Pascal Depuhl is a visual content creator at Photography by Depuhl, a Miami based production company. He’s been capturing still images for over 25 years and even though he got into video only 5 years ago, you’ll find his award winning and mind changing videos on National Geographic, Netflix, the BBC and many of his clients websites. It’s common to find him in the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of South America and it’s just as common to walk away from one of his short documentary style films with your mind blown.

“Marc Benzakein has been working online since the mid 90s, starting as a Network Administrator for a small, independent ISP in Southern California and has been involved in almost all aspects of technology. In 2009, he started developing in WordPress, first for his own purposes and then for clients. In early 2013, he got involved with ServerPress, LLC, makers of DesktopServer, a local development tool created for WordPress designers and developers.

Marc lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife, Jessica and a gaggle of children currently ranging in age from a few months to 13 years old.”

Patrick Alexander is the CEO and founder of WPBICO, an all in one WordPress solutions company specializing in covering all the website needs from bloggers, small businesses to corporations. An avid WordPress enthusiast and lover of all things tech, Patrick has devoted himself to the tech industry for over 15 years gaining extensive experience in Programming, Web Development, System Administration and Technician; and a resume with related positions in the U.S Air Force, Florida International University and several Internet Start Ups.

Rocío Valdivia is a Spanish Computer Engineer in love with Open Source, technology, travelling and personal challenges. She enjoys working every day as a Community Wrangler at WordCamp Central for Automattic. Rocío has experience as a WordPress & BuddyPress consultant and specialist developer since 2009.

Part of the Spanish translation team at GlotPress, and Spanish WordPress and BuddyPress forums administrator. Co-organiser of WordCamp Sevilla and WordCamp Europe 2015 and 2016, and co-author of “WordPress para Dummies” (2012). Lecturer at conferences and seminars. Find Rocío on Twitter: @rociovaldi.

As a hands on leader of multiple successful companies, Brazilian-born and South Florida-raised Alex Oliveira has helped clients advance their businesses and brands by building and executing interactive marketing campaigns for over 15 years.
With a heavy emphasis on Lead Gen, Alex has created a name for himself as a well-respected marketing technologist and entrepreneur. From small to Mid-sized companies to non-profits and Fortune 500 brands like Ford and Allstate, Alex enjoys a diverse portfolio of clientele.
Alex’s other passions include adventuring with his wife and 3 kids, giving back to the local community and having his morning coffee with a side of NPR.

Steven Alig spends his days planning applications and web projects with WordPress. He has been developing and designing websites since 1997. In 2004 he started his own agency. South Florida Web Studio has changed and adapted many times over the years since its inception and it continues to deliver quality web projects for a variety of clients. Since 2010 WordPress is the exclusive platform of choice for Steven and his agency.
He is a community volunteer serving on various Web advisory committees for Broward College and Broward Schools, as well as an organizer for Creative Mornings Fort Lauderdale, and WordCamp Miami. Steven also coaches soccer for both his daughters’ recreational league teams.

Jean Felisme has been a builder of things on the web for 10 plus years, as a freelancer and entrepreneur. He fell into WordPress back in 2008 and has never looked back. Now, he is a co-founder of RateMyBarber.com and a teacher of web development skills to students of all ages.

Father of two sugar filled girls and husband of a very forgiving wife. Best friend to the Stewmister, Miniature Schnauzer, that always has his back. He is also a big Football fan and music lover.

Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Originally from Louisiana, Shayla lives in the Fort Lauderdale area. Connect with her on Twitter: @shaylaprice

With a life-long passion for art and a BFA in Graphic Design, Stephanie is a web designer with an emphasis on design. She started freelancing as a print designer many years ago, but found the transition to web design a natural progression. Shortly thereafter, Stephanie and her husband began experimenting with WordPress around version 2.0.2 and built a thriving company around it. In 2011 they moved their family to Jacksonville, FL and rebranded as Flightless. Stephanie has been involved with the Florida WordPress community since 2014 and got her start speaking at WordCamp Miami. Since then she has been honored to share her knowledge at WordCamps Tampa, Orlando, and US. Most weeks you will find her attempting to balance web design and homeschooling, exploring the world of flavors she can invent in her kitchen, and sometimes on Twitter @sjbrinley.

