Viva ExpressionEngine!
Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Train-ee is pleased to offer ExpressionEngine classroom training in the bright light city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Enjoy 4 days of learning about EE elbow to elbow with other like-minded folks with plenty of opportunity to also experience the gaming, shows, golf or countless other attractions that Vegas has to offer.
The Location
This class will be in Las Vegas, Nevada USA.
More detail? Vegas?
It’s the place with the hotel named after a mobster’s girlfriends legs. It’s the place where a famous recluse spent so long at a hotel he was asked to leave - so he bought the hotel. It’s the place with the largest mechanical neon sign. It’s the city with 17 out of 20 of the USA’s largest hotels. The town with the tallest freestanding tower in the USA. The town where more shrimp is eaten than the rest of the country combined. The town with more hotel rooms than anywhere else on earth.
You get the idea.
Getting here is easy— you can fly into the McCarran International Airport which is only 3 miles from the training venue and a number of available hotels.
The Venue
This class will take place at the Regus Offices.
Regus
3960 Howard Hughes Parkway
Suite 500
Las Vegas, Nevada 89169
The nice part about this class is that the Regus location is within walking distance of several hotels - listed below. There is also a bus stop close by so you can find that screaming deal across town and still make the class without renting a car. Note that all distances and costs are approximate, and that there is no “class discount” program - you are free to choose any hotel and any deal you can dig up.
Closest Hotels
- Residence Inn Las Vegas Hughes Center
370 Hughes Center Dr
Las Vegas, NV 89169
.1 mi / 2 mins walking distance from classroom
Rooms start @ 129.00 (USD) per night
All rates at this hotel include complimentary breakfast and in-room high speed Internet access
Website - Fairfield Inn Las Vegas Airport
3850 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89169
.2 Miles / 3 Minutes walking distance from classroom
Rooms starting @ ~$93 (USD) per night
Website - La Quinta Inn & Suites Las Vegas Airport
3970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89109
.2 Miles / 4 Minutes walking distance from classroom
Room starting @ $99 (USD) per night
Free Breakfast
Website - Best Western Mardi Gras Hotel & Casino
3500 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89109-3611
.6 mi / 6 minutes walking distance from classroom
Rooms starting @ ~$60 (USD) per night
Website - Renaissance Las Vegas
3400 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV
89169-2770
.8 mi / 15 minutes walking distance from classroom
Rooms starting @ $103 (USD) per night
Website
The Instructor
This class will be taught by Michael Boyink.
I’ve worked on dozens of ExpressionEngine-based websites, wrote the first ExpressionEngine book, produced the first commercial EE screencasts, and offer the first (and currently the only) EE classroom training available.
The Schedule
This class runs from Tuesday, February 9th, 2010, through Friday, February 12th, 2010.
The daily schedule is:
- 8:30 - 9:00 AM: Setup
- 9:00 - 10:30 AM: Instruction Time
- 10:30 - 10:50 AM: Break
- 10:50 - 12:00 PM: Instruction Time
- 12:00 - 1:00 PM: Lunch (provided)
- 1:00 - 2:30 PM: Instruction Time
- 2:30 - 2:50 PM: Afternoon Break (snack provided)
- 2:50 - 4:00 PM: Instruction Time
- 4:00 - 5:00 PM: Q&A
- 6:00 - ??: Optional evening activities (TBD, dinner may be provided, bring your friends/family)
Note: If you have any special dietary or physical requirements please let us know when registering so that we can accommodate you.
The Class Details
During the class we’ll cover the following:
- Brief history of EE
- Review of the “EEcosystem”
- Getting a conceptual understanding of EE
- EE Control Panel Overview
- Basics of coding in EE - tags and loops
- EE linking variables
- Loading an existing design template into EE
- Chunking the visual design into parent and embedded templates
- Passing variables to embedded templates
- Designing an ExpressionEngine architecture to power the visual design
- Implementing EE weblogs, custom fields and categories to hold content
- Building dynamic navigation menus
- Building page titles and setting navigation states dynamically
- Working with categories
- Working with relationships
- Using EE conditionals
- Using EE variables
- Troubleshooting tips
- Using plug-ins, modules and extensions
- Implementing different content types
- Setting up the site for client access and workflow
- Fighting SPAM
- Improving performance
- EE search engine - constraints and implementation
- Multiple Site Manager Overview
- EE Public Beta 2.0 Preview/Tour
What About EE 2.0?
Here’s the deal - our experience with the training tells us the best approach is to use the latest released version of ExpressionEngine as our basis for the class.
As of this posting, EE 2.0 has been released in public beta form - so unless that changes (and soon enough that I have time to revise the class materials) the class will use the latest version of the 1x branch of EE.
I’ll, however, work a preview/tour of EE2 into the class.
Keep in mind that while EE 2.0 has a redesigned Control Panel and several new features the fundamentals learned in this class will still apply and be valuable.
The Testimonials
The Train-ee class greatly helped my web development business. The class used real-world examples to turn abstract concepts into concrete implementations. Mike’s analogies allowed us to grasp how EE works, explaining things in ways that we could all understand. The relationships formed during the session are a valuable asset, as we regularly keep in touch via email, growing together in our knowledge and use of EE.
Ryan Battles, Jovia Web Studio
Thank you for such a great experience! I was amazed by Mike’s ability to break EE into digestible parts and, instead of a “seminar snooze-fest,” we were able to learn about EE as a platform and real world usage in a laidback and comfortable atmosphere. Mike (and his amazing wife) also made themselves available after-hours for a wonderful mix of socializing & ExpressionEngine Q&A. Train-EE Alumni Reunion ‘09!!!!
Nick Rivera, 2GO Media
Mike is an insightful and competent instructor. His wife, Crissa, is a talented and gifted organizer. The two of them together proved to be a great team in making the ExpressionEngine classes both educational and loads of fun. If ever there is an advanced class, I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
Todd Daubs
After struggling with EE for over a year, I found Train-ee. Train-ee provided screencasts, books, and now classroom training to get first time EE users over that hump. I attended the first EE classroom training, and all I have to say is WOW—Mike is a ExpressionEngine encyclopedia. I finally have a very good understanding of the capabilities of EE and how to put it all together.
Kevin Guill
Train-ee was the best training experience I’ve ever had. It gave me solid skills I could immediately apply. The course was very well organized and extremely adaptable. Mike was responsive to the needs of the class. The evening events Mike organized and hosted for us through the week made it really special. The sunset cookout on the beach was the best!
Bree Rodrigues, eBree
Class Prerequisites
- Working knowledge of (X)HTML and CSS
- A Laptop
- MAMP/WAMP installed
- ExpressionEngine installed
To Signup
This class has already taken place - visit the Classroom Training page for information on current classes.
