Saturday’s Speakers
Adam Rasheed
Adam Rasheed is a San-Diego based front-end developer who creates well-designed websites and e-commerce stores. A data nerd at heart, Adam majored in Economics at Cal State San Bernardino, and has used his data-analysis powers mainly for good. Like many of his generation, he was drawn to coding and design originally as an angsty teen trying to make his MySpace page look cool–but not too cool. Chris Aldrich
With the increasing toxicity on Twitter, Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, algorithmic feeds, and a myriad of other problems. Walled gardens have trapped us with the promise of a “free” while addicting us to their products at the cost of our happiness, sense of self, sanity, and privacy.
Chris uses IndieWeb technologies in conjunction with WordPress as a replacement for his social presence while still allowing easy interaction with friends, family, and colleagues online. Allowing him to democratize social media.
Chris is a a biomedical engineer and strong advocate of the IndieWeb movement.
Greg Taylor
Greg Taylor is a veteran of the Digital Marketing & WordPress world. Currently, Taylor oversees the Content and WordPress Development teams at Trinity Web Media & Development. Originally from Warren, NJ, when not helping clients achieve their dreams, he can be found playing music with friends or enjoying the beach in Mission Beach San Diego, CA.
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 48,000 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.
Jessica Boctor
Creativity meets Strategy.
It is something which occurs everyday in my head. I am an idea machine who creates innovative solutions for customer service, business development, and event design. I am passionate about E-Commerce and Social Media as tools for moving businesses toward their goals.
I have over five years of customer service and sales experience in a variety of settings including technical support, e-commerce, restaurants, and retail. I am able to communicate with customers and colleagues in a professional and empathic manner in a verity of setting. These include direct interaction, phone, and email. In addition to speaking my native language of English, I also read, write and speak German with near fluency. I have a years worth of bilingual customer service experience both over the phone and in person.
As both an entrepreneur and an employee I have experience in bringing an idea to fruition. As a Managing Member of Marchen Studios, I played a vital role in taking the vision of a creative space for all from concept to reality. This endeavor included writing the business plan, developing a web presence, scheduling and teaching creative workshops, as well as designing a brick and mortar store. During my time working at the Gordian Project, I implemented procedures to streamline order tracking thereby improving our customer’s experience.
If you are seeking to engage your target market through innovative campaigns, solid relationships and excellent customer service I believe you will find me to be an ideal candidate.
Leo Postovoit
Leo Postovoit an open source advocate, designer-developer and coffee geek. He is also an organizer for WordCamp Orange County, an organizer for the Los Angeles WordPress Meetup, a contributor to WordPress Core’s Accessibility team and works as a WordPress consultant for XWP. In the 11 years of his career he has used WordPress at every step of the process. Leo’s work has appeared in publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Denver Post, and Lowrider Magazine. Beyond journalism, he’s worked in marketing, education and the film industry (and even spent a few years as an American Sign Language interpreter.) He also double majored in Journalism and Anthropology at San Jose State University.
Lisa Garner
Lisa Garner is the owner of owner of MagnifiedWeb, a digital marketing website agency in Riverside, CA that specializes in website design, development, and content marketing strategy.
Marc Benzakein
Marc Benzakein is the Operations Manager at ServerPress.com, the company behind DesktopServer. Marc started programing at the age of ten when he was given access to the main frame at the university in which is father worked. In the mid 90s he caught the internet bug and helped to start up and build a small, independent ISP in Southern California working as a network administrator designing and building the network from the ground up. It quickly became one of the fastest growing regional ISPs in California. He has been involved in almost every aspect of technology throughout. In 2009, he discovered WordPress Development; first for his own purposes and then for clients.
Nate Conley
Nate Conley is an Orange County-based front-end and WordPress developer at Pixel Jar. Nate discovered his passion for building for the web while a music student at Missouri Southern State University, starting out by building websites for his musician friends. He now builds everything from custom themes for clients, to premium plugins and open source projects.
