Category: Speakers

Our fifth and final speaker announcement features several talented folks who will be directing or moderating interactive community sessions!

• David Zimmerman

  

  David Zimmerman has been consulting for companies on SEO strategies and tactics for more than 12 years. He’s helped everyone from publicly-traded companies to mom-and-pop businesses. Five years ago, David started his own SEO company in Charlotte, North Carolina called Reliable Acorn, LLC. Recently he launched CuriousAnts.com to share what he’s learned about SEO best-practices with others.

• Josh Pollock

  

  Josh is a PHP and JavaScript developer from the best city in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. He helps build Ninja Forms, Caldera Forms, SendWP and more at Saturday Drive. He is also a WordPress core contributor and the author of a ton of tutorials about web development.

• Meg Phillips

  

  Meg Phillips is a mom, marketer, and web developer. Before having children, Meg worked in apparel product development and was part of the team that launched the Soma Brand for Chico’s FAS. Since becoming a mom, Meg continues to work as a product developer focused on technology and marketing for start-up ideas. Most recently, the Covid-19 crisis inspired Meg to found SchoolListIt — what’s due and when for any school, anywhere. You can find Meg on Making WordPress Slack, Twitter, and Youtube with the handle @MegPhillips91.

• Michelle Frechette

  

  Michelle has more than twenty years of experience in higher education and ten years owning a web design and marketing company. She currently serves as the head of customer success for Impress.org (developers of GiveWP.com and WPBusinessReviews.com). She is the podcast barista at WPCoffeeTalk.com. Michelle is the author of (ironically) “A Good Firm Handshake (and other essential business tips),” which is available on Amazon.com. Say hi to Michelle on Twitter at @michelleames and check out her website at worksbymichelle.com.

• William Jackson

  

  William graduated from South Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in education and earned his master’s degree in teaching from Webster University with a focus on educational technology, social media, and STEM. William has worked as an internet and technology instructor at NASA, as a technology consultant with the Florida Department of Education, and as an instructor of Educational Technology, Social Media and STEAM at Edward Waters College. William has spoken at many webinars discussing topics including cyberbullying, sexting, and social engagement. He and his fiance are the teachers for WP Jax Kids Meetup for youth, teens, and young adults.

Announcing two more speakers for WordCamp Philadelphia – we’re excited to have several speakers this year with not only amazing WordPress skills but valuable social justice experience as well.

• Andy Stitt

  

  Andy Stitt has been in the “tech for good” space for the last 12 years. Spending most of his time in the non-profit world, he now works in state government as the lead front-end developer for the Government Information Center at the Delaware Department of State. He builds and manages WordPress websites for Delaware state government agencies and municipalities and is the lead developer for the state’s coronavirus information website.

  You can learn more about him and his work at https://andystitt.me/.

• David Dylan Thomas

  

  David Dylan Thomas, author of the book Design for Cognitive Bias from A Book Apart, serves as a content strategy advocate at Think Company and is the creator and host of the Cognitive Bias podcast. He has developed digital strategies for major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. He has presented at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, Confab, LavaCon, UX Copenhagen, Artifact, the IA Conference, the Design and Content Conference, and the Wharton Web Conference on topics at the intersection of bias, design, and social justice.

We’re excited to announce one of our community sessions at this year’s WordCamp!

Code Differently promotes diversity by providing hands-on training and education to participants in order to give them the skills they need to excel in technology-driven workplaces.

In this session, we’ll be hearing from a panel of high school students who just completed a work-based learning program. They gained WordPress experience working in a real software development environment while sharpening their skills.

• Bianca Ross

  

• DJ (Leweldon) Wright

  

• Kahliel Nichols

  

• Lizbeth Guadarrama

  

• Raven Brooks

  

Introducing several more awesome speakers at this year’s WordCamp 2020 – this list includes experts in marketing, development, accessibility, and more. Remember to grab your ticket ASAP and mark your calendar for September 26th!

• AmyJune Hineline

  

  AmyJune Hineline is the open-source community ambassador at Kanopi Studios. She helps people become more comfortable and confident as they contribute to their communities. She co-organizes various open-source camps and conventions throughout North America, empowering individuals to forge deep community connections that benefit the whole. As a self-described non-coder, AmyJune helps communities discover how they can contribute and belong in more ways than coding.

  Her ongoing experience as a hospice nurse keeps her in touch with the challenges faced by many end-users. In her continued efforts to make a difference, she helps organize A11yTalks, an online meetup where they invite folks on every month to talk about all things accessibility – one of the core components of building an inclusive web.

  Outside of her mission in the technology community space, she has a deep love for mycology, geocaching, and air-cooled Volkswagens.

• Brandon Schmidt

  

  Brandon is the director of digital strategy for YDOP, a digital marketing agency in Lancaster, Pa. At YDOP, Brandon focuses on content, SEO, and digital strategies that help businesses increase traffic, build trust, and grow their businesses online.

