WordPress EssexPrimary Image is delighted to be supporting and co-organising the newly-established WordPress Essex group, which is meeting monthly in Chelmsford.

WordPress is the most popular website software in the world, powering over one in four websites on the internet.

There are hundreds of monthly WordPress “meetups” around the world, including several in the UK. These meetups are designed for WordPress web designers, web developers and WordPress users to get together, share knowledge, learn from each other, and keep up-date with new skills.

Want to join us?

The new WordPress Essex group, started in September, is meeting on the third Thursday of each month. These free events are taking place at the Anglia Ruskin University, in Chelmsford. It’s about a ten minute walk from Chelmsford station, or there’s free parking nearby too. For more information on future events, and to book your ticket, please visit Meetup.com.

Mike, from Primary Image, says:

Over the past few years, I’ve really enjoyed attending and speaking at WordPress conferences across the UK and abroad, so I’m delighted that Primary Image can now support building a WordPress community in Essex. There’s thousands of local businesses in Essex using WordPress websites, so I know this new group will provide genuine benefit to users in the region.

The WordPress Essex group has been founded by Dan Maby, from Blue 37, with Mike from Primary Image joining as a co-ordinator of the group. Dan has been the co-organiser of the London WordPress group for several years, which is the largest WordPress meetup in the UK.

Recent talks:

WordPress speed optimisation

At the October WordPress Essex meetup, Mike spoke about WordPress speed optimisation, how to measure loading speeds, and what can cause slow loading websites. A similar talk was delivered to WordCamp Birmingham 2015 and WordCamp London 2016.

The major update coming to WordPress this year: Gutenberg

At the next event, on Thursday March 15th, Mike will be talking about the major update to WordPress coming in 2018.

The WordPress editing interface has mostly stayed the same for many years, but that’s about to change. The next generation of WordPress, currently code-named “Gutenberg”, will revolutionise how you publish content on your website. It’s planned to come with WordPress version 5.0.

Soon, you’ll be able to create fancy page layouts and use a variety of new formatting options, simply by drag-and-dropping blocks into your page. No longer will you have to mess around with shortcodes, or have to install a separate page builder plugin. It’s also stirring a lot of debate in the WordPress community, for example many themes and plugins will need updating to work with Gutenberg, and users may need retraining.

Mike, from Primary Image, will lead a demo of the new WordPress editing interface at the next WordPress Essex event, plus we’ll discuss some of the steps that webmasters will need to take.

To register for this event, please go to Meetup.com to be added to the guest list.

Southend Digital Professionals

In addition to WordPress Essex, Primary Image was very pleased to sponsor drinks at the Southend Digital Professionals events during the autumn. These events take place every month at the Waterworks, in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.

Mike also presented a talk at one of the Southend Digital Professionals events, in September, again on the subject of making your website load faster.

If you’re interested in attending future events, you can find more info at www.southendtech.co.uk.