Coming from all across the galaxy, these brave travelers have come to impart the knowledge of WordPress upon our camp!
Adam Soucie
Adam Soucie is a WordPress developer based in Orlando, FL. Adam has participated on the core WordPress Accessibility Team and is also a member of the WordPress Orlando & WordCamp Orlando organizing teams.
For more information on Adam, visit adamsoucie.com or impossiblycreative.com.
Aida Correa
Aida Correa, a self-described Renaissance woman, is an artist, writer, poet, designer, teacher and very recently, a regular WordCamp attendee, volunteer, and speaker.
A former New Yorker, she moved to Jacksonville to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. She’s the owner of LoveBuilt Life LLC, an Arts and Creative Lifestyle company, where she teaches arts, crafts and the art of creative living. As her “side hustle” she creates WordPress websites for start-ups on a budget.
WordCamp Miami 2018, was her first foray into the world of WordCamp and she went in head first – she volunteered, was a room MC and was a co-speaker with her boyfriend. At WordCamp Jacksonville, she volunteered in the KidsCamp and her company was a sponsor. At WordCamp Atlanta, she decided to try just being an “attendee” but quickly learned she likes to be involved. She was chosen to speak to WordCamp Birmingham and plans to continue being an active participant in WordCamps.
She enjoys spending time with her kids, grandkids and her loving boyfriend who introduced her to the world of WordCamp in the first place.
She also has a thing for Wapuu.
Andrew Norcross
Look, we’ve all made poor choices in our lives. For me, it was realizing that I could make computers talk to each other.
Andrew Norcross has a history of building extremely cool solutions with WordPress. He currently works within Liquid Web helping build custom solutions for their managed WordPress services.
Angelica Yarde
Angelica Yarde has been designing for over nine years of experience combining the world of digital aesthetics with strategic functionality to develop and implement successful branding techniques. She is the co-owner of Sevenality, a brand strategy firm she runs with her husband. She is also the editor of Studio 404 Design Blog and the designer of Studio 404 Paper.
Ben Meredith
Ben is the Senior Support Technician at WordImpress, the makers of Give, the most robust donation platform for WordPress.
He also created Better Click To Tweet, the most popular WordPress Plugin for adding Click to Tweet boxes to WordPress posts and pages. A lifelong North Carolinian (with a 4-year break in Middle Tennessee just after college), Ben is also one of the organizers for WordCamp Raleigh, leading the team in 2017 and 2018.
When not coding or solving code puzzles to support users, you’ll find him with a guitar in hand or perhaps playing a round of disc golf. He’d lobby for it being called just “golf” and making that other game “ball golf” or perhaps “expensive ball golf.”
Bernard Ablola
Bernard Ablola is the Managing Director of Think Strategy, an outsourced sales development firm. Think Strategy focuses on B2B sales for SaaS companies. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of WordPress and business development. Bernard is the host of Stacking Growth, a Facebook Group, with over 5,000+ marketing professionals.
The Stacking Growth Conference, was named “”1 of 10 events that will help you grow in 2018″” by INC magazine.
Prior to his role at Think Strategy, Bernard managed over $25MM in search advertising at the Microsoft Corporation.
He is an active board member for Holistic Life Foundation, Inc., a Baltimore based nonprofit, that teaches over 7,500+ children nationwide, the practice of mindfulness and yoga.
He received his BA from University of Baltimore and his MBA from Seattle University. On the weekends, you can find him skateboarding his Pomsky (Google it!).
Bess Auer
Bess Auer is the co-host of Blog Talk TV, a nationally syndicated TV show, and is the host of Smarketing News airing regionally on WPRK 91.5 FM.
A graduate of Greg Pollack’s Starter Studio tech accelerator, Bess is dedicated to helping connect brands and online influencers through her annual conference, Florida Blogger & Social Media Conference. Known as FLBlogCon, it’s a one-day gathering of the state’s biggest bloggers and social media pros and has grown into one of the largest conferences of its type in the southeast.
In her other life, Bess was the owner of Florida Swim Network, a website that covers competitive swimming, including broadcasting for the University of Florida, the SEC Network, and ESPN. Bess also oversaw the recent launch of Your Swim Channel, the first-ever television channel to focus on competitive swimming, viewable on Apple TV.
