Erica Conway
A natural matchmaker (she has 4 weddings under her belt), Erica’s 16 year career in creative staffing finds her screening and evaluating talent, from art directors to copy writers, from print production artists to web developers, and matching them with companies in need. As an owner of C2, she and her brother Jim have the only Adobe Authorized Traning Center in Wisconsin, and place hundreds of print and web professional on projects or in permanent positions. The team at C2 host several monthly meetups, including WordPress and Drupal, so they can stay abreast of the rapid changes in the industry. This evolution changes how talent seek employment and this is where Erica puts her matchmaking skills to work. Client/employer expectations can be unrealistic (web design, FED, BED and throw in some Photoshop and InDesign, how about copywriting too?!). She helps sherpa clients and direct them to the right talent with the right skill set.Brad Parbs
Brad Parbs is another awesome local developer. If you’ve never sat in one of his sessions, you’re in for a treat. He’s a big favorite at every WordCamp (we’ve seen the surveys), so be ready to learn something AND be entertained. <—-This spot has been filled with Lorem Ipsum Substitute, but expect it to be replaced with a real topic. Plus, all the stuff we said about Brad is true.
Tracy Apps
Tracy (or @tapps) is a Visual/UX Designer for Cornershop Creative and loves solving problems creatively. Her overlap of skills in design, user experience, strategy, front-end development, photography, video, and traditional art help her not only think outside the box, but to stay miles away from the box altogether! With over 20 years of web development experience, and over 15 years of client work under her belt, Tracy approaches design very strategically, thinking from all angles to ensure a consistent and effective creative solution… not just something that “looks pretty.” She also could probably deadlift you.
Shanta R. Nathwani
Shanta is an IT, Web Design and Social Media Consultant and an Instructor in Web Design and Capstone Project at Sheridan College and Mohawk College. She is also a principal inWeb Weapons, specializing in Web Development, Business Intelligence and Educational Training.
She is a problem solver and have been said to have the patience of a saint. She can explain even the most difficult concepts to the most basic user and has developed training documents that allow clients to learn for themselves. She thrives on understanding the needs of my clients and believes in making social media as simple as possible and making it fun, which allows our clients to seamlessly incorporate it into their organization.
Shanta holds a Certificate in Business Management and a Bachelors of Commerce Degree from Ryerson University in Information Technology Management. Some of her volunteer activities include being the Alumni Advisor for the Women In Information Technology Management program at Ryerson University, Technical Advisor for the Malvern Red and Black Society and Assistant Instructor at the Canadian Martial Arts Centre.
She blogs at shanta.ca and can be found on Twitter @ShantaDotCa
Steve Heuser
Steve Heuser has a small design shop in Greenville, WI called Brook Web Works. He has about 50 clients with about 70 websites. He’s been building websites since 1996 using different tools like Fusion and Dreamweaver. About 4 years ago, he started using WordPress and hasn’t looked back. Steve’s been going to WordCamps for the last 3 years. He’s also been working full time as a web designer for 8 years.
Steve’s been leading the Appleton WordPress MeetUp for the last year.
In his free time, he loves to fly fish.
Ryan Erwin
Ryan is a web strategist at Orbit Media Studios. Prior to joining Orbit, Ryan founded Internet Marketing Chicago, a full service digital marketing and web development company, based in Chicago. He brings years of WordPress experience to the organization, ranging from speaking at and organizing WordCamps to building and marketing enterprise websites. Ryan is the lead organizer for WordCamp Chicago as well as the lead organizer for Startup Weekend Chicago.
Josh Broton
Josh Broton is the owner and lead developer of Broton Digital Consulting, a small team of designers and developers passionate about solving complex problems for clients using custom web and mobile apps. He spends his days writing JavaScript and his nights assembling Lego sets with his family. Also: very INFP.
Dan Beil
Dan has been working with WordPress since about 2009 and has loved every MINUTE_IN_SECONDS of it. He has been a freelancer, in-house developer, and remote employee, and now is a Team Lead at Crowd Favorite, where he enjoys the challenge of planning projects and guiding other developers. When he is not coding, Dan spends time working on his house, playing with his 2 Siberian Huskies, and helping people learn WordPress development through speaking, and mentoring.
Joshua Alexander
I’m a WordPress Developer in the Chicago suburbs that specializes in working with other tech firms to help them meet work objectives they don’t have the tech skills for or time to handle. Also one of the few ethical hacking companies in the area.
