July Meetup: Introduction to Child Themes; Map-Driven WordPress Sites

Two talks this month at the July WordPress DC meetup!

First up, Brian Jessee on an introduction to child themes. Learn what a child theme is, how to make them, why they are best way to customize WordPress themes. Get an introduction to filters, actions, pluggable functions, frameworks, and everything else to get you started making your own custom child themes for WordPress.

Our second speaker Ben Colmery, on map-driven WordPress sites. He will speak about InfoAmazonia and the new WordPress theme, MapPress, which were created by Knight Fellow Gustavo Faleiros in Brazil. InfoAmazonia is an extraordinary website based on WordPress- and MapBox that maps environmental data and geo-located stories affecting the nine countries of the Amazon basin. MapPress - a free theme inspired by InfoAmazonia - enables an easy, virtually out of the box, way to launch robust open data mapping sites using MapBox.

Here's the bios for our speakers:

Brian Jessee is a freelance Web Developer Specializing in WordPress Development for Small Businesses. He got started making websites by doing one for spec at a radio station and now runs over half of their station sites in three different markets. He has also, developed many plugins including the Coupon Creator found in the WordPress Plugin Directory. When not working, Brian likes get back to his California roots and surf at Assateague National Park, read books, watch movies, and yell at the TV when his teams are playing football.

Ben Colmery is the deputy director of the Knight International Journalism Fellowships, a program of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Through these Knight Fellowships, ICFJ is driving a global culture of news innovation, partnering with newsrooms, startups and other organizations to help them adopt or create technology that engages and informs the public. Colmery assists in the implementation of the program, specializing in project design, partnership building, digital strategy and impact measurement.

Two notes about the event:

We are on the second level in Fathom Gallery and there unfortunately is no elevator. We don't have a sponsor for the event, but you are more then welcome to bring a six pack and contribute to the rolling meetup beer supply.