Organizers note: You can enter content for this page in the Speakers menu item in the sidebar.
James Koole
I’m the Product Manager for Hover. We make it easy to buy, manage and use domain names and email addresses. With smart, usable tools, step-by-step tutorials and a warm, knowledgeable staff, Hover is the first choice for customers who want to get neat stuff done on the Internet without the hassles that have become commonplace in the industry.
Outside the office, I freely admit to being an information junkie and a heavy user of the Internet. I’m keenly aware of what’s going on around me and around the world. Whether it’s technology, social networking/media, news or politics, if it’s happening somewhere, chances are I already know about it and I’m trying to learn more.
I’m an accomplished writer, with articles published on my own blog and in major news outlets including CBC.ca, The Huffington Post and others. I have six years of experience in product marketing including print, web and email marketing through ExactTarget.
I create and maintain a variety of websites for myself and others using WordPress and HTML/CSS. I’ve had my own website since 1999 and have extensive experience with various hosting providers and systems like Apache, MySQL, Parallels and cPanel. I’m capable with Photoshop and I’m able to layout attractive and effective one-pagers, booklets, websites and other graphic design projects.
Andrea Trew
Andrea is a graphic designer at Flywheel, a WordPress hosting startup in Omaha, NE. As a graduate of UNK, her background includes working on brands such as Cuties, Panda Express, TD Ameritrade, Nebraska Lottery, and Blue Cross Blue Shield — specializing in elevating brands through logo development, social media, photography, web design and local/national campaign work.
Chrissie Pollock
Chrissie Pollock loves working as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic. You can generally find her in mobile support or writing lessons plans with the WordPress.org Training team. She can be reached at chrissie.pollock@automattic.com.
Henri-R Brisard
Henri-R. Brisard is a developer and Velocity Conference committee member who spends time proselytizing performance culture and best practices. When not rummaging inside devtools, Henri can be found co-programming meetups including the Toronto Web Performance Group, or reading the latest research docs and case studies. Otherwise, you can find him riding track bikes, tooling with music production software or more recently, encouraging devs to run/walk 5k.
Melanie Martin
Melanie Martin – Chief Proprietor of Webrite Design Solutions
Certified Local Expert, Constant Contact Inc.
Melanie Martin is a Certified Local Expert for Constant Contact. She speaks to small business owners, non-profit organizations and community groups on building a foundation of marketing knowledge, to uncover core concepts of marketing from which they can build effective tools to help their business organizations grow.
Through her company, Webrite Design Solutions, Melanie has been providing web development and web graphic design services for over 15 years. An international company, Webrite specializes in creating an online digital presence for her clients using WordPress.
Melanie and her company have earned a reputation for comprehensive web solutions, strong customer service and exceptional attention to detail.
Daniel Kanchev
WordPress Expert @SiteGround web hosting, VIP/Enterprise clients manager, WordPress security/performance specialist.
Jai Sangha
I write weekly posts for two eCommerce blogs – sellwithwp.com (focused on WordPress eCommerce), and shopstorm.com/blog (focused on Shopify). This includes plugin reviews, marketing and shop tips, how-to articles, and other eCommerce topics. I also work in the digital strategy team at TD Bank, and do freelance web strategy. Outside of work, I like to try new things – tried snowmobiling and drove a NASCAR so far this year.
Seth Alling
Seth Alling is a Detroit-based developer turned designer turned developer, who has been working with WordPress since 2009 and currently works as the Lead Developer for Ranch House Designs. When he’s not developing (or designing), you can find him running, playing soccer or spending time with his wife and sons.
David Mackey
David is a Digital Marketing Consultant based in Ottawa. He has 25+ years experience of building and supporting multi-tiered server applications and telecommunication systems. His recent programming experience includes four years of working with WordPress. He is excited to share what he knows about the Yoast SEO Plugin, and how you can use it to attract more traffic to your website.
Tom Auger
Jesse Emmanuel Rosario
Jem is User Experience designer who specializes in building insightful, creative and usable digital experiences. A journalist in a previous life, he came to digital media after discovering its innovative storytelling techniques and how it delivers immersive experiences across platforms, languages, and devices. He is a User Experience Specialist with Analytical Engine Interactive, a Toronto-based UX and Content Strategy consultancy, where he solves unique UX puzzles to deliver digital experiences that users love.
Brian Rotsztein
As an experienced Internet marketing entrepreneur, content creator, consultant, speaker, and author, Brian has spent much of the past two decades helping companies excel on the Internet. His latest book, Content Marketing Ideas, is a complete guide to content creation, has been highly praised by critics and is rated five stars on Amazon. He’s the head of well-established brands online marketing brands such as Uniseo.com and RedstoneX.com. He is the Editor-in-chief of Citynet Magazine, Senior Editor at The WP Crowd, President of the Canadian Internet Marketing Association, and a member of the Program Advisory Committee for the Digital Marketing Degree at Algonquin College. You may have caught his appearances on CTV News or local radio shows. He writes about SEO, content marketing, social media, business, and entrepreneurship, among other topics. His work has been used by USA Today, ABC News, Social Media Today, Search Engine Journal, and other prominent sources. Brian holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides training services on Internet marketing. His love affair with WordPress began in 2005 when he started with version 1.6! Visit www.rotsztein.com and connect with him on Twitter: @brianrotsztein
Florian Gottschall
I am in video business more than 15 years and my team is developing a video editor plugin for wordpress these days.
