Speakers

Cindy Montgenie

Cindy Montgenie, former award-winning tech executive at HP, is a high-performance strategist, international keynote speaker, and certified executive coach whose subject matter expertise includes the future of work, change leadership, and influence.

www.newskiesnation.com | @CindyMontgenie

Windy Pierre

I’m a studious and dedicated eCommerce and Digital Marketing Professional that develops and implements digital marketing strategies for organizations, ensuring their messages, products and services reach all the right targets.

WindyPierre.com | @windipierre

Victoria Dameus

Victoria Rollie Dameus, a senior at Lauderhill 6-12 STEM-MED magnet school, arrived from Haiti in 2013. She managed to develop her leadership role as the Secretary of National Honor Society’s Lauderhill 6-12 chapter, a lead anchor and writer of the school’s television production studio, Copy Editor of the Yearbook club, and Vice President of Future Educators of America’s Lauderhill 6-12 chapter. It was her active involvement in the coding group that propelled Victoria forward. As if learning English as a third language was not enough to keep her occupied, Victoria found the time to learn HTML, HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, Python, SQL, JavaScript, and PHP. This opened a new world for her. Identifying problems and developing computer science solutions came naturally for Victoria, her work has gained the attention of the South Florida community and she has already made a footprint of her unique user experience web style. Virctoria’s determination to lead by example has provided Victoria with 1st place recognitions for Human Capital Management Jr. End of the Year competition and the Yaegar Redesign Project and 2019 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing National Award winner.  Her community involvement led her to present at the 9th and 10th annual WordCamp Miami where as part of a panel discussion she shared her insights on web tools and publishing in the 21st century.  She parlayed these experiences into a summer job at Conceptual Communications. She also has an AWS Certification.

Twitter: @VictoriaDameus

Edward Pratt

Edward Pratt (Age: 17)

School: Lauderhill 6-12

Edward began learning how to use WordPress his tenth-grade year. He attended many WordPress workshops which was sponsored by his Oracle club at school. He was then able to use his knowledge with WordPress during a summer internship he had with the Yeager Companies. He also participated in a competition within his Oracle club where he was placed in a team and had to develop a website, a WordPress powered blog and an application using the Agile Process(Scrum). Edward describes his WordPress experience as interesting and fun. During his learning, Edward has successfully learned how to use HTML, CSS, SQL, PHP, and Python. Prior to him joining the Oracle club, he was learning how to make animations and has also participated in a Drone Competition FAU High School. Edward is also a very active person and takes part in his school’s activities. He is a member of his school’s Yearbook club, T.V Production club, NHS, L.I.N.K.S club, Chess Club, and T.U.G.A. On his days off, Edward can be seen reading, drawing, playing music, hanging out with friends, going to the gym or writing a poem. He also enjoys going for walks and admiring nature’s beauty. He aspires to travel the world and enjoy life.

Alicia Eugene

Twitter: @nerds_rule35

Andrew Lacayo

Andrew Lacayo is a fifth grader at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, Florida.  Andrew is active in his school’s VEX Robotics and SECME teams and plays the piano.  Andrew is on student council, recently completed a semester on the school’s morning announcements team, and is a best buddy at his school.  His favorite subject in school is science and he enjoys sketching and video games.

Aidan Lacayo

Aidan Lacayo is a sixth grade student at Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston, Florida.  Aidan participates in his school’s science competition class and is enrolled in the Broward County Public School’s Elements of Mathematics Foundations (EMF) advanced mathematics curriculum.  Aidan’s current favorite class in school is debate.  During the summer he will attend Eckerd College for a Duke Tip summer camp program. Aidan plays tennis and enjoys playing the electric guitar.  He is currently a member of a music  band named Inspiration.

Amaya Matias Medina

Amaya Matías Medina is a fifth-grade student at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston. She has successfully completed The Hour of Code, Learning.com Digital program, and several other Coding trainings and is a beginner WordPress user. Amaya and her fellow classmates participated in Day of the Girl, hosted by the United Nations, and was featured on NBC 6 and Our City Media with her classmates for their involvement with Robotics.

Amaya has been coding for two years and is part of the VEX Robotics Team at her school, which, thanks to outstanding guidance from her teachers, teamwork and exceptional coding skills, won first place at the Broward VIQC Elementary Tournament and was awarded the Excellence Award and the Teamwork Champion Award. Amaya loves coding, robots and she wants to study Robotics.