Both Florida Swim Network and Your Swim Channel were acquired in 2017.
Cal Evans
Many moons ago, at the tender age of 14, Cal touched his first computer. (We’re using the term “computer” loosely here, it was a TRS-80 Model 1) Since then his life has never been the same. He graduated from TRS-80s to Commodores and eventually to IBM PC’s.For the past 13 years Cal has worked with PHP and MySQL on Linux, OSX, and Windows. He has built a variety of projects ranging in size from simple web pages to multi-million dollar web applications.
When not banging his head on his monitor, attempting a blood sacrifice to get a particular piece of code working, he enjoys building and managing development teams using his widely imitated but never patented management style of “management by wandering around”.
These days, when not working with PHP, Cal can be found working on a variety of projects like Nomad PHP. He gives motivational talks to developers around the world. If you happen to meet him at a conference, don’t be afraid to buy him a shot of Bourbon.
Cal is based in Jupiter, FL where he is happily married to wife 1.32, the lovely and talented Kathy. Together they have 2 wonderful kids who were both smart enough not to pursue a job in IT.
https://blog.calevans.com/
Charles Johnston
Charles is a self-proclaimed and well earned “digital ninja”. Charles after spending the last few too many decades in the IT industry started a boutique web design agency called HeartWired Technical Solutions, where they focus on putting compassion back into technology. Charles has a heart for nonprofits and small businesses that are doing good in their local or global communities. After his first of what has now been many mission trips, Charles knew that he had to use my gifts, his talents, and his passion for technology for good. Rather than just offering web design services, HeartWired provides web design and technology solutions with heart.
Chris Wiegman
Chris is a senior developer for UF Health at the University of Florida who has been working on WordPress since 2008. Over the years he built one of the largest security plugins on WordPress.org as well as numerous other plugins, themes and other solutions. When not coding Chris loves to teach and has presented at numerous WordCamps and other conferences as well as taught computer security for St. Edward’s University and other University courses ranging from computers to aviation.
David Bisset
A former full-time WordPress freelancer for 10+ years, David is now a senior web developer at EnviraGalleryLLC working on two popular WordPress plugins (Envira Gallery and Soliloquy). In addition, he also works on the popular Post Status newsletter, works as a consultant and developer for various side projects, speaker, WordCamp mentor, BuddyPress contributor, and helps run several meetups in South Florida. For the past decade, he has been an organizer of one of the largest and longest running WordPress events – WordCamp Miami. Also known for his live tweeting of conferences and a sense of humor he uses to keep him sane.
When he’s not working you’ll find David enjoying time with his family, debating which Star Trek series is the best, talking to people about tech communities and how they can shape our society for the better, and trying to find new creative ways to use or donate all the tech conference shirts he’s collected over the years.
Erin Fonzi Denton
I am a freelance design and UX person, who also a design instructor at Skillcrush.com. When I am not working, I can be found eating tacos, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and snuggling my cat and dog.
Francesca Marano
Francesca is the WordPress Community Manager at SiteGround, web hosting company.
She is part of the WordPress community team, organising Meetups and WordCamps in Torino.
She has years of experience as a small business owner, having transformed her passion for the web into a successful WordPress business. She published three books in Italian to help freelancers with business planning, productivity and websites.
She also founded C+B, a blog with an editorial staff of sixty authors offering advice to more than 35.000 Italian female creative entrepreneurs that reads it every month.
Francesca is a passionate speaker and you can find her in Italy and around the world talking about WordPress, community, open source, women in tech and small businesses.
Frank Corso
Frank has been working with WordPress since 2009 and is the founder of Markasio, an agency that creates digital marketing software products. He is the organizer of Gainesville’s Digital Marketing Meetup, WordPress Meetup, and PHP Meetup and co-organizer of WordCamp Jacksonville. In his spare time, he also teaches web development both as an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and at IT.Pro TV.
Above all else, he enjoys spending time with daughter.
Follow him on Twitter or Instagram: @fpcorso
Gary Kovar
A native Floridian, Gary is a backend developer at Modern Tribe. After attending his first WordCamp in 2015, he cleaned up a few of his own plugins and put them in the WordPress repository. Often dabbling in a side project to satisfy his own curiosity, Gary can be found attending and sometimes speaking at Florida WordCamps.
