Speakers

Aaron Campbell

Aaron has over sixteen years of web development experience. He has been a regular contributor to WordPress for the last eight years, and even co-lead the WordPress 3.6 release. He’s committed to writing quality code that is both fast and scalable, and has a knack for translating ideas and goals into functional sites. Aaron has worked with clients ranging from small local businesses to Google, Yahoo, Disney, and Harvard. He’s been called both a coffee snob and a beer snob, but considers both to be compliments. When not buried in code, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, attending or hosting beer tastings, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books.

Adam Silver

Adam teaches a beginner WordPress course at his local adult school, presents a monthly WordPress seminar at SBDC, runs the SouthBay WordPress Meetup and produces a weekly podcast over at kitchensinkwp.com. In spare time he hangs out with his wickedly cool 3 kids & wife, and makes some really bad puns, since someone has to.

Adam Sink

Adam Sink is the Development Manager for the Managed WordPress product at GoDaddy. A thirteen year GoDaddy employee, he has worked on everything from racking servers to email to dedicated and shared hosting. Adam is a customer focused and passionate advocate for WordPress, spreading the good word about the software that powers nearly a quarter of the web within GoDaddy and attending WordCamps to represent GoDaddy to the community.

Alex Vasquez

I’m a WordPress Developer, based in Los Angeles. I run a Digital Creative Agency called DigiSavvy. I also host a meetup in Pasadena and co-organize WordCamp Los Angeles, along with a team of Superheros! I can’t say no to a Hendrick’s and Tonic.

Andy Fragen

I’m a WordPress user and hobbyist developer since 2007. I have several plugins in the official repo and many others up on GitHub. I have a great time attending my local Southern California WordCamps where I do my best to meet all the amazing people I interact with online.

April Holle

As Principal of Made Better Studio, April Holle provides strategic marketing plans, WordPress design, WordPress website development, and WordPress coaching services to help nonprofits & do-good businesses spread their great work. “So many great ideas, important causes and cool products go unnoticed – simply because they don’t look “professional”. I want to make the world a better place by working with small, local do-good companies as well as nonprofit groups to help the, get their message out to the public in a way that is beneficial to all.” April says. April can help you craft an authentic, realistic marketing communication strategy and implement that custom marketing strategy in the best possible way by using both tried and true as well as spiffy and new communication techniques that will help you create and foster long-lasting brand connections with your people. April will not only help you set up these means of communication, but will also help you streamline these communication channels so that they streamline with your current style of conducting business everyday. To learn how April can help you get the word out about your great work to your community, please contact her at april@madebetterstudio.com or madebetterstudio.com.

Ash Rhodes

A long-time WordPress user (and even longer-time blogger), Ash has been working for Automattic — the folks behind WordPress.com, Jetpack, VaultPress, etc — as a Happiness Engineer for 3 and a half years. An AZ native, Ash enjoys getting out of the desert whenever possible by traveling with his family and even leaving them behind if he has to. It’s the desert. They’ll be fiiiiiiine.

Ashten Fizer

Starting a career in Social Media Strategy by necessity is no easy task. Ashten began as a Deejay, and knew that she had to find new ways to create a following for herself. Once she realized she had a gift for staying a couple steps ahead of the next person, she took her Social Media Strategy skills to the Chicago political realm. It was in this function that Ashten began to flourish as a thought leader in her field. In her time, Ashten has been called on by the likes of Clear Channel nationwide to help managed On-Air Talent communities, as well as held deejay residencies for industry giants like Google and CISC. She currently works at GoDaddy in Phoenix, Arizona which she lends her Social Media expertise to the Web Hosting Department and the GoDaddy GoTeam to engage users with targeted content.

Betsy Cohen

I’ve been designing and building websites for nearly 20 years through my boutique firm, Positive Element, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a range of clients — enterprise-level companies, state agencies, non-profits, authors and creatives. I’ve recently embarked on a new role as Product Manager at FanSided, a TIME, Inc. company. I speak at occasional conferences on topics related to the web design process, user experience, and WordPress, and hosts the North Scottsdale WordPress Meetup. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona where I’m raising 3 digital-age children, and enjoys such analog activities as reading, yoga and hiking.

