Category: Speaker Spotlight

Speaker Spotlight: Creating and maintaining sites while mobile with Jen Miller

In this talk, Jen Miller of NeedSomeoneTo.com will show you how to integrate design, development and blogging app resources that allow WordPress users the freedom to manage a business, team, multiple websites and other assets while on the go.

Jen will provide laughter, story and insight on favorite and newly released apps that make people, product, website and business management accessible by iPad. The apps she’ll cover combine emergency logo creation, photo and video editing, blog management, code wrangling, email marketing, client and staff management and social media.

Don’t miss her at 11:30 AM in the Dwarf Star on July 9!

Jen Miller believes in the value and power of the written word in sharing truth and story, in life and in business. Combining her journalism background with a passion for customer service and marketing, Jen built NeedSomeoneToBlog.com, a blogging service focused on delivering original, quality website content to business owners. As the business grew, Jen discovered areas that could further develop authority, garner trust, and build engagement for her clients online, resulting in BestBookWriter.com and MyResumeSecret.com. With her newly formed corporation, NeedSomeoneTo.com, Jen seeks to combine services in one-website, making it easier for companies to share engaging messages of community and industry knowledge with their followers.

Speaker Spotlight: A holistic approach to web design with Alicia St. Rose

We’ve all heard something along the lines of this before from a potential client: “We want a simple website, 5 or 6 pages and 3 navigation tabs, a shopping cart, and a contact form.” But are you offering solutions to this client’s challenges online and offline? Probably not. Which, as Alicia St. Rose will teach you in this presentation, means this website is doomed to fail.

Alicia can’t wait to show you how website does not stand isolated from the many aspects integral to good business planning: marketing, company mission/message, target audience, social media, or mailing list. Like a holistic practitioner takes into account all the chakras, Alicia believes you should be addressing all your client’s business aspects to produce an online presence that is solid and effective. Simply building a site does not solve your client’s challenge, which are ultimately to get more exposure, sell more products, save money, reduce wasted man-hours, among many others. If you concentrate on offering solutions for your clients’ challenges, then you are more likely to see a web presence with measurable success and happier, enlightened clients!

Don’t miss Alicia’s session at 2:50 PM in the Dwarf Star on July 10, where she will inspire you to elevate from just a website builder to the higher plane of “Solutionary!”

Alicia St. Rose began her adventure with WordPress when a UX friend offhandedly suggested using the CMS for a mutual friend’s website. That was nearly six years ago and the adventure has turned into a torrid love affair. Now she is a freelance developer, exclusively powered by WordPress, and has yet to find a limitation in this magical piece of software.

She is owner, principal designer and developer at Intrepid Realist Design, a small agency that employs one. In addition to creating for WordPress, she offers WordPress coaching to WP users who are just starting to flutter their wings to those wanting just a brushup. She is co-organizer of the South Central Coast WordPress Adventure Group, has co-organized WordCamp Ventura County and spoken at several California WordCamps in the last two years.

Alicia currently lives in Santa Barbara, California with her two rambunctious cats, Oscar and Milo. She divides her time between that seaside town and Black Rock City, Nevada.

Oh, and her favorite color is red.

Speaker Spotlight: Designing your process (for fun and profit) with Chris Ford

Chris Ford is a world-class designer who recently made a foray into the world of project management. Now that she’s back in the world of design, she wants to show you how combine design and project management – to use design thinking to develop a process that helps you make money without being cumbersome and painful. She’ll have something for everyone, from freelancers and agency folks, to designers and developers.

Don’t miss her talk at 9:50 AM in The Nebula on July 9.

Speaker Spotlight: Building a Sustainable WordPress Agency with Andrew Behla

In 2008, Andrew Behla embarked on a huge adventure and leap of faith. He tore down the house that he and his wife owned to rebuild it, acting as a general contractor with on the job training. Along the way, he learned valuable and often challenging lessons in project management, working with teams, and making the right choices to stay on track and reach the goal of moving back in 6 months to their new home.

By applying the lessons learned to Behla Design, his Woodland Hills, CA based design and development agency, he was able to expand his business and make it more sustainable and successful. In this talk he will share the system, tools and real world lessons that have helped make his business more successful while achieving a better work-life balance.

If you’re a designer, developer, freelancer, or agency employee, don’t miss Andrew’s design discussion at 10:40 AM on July 9th in the Astroid Field.

Andrew Behla is the Creative Director and Founder of Behla Design, a full service design and web development agency located in Los Angeles since 2000. He has been in love with WordPress since 2006 and enjoys giving back to the WordPress community. He is the founder of the Topanga WordPress and Los Angeles WooCommerce Meetup groups and is also a WooExpert. Andrew has a degree in Philosophy and Business from Trinity University, has taught at Santa Monica College and was an award winning teacher at UCLA Extension. He is a lifelong musician and enjoys snowboarding, table tennis, meditation and travel with his wife, Michele.

