WordCamp Philly 2011

Lisa Sabin-Wilson is the founder of E.Webscapes Design Studio, a blog and web site design and development company specializing in premium WordPress themes, made to order to your specifications. She has designed and developed over 1,000 personal and professional WordPress web sites.  Lisa is also the founder of Allure Themes, a premium theme company catering primarily to women and the web sites that run them.

Lisa is the For Dummies brand (Wiley Pub) franchise author on all things WordPress; having worked with WordPress since 2003, she has extensive experience and knowledge on the platform and shares it in her several WordPress-related books. She is also a regular public speaker on topics such as: WordPress, blogging, design and social media. Follow Lisa on Twitter here: @LisaSabinWilson

Lisa will be giving a presentation in the User Track titled: How I Explained WordPress to my Mother

What are you speaking about at WordCamp Philly?
My presentation is titled “How I explained WordPress to my mother” – it’s a presentation for beginners to learn the basic about the WordPress software – but also, because so many people are now making a living using the WordPress platform in on way or another, I would guess that others run into the same issues I do when I try to explain what I do for a living….the inevitable “Oh. What is WordPress?” question. Even though WordPress powers almost 15% of the internet, there are still so many people who don’t know what it is or why it’s a big deal!
What is your favorite thing about the city of Philadelphia?
Brad Williams, WebDev, Cheesesteak and the Liberty Bell.
Why do you love WordPress?
It provides an ‘almost’ autonomous user experience, allowing users to become independent with their web publishing – this is coming from an old school dev whose clients used to have to re-hire in order to add a new page to their web site!

Jason is CEO of Stranger Studios, a small web development firm out of Reading, PA. They’ve been building websites full time since 2006 and have slowly moved our business to nearly 100% WordPress development.

Besides building the Paid Memberships Pro plugin, they’ve built many large, complex plugins for clients including our own eCommerce plugin, a workshop/events plugin, real estate plugins, and large custom sites that do crazy things with WordPress.

Jason will be giving a presentation in the Developer Track titled: Building a Plugin in One Night. He will continue his session during the Sunday Dev Day.

What are you speaking about at WordCamp Philly?
Together, my audience and I will create a WordPress plugin in one night. During the first half of my session, we’ll brainstorm ideas for a plugin and choose one idea by vote for me to program that night. During the second session, I’ll go into a bit of the development planning and what’s needed to get a plugin into the repository.
If you have an idea for a simple plugin that would make your WP life better, tweet it to @pmproplugin or email me at jason@strangerstudios.com.
What is your favorite thing about the city of Philadelphia?
The city is pretty cool, but what’s better are the amazing people who live in and near Philadelphia and show up at events like WordCamp. Philly people have a nice mix of idealism and practicality that I find appealing.
Why do you love WordPress?
Again, WordPress has a healthy balance of the ideal and the practical. And the community is awesome. Using WordPress for the websites we build allows us to benefit from the code that thousands of hackers are contributing via core updates, themes, and plugins. It is great to take something like the Paid Memberships Pro plugin, which is benefiting our business and our clients business, and give that back to the community to help people I’ll never meet build great websites, make real money, and grow wonderful businesses.

Patrick O’Keefe is the founder of the iFroggy Network, a publisher of websites. He has been managing online communities since 2000 and is the author of “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online social spaces.

He has been responsible for the cultivation of communities like KarateForums.com. phpBBHacks.com and
PhotoshopForums.com. He blogs about online community at ManagingCommunities.com, his favorite record label at BadBoyBlog.com and more at patrickokeefe.com. On Twitter, he’s @iFroggy.

Patrick will be giving a presentation in the Power User Track titled: Building Community Around Your WordPress Blog

What are you speaking about at WordCamp Philly?
My topic is “Building Community Around Your WordPress Publication.” I am going to talk about how you can engage with the community that exists around your WordPress powered publication, including the community you have by default, the community you can grow on your site and the engagement that takes place in spaces you don’t control. If you are publishing, in one way or another, you have a community. The only question is: how do you engage with it?
What is your favorite thing about the city of Philadelphia?
I have never been in Philadelphia! I am looking forward to taking a look around. What comes to mind when I think of Philadelphia is WordCamp Philly co-organizer Brad Williams, his fiancée April Heline and the Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe. I’m a big AVGN fan and that is the area where he is based!
Why do you love WordPress?
I like how it is regularly maintained, certainly, but the greatest thing about WordPress is the size and breadth of the community behind it, providing a seemingly endless selection of plugins, themes and resources. That’s what makes WordPress great, for me.

Fajr Muhammad is an avid blogger and WordPress groupie! In 2006 she started her fashion/lifestyle blog Stylish Thought. Today, Stylish Thought is a mashup of fashion commentary, female empowerment and tried and true advice on living and dressing outside the box! Armed with a love of the internet, Fajr is also a professional SEO copywriter and helps small businesseses and entrepreneurs harness their digital mojo through the power of WordPress. You can follow Fajr on Twitter@stylishthought

Fajr will be giving a presentation in the User Track titled: WordPress 101: The Basics of Blogging & 101 Resources to Get Started

What are you speaking about at WordCamp Philly?
Torture people with my public speaking and spread the gospel of blogging and how using WordPress helps to build an amazing blog.
What is your favorite thing about the city of Philadelphia?
The amazing independent boutiques and arts community! I love fashion so the shops that line 3rd street in Olde City are my favorite places to shop because they always have unique finds you won’t get anywhere else.
Why do you love WordPress?
Because it’s so flexible and grows with you! I’ve been using WP for 4 years and am still astounded at the things it can do!