When he’s not in front of his computer, Gary is playing with his kids or trying to learn a new obscure stringed instrument.
Geoff Myers
Geoff Myers has been involved in and excited about business, marketing, design, and technology since 2004, when he founded SimDex LLC at the age of 14 in his hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Although SimDex originally started as an IT consulting and support company, it evolved into a web design and development agency by 2008, and eventually matured into a full-service digital marketing consulting firm by 2016, specializing in custom WordPress web application development. For more than 12 years, Geoff has been designing and coding for the web while also growing his – and his clients’ – businesses through the application of strategic marketing technologies and the development of custom-built, user-focused web applications.
Joe Howard
Joe is the Head Buff at WP Buffs, a WordPress technical partner for serious website owners and white-label agency partners. He’s thrilled to be in Orlando for the first time to see some old WordPress friends and meet some new ones 🙂
Jonathan Desrosiers
Jonathan has been using WordPress since 2007 to build sites of all sizes, covering the entire spectrum of local businesses to enterprises and large universities. He has been a contributor to WordPress Core since 2013, and is a WordCamp Boston/monthly Boston WordPress Meetup organizer. He currently works as a WordPress Developer at Bluehost, where a majority of his time is spent contributing to WordPress Core.
Joshua Nederveld
Josh is the lead developer at LazCreative, an agency based in Lakeland, Florida. Born and raised in Central Florida, Josh got hooked on WordPress in 2010. He started out building simple custom themes for small websites at CNP, a print/design/web agency in Winter Haven. Since then, he developed his skills to become a complete master of WordPress from end-to-end, writing everything from complex custom themes to sophisticated plugins for dozens of clients. His main goal on every site is to arrive and an elegant solution that is efficient and ensures that the client is completely satisfied.
Karalyn Thayer
Karalyn is passionate about web and user experience design. She loves creating elegant websites that accomplish business’s needs. When not creating websites she loves helping students at Skillcrush.com where she works as a teachers assistant. Originally from Massachusetts, Karalyn moved to Maine in 2004 where she currently resides.
Kimberly Soto
I’m a native of Boston, Massachusetts who moved to Florida in 2004 and now own and manage The Soto Law Office, P.A. I opened The Soto Law Office, P.A. to advise and assist clients in matters related to civil, family and probate law.
Mary Baum
Mary Baum is the founder and principal of RacquetPress, a digital consultant to the tennis industry. … Trained as a print designer (there WAS no web) Mary built her first site (wrong) in 1999 and started to learn real CSS and HTML in 2007 — at the tender age of 47. … Today she’s a big fan of design in the browser (after a few thumbnail sketches!) and all the modern CSS the browsers will support. This year she’s finally learning Javascript — really!
Micah Wood
Micah Wood is a WordPress Developer at Bluehost. A professional WordPress developer for over a decade, Micah has worked on sites for Fortune 500 companies, has released over a dozen WordPress plugins, is a frequent speaker at WordCamps, co-organizes the WordPress Gwinnett meetup, is a co-host on the WP Square One podcast and shares his knowledge by blogging on WordPress development topics.
Michelle Schulp
Michelle is an independent graphic designer and frontend developer in Minneapolis. Prior to beginning her career, she studied Visual Communications, with minors in Psychology and Sociology. As her work progressed, she also branched into front-end development and user experience design to round our her skillset. This combination of disciplines led her to adopt a strategy-based approach to design, focused on solving tangible problems and achieving real goals based on how people think.
She loves the open source community, and when she is not working on projects she speaks/volunteers/organizes at events and workshops around the country. Her passions are communication and empowerment, and she believes in the power of “Why?”
Mike Demo
Mike “Demo” Demopoulos is a lover of open source first, specific tools later. Because of this, he speaks at Ignite! Conferences, Meetups, WordCamps, Joomla! Events, and more. Mike volunteers with The Joomla! Project as the treasurer of Open Source Matters (the not for profit organization for Joomla!) as well as serving on the Joomla! World Conference and Capital teams. He also co-organizes JoomlaDay Minnesota.
