We have more friends from WordCamps past to welcome back in our third round of speakers. Laura Byrne Cristiano, a 2017 speaker, and Jodie Riccelli, who was on the WordCamp Philly organizing team, are among the fantastic people coming back this year.
Frank Corso, William Earnhardt, Charles Johnston, Laura Strader and Andrew Taylor will be joining them. We’ll have one more round of speakers to announce soon, plus information about our panels. Keep reading!
Frank Corso
Frank has been working with WordPress since 2009 and is the founder of Markasio, an agency that creates digital marketing software products. He is the organizer of Gainesville’s Digital Marketing Meetup, WordPress Meetup, and PHP Meetup. In his spare time, he also teaches web development both as an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and at IT.Pro TV. Above all else, he enjoys spending time with daughter.
Laura Byrne Cristiano
Laura started her first WordPress site back in March 2006 when she and a friend and decided to create a website about a then little-known book called Twilight where fans could discuss the novel on a blog and forums. What started as a small site with maybe 30 visitors a week rapidly grew into the most popular Twilight website on the Internet, with millions of visitors each day from around the globe.
Laura was suddenly thrust into a media vortex that included set visits, a book deal, speaking engagements, and too many surreal experiences to count. This led to Laura transition from a career in teaching to one in marketing with a whole new skill set that included podcasting, video editing, SEO, social media management and content marketing. Since then, she’s created and written for more than twenty WordPress sites, mostly in the areas of education and entertainment. Aside from her love of WordPress, Laura is also an Anglophile, avid traveler, theater lover, fantasy junkie, and occasional actor. She currently writes for Hypable.com and does freelance marketing and social media work.
William Earnhardt
William works as a WordPress core contributor at Bluehost. Before joining Bluehost earlier this year, he spent six years building and running WordPress multisite and multi-network environments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When not fiddling with WordPress things, he loves tinkering with old Jeeps, kayak fishing and cheering on the Tar Heels.
Charles Johnston
Charles is a digital ninja. After spending the last few too many decades in the IT industry, he started a boutique web design agency called HeartWired Technical Solutions, where he focuses on putting compassion back into technology. Charles has a heart for nonprofits and small businesses that are doing good in their communities. After his first of what has now been many mission trips, Charles knew that he had to use his gifts, talents, and passion for technology for good. Rather than just offering web design services, HeartWired provides web design and technology solutions with heart.
Jodie Riccelli
A lover of all things Philly, intrigued by tech, a self-proclaimed foodie, music lover, book hoarder, and a restless soul, Jodie started using WordPress in 2006. Her husband innocently suggested they needed a website for their music consulting business. One Saturday morning, she awoke to find a new laptop with video tutorials already loaded and manuals downloaded. After spending the weekend learning to use WordPress, she created their first website.
A graduate of Millersville University, Jodie brings fifteen years of sales and marketing experience to WebDevStudios. Her marketing expertise and ability to restructure and to systematize businesses has been recognized by entrepreneurs in real estate, the music industry, technology start-ups and education. Now she assists in creating unique web strategies and solutions for clients. She was on the organizing team for WordCamp US in Philadelphia, sits on the advisory board for PHL Diversity (a division of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau), Blackboard Labs board, and is a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of The Recording Academy.
In her downtime, she shares life experiences about screwing up on Izzabeth.com and has been known to get lost in old bookstores avoiding the fact that there is no more shelf space at home. Jodie lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Ccelli and her jug dog, Sir Frankie.
Laura Strader
Laura is a UX designer by trade and a wordsmith at heart. She loves color and collects art markers obsessively. She fights the good fight (death to lorem ipsum!) and supports content-first design. She started her career as a technical writer but moved to UX writing, because what good are technical instructions if no one understands them? Laura is a strong advocate of designing for the user by finding harmony between design and the micro-copy that gives it purpose.
Andrew Taylor
Andrew currently works for Pantheon as a developer programs engineer providing consulting to their agency partners on complex workflows and automation. He also enjoys giving back to the WordPress community through the hosting group, plugin development and speaking at WordCamps.
As a former web developer, Andrew spent his time on large scale projects for clients such as AMC Networks, Frito Lay, National Van Lines and more. He has more than 10 years of web development experience, specializing in WordPress.