Matthew Green
Matt Green is a Web and Software Developer Instructor at WCTC for the last seven years. Has professionally created websites since 1998 and has created sites for non-profit organizations and state agencies using WordPress for the last three and half years.
ideasbyelliot
I’m a 20 year veteran of the Browser Wars, the CMS Wars, and the Javascript Framework Battles. Currently, I’m a podcaster at https://www.ideasbyelliot.com and http://www.politicalradar.com as well as a partner at https://myDropWizard.com – providing Drupal Support and Maintenance Service.
Chad Mowery
Matthew Clancy
I began working with GoDaddy in customer support in 2005 and shortly after began building sites using WordPress for family and friends. Currently based in Phoenix, AZ he is a Project Manager for GoDaddy Hosting Support designing Hosting training and standing up international hosting customer support teams. In his free time he teaches becoming Agile, gaming, and watching his two children grow up to quickly.
Mike McCallister aka workingwriter
Technical communicator. Co-Author of *WordPress in Depth* (with Bud Smith). Currently writing for WPMU DEV blog (https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/). Day job: Sr Document Architect at PKWARE. Also past president of Wisconsin chapter of Society for Technical Communication.
Jamie Schmid
Jamie is a freelance WordPress Architect and Project Manager. She has a background in Information Architecture, Web Development and UX design, but her true calling is having way too much fun doing content strategy and architecture for all the interesting projects that come her way. She blogs about content and WordPress on her website, http://www.jamieschmid.com
Steve Persch
I’m a developer with 10 years of experience building WordPress and Drupal sites. When I was interning at a theatre company in college I overheard the artistic director say they needed a blog and an online magazine. I volunteered to build them. WordPress 2.0.4 got the job done. My path was changed and I’ve building sites since. Most of my professional experience is in Drupal and have insights on the common challenges in both communities. I now work as an Agency and Community Engineer at Pantheon.
Kiera Howe
Kiera Howe has been in the computer industry, professionally, for 16 years, but her expertise and skills go back much farther. As a seasoned programmer, analyst, and technician she has abilities and experience covering multiple disciplines across the technology spectrum; from software development to network administration, to server administration and more. Kiera is able to turn her experience and skill into a highly effective solution no matter what the requirements.
Since 2005, Kiera has operated her own businesses serving small and medium business clients. From 2005 to 2012, she was the owner of TDCNet, an IT company providing computer and network support, internet access and web hosting to businesses. In 2012, Kiera sold TDCNet to her partner and formed Wiley Solutions to provide technology solutions primarily in the form of custom software development in web interfaces. Kiera also teaches web design at Sheridan College
Kiera’s passion is for automation, reporting and business intelligence. Kiera draws upon her experience to create business solutions that make operations easier, faster and less error-prone. Kiera’s goal is always to help businesses succeed and operate better.
Michelle Schulp
Michelle is an independent graphic designer in Minneapolis (formerly Chicago). Before beginning her career, she studied Visual Communications, with minors in Psychology and Sociology. Together, this resulted in a love of How To Solve Problems. Lately she has been specializing in WordPress theme development and high-end presentations for her clients. She loves the open source community and speaks/volunteers/organizes at WordCamps, AIGA, Girl Develop It, and other events around the country.
Tonya Mork
Tonya Mork is a technology leader, software educator, electrical and software engineer, author, and kind, silly gal. She is on a [mission](http://heropress.com/essays/finding-your-purpose-in-life/) to help WordPress developers be more awesome by sharing her [gulp](http://hellofromtonya.com/) 30 years of high-tech experience.
She shares her expertise via her books and at [Know the Code](https://knowthecode.io), an e-learning site for professional web developers, which provides hands-on, practical web development screencasts, master tips, craftsmanship, and mentoring. Her secret ingredients are making programming fun, relatable, and adaptable so that you can get the computer to do what you need to do in any programming language.
She advocates technology excellence and continuous learning. She actively teaches software principles, clean/quality coding, fundamentals, innovation, and efficiency. She’s here in WordPress because of this incredible community.
Josh Horneck
I have been working with WordPress in some manner since 2010. Developed sites for the US Military for four years before moving into my current role as the Web Designer/Developer/Facebooker/Twitterer/graphic-designer and secretary at a small Maranatha Baptist University, a 650-student campus in Watertown, WI.
geoffmyers
Geoff Myers has been involved in and excited about business, marketing, design, and technology since 2004, when he founded SimDex Consulting, Inc. 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.
