SitePoint Podcast Wins Podcast of the Year Award!

December 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

The SitePoint Podcast, which I’ve been a co-host on since the beginning, won the Podcast of the Year award from .NET Magazine!
I’ve been doing the SitePoint Podcast with Kevin Yank, Patrick O’Keefe, and Stephan Segraves since the first episode back on November 10th, 2008. It’s amazing to think we’ve been doing the show over 2 years now. I couldn’t be happier with how the podcast show has grown over the years.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who voted for the SitePoint Podcast, our loyal listeners, our editors, and everyone involved in the podcast since the start!

Here’s a shot of the SitePoint Podcast hosts at Blog World Expo 2010.

CollabPress v1.0 beta Has Been Released!

November 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

CollabPress Plugin LogoCollabPress v1.0 beta, the task management plugin for WordPress, has been released and is available for download! The plugin was rebuilt from the ground up by my company, WebDevStudios.com. We utilized custom post types to make the plugin fully optimized and compatible with the latest version of WordPress (including Multsite!). We also hardened the security and added more features!

Be sure to read all about the new version of CollabPress and download the beta.

WordCamp Philly 2010 Was A Huge Success!

November 4, 2010 By 2 Comments

WordCamp Philly 2010, the inaugural Philadelphia WordCamp, was last Saturday and was a huge success! I was lucky enough to be one of the organizers, along with Anthony Bubel and Marilyn Moran, and couldn’t be happier with how the event turned out.

We had an amazing lineup of speakers and topics for the event. We also had some awesome sponsors step up and help making this event a great success.

The event was held at Alter Hall in the Fox School of Business building. This building was absolutely amazing! The technology in each room was superb and made for a flawless day of presentations, slides, and even the official WordCamp Philly soundtrack!

The entire WebDevStudios crew almost attended (we were missing Scotty B), but the rest of the team was in attendence and myself, Brian Messenlehner, Chris Cochran, and Ronald Huereca all gave presentations.

There were also many of my WordPress friends in attendance including Ptah Dundar, Hal Stern, Michael Torbert, Steve Mortiboy, Jane Wells, Andrew Nacin, Doug Stewart, Jayvie Canono, Ryan Duff, Ted Mann, and many others I’m sure I am forgetting.

Check out pictures from the event below (photo credit to @tweetsfromchris):

WordCamp Philly is Tomorrow!

October 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Tomorrow is the inaugural WordCamp Philly! I’m co-organizing the event and can’t wait to kick it off!

WordCamp Philly 2010We have an amazing lineup of speakers for the event including Ronald Huereca of WDS giving a presentation on WordPress and Ajax. I’m giving a presentation with Brian Messenlehner, the other co-founder of WDS, on Spooky WordPress: Disturbingly Brilliant Uses of WP.

We have four tracks (two beginner and two advanced) and an unconference room running ad hoc discussions and presentations. We’re giving away some amazing prizes and even have a costume contest (with prizes!) for the after party.

This is going to be an amazing WordCamp, and hopefully the start of an annual tradition in Philly. I’ll be sure to post a recap after the event with pictures.

BlogWorld Expo 2010 Recap! What Happens in Vegas…

October 26, 2010 By 4 Comments

Last week I attended BlogWorld Expo 2010 in beautiful (and warm!) Las Vegas with April, Brian, and Robin! This was my first visit to Las Vegas so I was very excited for the trip. My Company (WDS) redesigned the BlogWorld.com website and also sponsored the event.
BlogWorld Logo

I was lucky enough to record LIVE episodes of the SitePoint podcast at the event! Kevin Yank flew all the way from Sydney, Australia, along with Shayne Tilley and Luke Cuthbertson, to represent the launch of the new SitePoint venture Learnable! Patrick and Stephan, the other two hosts, were also there so we recorded a bunch of one-on-one interviews with attendees and also did a live recording with all four hosts! It was awesome hanging with sitepoint and podcast crew.

We also hung out with some great WordPress friends! Josh and Sally from Page.ly attended (and had a killer house party!). John Hawkins of 9seeds was the resident “local” giving us tips on places to check out and eat. Syed Balkhi of WPBeginner.com was also there and did a great interview with me. We also hung out with Andrew Powers and Adam Munns of PageLines.com

We had a WordPress dinner Saturday night with Lisa Sabin-Wilson and her husband Chris, Grant Griffiths and Clay from Headway Themes, Cory Miller and Matt Danner from iThemes, and I even met Brian Layman (who mentioned WDS in his presentation!), and Tracy Childers of Wishlist Member.

