Get hosted by Z.com at WordCamp Colombo 2017!

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Z.com – how’s that for a cool domain? We’re glad to have them as our final Kelani (Silver) Sponsor.

Not only are they a web host, but they’re also a specialist WordPress host. With Automatic updates, ultra fast SSD and a built-in staging environment, your WordPress setup on Z.com will get out of the way, so you can create and run the site of your dreams.

Z.com is also special because they’re an Asian host, and will let you choose to host your content in Asian data centers located in Singapore, Vietnam or Japan. This means that your Asian traffic will get served your site faster than ever before. They even offer some custom themes and plugins, if you host with them.

If you’re looking for WordPress hosting, we suggest you check them out today!

Concerned about your search engine ranking? WordCamp Colombo sponsor Yoast SEO, has you covered!

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If you’ve been using WordPress for anytime at all, you’ve probably heard about our next Kelani (Silver) Sponsor, Yoast. One of the most well known WordPress Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins out there, Yoast SEO for WordPress has over 3 million active installations, which also makes it one of the most popular WordPress plugins, overall.

Yoast offers a range of free features, such as keyword optimization, readability and duplicate content checks and breadcrumb setup, but if you’re interested in more control over your SEO, you will definitely want to take a look at their Premium version as well.

Yoast SEO Premium includes a redirect manager, so you can forward old/broken URLs to new ones, and even offers you link suggestions in real time, as you compose your content. To top it all off, the Premium version also comes with 24/7 support from the team of SEO experts behind Yoast.

If SEO is something that you need help with (and let’s face it, it’s something that we all need help with!), then Yoast is definitely a plugin you will want to check out.

Karen Will Help us Bridge the Gap Between Developers and Customers

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We have all faced it at some point in time. If you are a developer, you might have looked for the path of least resistance to get your project up and running. But on the other side, customers are frustrated when a user interface doesn’t turn out to be intuitive enough, or after sales support is falling short of promises.

The fact is that developers wouldn’t exist without customers! We need to empathize deeply with customers, and Karen Arnold is going to help us deal with precisely that subject.

Karen’s talk is titled “Great Support Matters: Bridging the Gap between Developers and Customers”.

Developing software without giving support to customers is like building a house without a foundation. So you have created a plugin or a theme for WordPress. Awesome! It doesn’t stop there.

Karen will give us simple ways to get a reputation for excellent support without increasing our time or effort.

Karen leads the Happiness Engineer Hiring team at Automattic, the team responsible for hiring support staff for Automattic’s products. She has worked remotely for Automattic since 2012. Karen has spoken at a number of events including SupConfNY 2016, WordCamps in the United States, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, and various WordPress meetup events.

Prior to Automattic, Karen ran a business creating WordPress sites for small businesses. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States, with her husband and four children.

 

At WordCamp Colombo 2017, Bluehost has a hosting package for everyone!

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Bluehost is our second Kelani (Silver) Sponsor for WordCamp Colombo 2017, and we’re very happy to have their support. They’re one of the most popular WordPress hosts out there, and are officially recommended as hosts by the WordPress community. With a variety of plans starting at great price points, it’s easy to see why they are the go-to web host for many bloggers and small businesses.

Plus, with 24/7 support you can rest easy, knowing that you have someone to talk to, if things go wrong! All BlueHost hosting packages also come with the essentials, such as backups, unmetered bandwidth and email accounts. However, if you’re looking for a more specialised solution for your site, they’ve got VPS-based, optimized WordPress hosting as well. To top it all off, they even have a  30 day money back guarantee, which means you can try them out, risk free!

Here’s Our Final List of Confirmed Speakers!

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Our second round for speaker selection is done, and our selected speakers have confirmed their availability for WordCamp Colombo 2017.

Here is the final list, along with the subjects of their talk:

  1. Takayuki Miyoshi — Lessons Learned from Ten Years of Plugin Development
  2. Rahul Bansal — Selling WordPress to Enterprises
  3. Karen Arnold — Great Support Matters: Bridging the Gap between Developers and Customers
  4. Himash Tehan — Using WordPress as a Mobile Backend
  5. Harshadewa Ariyasinghe — How Design Thinking can Change everything
  6. Dwain Maralack — How WordPress Taught me to be an Engineer
  7. Samantha Pathirathna — WordPress for Sustainable Development
  8. Chathu Vishwajith — Hardening WordPress is an art
  9. M Asif Rahman — Making Millions in WordPress Plugin Business But Not Being Evil

Every talk will begin at the top of the hour, followed by ample time for Q&A, and then open networking until the next session. With this exciting speaker line-up, we just can’t wait for 23rd September!