Her dream is setting up a Robotics company business.

Twitter: @AmayaMM4

Samientha Tellus

Samientha Tellus, a senior at Lauderhill 6-12 who is passionate about computers and coding. I’m pursuing a Computer Science degree after high school.

Zach Stepek

Zach is the CEO of Mindsize, a company that builds enterprise-scale eCommerce sites for successful store owners. He’s been “building the web” since the 90’s, working as a designer, developer, UX architect, team lead, and executive. As a speaker and instructor, he’s taught others how to build for the web everywhere from IBM to MTV. In his free time, he’s a professional concert photographer and amateur musician.

Twitter: @zstepek

Doug Steinberg

Doug is a native South Floridian and web developer for the past 15 years. He fell in love with programming when he discovered you can turn a spread sheet full of product data into a dynamic web site and has been writing code ever since. His primary programing language is PHP, but he has an insatiable curiosity for all things code. In addition to PHP he enjoys working with Javascript and is the organizer of the Fort Lauderdale Vue JS Meet Up. He believes our lives as developers can be more pleasant by writing clean code and tries to spread that message. When he’s not coding for fun or profit, Doug enjoys mountain biking, playing guitar, camping, wood working, and spending time with his wife and puppy.

Twitter: @doug_steinberg

Slavo Popovic

Problem-solving Software Developer is successful at creating a seamless user experience throughout the entire product line. A highly focused developer is adept at streamlining complicated processes by incorporating minimalist design principles into the user experience.

Naima Sheikh

Naima is a Brand Architect & Digital Strategy Consultant.

After 20+ years of leading app development teams in corporate organizations, she turned to digital strategy consulting to help individuals and small businesses grab their share of the online economy. 

Her passion for people and tech means she speaks geek AND human in helping you build a strong online presence — complete with branded WordPress websites, digital assets and automated sales funnels — in a systematic, stress-free manner.

Twitter: _naima

Michelle Wiltshire

Without boxing myself in too much, I describe myself as always curious, overly energetic, and a holistically inclined person. I’m licensed as clinical psychologist with a small private practice in Midtown (Miami) and a Product Designer of digital products. In 2017 I chose to evolve my career to include design and development with a focus on Front-end development. My everyday motivation is to bridge gaps between need and resources. I feel inspired by tech/design’s ability to have a positive impact on a grand scale. Right now I am a Product Design Consultant and UX Consultant at two startups. In my spare time I’m building , designing, and launching passion products.

MichelleWiltshire.com | @MichelleWasabi

Nemanja Stojanovic

During his career, Nemanja has been involved with numerous aspects of building high-scale production systems as well as mentoring and teaching. For the past 2 years, he’s been working at Enki (enki.com) where he currently oversees the day to day engineering operations across multiple educational products (a Slack bot, a mobile app, a web app) supporting close to 1M users. Over the years, Nemanja has leveraged JavaScript to build software ranging from web, hybrid and native mobile applications to backend and infrastructure systems in the cloud.

Outside of his day job, you can find him occasionally contributing to OSS or learning funky tunes on his saxophone.

Twitter: @nem035

Jennifer Bourn

With 20 years experience as a graphic designer, 14 years experience as a web designer, 13 years as a creative agency owner, and 10 years as a blogger, Jennifer Bourn has worked with hundreds of small-medium sized service-based businesses to build brands, establish profitable online platforms, and claim authority positioning in their niche. She is also a sought-after speaker and writer, earning rave reviews for her workshops, trainings, and valuable articles. Through jenniferbourn.com, Jennifer focuses on providing the information, tools, and resources freelancers need to build thriving, successful businesses and delivering courses that help freelancers make more money. Through her agency, Bourn Creative, she offers a suite of services designed to maximize results and increase profits that include brand strategy, content strategy, and website strategy, as well as copy writing and content implementation. Over at her personal blog, Inspired Imperfection, she shares recipes, family adventures, and more.

Twitter: @jenniferbourn

Tony Perez

Tony is the GoDaddy General Manager (GM) responsible for the Security Product Group and Sucuri Brand. He oversees the Certificate Authority (CA), Content Distribution Network (CDN), Website Application Firewall (WAF), Website Backups, Monitoring, DNS and Incident Response Product and services. He is the former CEO/Co-Founder at Sucuri and US Marine.

Twitter: @perezbox 

Joseph LoPreste

I am Co-Owner of a software development agency St. Pete Design. We have been building WordPress sites and software since 2012. We have a passion for Web Accessibility and making the internet for accessible for everybody. We also love building custom WordPress software.

