Speakers

  • Abby Buzon

    Abby Buzon helps small business owners improve their online presence and local visibility with marketing and web design services aimed at drawing new business and increasing customer retention.

    She started her own company in 2017, The Helpful Marketer, after seven years in marketing technology and website administration.

    Based in Medina County, Ohio, Abby is a Northeast Ohio native and a Baldwin-Wallace alum.

    “I never would have guessed that I’d end up being a web designer or an entrepreneur. I was raised by an artist and an electrician. I am a super odd balance of left and right brain, and I pay great (sometimes crippling) attention to detail. The mix has led me to web design, and it’s totally my video game – I gladly stay up until 2 am playing… I mean working.”

  • Allie Nimmons

    Allie Nimmons is a self-taught WordPress power-user since 2014. She spent 5 years maintaining, troubleshooting, designing, building, and breaking WordPress sites for small business owners. Currently, she is a Customer Success Buff with WP Buffs and a GoDaddy Pro Speaker Ambassador.

    She also provides one-on-one diversity consulting through her company, Actionable Ally. She is mildly obsessed with lists and wants to make the internet approachable and accessible to all. 

  • Andrea Middleton

    Andrea supports WordPress community organizers, helping them plan community events (meetups, WordCamps, and more!) that inspire people to do more with WordPress, connect the WordPress community, and contribute to the WordPress project.

    Employed by Automattic, Andrea’s work has focused on open source community building since 2011. Away from her computer, Andrea cooks great food, loves to talk about wine, and enjoys reading science fiction.

  • Bill Rice

    Bill Rice is the Founder/CEO of Kaleidico, a digital agency focused on lead generation. He designs websites that generate leads using WordPress. His agency specializes in serving mortgage lenders, insurance agencies, and law firms. He loves speaking, writing, and teaching digital marketing.

  • Brittney Oddo

    Brittney Oddo is an award-winning content writer, social media strategist, author, and speaker who helps entrepreneurs drive a higher level of impact and income through consistent lead-generating content! Her mission is to help women find their voice and speak confidently about their mission. She also runs According to Brittney, a blog that guides women through “adulting,” entrepreneurship and marketing.

    She has worked with brands such as Uber, U.S. News and World Report, Dollar Tree, and more! She helps women grow their brands daily through her Facebook Group, Content Marketing for women entrepreneurs, bloggers, and influencers. Outside of her business and blog, she resides in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband and cat/fur child, Luna. She enjoys being involved in the community, meeting new people, and traveling! Most of all, she loves whenever she gets the chance to play her favorite video game, the Sims! She gives everyone she meets a pink and sparkly perspective to content marketing!

  • Craig West

    Craig is freelance trainer and architect that focuses on bringing together the WP and non-WP worlds by advocating WP-HTML, ‘where there is HTML, there is WP’.

    He is based in Brighton and attends the local WordUp meetings. With a previous career in business and accounting, as well as having run his own non-IT business, Craig can speak both technical and business. He believes that technology serves the user, not the other way around, so the user experience is paramount.

    He has started to speak at WP events and is interested in Web Components, Progressive Web Apps, High Perfromance Web Sites and the WP REST API and has a developing interest in pages that are ‘instant’ and/or offline capable.

  • Eileen Violini

    I’m a Design Engineer creating user experiences and interfaces for WordPress websites and products. With over seven years experience building WordPress solutions, I currently put my skills to work as partner at Sidetrack.Studio and wpBlockShop.com specializing in engineering custom WordPress block solutions and site conversions for organizations upgrading to the new editor. I contribute on the #core-editor and #theme-review teams and you can follow me on @itsjusteileen on Github, WordPress.org, WordPress Slack and Twitter.

  • Jocelyn Mozak

    Jocelyn has over a decade of experience building, running, and wrangling a WordPress website design agency all while having two boys at home.

    While her education in engineering certainly refined her technical and analytical skills, it is her passion for what she does that makes her an outstanding WordPress web designer. She is an expert in thinking outside the box and filtering out the key points amidst all the noise.

    In addition to running her agency, Jocelyn is a mentor & business coach to other creative professionals helping them to build businesses that support the life they desire.

  • Joe A Simpson Jr

    Faced with a life-altering heart event in 2017, Joe A Simpson Jr pivoted, focusing FIRST on rediscovering the things he truly loved — WordPress, creative passions, teaching tech, and truly giving back.

    He actively contributes to the WordPress Community, founding the WordPress Santa Clarita Valley and Elementor Santa Clarita Valley Meetups, speaking or volunteering at WordCamps, is the Lead Organizer for WordCamp Santa Clarita, and is a member of the WordCamp US 2020 Programming Team, and is also a SiteGround Ambassador.

  • Joe Querin

    Joe has been a web designer/developer since 1998.

    Joe blends his creative side and knowledge of Graphic Design with his problem-solving skills and self-taught programming skills to build and support websites. Joe also has designed, implemented and maintained a variety of server platforms for websites over the years.

