your Joomla site and will contain information that is pertinent to search engine marketing for small business owners. Anyone with a basic understanding of Joomla will be able to take this class. Where does visitor traffic come from and how does it reach you? How and why should you be buying visitors from Google and Yahoo? Finding your niche and leveraging your skills to make sure you dominate it. All attendees will receive free sixmonth membership to the Joomla SEO Club and a copy of the Joomla SEO Book. Participants of this session will: Be able to assess if you are targeting a realistic market Understand your site’s strengths and weaknesses ● Have a clear understanding of the three types of traffic; search engines, links and direct. ● ●

Securing Your Joomla Web Site II: My Site Is Safer Than Yours! Date: Friday, December 5th Track II - Intermediate

Time: 10:00am - 11:30am Audience: Administrators, developers

Instructor: Tom Canavan

This session builds on "Administrator's Guide to Securing Your Joomla Site I" by introducing some tools that help you assess your site's vulnerabilities. Author and Joomla security expert Tom Canavan will guide Attendees through this ninety minute program to better understand the following: Hacker sites—Know your enemy, know yourself. A review of a few hacker sites to help you get the inside track on the underground. What is a root kit and why do you care: covers a few nasty weapons of mass website havoc. Lastly, Tom will close with some concepts for hardening your site including advanced .htaccess and php.ini commands. Attendees are encouraged to purchase the book Joomla! Web Security from Packt pub in advance. Books can be purchased at the conference. Participants of this session will: Tools to conduct your own security evaluation Hacker sites: know them, read them ● Root kits, buffer overflows and Sql Injections ● Hardening your website against attack ● ●

Black Belt Joomla! Date: Friday, December 5th Track III - Advanced

Time: 10:00am - 11:30am Instructor: Barrie North Audience: Administrators, Content Producers, Business Marketers

Everyone is in the business of conversion. Make no bones about it, because a successful site not only gets traffic, but it also converts site visitors into customers. Heck, even your local library is in the conversion business! Barrie North's “Black Belt Joomla” takes a hard core look at Joomla websites and explains how Joomla can help you be successful. Barrie will also point out what not to do - actions which can hurt your conversion rates. We'll look at common usability and marketing mistakes and see how to fix them. We'll explain what landing pages are, and how to improve their marketing capacity. We will look at creating a road map which will help you steer visitors through your site towards your desired goals. As experienced "Black Belts" know, site visitors are there for one purpose - one deliverable. Some would say, it's like a monkey, looking for a banana. The key is to understand what that purpose is (the banana), and be perfectly prepared to deliver. If they don't find what they're looking for, they'll leave. Anyone can spend a lot of money by paying all of the "traffic" driving fees, but money really can't buy you love. The bottom line is that if you can't get your visitors to buy what you are selling once they get to the site - you just threw away a lot of cash. Lastly, we'll look at how the web has moved away from interruption marketing to permission marketing. We'll also look at third party tools such as Google web optimizer, Crazy Egg and iContact and how they can help you be more successful. We'll also be giving out free bananas. How to convert visitors Understanding permission marketing ● Useful Third Party tool ● ●

Session Descriptions Joomla Graphics for Non-Designers Date: Friday, December 5th Track I - Joomla Basics

Time: 1:00pm -2:30pm Instructor: Jen Kramer McKibben Audience: Developers, Content Producers

Now that you have a plan for your site, great modules picked out, and a cool template, it's almost perfect - it just needs a few little tweaks. There are a number of ways to customize the standard features that come with any Joomla site without having to have extensive designer experience. Learn about how contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity can bump your design from good to great. Change some template colors and fonts, add a few custom buttons, pick up some tips for some great (free!) Firefox extensions, and make your site all your own. This session will help you develop some techniques and tools that will give a boost to your creative flare. A list of free Firefox Extensions Design tips and tools for Non-designers ● Helpful websites ● ●

Audience: Developers, Content Producers

Creating Acessible Websites With Joomla! Date: Friday, December 5th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 1:00pm – 2:30pm Instructor: Steven Pignataro Audience: Content Producers (Designers & Writers), Developers

Developers, designers and administrators, get the bottom line on how to create accessible, 508 compliant web sites, using Joomla. Learn to develop according to web accessible design and development standards. It's not only a legal requirement, it's plain good business to make your web site accessible. With over 10% of the online user base either colorblind, sight-limited or blind, too often, web sites do not comply. Risk of litigation is higher than ever for businesses, educators and governmental bodies alike, as all too often accessibility standards are ignored. As one of the premier Joomla site developers in the world, Steve Pignataro, CEO of corePHP, has specialized in producing web accessible sites since his firm launched. Steve will present a program for intermediate users to better understand compliance issues. Steve himself is colorblind, so he understands first-hand the importance of proper design and development techniques needed for designers and developers when building web sites and extensions alike.

