Geoff runs his web design and hosting business almost entirely on WordPress based websites and has been climbing up the WordPress ladder. He helped organize WordCamp Hamilton 2013 and after attending, he thought. “Geez, I should have done a presentation. ”

Since he thought he could come up with some helpful information. Geoff has done quite a bit of speaking, teaching and presenting before and he’s very comfortable in front of large groups.

Presentation: Plugin Safari

We’ll be hacking our way through the jungle of WordPress Plugins, looking for the gems.  I’ll be covering a variety of plugins and best practices as well as presenting a specially prepared rant for the folks at WP HQ.

What do you want people to learn from your presentation?

How to utilize plugins to extend the functionality of your site.  How to evaluate plugins and some great take-away recommendations to try at home.

What attracted you to WordPress in the first place?

It had a cool sounding name.  That’s kind of a bad reason to check out some software, but it just reminded me of the printing press, which make me think of freedom of thought and speech, and WordPress was free and open source, which is great. Who doesn’t like free right? We were all looking for a content management solution back in the 2000s and WordPress kept on moving closer and closer to what I was looking for.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Toronto?

Meeting people and soaking up the knowledge of others as well as having an opportunity to give back to the community by sharing some of the things I’ve learned. The connections you make at events like this are always the best part.

Why did you decide to speak?

I helped organize Wordcamp Hamilton, which was great and I met some people there. I wasn’t sure where I fit into the spectrum of presenters so I wasn’t really thinking about presenting at that time.

After attending WC Hamilton I realized that it was more about sharing what you know than it was about having to know everything.  All of us know something and have something to contribute which makes WordCamp awesome. It’s open, just like the software.

What is your favourite plugin or theme, and why?

You’ll have to come to my talk on plugins to find that one out.  I’ve got some great stuff to share.