Rick Radko
Rick is a php coder, WordPress guru, website and app developer/designer and tech trainer. He is as comfortable talking to beginners in plain English as he is talking geek speak to developers. At <a href=”http://r3df.com/”>R-Cubed Design Forge</a>, Rick develops custom plugins, themes, multilingual websites and mobile apps. Rick is a WordCamp Ottawa organizer and Ottawa WordPress Meetup organizer.
Mendel Kurland
Hey there, I’m Mendel, an intrapreneurial change-maker, developer, speaker, and teacher. More here https://ifyouwillit.com/about-mendel-kurland/
Ian Edington
Dev and BizDev building a startup in medical education.
Jeseph Meyers
I am a digital marketing professional from Buffalo, NY – specializing in WordPress and SEO.
Vova Feldman
I’m a serial entrepreneur and full-stack developer who loves to turn dreams into reality. Passionate about helping fellow plugin developers to become more data-driven and making a living working on plugins with Freemius.
I co-founded @Freemius, @RatingWidget and @SenexxInc.
Thiago Loureiro
Do-it all developer working at Art & Science Toronto.
Andy McIlwain
Andy is a longtime WordPress advocate and former organizer of the Toronto WordPress meetup group and WordCamp Toronto. He’s passionate about content marketing, community management, and most importantly, helping small businesses succeed online.
Laurie M. Rauch
I run Code Diva, which specializes in WordPress theme development and coaching, and I teach Advanced Web Design at Sheridan College.
Shawn Hooper
Shawn Hooper is the CTO at Actionable Books, where he enjoys combining code and data to build intelligent tools for teams and leaders. Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, Shawn has been building web applications since the late 90s, with a focus on WordPress since 2011. As a freelance developer, he has built sites for clients in the public and private sectors in both Canada and United States. He loves making use of great 3rd party APIs, promoting web accessibility and secure coding practices.
Mikel King
20+yr Technology Leader, Public Speaker, Columnist, USCG Veteran, Brewer of beer, Coffee Evangelist – Director of WordPress Development at Reader’s Digest.
Anthony D Paul
I help build great digital experiences and software through usability research, IA concepts, and prototypes. Outside the office, you’ll find me spread across regional meetups and conferences—evangelizing IA/UX, accessibility, and a variety of open source dev projects. When I’m not doing responsible adult things, I grow the world’s hottest chili peppers and bottle my own hot sauce. I’d divulge something funny from my past, but these days the Internet does a better job of surfacing our embarrassing moments; find me anywhere by Googling “anthonydpaul”.
Lauren Jeffcoat
I have been building WordPress websites for over seven years and currently am part of the OnTheGoSystems WPML Customer Support team. I love building WordPress websites and have worn many hats in the world of web development including Project Manager, Customer Service Representative, Account Strategist, and Web Designer.
Originally from Massachusetts USA, I now live in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, USA. I enjoy sharing my knowledge along with tips and tricks that I have learned either through furthering my education or personal experience.
Paul Bearne
Paul Bearne is a freelance senior WordPress full stack developer. He lives and works in Southern Ontario, Canada, serving both a local and an international client base.
He discovered WordPress in 2006 when asked to explore the use of collaborative tools internally for a multinational corporation, setting up a 200+ multi-blog site using WPMU on IIS7. As part of this project, he created his first plugin, Author Avatars, which now has 10,000+ active installs.
From this point on, the community, the flexibility and the velocity of WordPress has made it the platform of choice for Paul’s work.
Paul specializes in creating highly performant scalable, accessible and SEO friendly code (plugins and themes) for large WordPress sites that are often multi-site, multi-language, VIP and/or e-commerce.
He has made core commits in 3.9, 4.0, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6 and leads the virtual bi-weekly meetup, Contrib2Core. He continues to support his growing list of plugins and the wider WordPress community.
Paul is a WordCamp Toronto 2016 Co-Organizer.
Tamara MacDuff
I am the owner of Web Moxie Media, where I assist business owners in social media strategies and content strategies to grow their business and increase their online influence. My tactics revolve around SEO as a strategy, Social Media & Blogging, and Content Creation and Curation for their specific business, market and buyers. I use Yoast SEO and All In One SEO plugins on WordPress.
Dustin Meza
Dustin Meza is the Director of Customer Experience Operations at WP Engine. He has been in the hosting industry for 7 years and has been with WP Engine for 3 years. At WP Engine, Dustin oversees many aspects of the WordPress platform including WordPress upgrades for over 100,000 WordPress installs.