How to Add Extensions Without Sacrificing User Experience - Theming & 3rd Party Integration Date: Friday, December 5th Track III – Advanced

Time: 1:00pm - 2:30pm Instructor: Victor Drover Audience: Content Producers (Design), Developers

Joomla is fantastic, but as many of us know, as soon as you add a few extensions to Joomla, it's easy for your site's entire theme to fall apart. Instructor Victor Drover will lead a session for advanced developers and designers to better understand how they can integrate functionality without losing a cohesive website experience for site visitors. Take your web development skills to the next level by learning how to seamlessley integrate third party extensions on your web site. No matter how many Joomla extensions you are using on your site, learn great techniques to ensure your visitors never notice. This session will offer participants tips on how to integrate extensions in ways that follow a theme and provide streamlined functionality. Credibility on your web site is directly related to how a user "feels" about your web site A disconnected, inconsistent web site gives users a bad impression of your web site ● Theming and functional integration of third-party extensions will improve the credibility of your web site ● ●

This session relates to all extensions, but will highlight the following: Joomsuite Member, Community Builder, JCal Pro, DocMan and Expose Photo Gallery.

Web Marketing Basics Date: Friday, December 5th Track I: Beginners

Time: 3:00pm – 4:30pm Instructor: Steve Burge Audience: Administrators, Business Marketers, Content Producers

This SEO for your Joomla website course will cover technical improvements to Joomla that are crucial for helping your site rank well. From the right choice of extensions to the best practices in site architecture, Steve will teach you how to make Joomla search engine-friendly. Participants will leave this session with an understanding of: ● ●

Joomla's 3 key weaknesses; URLs, metadata and architecture What you can do to overcome the these weaknesses

All attendees will receive free six-month membership to the Joomla SEO Club and a copy of the Joomla SEO Book.

Blogging With Joomla! Date: Friday, December 5th Track II – Intermediate

Time: 3:00pm - 4:30 pm Instructor: Azrul Rahim Audience: Content Producers & Developers

If you're considering using Joomla for blogging, this is a must-attend session for you. Whether using Joomla 1.0 or 1.5, blogging afficianado Azrul Rahim will step Attendees through how to turn your Joomla! site into an effective blogging tool, without the need to resort to Wordpress or another non-Joomla-native solution. Using one of the most popular Joomla extentions around, MyBlog and JomComment, Mr. Rahim will demonstrate how to make a Joomla-powered site into the ultimate blogging environment. Attendees will learn how to: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Install and set up a blog within Joomla Manage blog posts, write or edit a new entry Display all blog entries with pagination Integrate Jom Comment, for feedback purposes Filter blog posts by user, tags, or keywords Incorporate RSS feeds Ensure Trackback support Get picked up by Technorati Integrate with Community Builder

Attendees will also learn how to set user permissions, manage all blog posts, customize which sections to manage, learn which section to save new blog entries into, and much more.

Business Continuity: How To Stay Tight When Hell Breaks Loose Date: Friday, December 5th Track III - Advanced

Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm Instructor: Tom Canavan Audience: Administrators, Business People & Developers

Your website will experience a failure one day,and when it does, you need to be ready. This course will give you many tools to help prepare you for that day, and know what to do when it strikes. How quickly will you be back online? Learn proven effective ways to minimize potential loss, maximize operational readiness, while providing an excellent means to further customer trust and loyalty. Remember, disaster can come in several flavors - machine failure, natural disaster, theft, code errors, hackers, or simply pushing the DEL key. Having a working written plan is your first and best defense against your site going - and staying - dark. Attendees are encouraged to purchase the book "Dodging the Bullets: a Disaster Preparation Guide for Joomla! Sites" in advance. This course will follow along with this book. This is available from Amazon.com or purchased at the conference. ● ● ● ● ● ●

Planning for disaster Backup/recovery tools The written plan Taking backups offsite What if you can't recover? Talking to the press

answers when you need them www.OpenSourceSupportDesk.com

www.CMSWebcast.com 24

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