Twitter: @Josephlopreste 

Valerie Pierce

I have worked with a variety of businesses and charities over the last 20+ years in some form of customer relationship management and the one thing they all have in common is the necessity of human interaction.

Twitter: @CheSeZibyV 

Chloe Chamberland

Hi! My name is Chloe, and I currently work as a Security Analyst at Wordfence. I love helping out the WordPress community and educating everyone on how to secure their systems. I am a holder of the Security+ certification along with the CySA+ certification, the SSCP certification, and CEH certification. When I am not learning about security or helping teach individuals about security I enjoy finding new and unique coffee shops, exploring the globe, and hanging out with all of my furry friends.

Twitter: @infosecchloe 

Rachel S. Lucas

Rachel is a writer who is working on her debut YA Historical Fantasy novel. When she is not crafting fantastical worlds, she can be found sharing her musings on writing on her website: rachelslucas.com. She is also the co-founder of BICO DESK, a Website Training & Support platform. Forever a teacher at heart, she loves sharing her love of WordPress and how people can use WordPress to expand and fulfill their dreams and interests.

Twitter:@r_s_lucas 

Christie Chirinos

Christie Chirinos is one of the co-owners and the business development lead at Caldera Labs, a WordPress plugin company best known for its popular contact form plugin, Caldera Forms. Christie started making websites at the age of 14, and before joining Caldera Labs did everything from selling items on eBay to leading website re-launch projects for major nonprofit organizations – on WordPress, of course. Christie recently received her Master of Business Administration degree from Florida State University (2015), and is currently based out of New York City.

Twitter: @xtiechirinos

Jamie Schmid

Jamie Schmid has a particular passion for creating excellent content experiences, and a big ol’ enthusiasm for all things WordPress. Formerly Community Evangelist at SiteLock, she is now a WordPress Strategy and Development consultant based in Portland, OR, where she works with clients to build a strong website strategy that encourages communication, planning, and smart use of content.

Twitter: @jamieschmid 

Wendy Guess

Wendy is passionate about what makes people tick, why they do what they do…and how they become your loyal clientele. You have a service that helps business become stronger, so…you need the right systems in place to build the right community with the right communication. Passions: being inspired, learning, harmonious living, healthy change, healthy marketing, systemic coaching, outdoorsy stuff, energy, and sound healing; WordPress enthusiast, choreographing communication and yep, even social dances! She teaches in FIU’s Master of Marketing program and is a 6-time award-winning professor for FIU’s PMBA online

Twitter: @DrWendyGuess #SassySage #HealthyChange

Mary Baum

Just back from four years in the high desert of California, St. Louisan Mary Baum is the founder and principal of RacquetPress, which builds Genesis child themes and more for the tennis industry.

A veteran creative and degreed designer*, she speaks on WP design and development and helps organize WordCamp St. Louis.

Passions: rare steaks, hard serves and high-contrast serifs;
homemade hot fudge, high backhand volleys, Genesis hooks and Joshua trees.

*Translation: #crustyoldbroad is hella old. But not slow.

Website: RacquetPress | @marybaum

Aida Marie Correa

Aida Correa, a self-described Renaissance woman, is an artist, writer, poet, designer, teacher and a true WordCamp enthusiast. She’s the owner of LoveBuilt Life LLC, an Arts and Creative Lifestyle company, where she teaches the art of creative living and S.T.E.A.M. classes for kids. As her “side hustle” she creates WordPress websites for start-ups on a budget.

WordCamp Miami 2018, was her first foray into the world of WordCamp and she dived in head first as a volunteer and room MC. She has since continued to attend, volunteer and speak at WordCamps nationally and internationally and has become a passionate advocate and organizer for KidsCamp.

She enjoys spending time with her kids, grandkids and her loving boyfriend who introduced her to the world of WordCamp in the first place.

Twitter: @lovebuiltlife 

Jessica Ortega

I have been working with WordPress for over a decade, starting in web hosting technical support, server administration, terms of service enforcement for a managed WordPress platform, and now as a technical writer and security analyst. I am passionate about WordPress security and use my position as a technical writer with SiteLock to help educate small business and website owners on the best ways to keep their livelihoods secure. I also host a bi-weekly podcast called Decoding Security that provides cybersecurity best practices for the novice website owner.

