The Tellers of Tales – Round 1 of Speakers

Blog, Speakers

Today we reveal our initial troop of speakers, chosen for their experience points and prowess to entertain and enlighten your WordPress journey this June. You’ll witness trending topics, travel the labyrinth of Gutenberg, and watch WordPress worlds and knowledge unfold as you venture to WordCamp Orange County!

Our speakers have no need for columns of smoke, pillars of white light or gnomes flying in on homemade gliders to capture your attention. Their credentials and varying senses of humor promise to propel, captivate and embolden you to action.

In No Particular Order the First of Our Bards:

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.

Yvonne Conway-Williams

Cybersecurity consultant. Co-Founder/Partner of ParadoxPrime Information Assurance.

Yvonne gave her very first presentation at a WordCamp to WordCampOC in 2017 with her well-received presentation “Cybersecurity: Russian Hackers, Privacy, and You”.

She received certification in Cybersecurity and Risk Management through Harvard University.

John Hawkins

Long time WordPress user/developer/lover.

Pam Ann Aungst

Pam is the owner of Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth™ Search and Analytics. Both specialize in SEO, PPC, and Analytics. Through Stealth™, we work on a private-label basis through other agencies. Through Pam Ann Marketing, we work directly with well-established businesses and funded startups to take their search and analytics strategies to the next level. Pam regularly gives talks at WordCamps around the country about SEO and Google Analytics.

Andrew Norcross

I split my time between writing code and fixing the code I have already written. All while drinking coffee.

Jennifer Brueske

Jennifer started with Iceberg Web Design in October 2015. She has worn many hats including high school math teacher, tutor, bookkeeper, waitress, assembler of things, and administrative assistant. During her previous employment she was asked to develop and manage the company website and rediscovered her love of code. She then decided to pursue web development as a career.

Jennifer enjoys reading, gaming (board, card and video), sewing, putting together IKEA furniture, and martial arts.

Toren Ajk

Toren Ajk is the founder and CEO of The TAC Marketing Group, which offers a range of Internet marketing services including marketing strategy, web development, search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (PPC) campaign management, and media buying.

Previously he was CMO for the award winning Line2 mobile communication apps. He developed the overall marketing strategy and directly managed the mobile advertising, paid search, web media, and social media campaigns that drove over 1.5 million app downloads.

In 2018 TAC launched the first native AMP WordPress framework AMPWPTools.com

Jessi Gurr

Jessi’s love for website development started back in 1993, when at the age of 12 she learned HTML and secured her first dot-com. Remember Geocities, black backgrounds, lime green text, and the running dog .gif? Man, those were the days…

Jessi spent her late teenage years working on freelance website projects, and in college she held a part-time position as the webmaster for the student-run radio station.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Morris in 2005, Jessi started a small freelance agency, Iceberg Web Design as a way to advance her career, drive her passion for website development, and help other small business owners succeed by creating a professional online appearance. The business grew slowly until 2015, when Jessi took the leap to grow her business from having just one part-time employee to a full staff of 7 full-time developers, sales staff, and a project manager. Today, Iceberg Web Design is a leading website development firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Jessi lives in Minnesota with her husband, Chris and two young boys, Cedar and River. She enjoys organic gardening, making candles every fall, and vegan cooking.

Mike Walters

Mike Walters was a co-founder of TMZ.com and well as Co–EP of the long-running TMZ syndicated TV show. Mike was responsible for day-to-day news operations of all TMZ platforms. In his position as News Director, he was directly responsible for all news-gathering assets and editorial direction of the website and TV show. Walters was responsible for breaking some of the biggest celebrity news stories over the last ten years. These stories include being the first news outlet to report and confirm the death of Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest and the obtaining the recording of his subsequent racist tirade, Kanye West’s recent mental breakdown and exclusive details around Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery. Mike has consistently delivered headline-grabbing content that has been reported around the world.

Amber Hewitt

Amber Hewitt is the founder of Graphicgoo, a full-service graphics partner specializing in graphic design and front-end web development. As a designer, website expert, and social media master, she helps businesses navigate and break through the clutter by telling their unique stories through the lens of their own brand and brand goals.

Amber has a BFA in Graphic Design from ArtCenter College of Design and since graduating has gained 15 years of experience in an ever changing industry. In that time, her career has given her the opportunity to truly develop a passion for brand development, UI/UX design, typography, and all things design related.

She’s able to find inspiration in the digital world, as well as in the unplugged universe. When she is away from her computer (don’t worry, she’s never far), she enjoys scuba diving, riding her motorcycle, and long walks on the beach with her dog.

Saied Abbasi

Saied is the founder of WPHELP.CO and works as the COO / Web Developer at Ben Freda Consulting. For the last four years he has led and developed workshops in JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, HTML and WordPress. He is active in the WordPress community and loves to share.

Mikel Bruce

Mikel Bruce, CEO of TinyFrog Technologies, has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience with 10 years in corporate marketing. TinyFrog Technologies, a San Diego-based WordPress web design, development & hosting agency, has grown to a diverse team of 20 members and has built over 1,100 websites since it was founded in 2003. In addition, the TinyFrog team maintains over 600 WordPress sites for companies all over the world.

About Jen Miller

Jen Miller has spent a lifetime deep in the content trenches - more than 25 years - publishing everything from newspapers, magazines, and books to newsletters, emails, resumes, and websites. As the author of The Book on Content, entrepreneur, blogger, and sales and marketing expert, Jen understands how to use content to build authority, create trust, and forge lasting client relationships. Jen became known in the WordPress world as her company, Need Someone To Blog, published and promoted more than a million blog posts for companies and individuals representing many industries, from real estate and mortgage, executive coaching and leadership, health and fitness, construction, plumbing and air conditioning, insurance and finance, technology and start-ups to non-profits and artisans. Jen has a breadth of website content and business blogging knowledge you will not find elsewhere. Jen launched a course entitled "Create Great Content" in 2015, where she taught clients how to get the same results her company produced for their clients. She has spoken at many WordCamps and, in 2021, began sharing her knowledge as an adjunct faculty member at four universities. Professionally, as Director of Accounts at WebDevStudios, she helps clients find success through WordPress website enterprise solutions. Jen lives just outside of Phoenix, AZ, with her two teen sons and Goldendoodle dog and says she uses her college degree every day, having graduated from CSU, Long Beach, with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, an option in Music and a minor in Journalism. She also earned a Master of Science in Management and Leadership (MSML) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Western Governors University and is working on a Ph.D. in Business at the University of the Cumberlands. Jen Miller is an active volunteer with her church and other non-profits in her area and has served as an organizer for WordCamp Phoenix, believing that the key to providing value is learning and sharing with her community.