Oscar Hernandez
I’m a full-stack software engineer who utilizes the best tech for the job, whether it’s a new front-end framework or a domain-specific language. This has helped me deliver production-level web applications, beautiful responsive static sites, and host/deploy my services on Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services, and of course WordPress.
Sam Jadali
Sam is the Founder & CEO of Host Duplex and the CIO at Mandala, a digital asset exchange. As a cybersecurity researcher and crypto activist, Sam’s dedication and passion in the cloud space was alive well before the term cloud was born. He has spent the last 20 years in the hosting industry and he founded Host Duplex 9 years ago. His clients include some of the most visited WordPress sites on the internet including MacRumors and AppShopper. With his depth of knowledge in security and compliance regulations, he continually advises his clients on how to be preemptive with security while maintaining the performance they expect. An avid Big 10 fan (Go Hawkeyes), Sam escaped the Iowa cold and moved to Southern California eight years ago. He currently resides in downtown San Diego and is learning the ropes of raising a new puppy.
Samantha Johnston
I work with cause-based brands to elevate their visual and online presence so they can attract and engage their target audience. Together, we create timeless, powerful and impactful brands and websites that help them change the world, one step at a time.
Sean Conklin
Sean Conklin, Founder at Coded Commerce, LLC, helps his clients do more with their WooCommerce powered stores. He offers site evaluations, custom migrations and development, and maintenance / support contracts. Sean has been a full-stack PHP web developer since 2002 and his specialties have been in WordPress powered sites since 2011 and WooCommerce powered shops since early 2017.
WordPress Origin Story
I have been a full-stack PHP web developer since 2002. My current specialties have been in WordPress powered sites since 2011 and WooCommerce powered shops since early 2017.
Steve Ramos
Steve Ramos, Founder & Nerd Who Speaks Business at Zap Crunch, is a second generation computer programmer and graduate of Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Business Administration via their Computer Information Systems program. As a self-proclaimed “Nerd Who Speaks Business”, his leadership bridges the gap between market strategy and technical expertise. There are many tried-and-true solutions, but a thinking mind will recommend the best fit for the right circumstances.
Steve Zehnget
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 WordPress and mobile development shops. Steve is the lead organizer of WordCamp Orange County and the organizer of the OC WordPress Meetup. 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.
Sunday’s Speakers
Alicia St Rose
We’ve all been there. Maybe it was a live group setting or a video conference. Someone drops a term, everyone else nods knowingly, your anxiety rises as you realize you’ve NEVER heard of this thing, that you SHOULD have heard of before! Everyone keeps nodding as the speaker rambles on about this term. You nod, too. You feel like a fraud, an imposter.
Alicia will deconstruct Imposters Syndrome and give you a new mindset to try out, The Dunno Doctrine.
Alicia is passionate about WordPress and inspiring those who use it. You’ll find her attending or speaking at many Southern California WordCamps and co-organizing the South Central Coast WordPress Adventure Group.
Interests
I’m a permanent resident of Black Rock City, I hoop, play ukulele, sing, sew and fawn over my two cats: Oscar and Milo. My life is never dull. Seriously.
WordPress Origin Story
WordPress: Love at first site.
Amber Hewitt
Amber Hewitt is a graphic designer and front-end web developer at her company, Graphicgoo, where she has created websites for a wide variety of clients for over 15 years. With a strong background in design (graphic design degree from Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design), she has developed a passion for good imagery and typography in print and on the web.
Amy Hall
MailChimp is the most popular email marketing service and WordPress the most popular platform for building websites.
Amy will show you how to integrate both platforms and generate leads.
Amy is an designer, developer and MailChimp expert. She’s also a WordPress educator at MiraCosta College.
WordPress Origin Story
I learned how to use WordPress because I was helping my husband with his own sites. People saw what he did and started asking him to help them get their sites up and running.
Now I help people learn about WordPress and build affordable WordPress websites that get business.