Twitter: @decodingjortega 

Whitney Lubin

Whitney Lubin is a Full Stack Web/Mobile Software Engineer, content creator, writer, and entrepreneur. She is a Co-Founder at FemmeNoire International, a South Florida based technology consultancy firm.
She specializes in web and mobile development frameworks and libraries like React.js, Ruby-on-Rails, and React-Native.
Whitney has spent the bulk of her professional career working with businesses to find technology solutions, and as a community building advocate and mentor. Whitney brings a unique perspective to product development from her experiences working in technology adjacent client facing roles. As a developer she is committed to exploring new and creative ways to solve old problems, and enjoys collaborating with passionate people interested in doing the same.

Twitter: @thewhitneylubin

Christina Harris

Christina Harris started working with WordPress in 2008. After spending years building WordPress sites for friends, family, and clients, she realized how much she enjoys teaching others about WordPress. In 2014, she joined WPBeginner to create training videos about WordPress. WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource sites on the web.

Twitter: @anthrogeek 

Keri Engel

Keri is Head of Growth at OptinMonster, lead generation software made by the company behind WPBeginner. She first started working with WordPress around 2011, when she founded the blog Amazing Women In History.

Twitter: @Keri_Engel

Patricia Meyer

I am an award-winning graphic designer and website developer based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. In 2001, I founded Big Max’s Studio, a woman-owned design firm specializing in startups and small businesses, with their branding and marketing, websites and publications.

I am a Certified Digital Business Consultant, as well as a WordPress Care Plan Specialist. In 2010, I switch from HTML websites and began developing and designing all websites in WordPress. Many website designers choose to pick one field, I on the other hand like the challenge of all trades. Some of my website designs have included lawyers, accountants, independent book publishers, florists and media companies. Today, most of my clients are e-commerce businesses.

I have written three books and am the primary blogger for Tropic Moon Media.

Twitter: @bigmaxsstudio 

James Tryon

I’m Creative Director & Founder of Easily Amused, lead ambassador of Wapu.us, and a father of 3. I’m also one of the co-organizers of WordCamp Orlando and the WordPress Orlando meetup group. I’ve been in the creative industry for more than 18 years and have an eye for design and usability. I also possess the know-how to plan, design, code, and market it all if needed.

An avid collector of random awesomeness from garage sales, thrift store, and eBay, I’m always finding something interesting to spark my creativity. When I’m not working, I am more than likely building something, playing with toys, or hanging with my friends and family. Or at a WordCamp.

Twitter:  @JamesTryon 

Michael Schofield

I am a service designer specializing in the hyperlocal (libraries, higher-ed, local journalism), where the success of product and service suites is determined by their user experience. Right now, I am the lead of user experience development at WhereBy.Us, a WordPress-based media startup dedicated to connecting curious locals to their communities.

Twitter: @schoeyfield

Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith has been working with and contributing to WordPress since 2004. He is one of the lead developers of the WordPress core and offers freelance WordPress consulting services through Covered Web Services with a focus on scaling, security, and custom functionality. Mark likes patches that have more red than green, and his favorite WordPress features are the ones that you’re not even aware of. He eagerly looks forward to shooting down your feature suggestions with, “No, but it would make a great plugin!”

Twitter: @markjaquith 

Carl Alexander

Heya! I’m Carl. I’m a PHP developer from Montréal, Canada. I live and breath advanced programming topics (and memes). I share a lot of my passion for those topics on my website where I publish articles on a regular basis. I’ve been a WordPress Montréal organizer since 2010. I also help organize other WordPress events during the year

Twitter: @twigpress 

Scott Mann

Scott is the Founder and Creative Director of Highforge, an Orlando-based service agency focused on helping medium and enterprise businesses lead and succeed online. He’s an Emmy- winning commercial writer that’s sold millions in projects and generated hundreds of millions in new revenues for clients since 2001. He’s been managing commercial WordPress projects since 2009. He loves to solve problems, make clients happy and help creatives achieve their destinies. He digs racquetball, travel backpacking, scuba, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, festivals, Bob’s Burgers, fine tequila and a non-profit called Be the Match that helps save lives. Ask him why.

Twitter: @cscottmann 

Karim Marucchi

Karim Marucchi is the CEO of Crowd Favorite and Chairman of The VeloMedia Group. In the past 20 years, his career path has encompassed a variety of opportunities including founding startups, working for large web agencies and taking companies public. This wealth of experience in taking digital teams across the globe has provided Karim with the necessary foundation and institutional knowledge in leading Crowd Favorite into the growing multinational organization it has become today.