Brandy Lawson

Brandy Lawson is TekGrl and she’s on a mission to help business owners use the crap out of technology to maximize their impact (and success). A marketer by education, she caught the technology bug while working in sales for a tech company in college and converted to the geek-side. Just like shoes, there is no one-size-fits-all technology, so Brandy works with businesses to create tech strategies and identify their perfect-fit online presence.

Brian Murphy

Brian wrote his first HTML page for Netscape 0.9 on a Sun SPARCstation in 1994. As a systems programmer for the University of Arizona in 1999, he introduced PHP 3 to the school’s general computing web server. Ten years later in 2009, he dove head first into WordPress while working for Arizona State University. Today, Brian is co-owner of OnSiteWP LLC, a company dedicated to maintaining WordPress websites for business owners.

Calie Waterhouse

Picture taking, iced-tea drinking multi-passionate adventurist who has a passion for social media, blogging and being safe in the digital sphere. Calie works with companies nationwide to develop appropriate branding and marketing messages, creation of WP accounts, social network strategies, as well as on-site training of employees. Calie utilizes her site slayingthedigitaldragon.com to work with educators, students and young entrepreneurs in understanding the rules of blogging and safe digital practice.

Chris Klosowski

Chris is a Software Developer primarily focused on PHP and WordPress with a specialties in eCommerce and Social Media. Chris is Co-Lead Developer of Easy Digital Downloads, the easiest way to sell digital products with WordPress, and the Founding Developer and creator of Post Promoter Pro: Content promotion for WordPress, made easy. Currently he resides in Queen Creek, Ariz. with his family. “I like good coffee, good beer, and good code. If you want to chat about any of those, hit me up!”

Cody Landefeld

My name is Cody Landefeld and my passion is helping organizations solve problems creatively. I am a user experience problem solver by nature and have over 10 years of experience in the creative field. I currently lead the team at Mode Effect where we are privileged to work with some amazing clients.

Cory Jenkins

Cory is Co-Owner of Aspen Grove Studios and an avid WordPress user, developer and blogger. A California native, he now resides in mile-high Prescott, Arizona and is a proud husband and father of two boys. When he is not designing awesome stuff, he enjoys hanging out with his family, watching baseball, fishing and exploring the great outdoors.

Dallin Harris

Dallin is the Founder and President of Skyhook Interactive, a Phoenix-based website design & development firm that builds high performance websites for brands and the agencies that serve them. Dallin has been involved in web design, development and Internet marketing since the late 90s. Over the years, he has had the privilege of doing digital work for a number of national brands including Banner Health, American Express, Subway, the 2015 Super Bowl Host Committee, Make-A-Wish Foundation, AT&T and The Salvation Army. Dallin is active in the community and speaks regularly on topics related to entrepreneurship and technology. He sits on the boards of the Arizona Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) and the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association (AZIMA), leads the local Advanced WordPress Developer meetup group and has served in the past as lead organizer of WordCamp Phoenix, Arizona’s annual WordPress conference, which attracts over 700 attendees. He is a member of Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO). In 2012, Dallin was named one of the “Top 35 entrepreneurs, age 35 and under” by The Arizona Republic. In his spare time, Dallin is a father, a part-time minister and an RC aircraft enthusiast.

Edwin Smith

Technical Lead at Pyxl Inc. in Scottsdale, AZ. Dad.

