{"id":241873,"date":"2014-11-03T12:57:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2014.toronto.wordcamp.org\/?post_type=wcb_speaker&p=241873"},"modified":"2014-11-03T12:57:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:57:41","slug":"avery-swartz","status":"publish","type":"wcb_speaker","link":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/speaker\/avery-swartz\/","title":{"rendered":"Avery Swartz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avery Swartz is a Toronto-based award-winning web designer, consultant, speaker, and tech skills instructor. A self-described design geek, she helps demystify the web for small business owners, charities, and arts organizations. Avery offers a friendly and casual approach with all her projects.<\/p>\n

In addition to her web design work, Avery is the founder and CEO of Camp Tech\u2014a learning hub that provides practical tech training in a fun and friendly environment. Avery provides on-site instruction for corporations and has facilitated interactive technology workshops for over 1000 students.<\/p>\n

Avery is the Web Director of the Art Canada Institute, acts as a Digital Advisor for Willow Breast & Hereditary Cancer Support, and teaches Digital Publishing & Production at Ryerson University. Avery regularly appears on CTV News as a guest tech expert.<\/p>\n

Panel session<\/h2>\n

Why did you decide to speak?<\/h2>\n

I’ve learned so much about building a business (two businesses, to be precise) and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I hope to share my knowledge with others, so they can learn from me and hopefully not repeat some of my blunders! I want to share the knowledge that I wish I had myself 5 years ago.<\/p>\n

What attracted you to WordPress in the first place?<\/h2>\n

I first started using WordPress because of its CMS capabilities (I was previously making HTML, CSS and Javascript websites that my clients couldn’t update themselves). I started using it more and more, and now love building with WordPress, sharing it with my clients, and teaching beginners how to use it.<\/p>\n

What is your favourite plugin or theme, and why?<\/h2>\n

Akismet, because it’s light, lean, and does a great job (for the most part) keeping comment spam away from me and my clients.<\/p>\n

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Toronto?<\/h2>\n

Spending time with the Toronto WordPress community. Everyone is so friendly and we have a great time together – I can’t wait to catch up with my WordPress pals that I haven’t seen since last year’s WordCamp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avery Swartz is a Toronto-based award-winning web designer, consultant, speaker, and tech skills instructor. A self-described design geek, she helps demystify the web for small business owners, charities, and arts organizations. Avery offers a friendly and casual approach with all her projects. In addition to her web design work, Avery is the founder and CEO … Continue reading Avery Swartz<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7390768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wcpt_user_name":"","footnotes":""},"speaker_group":[],"class_list":["post-241873","wcb_speaker","type-wcb_speaker","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=24&d=mm&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=48&d=mm&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","128":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=128&d=mm&r=g","256":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=256&d=mm&r=g","512":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80d8062cf8797c9d23472f33225ac7dffb193aae60f3a6db30b105531d17aa8c?s=512&d=mm&r=g"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/241873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_speaker"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7390768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/241873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241875,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/241873\/revisions\/241875"}],"sessions":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/242066?_embed=1&context=view"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_speaker_group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker_group?post=241873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}