For our first event, Automattic and the Golden Gate Business Association partnered with Google to give San Francisco LGBT businesses and nonprofits the tools to accelerate their organization. On Tuesday, April 21st from 1-5:30 PM, we hosted an event to help local LGBT-run and/or focused businesses and non-profits grow their online presences in San Francisco.

Here’s an overview of the agenda below:

12:15 – 12:55 // REGISTRATION 

1:00 – 1:30 // WELCOME! HELLO FROM THE ORGANIZERS

Mackenzie Thomas & Charly Jaffe – Google
Anne McCarthy – Automattic

Rebecca Prozan – Public Policy & Government Affairs Manager for San Francisco, Google 

Ted Farley – Executive Director, It Gets Better Project
Ted will share insights on how The It Gets Better Project used the internet and online tools to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives can and will reach. 

1:35 – 2:00 // SETTING UP YOUR WORDPRESS SITE & ORGANIZING YOUR CONTENT
breakout sessions – choose one

Setting Up Your WordPress Site with Matt Perry – VIP Code Wrangler, WordPress
Whether you have a WordPress site or you’re looking to create one, this session will walk you through setting up a site on WordPress.com and best practices to follow while you do so. 

Organizing Your Content with Hugo Baeta – Rainbow Wrangler, Automattic
This session is dedicated to how the architecture of your site’s content helps create the user’s experience. From this session, you’ll learn how to properly use functionality built into WordPress, like tags and categories, to create a better user experience and to gain control of the flow of your site. 

2:05-2:45 // GET FOUND ON GOOGLE SEARCH AND MAPS & SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
all on main stage

Get Found on Google Search & Maps with Alex Grant –  Google My Business
Only 37% of businesses have claimed a local business listing on a search engine – that’s a lot of missing information.. And with 4 out of 5 people using search engines to find local info like business hours and directions, it also means a lot of missed opportunities for local businesses. In this hands on session, you’ll set up your local business listing with the help of a Google expert.

SEO with Plugins with Radford Smith – Store Code Finagler, Automattic
A huge part of growing your organization is being found online. Attend this session to understand what SEO is, how to improve it, and plugins you can integrate into your site to help make focusing on your SEO easier.

2:55 – 3:35 // INTRO TO ADWORDS,  ADWORDS ADVANCED & ADGRANTS FOR NONPROFITS
breakout sessions – choose one

Intro to Adwords with Clara Droulhiole – SMB, Global Search Lead, Google
Learn about the power of Adwords to advertise locally and attract customers with the products that they’re searching for.

AdWords Advanced: Using Display for Performance with Eric Hubbs, Global SMB Performance Display Lead, Google
If you already have some AdWords experience under your belt, then the next step is leveraging the Google Display Network to place ads on a variety of news sites, blogs and other niche sites across the internet
to reach more potential customers. 

AdGrants for Non-Profits with Emily Faraone & Chien Ni, Google
As a non-profit organization, you’re encouraged to use Google Ad Grants to leverage $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords™ advertising, to promote your missions and initiatives on Google search result pages.

3:40 – 4:25 // GOOGLE’S SMALL BUSINESS SUPPLIER DIVERSITY PROGRAM

Adrianna Samaniego – Diversity Markets Program Manager, Google

Learn more about Google’s Small Business Supplier Diversity program, which is designed to connect more minority-, women-, veteran- and LGBT-owned small businesses to opportunities within Google, while helping them grow on the web. Our program supports our unique procurement structure, where every Googler is empowered to make purchasing decisions based on their specific needs. 

The Google Small Business Supplier Diversity program is targeted at small businesses selling to other businesses.

Office Hours: 1v1s with WordPress & AdWords Experts

For non-profits and small businesses selling direct to consumers, you’ll spend this time getting 1:1 direct support from WordPress & AdWords experts.

4:45 // ACCELERATE YOUR ORGANIZATION TODAY

Arjan Dijk, VP SMB Marketing, Google

Dawn Ackerman – Golden Gate Business Association

5:15 ONWARD // HAPPY HOUR & MINGLING

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