Emanuel Costa

I am a professional web developer, SEO/SEM specialist, eCommerce consultant and web entrepreneur, with over 22 years experience in web development. When I did my first web page there was only 250 sites in the world. I was luck to be an intern at the computer lab while I was doing the Civil Engineer course. At that time the Internet came to Brazil first at the Universities, and I was able to start to learn everything related to internet and web development. After I graduated, I started working as Civil Engineer and on my spare time was doing simple websites for companies in Fortaleza, Brazil. Two years later, I went to the United States and accepted an offer to work for a dotcom. The year was 1999 and then I lived in South Florida for 8 years. I’ve lived in New York and Washington, D.C, while working as senior web developer consultant for Inter-american Development Bank. I relocated to Las Vegas in 2015 to expand my business to the US West region. I’ve been working professionally with WordPress for the past 5 years. I contribute as much as I can, at WordPress.tv, translating WP, organizing meetups and volunteering at WordCamps.

Giselle Aguiar

Giselle Aguiar, the AZ Social Media Wiz has been doing Internet Marketing since 1995. Five years ago, she decided to specialize in social media marketing, helping small business owners to properly and effectively market their businesses online.

Greg Taylor

After working in marketing and business development for over ten years, Greg decided to pursue his passion for WordPress development and content marketing by starting his own company. Tired of seeing sites that look great but don’t achieve results, he founded Marketing Press to help business owners find the best of both worlds. In addition to leading the company, Greg has become well-known in the WordPress community as a speaker and teacher. He has presented at several conferences (including TechPHX, WordCamp LA, WordCamp Phoenix, and WordCamp Vegas), been featured on industry podcasts (such as BusyMarketer and Hit the Mic with Stacey Harris), and regularly appears on popular shows (like WPwatercooler and his very own Marketing Press TV). When he’s not working on code or content, Greg spends his free time mentoring at Gangplank, taking in live music in or hanging out in his home state of New Jersey.

Jarrett Gucci

Jarrett Gucci comes from a retail background that started at Home Depot in Buffalo NY as cashier and 18 months later was asked to be a project manager based out of Carson California with a goal of opening 12 stores in 14 months. This goal was accomplished. He has also been an area manager at Big Lots and Bed Bath and beyond. He left his very last retail career as a district manager at Linens & Things in 2007 to pursue a hobby of website development as hope he could make some money doing it. After 4 years of building and managing WordPress sites, he founded a company called WP Fix It and since 2011 his company has serviced over 30,000 WordPress support tickets. Something you may not know about Jarrett besides all this, is that when he was 15 his neighbor gave him a 1962 dodge dart and he completely took it apart and rebuilt it.

Jeremy Scott

Presenter Jeremy Scott started developing on WP in version 1.2 all the way back in 2004. As of late, he builds themes and plugins for clients of Greg Taylor’s Marketing Press and also co-owns a premium plugin, Bullpen, that connects WP websites with the Bullhorn recruiting system. Outside of work, Jeremy enjoys kickboxing, hiking and camping, building with LEGO, and playing Destiny on the PS4. He lives in Phoenix with his boyfriend and their three cats.

John Gough

I’m the creative director and a principal at Skyhook Interactive, a WordPress design and development agency founded in 2007. We create high-performance websites for companies and agencies. My background is in research and design; specifically, I like thinking and talking about how people use technology to improve their work and world.

Josh Eichorn

Josh Eichorn is the Chief Technology Officer at Pagely, a managed WordPress host that provides enterprise hosting in the Amazon cloud.

Joshua Brown

Joshua grew up on a farm in Kentucky and knows the importance of a good work ethic backed with some quality sweet tea. He and his wife, Laura, have three adventurous kids and currently reside just outside Phoenix where he runs PIXL Designs, a web design and development agency that exists to make a positive impact in people’s lives.

Mary Baum

Mary Baum is the founder and principal of RacquetPress, which builds Genesis child themes, full sites and bespoke branding solutions for a variety of verticals in the tennis industry. A veteran creative and degreed designer, Mary speaks on WP design and development and is launching the Antelope Valley WordPress Meetup. She’s also an organizer of WordCamp St. Louis.

Matt Adams

Matt is president of Factor1, a creative development firm located in Tempe, AZ. He has spent years in print and web design, he spends most of his days juggling projects, crafting solutions to problems, and helping clients navigate the web with grace.