Outside of WordPress, Dustin loves being outdoors in Nashville with his wife Megan, and black lab, Maddy. He enjoys all kinds of sports, both watching and playing, and has been known to play some video games when time allows.
Christina Varro
Christina owns and operates a creative design and commercial photography studio called Varro Creative based in Calgary. She has over 15 years of experience in graphic and web design, and has primarily focused on WordPress based projects for her web clients for the past 6 years. She is new to speaking at WordCamp, and recently gave her first talk at WordCamp Calgary. She is excited to collaborate and share knowledge with others in the WordPress community.
Cory Miller
Founder of iThemes.com / 10+ years in WordPress / Co-Author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies.
Billy Gregory
Billy Gregory is an accessibility professional and Sr. Accessibility Engineer with The Paciello Group. As a former front-end developer, Billy can relate to many of the challenges and the apprehension faced by developers who are new to accessibility. He enjoys working with developers of all levels of experience to strengthen their skills and understanding of accessibility. Based out of Toronto, Canada, Billy is active in the Accessibility Community as an advocate, practitioner, and public speaker. He is co-organizer of both Accessibility Camp Toronto and it’s monthly meet-up group.
Rebecca Gill
Rebecca is founder and president of Web Savvy Marketing. She has as a well-rounded business background within SMB and enterprise organizations, as well as over fifteen years of experience in sales and online marketing. She provides one-on-one SEO coaching, teaches group on-site boot camps, and speaks at various WordCamps throughout the country.
Cesar Abeid
Happiness Engineer at Automattic, Project Management Professional®, Podcaster
Taras Mankovski
I am a developer at NewClarity LLC & Founder of WRKTG Inc & I’m known in the Ember.js community as the EmberSherpa.
Adam W. Warner
Adam W. Warner discovered WordPress in 2005 and has been working within the community ever since. To feed his entrepreneurial spirit, he founded several WordPress-focused businesses that provide education, plugins and consulting services for online business owners.
He is a true WordPress Evangelist in spirit and personality, and that also happens to be his job title with SiteLock.com.
Adam is also passionate about his family, robots, and of course Life, the Universe and Everything.
Jacques Surveyer
A full stack WordPress designer and developer with a mean mentoring streak. I really enjoy learning myself and helping others to understand how WordPress has become the Web Tool for the Rest of Us. I lead the Toronto WordPress Group Meetup | West Edition.
Michelle Arbore
I am the owner of Savvy Social Media where my company offers social media creation, management and coaching to entrepreneurs and small businesses. On a personal note, I have been married for 10 years and have a 5 year old boy.
Brian Messenlehner
Brian Messenlehner is a Co-Founder & CTO of WebDevStudios. Brian enjoys learning about new technology and believes open source software like WordPress is the key to successful cost effective web solutions in any situation.
Michelle Ames
Michelle is the owner and marketing diva at Marketed by Michelle, where her primary goal is to reach success by helping her clients achieve their highest success. Michelle is the organizer of the Rochester area WordPress user group, organizer of WordCamp Buffalo 2016, and Lead Organizer of WordCamp Rochester 2016.
Alan Lok
Alan Lok the owner of WirelessLinx Inc., a consulting company in the GTA area that helps with website development (WordPress, Joomla, Liferay) and stack performance tuning/analysis. He also manages the DevOps team at Mercatus Technologies and have been in most development roles in the past. Alan has presented in the past at various WordCamps in Ontario on topics of performance optimization and scaling WordPress.
John Eckman
I am CEO at 10up and one of the founding organizers of WordCamp Boston. I’ve developed a number of miscellaneous things including some Drupal modules and WordPress plugins, the most visible of which is probably WPBook.
Tracy Apps
I solve creative problems with the great folks at Cornershop Creative. As the designer for a small distributed team I get to not only do design but be a part of strategy, user testing and even coding things out in custom WordPress solutions.
David Vogelpohl
David Vogelpohl is the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine, a premium managed WordPress host designed for speed and reliability. David’s team at WP Engine focuses on web development, advanced analytics, and online advertising.
Since 1996, David has been managing web development and online marketing efforts in support of a wide range of business and billing models.
David is an avid contributor to the WordPress business community.
Meagan Hanes
Meagan Hanes is a WordPress expert and technology consultant based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with over 20 years creating websites by hand and over 10 years using WordPress. She creates elegant, high-performance, mobile-optimized web solutions – front-end, back-end, and everything in between. You may have seen her present talks across a variety of WordPress subjects, such as website performance, the website creation process, and learning HTML/CSS. She gives back to local communities through organizing WordCamp Ottawa 2016 and 2017, running meetups such as the Ottawa WordPress Community and the Arnprior WordPress Group, and teaching others to code via Ladies Learning Code. She is currently in the process of launching a new web agency, and is interested to talk with anyone who has ideas or advice 🙂