Twitter: @karimmarucchi 

Andrew Norcross

One time, as a kid, I accidentally lit part of my house on fire because a friend and myself were making blow torches with WD-40. On the last attempt, the flames got pushed in deeper to the sawgrass plant we were using and caught the tip of the roof on fire.

I got grounded.

[Andrew (or Norcross, as most know him) is a Senior Engineer and Developer Advocate at Liquid Web, focusing on internal product development and being a voice inside the WP community itself.]

Twitter: @norcross

Josepha Haden

Since college, Josepha has gathered together people with similar interests to learn more and create better communities. In 2008 that passion for connecting people spread to technology, and she’s never looked back.Josepha is currently the Executive Director of the WordPress project, helping to coordinate and guide volunteer efforts across the ecosystem.

Since 2015 Josepha has worked behind the scenes as the lead of the open source division at Automattic. Her work includes financial planning, sponsorship relations, volunteer training programs, and several diversity initiatives on a global scale. She is well-versed in conflict mediation tactics and has a knack for explaining complex topics clearly and respectfully.

You can read her occasional writing on josepha.blog and find out where she’s speaking next by following @josephahaden on Twitter.

Blog | Twitter

John James Jacoby

WordPress. BuddyPress. bbPress. Sandhills. Co-host WordPress Weekly. East Troy, WI Village Trustee. Conquistador de la Web.

Twitter: @JJJ

Antonella Morales

Antonella is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist that is always on top of the latest trends and news.

She has experience in optimizing blogs and copy writing for websites.

She’s been consistently working with WordPress since 2015 and is always looking to learn more. She has recently really committed to learning a lot more about WordPress.

Fun fact: This is Antonella’s first time being a speaker for any conference. So, even if you didn’t get that much out of her talk, she’d still love it if you smiled and nodded like you did.

Twitter: @Nellaknowsbest_ 

Bianca Welds

Bianca is a diehard WordPresser who first joined the community in 2005. From personal blogging to boutique consulting, she has now evolved into a community leader, helping the Jamaican WordPress community grow and become an active part of the wider WordPress world. When not working on community, she can be found with her nose in a book or floating in water.

@biancawelds | Bianca Welds

Nathan Ingram

Business Coach for WordPress Solopreneurs & Agencies / Host of iThemes Training & the WP Business Podcast / International Conference Speaker / Web Business Owner since 1995 / Organizer for WP Y’all.

Twitter: @nathaningram 

Tracy Timberlake

Business Coach and Online Influencer. Helping coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs become Digitally in Demand™.

Twitter: @tracytimberlake

Andrea Zoellner

Chief Content Creator at SiteGround and WordCamp Montréal organizer. I’m obsessed with French expressions, English puns, and packing the perfect carry-on.

Twitter:@andreazoellner

Chris Wiegman

A veteran of the WordPress world who has been developing plugins and sites for over a decade. Currently working on helping other developers succeed at WP Engine.

Twitter:@ChrisWiegman 

Allie Nimmons

Allie is a self-taught web designer and developer. She is usually found in front of her computer, solving a myriad of problems at once. She lives in Miami with her boyfriend.

Twitter: @allie_nimmons

Roberto Remedios

UX / UI Designer & Front-end Developer. WordPress fan since 2006. Always looking to learn and share his knowledge with others, accessibility advocate, community wrangler, scuba diver, tattoo lover.

Twitter: @remediosgraphic 

Tessa Kriesel

Building community and teaching come naturally to dog-lover and Developer Outreach Manager at Pantheon, Tessa Kriesel. She wears many hats in her life — all with sass and finesse.

Twitter: @tessak22

Annejeanette Washington Collins

Annejeanette Washington Collins is a dedicated educator and professor in Broward County, Florida for the past 26 years. A graduate of The University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University, she shares her passion for educational technology teaching her students WordPress, Microsoft Office 365, Canvas, Edmodo and other LMS platforms. Most notably, Annejeanette uses WordPress to spotlight STEM trends and encouraging moms at Magnific Mom Moments. Annejeanette has presented at local, state, and international platforms notably Edu-Match and Site Leaders Connect.

In addition to teaching, Annejeanette is a conference speaker, photographer, website designer, social media blogger, and community servant. She volunteers with Dare to Care Outreach, Black Girls Code Miami Chapter, The Broward Alliance of Black School Educators, DadsBeonDuty.com, and The Faith Center Ministries Youth Department just to name a few.