Devin Walker is the founder of WordImpress, a San Diego based WordPress development company. He and the WordImpress team also serve as WordPress Community Consultants for Media Temple. Walker has extensive experience creating free, premium, and commercial WordPress plugins and themes. Popular plugins include Give, a highly rated WordPress Donations Plugin, Google Maps Builder, Yelp Widget Pro and WooCommerce Quick Checkout. In total, his plugins have more than 100,000 active installs.

Outside of the WordPress world, Devin enjoys traveling, going to concerts, and playing a leisurely round of disc golf.

“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 almost 3 years. At WP Engine, Dustin oversees many aspects of the WordPress platform including WordPress upgrades for over 100,000 WordPress installs and 40,000 customers.

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. If you really want to get him talking, just bring up your favorite movie.”

Syed Balkhi is an award winning young entrepreneur with several 7 figure online businesses. He was recognized as the top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by United Nations. His work has been featured in Forbes, Inc, Washington Post, FoxBusiness, Entrepreneur, Wired, and many top publications. In 2009, he created WPBeginner which is now one of the largest free WordPress resource site on the web. In 2011, he created a site called List25, an extremely popular site that within 3 months of launch was receiving 5 million page views per month. List25 has over 1.8 million subscribers and 340 Million video views on Youtube. In 2013, he launched OptinMonster, the best lead generation software that helps businesses grow their email list. Every month, OptinMonster forms are viewed billions of times and help convert millions of abandoning visitors into subscribers. Aside from these, Syed is also the founder of ThemeLab, Soliloquy, and Envira Gallery.

Georgina is from Jacksonville, Fl where she co-founded Shazzam Media, a national social media marketing and website design firm helping businesses grow their business brands and marketing channels with Simple Social Solutions. She has been developing WordPress solutions since 2009. Before starting Shazzam Media, Georgina was a mainframe programmer and founder of an IBM VAR business. She developed leading edge MRP & MPS software solutions for automating manufacturing companies around the world.

In her free time, Georgina is a social ecosystem speaker at emerging leader organizations and sports conferences. She is an agent to several professional golfers (of which her oldest child is a LPGA pro), mother to 4 assertive children, and wife to an understanding husband.

Mike has been working with WordPress since 2007. He has experience as a custom theme and plugin developer and has been a contributor to WordPress core since version 3.5. When not coding Mike enjoys making it out to local WordPress meetups and helping others to learn and share his passion for WordPress. Mike works on the Open Source team at Bluehost. He is also the author of the MOJO Marketplace plugin.

David Yarde is the co-founder of Sevenality, a Branding firm that specializes in design, and user experience with the aim of building better communities by helping build better brands. When David isn’t working on Sevenality or volunteering, he’s busy being Batman and spending time with his family and occasionally sharing tweets via @dsmy.

Tony is one of the Co-Founders, and CEO at Sucuri; a globally recognized website security firm specializing in cleaning and protecting websites. Tony has spent the better part of 5 years building an organization designed to provide value to website owners when they need it most. He has worked with 100’s of thousands of websites, helping them navigate their online security challenges, has spoken at events and conferences around the world, and is adamant in the power of education and awareness. He actively writes and shares his thoughts on both business and security on his personal web properties.

He is a former US Marine, holds his undergraduate degree in Technology Management, and is an active Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and competitor.

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.

John P Bloch is a Lead Web Engineer at 10up where he spends his time helping clients with large and complex WordPress sites. John started working with WordPress as a self-taught English-major-turned-developer in 2008 and hasn’t stopped since. John lives near Dallas, Texas where he enjoys the warm nights and slow-cooked barbecue.

Michelle is an independent graphic designer in Minneapolis (formerly Chicago). Her formal education is in design, including print, branding, packaging, etc., plus studies in Psychology and Sociology. Together, this resulted in a love of How To Solve Problems. Lately she has been specializing in WordPress theme development and high-end presentations for her clients. She loves the open source community and speaks/volunteers/organizes at WordCamps and other events around the country.

Ernie is a front-end developer, writer, speaker, designer and community organizer with an interest in how technology interacts with communities. Born and raised in the Bay Area and living in Miami, he is an internet industry veteran spanning 15 years, including running 8Asians, a community blog for Asian Americans, and being Developer Evangelist at Ning. He most recently served as a 2015 Code for America Fellow working with Miami-Dade County and is currently a software engineer at RackSpace.