Matthew Dorman

Matthew is a co-founder of Ndevr, Inc, a distributed WordPress development company. He started building websites as soon as he got an internet connection back in 1995, and hasn’t stopped since. He built successful sites for clients as big as Time Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Fox News; and as small as, well you wouldn’t even know who they are anyways. He recently moved West to Colorado, where he’s thoroughly enjoyed camping and snowboarding with his wife and two boys.

Mike Jones

In 2009, I started Resound Creative with two very creative and smart friends—David and Jeff. Our vision: help organizations find their unique identity and communicate it to the world. Since then, we’ve built Resound into a small but growing team of designers, marketing strategists, and web developers. We’ve helped dozens of companies and non-profits tell their stories through brand identity, digital marketing, and web development. In 2014, I was named one of Arizona’s top 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the Arizona Republic. I live with my wife and kids in very, very, very sunny Mesa, Arizona. When I’m not running Resound, you can usually find me reading a good mystery novel or unabashedly playing Clash of Clans. Yeah, I’ll be honest about that too.

Neill Feather

Neill Feather is the president of SiteLock, the leading provider of website security solutions. With more than 20 years of experience, Neill leads the company’s approach to 360-degree domain security by providing industry analysis and utilizing rapidly evolving data sets related to security and hacking trends. A Pittsburgh native, Neill resides in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife and three kids. He enjoys spending time with his family, running and playing basketball. Neill holds B.S. degrees from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Perri Collins

Perri Collins currently works in marketing at Arizona State University. Prior to her stint at ASU, she worked at several local media outlets including the Phoenix Business Journal, AZ Business Magazine, Univision, the Associated Press and the Arizona Newspapers Association. She started Collins Digital Media in 2004, to help small business owners and individuals take their first steps on the web. Collins is a past president of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a member of the AZ Women in Media and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona.

Ruth Carter, Esq.

Known for her daring antics and outgoing personality, Ruth Carter is a licensed Arizona attorney. Her practice focuses on intellectual property, social media law, business formation and contracts, and flash mob law. Ruth was selected as an American Bar Association Legal Rebel in 2012 and for the Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2013. She also wrote three best-selling books on guerilla marketing and social media law including The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed. When she’s not busy being a lawyer, Ruth is a runner and volunteers with Ignite Phoenix.

Scott Buscemi

Scott Buscemi is the Founder and UX Director at Luminary, a development agency focused on eCommerce and web systems founded in 2010. As a Phoenix native who recently moved to LA – sorry! – Scott can be found be found hiking and attending acting classes.

Stacey Harris

The Stacey Harris is a social media strategist and trainer helping online entrepreneurs build communities around their message and brand. Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding using Myspace to connect with bands and their fans. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show, Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris at www.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris.

Tanya Moushi

Tanya Moushi is a Good-Business Enthusiast, Lead Consultant at Moushi.co, an interdisciplinary firm that believes that business gets better by applying functions of philosophy and art, and Chief Empathy Officer (the other kind of CEO) of AKOS Web Marketing. She’s an avid supporter of Downtown Phoenix, believes in the power of generosity and cites Seth Godin as one of her most influential mentors.

Trevor Freeman

Trevor Freeman is an SEO Specialist with G/O Digital, a local search marketing agency in Phoenix. He has over 8 years of WordPress experience from both a creative and technical perspective.

Ward Andrews

Ward Andrews is Founder at Drawbackwards, a UX Design Firm based in Tempe, AZ. He’s worked for clients like Sony, Intel, IBM, Motorola, One Degree Organic Foods, Sophos, Insominac Games and the NBA Phoenix Suns on projects that have appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Tech Crunch, USA Today, TNT Sports, ESPN and other publications and broadcasts. His projects have garnered Addy, Prisma and Emmy awards. He’s part of the Honors Faculty at Arizona State University teaching Design Entrepreneurship. Blog at Design.org.

WordCamp Phoenix 2016 is over. Check out the next edition!