    When Joe is not manipulating pixels into works of art, or stringing variables and methods together to bend WordPress or any other website technology to his will, he enjoys spending time with his two daughters and wife of 19 years. In his free time, Joe enjoys cooking/grilling, woodworking, video games and 3D modeling.

  • Kori Ashton

    From freelancer to entrepreneur to c-suite, Kori Ashton has spent over twenty years in the digital marketing space. She built up a WordPress agency that sold in 2017 and spends most of her time now consulting with industry brands and agencies on improving your customer retention with persona-driven development.
     
    She hosts a weekly giveback to the WordPress community on her YouTube Channel. And you can network with her via PressTribe – an online slack channel that she started in 2019 for WordPress freelancers and agency owners.

  • Lee Drozak

    Lee Drozak is a WordPress Teacher, Doer, and Fixer at LeeDrozak Biz, founded with tenacity and grit. In 2008. She’s what some call a unicorn – designer, developer, and strategist who feels user-friendliness and planning are where design starts. When she’s not working on WordPress websites, you can find Lee in her RV touring the back roads and countrysides somewhere in the US.

  • Michelle Frechette

    Michelle has over twenty years of experience in higher education; ten years owning a web design and marketing company; and currently serves as the Head of Customer Success for Impress.org (developers of GiveWP.com and WPBusinessReviews.com). She is the podcast barista at WPCoffeeTalk.com.

    Michelle is the author of (ironically) “A Good Firm Handshake (and other essential business tips)” available on Amazon.com.

    Say hi to Michelle on Twitter at @michelleames and check out her website at worksbymichelle.com.

  • 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.

    Now, she collaborates on projects with clients ranging from solopreneurs to enterprise. 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?”

  • Nathan Ingram

    Nathan is the Host at iThemes Training where he teaches WordPress and freelance business development topics via live webinar.

    As the founder of >ADVANCE Coaching, Nathan works with WordPress solopreneurs and business owners individually and in groups to help them become more successful in their businesses.

    Nathan has been a freelance web developer since 1995, and is based in Birmingham, Alabama where he has been an organizer for WordCamp Birmingham for several years.

    You can learn more about Nathan at nathaningram.com.

  • Rahul D Sarker

    Rahul D. Sarker is a WordPress Developer & Digital Marketing Consultant, based out of Kolkata. He has worked with WordPress for the past 7 years. Apart from that, he conducts training and workshops in Kolkata & other metro cities in India on Web Development and Digital Marketing. Currently, he is handling 2 startups and working with few communities very closely. He is a big foodie and self-proclaimed proud solo traveler.

  • Stephen Morrissey

    Stephen is a web professional who started dabbling with websites back in the fall of 1996 when animated GIFs and scrolling marquees were in fashion. He first played with WordPress in 2010 and has written over 300 articles aimed at helping non-profit groups with digital marketing. Topics included UX, project management, inspiration, social media, and website tools. He’s been a UX Designer for 8+ years, but he still loves to create content and share knowledge.

  • Steve Grunwell

    Steve Grunwell is a Senior Software Engineer at Liquid Web, working primarily on the Managed WordPress and WooCommerce platforms. Specializing in WordPress and web application development, he has a passion for teaching and contributing back to the development community through speaking, blogging, and open-source work.

    When he’s not writing tests or finding new ways to automate the world around him, Steve is off spending time with his family, enjoying a fine cup of coffee, playing guitar, or otherwise getting away from the keyboard.

  • Steve Schwartz

    I’ve been creating digital assets for small businesses for about 10 years including video, photography, and website design. I’m also a bit of an online security nut. I’m a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and I am currently pursuing the Offensive Security Certified Professional cert (OSCP) through Kali Linux. I’ve been teaching classes on social media, photography, video, WordPress, and online security for over 10 years.

    My teaching style has always been to try to take complex technical jargon and bring it down to a level where end users can understand it. I differentiate myself as an educator by not just telling students to do (or not do) something, but rather explain the importance of “Why” and through story-telling to get the point across and make it stick.

  • Swaahili M

    A 21-year-old WordPress Enthusiast who believes that asking WHY enough number of times can decipher almost anything. Perpetually lost – either in a book or in yet another theory that attempts to unravel and explain how humans think.

  • Tim McReynolds

    Tim has been in the tech industry in one way or another since about 1998. While he understands that there are some who like Windows and some like Mac, he is a contrarian who works in Linux for his laptops and desktops.
    He has put together websites for some non-profits as well as for information, and he has completed his own e-commerce site. He is the founder and owner of Baldz Company and www.baldz.com.
    Tim has worked as a Linux systems admin and as a support engineer for multiple software as a service (SaaS) applications.

    He is a traditional film photographer who worked for many years doing custom photo lab work. When using film was the only way to capture a picture, Tim owned a commercial photo lab with the first digital restoration lab in his county in Texas. Running on a 586 AMD CPU with 128Mb of RAM and a 980Mb hard drive on Windows 95, with Photoshop 3.0.
    Now Tim does custom work for people using “GIMP” to open eyes, fix colors, and create special effects.

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