Geoff originally started out building static websites with Dreamweaver in HTML and CSS, but shifted to using the Joomla! content management system (CMS) by 2008, when version 1.5 was released. In 2010, he fell in love with – and became addicted to – WordPress and its community. Since then, Geoff has designed, developed, marketed, managed, and maintained over 60 WordPress-powered websites for a wide variety of clients in terms of industry, size, type, and location. Lately, Geoff has focused on building highly personalized web applications and integrations for WordPress using PHP and MySQL, the building blocks of WordPress itself.
Davo Hynds
I develop websites and apps that do cool things for clients who are also doing cool things. I’m currently a web developer at Mightybytes. WordPress is my bread and butter, but I like to play around with Laravel.
Kevin Barnes
NOTE: This presentation involves two speakers.
Kevin A. Barnes (Ex Fabula developer/webmaster):
After a decade managing website projects in agency environments, Kevin recently began working with Aurora Health Care’s Digital Experience team as a Project Manager. He presented at WordCamp Milwaukee in 2014 and 2015, as well as at WordCamp Toronto in 2015. Kevin currently serves as webmaster for exfabula.org, the website featured in this talk.
Megan McGee (Ex Fabula Executive Director):
An Ex Fabula co-founder and volunteer who has risen to the role of full time Executive Director, Megan is passionate about personal stories and their ability to connect individuals and create the conditions for empathy. To that end, she has facilitated hundreds of StorySlams, workshops and community collaborations. She’s a Public Allies Milwaukee alum and has a MA in Foreign Language and Literature from UWM. She knows enough about technology to be dangerous.
Andy Nathan
I am the founder of Smart at the Start, a digital marketing strategy company that helps small businesses grow through bite-sized internet marketing services. I successfully worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs in over 80 different industries over the past six years.
I wrote the books Start Up Gap and eMarketing Experience. Additionally, in that short period, I personally wrote more than 4,000 articles for clients and my own business.
Over the past 5 years, I have been an organizer and/or speaker at WordCamp Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.
mcdwayne
I have been working in tech and open source sales since 2005.
I knew as soon as I started working with Java middleware developers I never wanted to work outside of open source ever again. I first started building in Drupal and WordPress when I needed to build projects for the San Francisco Improv scene. I fell in the love the community of developers and then found my position at Pantheon at the end of 2013.
As a Community and Agency Success Manager I have had the privilege of presenting at MidCamp, Twin Cities DrupalCamp, DrupalCamp Colorado as well as leading BOFs at several other events.
Outside of tech I love producing and performing improv theater. I also love comic books and karaoke!!!
Brad
Brad Hull is the website guru for W. R. Meadows, a family owned and operated manufacturing company that has been in business since 1926. Responsible for website development, SEO, PPC, UX, and Conversion Optimization, Brad has increased the overall traffic for wrmeadows.com by 116% from 2010-2015. Organic Google referrals increased by 169% and organic Bing referrals jumped by 265% in the same time period.
Brad has an MBA in Finance, loves trail running and tetris, has an amazing wife and two baby girls, and in his spare time, he really enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbradhull
Aaron Holbrook
Aaron Holbrook has been building websites since 1998. He found a passion for HTML, CSS and PHP and even built his own content management system in 2004, only to stumble upon WordPress shortly thereafter.
After earning a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Augustana College, Aaron became the full-time webmaster for a hospital. After spending 5 years managing content, he realized that his passion was building, not just managing, websites. Before leaving in 2011, he rebuilt the entire hospital website on WordPress.
Aaron has accomplished quite a bit in the last five years. He has built and maintained websites for some very large companies around the world. He has contributed to WordPress core and is the co-creator of the popular ElasticPress plugin.
Aaron loves teaching and in the past few years has given talks at WordPress events around the country, including Milwaukee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Providence, Orlando and Orange County. Aaron started a local meetup group and even helped organize WordCamp Chicago in 2013.
Julie Kuehl
Julie Kuehl is a WordPress developer for Kanopi Studios who lives in Moorhead, Minnesota. She enjoys coding custom themes and websites. Julie’s outside passions include cars (Mustangs especially), motorcycles (Harley-Davidsons especially), dive bars and science fiction.