• Joan Logose

  

  Joan has spent six years working with WordPress websites and doing web support for over 20 organizations from around the world. She also has three years of experience using Woo Commerce for setting up online shops. Joan was a speaker at WordCamp Kampala 2019, and has attended WordCamp Mombasa 2019 and WordCamp Santa Clarita 2020 online. She is also a participant in the Entebbe WordPress Meetup and other Ugandan WordPress community meetups.

• Josh Gellock

  

  Josh is the SEO and content strategist at Expander Digital, an SEO studio he founded in 2014. He’s been in the SEO space since 2011, and helps businesses manage their SEO through projects, consultations, and campaigns. When he’s not meeting with clients, Josh can be found spending time with his children or on a bike.

• Michelle Held

  

  Michelle is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, and author who has been involved in the technology industry for more than 20 years. Michelle owns MetroNY, LLC, and conducts corporate seminars and training sessions covering digital marketing, social media strategy, and web technologies.

  Michelle has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and runs AskCyberSecurity.com and PinTalk.net. Connect with Michelle on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram @metronycom, or on Twitter @metrony.

• Topher DeRosia

  

  Topher DeRosia is the senior developer advocate at BigCommerce, where he works to enhance communication between BigCommerce and developers. He brings more than 25 years of experience as a web developer, over a decade of which has been spent building out WordPress sites. In addition, Topher has extensive knowledge of WooCommerce development, helped make Easy Digital Downloads, and curates HeroPress.com. Fun fact: Topher is responsible for making the official International Space Station Windows95 desktop theme.

  He currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife Cate and two daughters, Ema and Sophia. You can find Topher on Twitter (@topher1kenobe) talking about ecommerce, web development, general technology, and culture. He’s also a regular on the Make WordPress and Post Status Slack channels.

Introducing our second round of speakers for WordCamp Philly 2020!

• David Artiss

  

  By day, David Artiss works as a support engineer and hiring lead on the WordPress VIP team at Automattic. His nearly thirty years of experience in IT support roles has given him the chance to cultivate the art of truly taking care of people and writing so anyone can understand.

  David has been active in the WordPress community for 12 years, first as a plugin author, then as a speaker and volunteer at various WordCamps, as well as contributing to core, support, documentation, translations, and WordPress.TV.

  By night, David has performed in 18 musicals and concerts, so he is no stranger to the stage. He also writes for the straight-talking technology site The Big Tech Question. He lives in Nottingham, England, with his wife, two daughters, and a room full of Legos.

• David Vogelpohl

  

  David serves on the senior leadership team at WP Engine, where he leads WordPress strategy and the Genesis business unit within WP Engine. David is a digital veteran with more than 20 years of experience leading teams building, growing, and scaling digital businesses. David also owned and operated an advanced WordPress agency serving clients globally including marquee clients like WP Engine, Pioneer Electronics, and Esurance.

• Jason McClintock

  

  Jason is a designer with experience ranging from non-profit to agency work. He is currently a product designer at DigitalCube, where he works to use design to make lives easier.

• Joost de Valk

  

  Joost de Valk is the founder of Yoast and currently the chief product officer. Joost has a background as an SEO expert, digital marketer and web developer. In the early days of his career, he worked at several IT companies, ranging from enterprise hosting to online marketing agencies. This allowed him to work with several large brands around the world.

  In 2010 he founded Yoast, a company with a mission to allow as many people as possible to build a findable website.

• Lindsay Grow

  

  Lindsay Grow is an award-winning product and design leader. Currently, she works as lead product designer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she focuses on digital transformation and storytelling. Before that, she was the lead information architect at Comcast, designing the future of entertainment for cross-platform video applications.

  Additionally, Lindsay worked as a design consultant in Philadelphia, where she helped to create human-centered enterprise business systems through research. Before creating products, Lindsay had a successful career in documentary film and video production.

• Marieke van de Rakt

  

  Marieke studied sociology and communication sciences at the Radboud University in Nijmegen and earned her doctorate in social sciences in 2011. Since the beginning of Yoast, she has been involved in the company. Since 2019, she has served as the CEO. Her main focus is on marketing, human resources, and company culture. But she also loves to think of ways to improve Yoast SEO. Her expertise is on SEO copywriting and site structure.

For our second speaker announcement, we’ve got something a little bit different! The WordPress Guppy Tank is a pitch panel (inspired by “Shark Tank”) where three applicants will present their WordPress business or product ideas to panelists. One winner will be selected to receive four free mentoring sessions.

If you think you might have an idea to present, you can apply to be part of this panel! The panelists are also offering a learn-to-pitch webinar on August 26th to help you prepare. Sign up for the webinar, learn more about the process, apply to be a mentor, or apply to pitch your idea at WPPitchPanel.com.