Her greatest joy is spending time with her husband Major, her daughter Jayda (former Word Camp Panelist), and her family.

Twitter: @professadiva954 

Pat Ramsey

Pat Ramsey oversees all aspects of the technology group at Crowd Favorite as Director of Technology. He brings over 20 years experience in web development, including higher education, government and enterprise digital implementations. Active in technology communities since the early 2000s, Pat is one of the founders of the Austin WordPress meetup, having worked with WordPress since 2004, integrating it into higher education IT and faculty publishing systems. He’s also been a trainer and advisor for Knowbility’s Accessible Internet Rallies and AccessU.

Twitter: @pat_ramsey

Colin Dowling

“All else being equal, people will buy from their friends. So make everything else equal then go make a lot of friends.”

Colin is currently the CEO of RAINCLOUD, a B2B outbounding engine focused on helping digital agencies, SAAS providers, and hosting companies fill the funnel with great future prospects. RAINCLOUD’s singular focus is getting more of the right client to know your business exists then putting you in a position to be top of mind when the time is right. We can’t control when someone will need the service or product you offer, but we can insure that when they need it they will think of you.

Former VP of Channel Sales for Liquid Web
Former VP of Sales for Media Temple (a GoDaddy company)
First Enterprise & Agencies Executive at WP Engine
Former VP of Sales at ISON Managed IT Services

Twitter: @colindowling

David Wolfpaw

David is a professional web developer focused on WordPress theme and plugin development. He emphasizes helping small businesses, providing ongoing support, and educating users through his service FixUpFox. He helps organize both WordPress Orlando and WordCamp Orlando.

Twitter: @DavidWolfpaw 

Topher DeRosia

Topher has been a web developer for over 25 years, a WordPress developer for 8 years, and currently works at BigCommerce, bringing a new ecommerce paradigm to WordPress.
He comes from Grand Rapids MI where he lives with his wife, 2 daughters and two little dogs.

Twitter: @topher1kenobe

Micah Wood

Micah Wood is a WordPress Developer at Bluehost. A professional WordPress developer for over a decade, Micah has worked on sites for Fortune 100 companies, has released over a dozen WordPress plugins, is a frequent speaker at WordCamps, co-organizes the WordPress Gwinnett meetup, is a co-host on the WP Square One podcast and shares his knowledge by blogging on WordPress development topics.

Twitter: @wpscholar

Joe Casabona

Joe Casabona is a college-accredited course developer and professor.
He also has his Master’s Degree in Software Engineering, is a Front End Developer, and hosts multiple podcasts.

Joe started freelancing in 2002, and has been a teacher at the college level for over 10 years. His passion in both areas has driven him to build Creator Courses, a school for those who want to create online businesses.

As a big proponent of learning by doing, he loves creating focused, task-driven courses to help students build something. When he’s not teaching, he’s interviewing people for his podcast, How I Built It. (SPEAKER CARD BIO: Educator, Developer, and Podcaster. Likes them all equally. Also likes Cigars.)

Twitter: @jcasabona

Rian Kinney Esq.

Rian Kinney, founder of The Kinney Firm and eCommLegal is a privacy expert and online business, privacy, and tech attorney assisting businesses of all sizes from freelancers to enterprise, currently representing and working with some of WordPress’s biggest names.

Rian holds the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ CIPM and CIPP/E Designations and has spoken at conferences all over the US and Europe on issues ranging from contracts, CYA’ing your site, the future of open source, to ethics, and privacy.

Twitter: @thekinneyfirm

Jessi Gurr

Jessi has been hand-coding websites since the day her dad brought home an AOL floppy disk in 1993. She started a website development company in 2005, and today runs a website development company in Minnesota with 9 employees. A passionate entrepreneur, Jessi loves creating jobs, speaking about her experience growing a company, and mentoring freelancers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Jessi lives in Anoka, MN with her two young boys Cedar and River. Her six-year-old designs her hair color(s). When not running a business or chasing children, you can find her in the vegetable garden or whipping up an impromptu vegan dinner.

Twitter: @jessigurr

Michelle Schulp

Michelle is an independent graphic designer and frontend developer in Minneapolis. Prior to beginning her career, she studied Visual Communications, with minors in Psychology and Sociology. As her work progressed, she also branched into front-end development and user experience design to round our her skillset. This combination of disciplines led her to adopt a strategy-based approach to design, focused on solving tangible problems and achieving real goals based on how people think.

