Michael has been playing around with the code for more than a decade with a tireless curiosity. Today, WordPress is the reason he bikes every day to his job where he enjoys learning and improving web development practices day in and day out. Besides that, he was made in Belgium … which might also explain a never-ending enthusiasm for beer, people and simple joys of life!

Follow @MichaelBontyes on Twitter.

Michael will be giving a talk titled “Create Your Own Shortcode“.

What is your favorite improvement to WordPress this past year?

I really appreciated the mobile and admin focus during the last releases. For example the extra features available now with the Press This tool make user’s life better and expand the on the fly publishing possibilities.

I also like the new meta queries options integrated in the WP Query parameters. It pushes back the limit of the complex queries especially in the use of custom content and fields.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

A lot of our work is based on open source project and contributions and we are constantly learning from the others. That’s why it seems logical to share what we know with interested people at an event like Wordcamp!

What is your talk going to be about?

The presentation aims to show how to create your own shortcode. It goes through the introduction questions like “what’s a shortcode and when is it interesting to use it?”. It also includes the practical development steps to create and implement the custom shortcode in an existing theme or plugin.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

The goal is to share an introduction to the shortcodes and see people walking away from the talk with the ability to create and implement their own shortcode in their plugins or themes.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?

I don’t really follow someone in particular (except Sarah Gooding!). The Advanced WordPress FB group is also an interesting source of information and opinions. Also the WordPress development planning and the codex!

What new feature would you like to see in the future?

I would be happy to see more developments concerning the Json Rest API. Focusing on the the security and stability of WordPress is also really important.