WordPress .com vs .org & Introduction to Theme Styling and CSS (Two Talks)

This is our first Meetup of 2014 and the first one with our new format!

Our meetup will have two presentations: one for members beginning to use WordPress and one for more advanced WordPress users.

Difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org - Which one is right for your needs?Speaker: Eric Malcolm

WordPress makes it easy for just about anyone to publish online. It proudly powers millions of websites and it comes in two flavors: the fully hosted WordPress.com, and the self-hosted version available at WordPress.org. Eric will discuss the differences you'll see in:

• Hosting

• Themes

• Social media

• Features

• Support

• And more...

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Speaker Background

Eric Malcolm (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmalcolm) is a freelance web designer and webmaster for a nationwide surgery company. He uses WordPress for almost all of his clients' websites and is an intermediate level WordPress designer and developer.

Site Showcase

Jason Brown will be showcasing his website.

Introduction to Theme Styling and CSS

Speaker: Laura Eagin

You have a website and a theme... now how do you modify the design? Together we will learn about the CSS stylesheets on your site and how they affect layout, colors, spacing, and fonts.

Laura will show you how to to use the browser's inspector feature, then cover a few pro tips for doing awesome things with CSS in WordPress. This session is ideal for beginners and designers who want full control over their site's design and who are relatively new to CSS.

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Speaker Background

Laura Eagin (http://lauraeagin.com/) is a graphic designer turned web designer. She specializes in WordPress theme customization, transforming any theme into a rich, completely customized layout. She's the lead instructor for Girl Develop It Detroit (http://gdidetroit.com/), where she teaches HTML, CSS and WordPress workshops. Laura is a cheerleader for beginning coders and DIYers. Yes, really, YOU can learn this code thing!

Laura has enjoyed participating in the greater WordPress community by attending WordCamps near and far. She lives in Ferndale, Michigan.

Parking and Venue Information

Parking is available at the Detroit Opera House parking garage, located on Broadway. Parking is $10 (unless there's a special event). There's also limited street parking on Woodward (no charge on Sunday).

The Detroit Opera House parking garage is a short walk up Broadway and around the corner from the Grand Circus space. Here's parking information from the Broderick Tower website (PDF) (http://grandcircus.co/GCParkingMap.pdf).

Atomic Object is on the third floor at 1407 Randolph Street #300.

We're not serving refreshments, but feel free to bring your own drink or snacks.

Please arrive no later than 2:15pm.

The building is secure and there will be no one at the door to let people in after 2:15pm.