I was also invited to a few hotel suite parties by Darren Rowse of Problogger.com and SitePoint/Learnable. There is nothing quite like a Vegas hotel party!

Overall I had an amazing time! Can’t wait to attend next year! A photo gallery from the adventure is below:

25 Pounds Lighter and I’m Eating Hooters Wings!

October 13, 2010 By 5 Comments

Back in July, April and I decided to make a drastic lifestyle change. We had just recently moved to King of Prussia, PA and decided it was time to get in shape! We joined the local Ballys Gym, started eating super healthy, and completely changed our lifestyle. Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as I expected.

Hooters logoIn just three short months I’ve lost over 25lbs! My initial goal was to hit the 200lbs mark. As a little incentive I wanted to treat myself to a reward, and that reward is a delicious dinner at Hooters! I love wings, and Hooters wings are some of my favorite, so this was all the incentive I needed to get my rear in gear and lose the weight!

As luck would have it I just hit the 200lbs mark this week, which is the same week that I’m going to Las Vegas for BlogWorld Expo! So tonight I get my reward dinner at Hooters that was three months in the making! Sure it’s completely unhealthy, but I’ve earned it!

As a side note I wrote this blog post 30,000 ft in the air on my flight to Las Vegas. I love technology!

Live SitePoint Podcast at BlogWorld Expo 2010!

October 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

Thursday kicks off BlogWorld Expo 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year the entire SitePoint Podcast team (including myself) will be doing a live show! The live show is scheduled for Friday, October 15th at 2:00PM Pacific Time. If you are attending BlogWorld make sure you stop by and say hi to the podcast team!

If you can’t attend BlogWorld this year, don’t worry! The show will be livestreamed on the SitePoint Podcast’s USTREAM channel. It will also be released in the podcast feed as usual next week.

I am also doing a book signing for Professional WordPress at the event!

Professional WordPress Book Signing at Blog World Expo

September 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

Next month is Blog World and New Media Expo 2010 in Las Vegas. I’ve just confirmed I’ll be doing a book signing for Professional WordPress at the event!

Pro WP BookWiley will have a booth setup where you can purchase all of their amazing books. I’ll be signing copies of Professional WordPress at the Wiley booth on Saturday, October 16th at 1pm.

I’ll be attending Blog World Expo with Brian and April from WebDevStudios. As many of you know my company redesigned the BlogWorld.com website a few weeks ago using the Genesis theme framework. We are also sponsors of Blog World Expo this year!

It looks to be a great event so if you plan on attending be sure to stop by and say hi!

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 Recap

September 15, 2010 By 5 Comments

Last weekend I attended WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 in Baltimore, MD and had a blast! I was joined by Brian and Chris from WDS.

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic LogoI attended some really amazing presentations. Jake Goldman gave a great talk on customizing the WordPress admin dashboard. I also enjoyed Andrew Nacin’s presentation on Advanced WordPress APIs. I even learned about a few WP functions I have never heard of.

One of the best moments was the last keynote by Jane Wells. Jane gave the keynote via Skype video while driving down the road ( Ryan Boren was driving ). Not only was it a great interview but it really demonstrated where technology is at these days. Amazing!

I had a great time hanging out with Cory Miller, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Steve Mortiboy, Aaron Brazell, Ryan Duff, Andrew Nacin, Jake Goldman, Jayvie Canono, Joel Fisher, Scott K Clark, Scott Ellis, and many more I’m sure I am forgetting.

My presentation was on WordPress Security and can be found below:

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic WordPress Security

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2010 Here I Come!

September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m heading to WordCamp Mid-Atlantic today (Friday) in Baltimore! This WordCamp has a special place in my heart, as last year was the first WC I attended and presented at! It’s amazing how much has changed in just a year and a half. I’ll be attending with Brian Messenlehner and Chris Cochran.

I’m speaking on WordPress Security (surprise!) and have a few giveaways that might involve a book on WordPress! This is one presentation that I think should be given at every WordCamp, because it’s that important.

Security is a vital part of any website. I’ll cover the most current tips and tricks, top 10 WP security tips, recommended plugins, hosting consideration, and even an example of a popular hack and how it works.

If you’re attending make sure to track me down. I love talking WordPress as much as a cold beer!

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