In the Loop: A WordPress Podcast by Blackbird Digital

Today, Joe A Simpson Jr joins the show to chat about all things WordPress. He shares his WordPress origin story, as well as how he became the leader of two Meetups. We also chat about his experience as a graphic designer stepping into WordPress for the first time, online events, and connecting with others in the community. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Joe’s Site: https://joesimpson.info/ Joe’s Podcast: https://backdownmemorylane.com/ HeroPress Article: https://heropress.com/essays/second-chances-how-a-trip-back-into-the-wordpress-community-saved-my-life/ WordPress Santa Clarita Valley Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/wordpressscv/ WordCamp Santa Clarita - https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/ Elementor Meetup Info - https://elementor.com/community/meetups/ WP Accessibility Day - https://wpaccessibilityday.org/ WordFest - https://www.wordfest.live/

Joining us today is Michelle Frechette, the Head of Customer Success for GiveWP. Megan and Michelle chat about WordFest, Big Orange Heart, online WordPress events, and the work she and others are doing to keep our community connected.  If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Big Orange Heart - https://www.bigorangeheart.org/  WordFest - https://www.wordfest.live/schedule/  5.6 Release - https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-6/  Underrepresented in Tech - https://www.underrepresentedintech.com/ WP Career Pages - https://wpcareerpages.com/  GiveWP 100K Celebration - https://givewp.com/give-swag-store-intro/ 

Wow! A lot has happened since our first episode one year ago! Happy birthday to us, I guess? In this episode, we are introduced to some new faces and discuss our early days on the web, our experiences integrating Gutenberg, some hot topics in WordPress right now, git repositories, and music to code to. Listen until the end to catch a preview of our upcoming episode, where Megan interviews Michelle Frechette of GiveWP! If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Get Involved: https://make.wordpress.org & https://learn.wordpress.org/contribute WP Tavern 5.6 Release Post: https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-development-kicks-off-with-all-women-release-squad White House Redesign - @nacin’s Thread: https://twitter.com/nacin/status/1353855894342094848 Automattic Announcement: https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/01/04/let-our-experts-build-your-dream-website/ git-filter-repo: https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo Fragnum Opus: https://fragnumopus.bandcamp.com/ Nectar by Joji: https://shop.jojimusic.com/products/nectar-digital-album GiveWP: https://givewp.com/ Big Orange Heart: https://www.bigorangeheart.org/ WordFest: https://www.wordfest.live/ Underrepresented In Tech: https://www.underrepresentedintech.com/

Welcome to In the Loop, a WordPress podcast from Blackbird Digital. On this show we’ll be discussing every aspect of WordPress—from how it’s built and developed for, to the ways that businesses, organizations, and individuals are using the platform. Today I am joined by my colleague and co-host, the Lead Technologist of Blackbird Digital, Cory Hughart, with our first guest, Megan Rose, the Technology Manager of KHM Travel in Brunswick, Ohio and one of the lead organizers of the Northeastern Ohio WordPress Meetup Group. The topic for our first episode is “Why WordPress?” Specifically, why have we chosen to specialize in this platform. In answering the question, we chat a bit about our winding career paths and how they led to WordPress, how our development and deployment processes differ, what you can expect from a WordPress MeetUp, and the various ways to participate and give back to the open source community. Lastly, if you have any questions about WordPress that you would like Cory or myself to track down an answer to, please email them to podcast@blackbird.digital, and we will answer them when we return with our next episode in March.