Author Archives: Andy McIlwain

About Andy McIlwain

Andy wrangles content at GoDaddy and co-organizes WordPress meetups & WordCamps in Toronto. Find him on Twitter and his personal site.

Featured Speaker: Alex Sirota

Alex is a pioneer in orchestrating cloud-based systems to meet the needs of small and medium sized business (SMBs). His company, NewPath Consulting, provides business-relevant technology advice and education to prepare SMBs for optimizing business activities through the cloud. NewPath Consulting delivers a curated and integrated suite of cloud-based products to help clients become more productive, powerful and profitable.

Alex worked with the Ontario Public Service as an information management advisor and team lead in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade as well as a product manager at two technology startups. He started his career as a developer at Apple in Austin, Texas.

Alex is also an active participant in the cloud community in Toronto and abroad including businesscloud.to, TechConnex.ca, GoDaddy Pro, WordPress, and Formstack product communities. Continue reading →

Featured Speaker: Allan Pollett

Since 1998, Allan has been working as a SEO/SEM with web development experience. He is an accomplished writer having several ebooks to his credit. Allan has over the years helped over 800 clients achieve top rankings on all of the major search engines. He is considered an online marketing guru having done interviews on newspapers, radio, and TV. Allan is a graduate from Dalhousie University and holds a BSc. in Physics. Continue reading →

We’ve Got A Schedule!

WordCamp Toronto 2015 Schedule

With a little over a week to go we’ve finally locked down the schedule for WordCamp Toronto 2015. This year we’ve got a weekend packed full of informative sessions, case studies, hands-on workshops, discussion panels, and multiple perspectives on similar issues.

Will sessions be recorded?

Video has been a massive pain point for our event over the last five years. While we’ve been able to record sessions in the past, the quality has been poor, and following through on editing has been challenging.

We’re thrilled to have Pasada Media providing A/V support for 2015, including editing. High-five Pasada’s Greg Mount (co-organizer) and his team of volunteers (working the cameras) when you see them!

View the WordCamp schedule

Featured Speaker: Kevin A. Barnes

“I am the Director of Web Development at Orion Group, a WordPress development and digital marketing agency located in Wisconsin. I also serve as webmaster for Ex Fabula, a nonprofit storytelling organization. My hands-on experience with WordPress began in 2005, when I migrated my personal site to WordPress. In my spare time, I write, develop grassroots ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) and try to solve Fermi’s paradox.” Continue reading →

Featured Speaker: Mary Anne Shew

“After an IT career in large corporations, I founded Business Vitality LLC in 1999. Since then I’ve helped dozens of small businesses get better leads and more customers through web sites and Internet marketing. I also help my clients keep those customers and make more profit by improving how their companies operate. I finally jumped on the WordPress bandwagon in 2013. I live in Rochester NY and am a member of the Rochester and Buffalo WordPress Meetup groups.” Continue reading →

Featured Speaker: Suzette Franck

Suzette Franck has been in web development for over twenty years; she started making hand-coded HTML websites on GeoCities with font tags and tables back in 1995. Since then, she has taught herself CSS, Sass, PHP, MySQL, and became a WordPress expert; evangelizing and presenting at over twenty-five WordCamps across the US and Canada. She began using WordPress in 2008, and has used it exclusively to create over 300 custom WordPress sites.

Suzette currently teaches HTML and CSS 101 with Girl Develop It in Southern California and she is also a freelance consultant that is available for hire to help you with content, design, and/or development of your WordPress web projects. Her web portfolio may be found at http://suzette.pro and her WordPress blog may be found at http://suzettefranck.com. Continue reading →

Sponsor Spotlight: artifakt Digital Inc.

artifaktOur first Sponsor Spotlight for 2015 goes to artifakt Digital Inc! They’ve been supporting WordCamp Toronto since 2013, and we’re thrilled to have them back for 2015.

Who are you?

“We’re artifakt Digital Inc.; a Toronto-based digital strategy agency specializing in WordPress website design, development, planning, and migration, online presence, and complete digital strategy solutions. If your business needs to build Internet charisma and a positive online presence, we want to help you do it.”

Why WordPress?

“We love to push WordPress and see it do things it doesn’t typically do.”