Speaker Spotlight: Going from Zero to WordPress with Kronda Adair

WordPress is a great platform, but for non-technical users the array of choices, themes, plugins, and steps to get up and running can be overwhelming. Get a step by step guide to getting up and running with your self hosted WordPress site in a way that will set you up to grow with your business in this discussion led by Kronda Adair.

Kronda will teach the framework she’s developed over the last several years to make it easier for small business owners to be empowered to manage their WP sites, and help non-technical business owners navigate the sea of choices to create their own stable, scalable WordPress site. Don’t miss this discussion at 10:40 AM in the Asteroid Field.

Kronda Adair is the founder of Karvel Digital, a WordPress consultancy and development business. In addition to developing websites, Kronda gives business owners the training they need to own and manage their digital presence.

She is a regular speaker at WordPress meetups and Wordcamps and has been invited to speak at Ada Developer Academy, Beyond the Code, Open Source Bridge, Lesbians Who Tech Summit, and others. She has given talks on WordPress deployment processes, successful site planning, starting your own business, and more.

She also writes and speaks about issues of diversity (or lack thereof) in the tech industry. She has been interviewed by sites such as Revision Path and Less Than or Equal. You can read her personal blog at kronda.com or sign up for her weekly newsletter at tinyletter.com/kronda

Her latest project is Websites That Work, an online course to give small business owners the training and tools to create successful websites that help grow their business.

When she’s not working, she can be found enjoying time at home with her wife and two cats, reading dead-tree books, riding one of her five bikes, or enjoying the postcard vistas of the state of Oregon.

Speaker Spotlight: Scott Buscemi and the 50 Day Blogging Challenge

Starting from an empty agency blog, Scott Buscemi will be spending 60 days blogging and producing content to begin building an audience beyond his current customer base. In this workshop, he’ll share his findings – what worked, what didn’t work, and what he would recommend for others who can take on this challenge.

Check out Scott’s workshop at 2 PM in The Comet on July 9.

Scott Buscemi is the Founder and UX Director at Luminary, a development agency focused on eCommerce and web systems founded in 2010. When he’s not working, Scott can be found be found hiking and attending acting classes. Or on Reddit. Probably Reddit.

Speaker Spotlight: WordPress Security for Beginners with Logan Kipp

“How do I keep my WordPress site secure?” Logan’s workshop will the audience through the structure of a WordPress site’s security posture, dispelling common misconceptions and elaborating on perceived security overlaps. The session explains the differences between plugin-based security and external solutions, as well as how they best work together. In easy-to-understand terms, Logan will also touch on basic hosting configuration best practices and security control spheres. Whether just getting started in WordPress or a seasoned developer, this talk has something for every WordPresser.

Don’t miss this workshop that’s suitable for beginners to secure your website. Join Logan in the Comet at 10 AM on July 10.

Logan has been an intermittent WordPress user since “Strayhorn” 1.5 in 2005 and has used WordPress as a primary platform since “Coltrane” 2.7 in 2008. Logan has over seven years experience in the website hosting and security technology field, starting with three years at GoDaddy, followed by four years at SiteLock. Logan most recently served as SiteLock’s Lead Security Analyst before taking his current role as a Product Evangelist – WordPress earlier this year.

Speaker Spotlight: Great design and UX pattern libraries with Brianna Privett

Heroes? Pricing tables? THE GRID? Why *do* all websites look like the same? Starting with a well-organized theme framework and a little SASS, Brianna Privett’s talk will cover how to identify user experience patterns and stories that guide your visitors where you want them to go, while giving you the freedom to create new designs that stand out from the sea of sameness prevalent in today’s websites. We also cover how curating your own pattern library enables you to hit the cornerstones of successful web design – Accessibility, Responsiveness, Usability, and Conversion.

This is a bridge presentation that starts with development and ends with successful sales, great for freelancers and developers who are learning how their work is integral to successful marketing. Don’t miss Brianna’s talk at 2:50 PM on July 9 in the Dwarf Star.

Brianna Privett is TechnoSiren, a web developer and artist on a career-spanning mission to give web users the tools to be web creators without frustration.

Speaker Spotlight: Working remotely with John Brown

At WordCamp Orange County a couple years ago, Jon Brown spoke about setting work/lifestyle/travel goals and achieving them. This time around, his presentation will focus more on trials and tribulations of remote work. He’ll share things learned along the way that will help both aspiring digital nomads as well as experienced remote workers.

Don’t miss Jon’s tips and advice at 3:40 PM in the Nebula on July 9.

Jon Brown is a WordPress developer and agency owner. He just marked 10 years of location independent work spanning the globe.

WordCamp Orange County 2016 is over. Check out the next edition!