Shanta R. Nathwani, B.Com., MCP

Tag: Workshop

  • Navigation and Wayfinding Workshop – WordCamp Ottawa 2019

    This was my third time running this workshop at WordCamp Ottawa. I always have fun with this and I know that I could run this every year, and I’d still fill a room full of inquisitive minds. This year was no different.

    Navigation and Wayfinding On Your Website – WordCamp Ottawa 2019 from Shanta Nathwani

    For our case study this year, we had the pleasure of using https://www.ridgemachinequilting.com, a company of Andrea Rennick, who, for those of you who don’t know, has been an amazing member of the WordPress community for years and has since retired to do quilting. It was an honour to help out Andrea and her husband Ron in this workshop. We’ll make sure to check up on them in a few months to see how they are progressing. I’m going to do my best to wrap some of the thoughts in a future post on this case, as well as catch up with Andrea and Ron.

    Remember if you signed up for one of the accounts on DragonTeach, they will expire at the end of August, but you can play around in that sandbox until then. You will receive a notification from DragonTeach before it expires asking if you’d like to download or transfer your site.

    Once again, a big thanks to Kiera Howe of Wiley Solutions for hosting these sandboxes for my courses. Her product, DragonTeach, helps instructors teach WordPress, including marking systems. Tell her I sent you! Full disclosure: I’m not making ANY money from this! She’s just a great friend and she has an awesome product. While she isn’t sponsoring WordCamp Ottawa this year, she is sponsoring WPCampus at the end of July.

    I’d love to hear any suggestions from this session. I’m working on my first online course, and if you’d like to know when it’s released, you can sign up for my mailing list here: I want to sign up for the online course notifications!

    If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me and thank you again for coming to my session!

  • Content Architecture – WordCamp Ottawa 2016

    Content Architecture – WordCamp Ottawa 2016

    Thanks so much to the organizers for letting me take over a workshop for two hours this morning. Here are my slides and I hope that there was some good discussions that come out of this. Let me know how I can improve this talk.

  • #FF City of Hamilton

    I attended an information session/workshop hosted by the City of Hamilton and McMaster University last night to talk about the communication channels, more specifically, the social media ones, with City Hall.

    Alex Sevigny getting the show started
    Alex Sevigny getting the show started

    My mother originally found the information in The Hamilton Spectator and handed it to me because she knew that I was interested in the City of Hamilton’s website plans. She thought this would be related. So did I.

    The evening seemed to go smoothly enough. I always enjoy hearing Dr. Alex Sevigny speak, so hearing him talk about social media and communications seemed like a good way to start the conversation and engagement.

    However, it seemed like we were being lectured to, not being asked what we, the citizens, wanted to see and how we thought best to go about doing it. Still, we pushed on to see what was going to come out of it.

    Though I enjoyed the exercise, not everyone did. The real discussion emerged after the formal program was over. What I found was that the websites that they mention in the presentation isn’t really dealt with in the discussion parts. The event was very pigeon-holed and directed. It shouldn’t have been. The discussion seemed to separate the website from the social media and communications. Hopefully, they will take not only my comments, but those of all that attended to heart.

    Since last night, the City of Hamilton twitter account has increased from about 839 to over 1200 at the time of writing. That’s a 25% increase overnight. Most people are doing #FF to the City of Hamilton today, so their timing was right. But just remember, once you’ve opened those gates, you’d better be prepared for what comes next: the conversation. I’ve already seen two tweets since last night with photos of things the City needs to fix. I have to say that I’m impressed that the City has responded to the tweet and handed it over. Well played…

    You can also read Joey Coleman’s take before the meeting and will probably post a report afterwards.

    Joey Coleman at work
    Joey Coleman at work

    I am optimistic which is why I recommend that you follow @CityOfHamilton on this great Follow Friday. I realize they will have a learning curve, which, if they play their cards right, we are willing to help them improve. Jump in #HamOnt!