Steve Grunwell

Open-source contributor, speaker, and electronics tinkerer

Upcoming Talks

Cloud Gate (a.k.a. "The Bean"), surrounded by tourists in Chicago, IL.

Continuous Integration and Delivery @ php[tek] 2023

May 16 – 18, 2023 @ php[tek] 2023

It’s been a long time since my last in-person conference: php[tek] 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic, and the live conference circuit has been sparse since COVID-19 rocked the world. As a result, my few speaking engagements have been strictly virtual since early 2020.

To be perfectly honest, it has been a total let-down. A pandemic sucks on its own, but seeing so many small conferences going under—it’s been painful to watch. My friends Heather and Eli at One for All Events have seemingly had to shutter their company, and their flagship events, php[tek] and php[world], haven’t happened since 2019.

php[architect], the organization that run those conferences, is now under new ownership: John Congdon and Eric Van Johnson of DiegoDev acquired the company in October 2021. Now, they’re bringing back php[tek] for the first time in three years, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it!

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Previous Talks

WPSessions Presents WordSesh

Platform Plugin Development @ WordSesh 2021

May 24 – 28, 2021 @ WordSesh 2021

I first met Brian Richards of WPSessions at WordCamp Grand Rapids 2014, and a hallway track conversation with him, Chris Klosowski, Topher + Cate DeRosia, and a handful of others actually helped me make the decision to embrace remote working, which led me to joining 10up that fall.

Beyond having a profound impact on my personal career, Brian and WPSessions also put on the free WordSesh conference, a virtual event with some of the biggest names in WordPress, and this year I’m fortunate to count myself among their ranks for WordSesh 2021!

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WordCamp Northeast Ohio Region

Platform Plugin Development @ WordCamp NEO 2021

May 22 – 23, 2021 @ WordCamp NEO 2021

It’s been a wild year since my last talk (the keynote at this very conference), and while the whole virtual conference scene is very different than the talks that I’m used to, I couldn’t sit out on one of my favorite WordCamps.

That’s right, folks — for the first time in a year, I’m dusting off the ol’ slide tools and giving a brand new talk at WordCamp NEO 2021!

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Stars in the sky, as seen from looking up on the edge of a forest

Keynoting WordCamp Kent 2020

May 30 – 31, 2020 @ WordCamp Kent 2020

I’m not shy when it comes to talking about my love for WordCamp Kent (formerly WordCamp NEO, WordCamp North Canton), which has become one of my can’t-miss WordCamps over the past few years. You can imagine my excitement, then, when Lead Organizer David Brattoli reached out and asked if I’d be interested in keynoting WordCamp Kent 2020.

This year, I’ll be changing up my usual “give a couple tech-heavy presentations” approach and instead be giving a brand new keynote, The World Beyond WordPress, focusing on how we in the WordPress community can learn from other communities.

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A row of old, brick buildings in Nashville, TN

Two Talks at php[tek] 2020 in Nashville, TN

May 18 – 21, 2020 @ php[tek] 2020

Update: Unfortunately, php[tek] 2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a break during the first quarter of this year, I'm proud to announce my first talks have been scheduled for 2020. Even better, it's one of my favorite conferences, in a city I can't seem to get enough of: I'll be giving two talks at php[tek] 2020 in Nashville, TN.

Yes, that's right: php[tek] has moved to Music City itself, Nashville, Tennessee. I've been fortunate enough to visit Nashville several times in the past few years, and I'm thrilled to plan my return.

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Group photo of KidzMash 2019 attendees

Protecting Yourself Online & IRL @ CodeMash

January 7 – 10, 2020 @ CodeMash 2020

CodeMash 2013 was my first big tech conference, and since then I’ve only missed two years of the conference. I’ve also been privileged enough to speak at CodeMash 2017 and again last year. Those are just a few of the reasons I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be speaking again this year at CodeMash 2020!

This year is especially exciting, as I’ll be giving my first KidzMash talk!

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Ohio Laravel logo

Continuous Integration & Delivery @ Ohio Laravel

November 6, 2019 @ Ohio Laravel Meetup

My local Laravel usergroup, Ohio Laravel, is a monthly opportunity to talk tech with some of the brightest PHP developers in Columbus.

At a recent meeting, somebody boasted how easy it is to “just zip up a PHP application and drop it on a server.”

“Better yet, SSH into the server, do a git pull , then run composer install!”, someone else chimed in.

As the resident testing advocate and pipeline geek, I was quick to chime in: “wait, what? Are you really still doing an SSH + git pull combo in 2019?”.

Long story short, I’ve been invited to talk about Continuous Integration and Delivery at the November Ohio Laravel meetup.

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The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO

Confidently Testing WordPress @ WordCamp US 2019

November 1 – 3, 2019 @ WordCamp US 2019

The term “WordCamp” can encompass a number of types of conferences. Some are friendly homecomings, groups of a couple hundred people, a few tracks, and a small group of volunteers working tirelessly to spread the love of WordPress to their local communities. These are the camps where I spend most of my time: Dayton, Detroit, Kent, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor are all a fairly short drive away, and hotels are typically affordable.

There are other WordCamps, though: the destination camps. The WordCamps that people will travel from all over the country for. WordCamps Miami, Chicago, Phoenix, Orange County — places where people will flock from all over the country to attend and rub elbows with some of the biggest names in WordPress.

The biggest of these whale-sized WordCamps, however, is WordCamp US. Like it’s European counterpart, WordCamp US is meant to be the country’s premiere WordCamp. That’s why I’m pleased to announce that this year, I’ll be speaking at WordCamp US 2019!

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Looking out from the Smithsonian Natural Science museum on a foggy day

My First Workshop @ php[world] 2019!

October 22 – 24, 2019 @ php[world] 2019

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of php[world]: php[world] 2014 was my first big speaking engagement, and I’ve spoken at the 2016 and 2018 editions of the conference (and attended in 2017). That’s why I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be returning to Washington, D.C. this October for php[world] 2019!

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Join us for WooSesh: October 9 and 10

WooCommerce Custom Orders Table @ WooSesh 2019

October 9 – 10, 2019 @ WooSesh 2019

As you may or may not be aware, one of the many projects I maintain at work is the WooCommerce Custom Orders Table plugin. The plugin takes all of the individual post meta entries that come along with most every order — billing and shipping addresses, order totals, and way more — and stores them in a flat database table, optimized for performance.

The WooCommerce Custom Orders Table plugin has been crucial on some of our bigger stores at Liquid Web, but one does not simply change how WooCommerce stores order data without being very careful and deliberate. That’s why I’m pleased that Brian and Patrick at WooSesh reached out and asked if I could talk all about it!

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