Louise is an eternal web development geek and social media junkie. She’s a native of Metro Detroit and an alumnae of the University of Michigan. She learned about the human side of computer science while earning a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and has fined tuned her web developer skills over the course of a 20+ year career building, breaking, and fixing sites for a multitude of startups. She’s never had a “real” job and thus is quite well-versed on the realities of being a successful freelancer and small business owner. Louise loves coffee, is full of useless facts, and is eagerly waiting for her shot on Jeopardy. She lives in South Florida with her three bouncing boys and her husband.

Matt Medeiros is the host of popular WordPress podcast, The Matt Report. The show discusses the challenges and highlights of running a digital agency while standing in the crossroads of product development.

He is the co-founder of a digital agency, Slocum Studio and the product mind behind Conductor Plugin.

Nile Flores is a long time WordPress designer and Developer. Nile blogs at Blondish.net, where she covers topics on WordPress, Blogging, SEO, Social Media, and Web Design.She also loves contributing to WordPress, and that includes speaking at WordCamps across the United States. She loves helping people and supporting Open Source projects. She is a proud support member at Team Yoast. She also runs a 7,000 member Facebook roup dedicated to helping WordPressers, called All About WordPress. When Nile isn’t knee deep in coding and design, she’s spending time with her son, who is also a WordPress user.

Catalina is a content geek who has written different kind of content about economics, politics, policies, food, education and technology. She is a partner and contributor to TECHcetera a digital media platform aiming to help its Spanish speaking audience to make the most of the technology conversation..At TECHcetera, she writes about the use (and abuse) of technology in educational settings. Catalina is particularly interested in discussing how access to technological tools can reduce the knowledge gaps. She is a networker by nature and is part of local networks promoting women’s inclusion particularly in the tech scene. She had worked in different organizations including the London equivalent of a charter school where she began to understand the power that technology can have in learning and teaching environments. She grew up in Bogotá, Colombia where she attended the French school and obtained a BA in Economics. She lived in London for eight years where she got a Masters degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and qualified as a teacher. Catalina is a compulsive reader and avid cook. She lives in Miami with her family. Twitter: @cavalenzu.

With over 14 years of experience in web design and development, internet marketing, business management, and public speaking, James has had his hands in every aspect of running successful and not so successful businesses. He has led everything from churches and charities to coffee shops and Web Development Shops.

Irina Blumenfeld is an independent Front-End Developer. She has been creating websites for more than 10 years. Over time, she has branched out her skills with responsive design, theme development, and a passion for website performance.

Sarah Pressler is the Project Manager at ServerPress.com, Project Manager at PlainMade.com, Co-Founder and Project Manager of CodeBrainMedia.com and Marketing Advisor to The WP Developer Club. She is a fully engaged Mom of Four, a reluctant blogger at SarahPressler.com, an enthusiastic speaker at tech conferences, and passionate about helping others find remote work. A fourth generation Texan, Sarah currently resides near Austin with her fiance and children.

Technological enthusiast and Sales Engineer for Sucuri. Spends his spare time becoming familiar with several CMSs. When away from the keyboard, going out for long runs or watching sports with his wife.

Karen Dimmick is currently based in Sarasota FL. She has run her own businesses since 1995. Her background for the last 10 years has been wrapped up in language, copywriting, NLP (neuro linguistic programming), hypnosis, archetypes, psychology, persuasion, design, levels of consciousness and everything to do with how people’s minds work and why they do things.
In 2011 Karen started working on a system for branding that takes into account all these disparate ideas in a way that hasn’t been done before. She founded Iconisense.com to get this system out into the world and help entrepreneurs create brands that will last and attract loyal followers.

David Laietta is an organizer of WordPress Orlando and WordCamp Orlando. He has been using WordPress for nearly eight years now, and builds custom themes and plugins for clients. David is a cofounder of Dinosaur Iceberg, a creative agency based in Orlando. In addition to WordPress, David is passionate about open source software, online freedoms, internet culture, and constantly learning about the world. He looks forward to chatting with you at WordCamp Miami or on Twitter @davidlaietta.

Steve founded Zeek Interactive in 1995 and he has been the creative technologist behind the Huntington Beach based company since its inception. Under his direction, Zeek has grown from an apartment bedroom to one of Southern California’s leading development and consulting shops.

Steve is the organizer of the OC WordPress Meetup and has helped build the community to over 1100 members. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has taught interactive courses at UC Irvine, USC, the American Film Institute, and Cal State Long Beach. Steve has a BA in Film from Cal State Northridge.