Bill Dalessi
What good is your new website if no one sees it? Bill will provide tips and methods for WordPress developers for building organic traffic to your site.
Anyone can pay for advertising. Why not learn how to get the search engines to work with you?
Bill is an SEO Analyst with twenty years of experience and owns WebsitePromoters
Bridget Willard
Bridget Willard is a marketing consultant and educator with a passion to help small businesses. She began in construction, and worked in franchise development, nonprofits, and tech. She is known for her brand building for Riggins Construction and GiveWP.
She is the co-host of WPblab, a podcast on the WPwatercooler network, co-organizer of Women Who WP Meetup, and Marketing Team Rep for Make WordPress.
When she’s not writing about marketing, she is spending time with her Sully Dog, learning languages on Duolingo, or walking by the ocean.
Say hi to her on Twitter at @youtoocanbeguru and check out her site at bridgetwillard.com.
WordPress Origin Story
My Twitter friend Pam from Pam Ann Marketing said she wanted to meet us at WordCamp Orange County in 2013. My BFF/Blogging Buddy Carol Stephen and I went and Pam couldn’t attend. We’ve been going to WordCamps ever since. I built bridgetwillard.com in April 2015 — my first self-hosted WordPress site. I joined the Marketing Team at the Contributor Day for WCUS in 2015 and became Team Rep shortly after. The rest is history.
Geno Quiroz
Geno is the Owner of a small web design agency called Monterey Premier, and is based in Monterey, California. He has been building websites since 1996, WordPressing since 2012, and enjoys all things design, travel, hanging out with friends, helping in his local community, and experimenting with new technologies. When not doing any of the above, you can find Geno blogging on MontereyPremier.com or writing Divi customization tutorials over on Quiroz.co.
Gertrude Nonterah, PhD
As a writer and scientist, I use inbound marketing techniques to help marketing managers at healthcare, health technology and fitness companies create white papers, educational brochures/eBooks, e-mail newsletters, blog posts and website content that communicates simply and clearly to patients and clients without skimping on authoritative medical research.
Loxley Browne
From meeting the Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine to review an editorial that was being published for a client …to a press junket of on-air live interviews …. to photo opps with celebrities at the Emmys, Loxley has led teams through the maze of PR and publicity. She now leads clients out of the dark corners of obscurity on the internet to gaining awareness and upward sales growth.
As the head of MARCOM for Jusk Media she is a ray of sunshine for a very specific target. Who is your target? She can help you pinpoint your niche and how to reach those influencers. You will walk away with the tools needed to grow your business. Don’t miss her presentation… gold stars will be awarded.
Mary Barnett
“MobileMary” Barnett, is the CEO of Another Brilliant Idea & has over 30 years of experience in promotional marketing strategy. Mary has produced award-winning events, B2B and B2C promotions for clients all over the world.
MobileMary was the host of a weekly radio show called the Brilliant Mobile Marketing Radio Show for over 2.5 years and continues to speak to small groups and on large stages around the country on the latest trends in mobile technology. Her high-energy signature talk: “Make your Phone, Make you Money” both entertains and educates her audiences, giving them motivation to walk away inspired to take action on their brilliant ideas!
Matt Kopala
Geek, engineer, world traveler, passionate developer, and father to a little girl and a little dog. Founder of @SiteDistrict and @TaskBump.
Taylor Waldon
Taylor Waldon is a content writer for GiveWP, a popular WordPress plugin that allows people to accept donations on thier site.
William Bay
William Bay is the Chief Flaunteprener at FlauntYourSite.com. He’s studied all kinds of SEO goodness, and what makes great web site design. On a typical day, he’ll be immersed in code, or dissecting rankings, or sneaking in a quick yoga session between client calls.
When he’s not photographing, SEO’ing, or designing, he’s dreaming about surfing the perfect peeling reef breaks in the Mentawai Islands.
While you’re here, purchase a ticket to attend WordCamp Riverside 2018 if you haven’t already.