Getting ready for WordCamp Whistler: What are your favourite themes and plugins?

Next week is WordCamp Whistler and in addition to exercising my shoulder do I can take pictures, I’m also prepping to give a short talk on using WP to build “regular” websites.

When Duane and Rebecca opened the speaker submission form, I zapped in with one of my favourite topics: using WP to build a website (yeah with a blog too). Morten had a similar idea, and while a panel was the first option, now each of us will have 30 mins of fame:

In my original pitch I asked for a one hour session. But unbeknownst to me Tris Hussey, another WordPress as CMS expert, had pitched almost the exact same topic to the event. Rather than pick sides and give one of us the full hour, it was decided that we would each get a 30 minute session so we both get our foot in and the attendees can get two different perspectives. Which is a great idea: This is by no means an exact science and while I’m sure Tris and my approaches compliment each other they will be vastly different. And that “double perspective” will give the listeners a far broader understanding of the subject matter than if one of us were to do the session by ourselves. [From WordCamp Whistler - WordPress as CMS presentation by Morten Rand-Hendriksen | Design is Philosophy - The Pink & Yellow Media Blog]

Before you groan and think that we’re going to be repeating each other (actually it would be me repeating him since he’s first on the docket), don’t worry we’re coming at the topic from two totally different directions.

Morten is going to dig deep into WP as a CMS. We’re talking custom fields, theme hacks, all the things that would make the site uber cool and without many obvious WP touches. This is awesome stuff, and I know there are going to be a lot of people taking notes in his talk (including me, since I want to learn more about these WP hacks), so I’m not going to step on his toes.

My talk is going to be at more of an entry-level audience. I’m going to assume that you know how to install WP, upload themes, and add plugins but that’s it. Here’s what I’m going to cover. You want to build a decent site based on WP, but you’d like to know what plugins, themes, and settings will really make it hum. Simple as that.

I’ll touch on the settings that make sense on a site that you might not think of, and a few WP template tricks to make your navigation sing. The plugin list is going to be pretty standard, but you know I’ll probably have a trick or two up my sleeve.

That said, while I have a several favourite themes (some free, some not) and my key plugin list, but I’d also like to hear from you. What are your favs?

What are the pieces that make a WP install complete to you? Don’t worry if you think the plugin is “too bloggy” because you know I’ll be encouraging people to have the blog portion active too.

If you have some WP-powered websites that you think are great examples, pass those on too. I always love to see and show lots of examples to show the range of possibilities.

Now I need to set my demo site up…oh what to choose, what to choose…

Tagged as: Blogging, Web 2.0, WordCamp, WordCampWhistler, WordPress hacks, WordPress plugins, WordPress tips