The WPGuppyTank panelists:

• Meg Phillips

  

  Meg Phillips is a mom, marketer, and web developer. Before having children, Meg worked in apparel product development and was part of the team that launched the Soma Brand for Chico’s FAS. Since becoming a mom, Meg continues to work as a product developer focused on technology and marketing for start-up ideas. Most recently, the Covid-19 crisis inspired Meg to found SchoolListIt — what’s due and when for any school, anywhere. You can find Meg on Making WordPress Slack, Twitter, and Youtube with the handle @MegPhillips91.

• Michelle Frechette

  

  Michelle has more than twenty years of experience in higher education and ten years owning a web design and marketing company. She currently serves as the head of customer success for Impress.org (developers of GiveWP.com and WPBusinessReviews.com). She is the podcast barista at WPCoffeeTalk.com. Michelle is the author of (ironically) “A Good Firm Handshake (and other essential business tips),” which is available on Amazon.com. Say hi to Michelle on Twitter at @michelleames and check out her website at worksbymichelle.com.

Meet the WordCamp Philly 2020 speakers!

We’re thrilled to be announcing our first round of speakers for this year’s WordCamp Philadelphia! The majority of our speakers are local to Philadelphia, and this first batch brings plenty of expertise.

Without further ado…

• Bud Kraus

  

  For more than 12 years, Bud Kraus has been teaching WordPress and developing sites for small businesses and organizations. He is the creator of two online courses where over 1000 people have learned WordPress the world over at no cost. His site projects include a wide variety of re-design work. He is very active in the WordPress communities in New York City and northern New Jersey.

• Colby Fayock

  

  Colby Fayock is a lead front end engineer and UX designer at Element 84 in Alexandria, Virginia. He’s passionate about tackling challenges that can help save people’s lives and make the world a better place. Some of the projects Colby and his team have worked on include NASA and commercial satellite mapping interfaces, video streaming on multiple platforms, and helping first responders with disaster response solutions.

• Jarrett Gucci

  

  Jarrett Gucci, also known in the WordPress support world as Quicksilver, has the superhuman ability to troubleshoot WordPress issues at great speeds. He is a mutant that was born in the darkest depths of open source with superhuman support powers. He is the product of a genetic experimentation with the goal of solving WordPress issues as fast as possible. Jarrett Gucci, Quicksilver is most commonly known as the owner and founder of WP Fix It where he and his superhero team have serviced over 232,000 WordPress issues since 2009.

• Kerch McConlogue

  

  Kerch McConlogue is a retired ADHD coach and frontend developer. She has been writing code by hand for 20 years and using WordPress since version 1.5. Her passion is helping WordPress novices to understand the basic care and feeding of their own sites and to get them past their fears of breaking the internet. A one-person shop building sites mainly for small to midsized businesses, she handles a lot of the design work.

• Kim White

  

  With a background in education, it’s no wonder why Kim White has a passion for building community, teaching people, and managing websites. Her extensive career in web design working with graphic artists has impacted many in a positive way.

  Kim loves the WordPress community and is a long-time organizer for the Lehigh Valley Meetups and WordCamps. She has also spoken about how to find good hosting, getting started with WordPress, and how to choose and manage images on your site.

  When she’s not helping people solve support issues for Paid Memberships Pro, you can find Kim spending time with her children and her husband of 30-plus years, finding the best brews, and sharing photos of their cats on Instagram. Say hi to Kim at @MrsCRW and check out her blog at pixelpaper.net.

• Scott Wittrock

  

  Scott Wittrock is a product manager at Banno, a digital banking platform providing banking apps to local banks and credit unions. He is also a developer and entrepreneur launching many apps over his career. Most recently, he has been working launching a meal planning business to help nutritionists connect more with their clients. He’s been in Philadelphia for the last two years. When he’s not working, you’ll find him hiking or playing pickleball.

Considering applying to be a speaker for the virtual WordCamp Philly 2020, which will be held on Saturday, September 26? If you have questions, want to discuss an idea for a talk, or would like to learn more about the format of this year’s conference, drop in for a chat at our virtual office hour on Monday, July 20, at 6:30 p.m. We will host the office hour via Zoom.

Find information about how to join the meeting by copying and pasting this link in your browser: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EBtHbb1ihc1xIQ3OCFLOXhUaVtKPYcgO6MYx_Dz17Hs/edit?usp=sharing

New and Traditional Formats

We are looking for speakers, especially from the Philadelphia region, to share their knowledge and stories with the WordPress community. While we welcome traditional speaker talks with slides, we are also seeking other formats to make the virtual conference an engaging experience for the community.

Application Deadline

You can submit your speaker application through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 22. Applicants are asked to limit their submissions to three proposed talks.

Drop by for an informal chat during our office hour! If you can’t make the office hour but you are considering applying to be a speaker, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team with questions by filling out our contact form.

WordCamp Philly is looking for speakers to share their knowledge and stories on September 26, 2020.

We’re accepting applications through 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 22. Applicants are asked to limit their submissions to three proposed talks.