She loves the open source community, and when she is not working on projects she speaks/volunteers/organizes at events and workshops around the country. Her passions are communication and empowerment, and she believes in the power of “Why?”

Kathy Zant

Kathy Zant has been building data-driven websites since before it was cool. She loves WordPress, the community, and helping people get the most out of WordPress.

Twitter: @kathyzant 

Beth Livingston

Founder of WP Roadmaps and Coaching, providing project and productivity management education to WordPress consultants and agencies. Creator of the Complete Project Management Roadmap for WordPress.

Twitter: @WPRoadmaps 

Cal Evans

Cal builds things.

Most of the time they are computer things. Sometimes Cal builds things that teach others. Many times, Cal builds things just to teach himself.

Mostly, Cal just builds things.

Chris Teitzel

Chris has a passion for technology and its ability to create an impact on lives around the world. He’s driven by simplifying website security and privacy, working in both WordPress and Drupal to further core privacy initiatives. Recently he’s been appointed to advise the Department of Homeland Security on privacy matters, worked with US/EU Trans-Atlantic Privacy Initiatives, and helped form the new Cross-CMS Privacy Working Group.

Twitter: @technerdteitzel 

Joe Howard

Hi! Joe here. I’m the Head Buff at WP Buffs and WPMRR. I also co-host The WPMRR WordPress podcast entirely focused on growing successful WordPress businesses and monthly recurring revenue. Boom!

Twitter: @josephhhoward

Adam Soucie

Adam Soucie is the founder and CEO of Impossibly Creative, a small business agency focusing on WordPress. He is also a member of the WordPress Orlando organizing team.

Twitter: @AdamSoucie

Chris Lema

Chris Lema has been building eCommerce sites since 1997, back when it would take a lot of time, cost a lot of money, and still didn’t work perfectly. Today he’s the VP of Products at Liquid Web, where he’s designed and launched a new platform dedicated to WooCommerce stores.

Twitter: @chrislema

Zac Gordon

Zac Gordon is a professional educator, with a current focus on JavaScript development with and alongside WordPress at javascriptforwp.com. Zac has years of experience teaching at high schools, colleges, bootcamps and online learning sites like Treehouse, Udemy and Frontend Masters. In addition to teaching, Zac also runs Web Hosting for Students, one of the world’s largest hosting companies dedicated to students and teachers. You can also catch his free Office Yoga sessions on OfficeYoga.tv.

Twitter: @zgordon 

Santiago Leon

Santiago Leon is President & Founder of sleon productions, a agency that provides web, apps, video and audio services to clients. Santiago is a Miami native with ten years of experience in technology and multimedia.

Twitter: @sleon

Korene Stuart

“Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer, -should learn a computer language. Because it teaches you how to think.”- Steve Jobs.

Learning how to code shouldn’t just be for those who can afford it. After starting her self-taught journey in learning various computer languages in 2016 , Korene Stuart felt there was more she could do to improve the lives of under served communities. With the help of her sister, they launched a non-profit organization, MAScode( Minorities Advancing through STEM) an initiative to expose both children and adults to the amazing careers of S.T.E.M.(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Twitter: @d_unconven_code 

Anthony Miyazaki

Anthony is a brand-builder and spends his time building brands for people, programs, and organizations. He founded and currently directs the FIU Master of Science in Marketing program, the only one in the world with a three-part focus on Digital Marketing, Brand Development, and Marketing Analytics. He leads FIU’s Marketing and Logistics department, and was appointed as the college’s Executive Director of Marketing and Analytics. Online, you can connect with him on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter (@SensibleFolk), and catch his weekly YouTube #MarketingMinute videos (be sure to subscribe). Anthony’s a firm believer in people, truly constructive feedback, and the value of tangible results. If you cross paths with him at the conference, ask him to help you build your brand (for free of course).

Twitter: @SensibleFolk | Youtube : AnthonyMiyazaki

David Carr

David Carr is a writer and editor as well as the creator of plugins such as RSVPMaker. He’s a former editor of InformationWeek, a contributor to Forbes and author of Social Collaboration for Dummies

Twitter: @davidfcarr

Gayle Williams

Gayle Williams is a marketing and communications specialist and owner of Vision Marketing an agency that provides digital marketing strategies and website design for a variety of small businesses.

Twitter: @visionprm