Adam Soucie is a WordPress developer and the CEO at Dinosaur Iceberg, an Orlando-based digital creative agency. He is part of the WordPress Orlando and WordCamp Orlando organizing teams and recently joined the WordPress Accessibility Team.

Chris is a Senior Web Engineer for 10up and has been working on WordPress since 2008. Before joining 10up Chris built one of the largest security plugins in the WordPress community as well as numerous other plugins and solutions. When not coding Chris loves to teach and has presented at numerous WordCamps and other conferences as well as taught computer security for St. Edward’s University and other University courses ranging from computers to aviation.

Elisha is a homeschooled 13 year-old, and a passionate best-selling author, artist, kidpreneur, and speaker. She loves to write, read, draw, paint, and play the piano and guitar. She is proud to be a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Practitioner, trained by Jay Conrad Levinson himself. If Elisha had only 3 words to describe herself they would be creative, generous, and humorous. Elisha lives in Fort Worth, TX with her family and she loves spending time with them. She wrote I Love ME! at age ten, because she loves helping other kids become bully-proof, love themselves, and be the best they can be. Learn more about her at WhollyART.com

Elyssa is 12 years old. She enjoys being an entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, artist, and coach. She is homeschooled, and her greatest coach and mentor is her mom, Elayna Fernandez. Elyssa plays the guitar and piano, and she loves to play with her sisters, draw, read, write stories, dance ballet, play tennis, and ride her bike. She’s fascinated with nature, especially animals, and to avoid hurting them, she became vegan at age 7. Elyssa teaches children to love themselves and have self-confidence through her books, blog posts, and artistic expressions. Elyssa would be thrilled to get to know you. Learn more about her at WhollyART.com

Recognized as the Best Latina Lifestyle Blogger of 2015 and named one of the Top 100 Latina Influencers in the USA, Elayna Fernandez, The Positive MOM, is a best-selling author, award winning success guide for moms, and international keynote speaker. She is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer, trained personally by Jay Conrad Levinson, The Father of Guerrilla Marketing, and creator of the Guerrilla Positioning System (GPS) for Mompreneurs. Elayna is a Certified Passion Test Facilitator, and Certified ‘The Success Principles’ Trainer. Her mission is to encourage, empower, and equip moms to have more influence at home, more impact in the world, and more income to make it happen. She guides moms in their journey to create Joy, Balance, and Success on their own terms without guilt, fear, or overwhelm. Her philosophy is “BE Positive and You’ll BE Powerful!”

Sandy lives to help others build their business through WordPress and Marketing solutions.proficient in HTML5, CSS3, and WordPress.

She is also knowledgeable in local Search Engine Optimization(SEO), on page SEO, and SEO Rich Content Writing. She also loves to educate others.

When not banging his head on his monitor, attempting a blood sacrifice to get a particular piece of code working, Cal enjoys building and managing development teams using his widely imitated but never patented management style of “management by wandering around”.

These days, when not working with PHP, Cal can be found working on a variety of projects like CoderFaire. He speaks at conferences around the world on topics ranging from technical talks to motivational talks for developers. If you happen to meet him at a conference, don’t be afraid to buy him a shot of Bourbon.

Cal is based in Jupiter, FL where he is happily married to wife 1.31, the lovely and talented Kathy. Together they have 2 wonderful kids who were both smart enough not to pursue a job in IT.

Scott is from Orlando, FL where he founded Highforge, a digital services agency focused on solving complex business growth problems ranging from web design to Google strategy to balloon animal protection services. He’s been managing WordPress projects since 2006. In his free time he’s a marketing strategist, SEO and PPC guy. He loves to solve problems, make clients happy and help creatives achieve their destinies. He digs racquetball, backpacking, and a non-profit called Be the Match that helps save lives. Ask him why.

Currently based in Dunedin, Florida, Mindy Postoff is a WooCommerce Support Ninja at Automattic. She finds working in technical support extremely fulfilling, as it satisfies her fierce drive to help people, while also throwing in healthy levels of geekiness. Her superpower is being able to combine equal parts empathy with problem-solving skills.

Chris Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite. He’s also a daily blogger, a public speaker, and product strategist. He helps companies leverage WordPress, and helps WordPress companies find leverage.

For twenty years Chris has developed and managed high performing engineers to build software products – particularly SaaS products in a variety of B2B vertical markets. He’s also spent the last ten years coaching startups on product development & marketing strategies.