Mike Demopoulos has spoken on various open source topics including WordPress and Joomla! in addition to marketing related talks which include A/B testing content.
Before coming to BoldGrid as a community evangelist, Mike spent years building a strong client base in the financial and insurance industries. He believes in sharing his business acumen and marketing insight as it fits within his main goal of building community.
When he’s not spending time with his wife Kayla, you may find Demo at a Disney Theme park, collecting artwork, or hanging out with his dog B’Elanna.
Be sure to say hi to Mike Demopoulos on Twitter at @MPMike.
Nathan Ingram
Nathan is the Host at iThemes Training where he teaches WordPress and freelance business development topics via live webinar.
He is also the creator of >ADVANCE Coaching, working with WordPress business owners individually and in groups to help them become more successful in their businesses.
Nathan has been a web business owner since 1995, and is based in Birmingham, Alabama where he is the lead organizer of WordCamp Birmingham.
You can learn more about Nathan at https://nathaningram.com.
Olivia Bisset
Olivia has had 5 years experience with WordPress, and has used it in numerous projects. She is also a summer camp volunteer, a WordCamp volunteer for a number of years, and is currently learning JavaScript and Python as she begins a new year of homeschooling (after public school for the past eight years).
Rahul Nagare
Rahul has been working in the web hosting industry since 2005 and started using WordPress in 2008. Since then he has helped scale web and cloud infrastructure for companies like General Mills, Saks, CSX, and PetSmart. Rahul is now the co-founder and CTO at Nestify, where he manages 10,000+ WordPress and WooCommerce sites.
Rian Kinney
Rian Kinney, founder of Kinney Firm, is an attorney, legal consultant and published author. Today, Kinney Firm represents and advises founders and businesses of every size, from freelancers to Enterprise, across industries in the areas of intellectual property, e-commerce, privacy and corporate law, as well as business and marketing strategy. Rian is actively engaged in the Open Source and WordPress communities, and has spoken at conferences across the country on topics ranging from “The Future of Open Source” to “How to CYA Your Site” and GDPR.
Samantha Garner
For the past 10 years I have worked as a professional designer in full time, freelance, and contract positions with great companies including: Disney, Target, H&R Block, Greenpeace, and more. I’m currently employed full time as the Senior Multimedia Designer at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) where we currently host and manage 48 WordPress sites. As a side hustle, my husband and I run a wedding videography company.
Sandy Edwards
Owner of Data Driven Labs, WordPress Developer, and Educator. She loves helping kids find their passion with technology. Can be found at @sunsanddesign and at her website.
Sean Murphy
Sean Murphy leads the Threat Intelligence team at Defiant, the maker of Wordfence. He works with incident responders and threat analysts to turn attack telemetry from millions of WordPress sites into actionable information website owners can use to safeguard their businesses. The Internet is a war zone, and Sean believes that cyber threat intelligence is able to give website defenders the advantage over cybercriminals. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS News, BBC News, PCWorld, and more. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and hobbyist locksmith.
Steve Curtis & Joseph LoPreste
We are a web development company that specializes in WordPress and web accessibility.
Tessa Kriesel
In this session, you’ll not only discover best practices for building custom WordPress themes, but how to leverage custom fields to create complex page layouts and make content management easier for clients. Tessa will introduce you to a WordPress plugin called Advanced Custom Fields, how it works, and what it can do when used to build WordPress themes.
Travis Lopes
Working with WordPress since 2009, I’m a part of the team at Rocketgenius, developing Gravity Forms and its Add-Ons. I also run a premium plugins shop, ForGravity, that delivers powerful Gravity Forms extension.
William Jackson
William Jackson graduated from South Carolina State University earning a Bachelor’s in Education degree, he furthered his education earning a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Webster University with a focus on Educational Technology, Social Media and STEM.
William’s career involves past teaching with NASA as an Internet and Technology instructor, technology consultant with the Florida Department of Education and past Professor with Edward Waters College teaching Educational Technology, Social Media and STEM. A public school educator teaching Physical Education and STEAM, he has over 20 years experience in public education.
Wouter Postma
Wouter Postma is the owner of WPLounge.nl, one of the biggest Dutch blogs related to WordPress. He specializes in WordPress, content marketing and Analytics.