Organizers note: You can enter content for this page in the Speakers menu item in the sidebar.
Dustin Meza
Dustin Fillippini
Andrew Nathan
John James Jacoby
Bret Cohen
CEO and Co-Founder of emagine, a 50-person WordPress-based Digital Agency. Brett started with his co-founder in 1996 (the dawn of the Web) as a typical “2 guys in a garage” web firm with no college degree and no money. Over the past 20 years, Brett has driven emagine’s growth to become one of the nation’s leading WordPress agencies focused on Healthcare, High-Tech, B2B and Construction.
Michele Butcher
Bio: Michele is the Accounts Coordinator for Valet. She is also the Support Guru for GiveWP and a Support Engineer for Yoast. She is from Carbondale, Illinois (the other, prettier area of Illinois. Michele is also the Lead Organizer of The Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup and teaches beginners WordPress for John A Logan College.
Adam Silver
BIO:
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.
Maddy Osman
Maddy Osman is a digital marketer who has a passion for blogging. Her lifestyle blog,www.ChicagoCheapAss.com, shows young adults how the find the best deals and values in Chicago. If you’re more interested in learning how to be more effective with your own blog, check out her website, www.The-Blogsmith.com.
Jeff Large
Professional Bio
Jeff Large is a digital consultant and strategist. He runs Come Alive Creative, a web and graphic design agency specializing in eCommerce. He also uses his experience as an educator to teach business owners more about web development, podcasting, and digital marketing.
Mary Fran Wiley
I’m an experienced UX/UI designer from the Second City with a love of all things sci-fi, a bad dancing habit and the ability to speak two (and a half) languages. I also currently write The Chronic Positivity Project.
Josepha Haden
David Parsons
Stacy Kvernmo
Nile Flores
Jessica Garbarino
Jessica Garbarino is the founder of Every Single Dollar, a company dedicated to helping single women navigate the world of personal finance. She offers individual financial coaching, speaks on personal finance, and produces video on various financial topics. Jessica lives the debt free life in sunny South Florida.
Joshua Alexander
I’m a WordPress Developer in the Chicago suburbs that specializes in working with other tech firms to help them meet work objectives they don’t have the tech skills for or time to handle. Website Link
Ian Wilson
Bio: Co-Owner at build/create and WordPress user since 2006. Ian works as designer, developer, marketer, and erstwhile sysadmin to keep all aspects of site development running smoothly within his team.
Patrick Alexander
Patrick Alexander is the CEO and founder of WPBICO.COM, an all in one WordPress platform which provides every tool (domain,email,theme,hosting, plugins & training) required for a WP website at one affordable price. An avid WordPress enthusiast , he advocates that the best part about WP is that there’s a plugin for everything
Chris Wiegman
Jim Birch
Jim Birch is a Strategist at Xeno Media, Inc who specializes in planning and developing digital projects for some of the world’s best clients. He is a seasoned writer and technology speaker, a co-organizer of the Drupal Chicago Meetup Group, MidCamp, and social media liaison for Backdrop CMS.
Patrick Elward
Patrick Elward of Chicago Web Management specializes in E-Commerce and has worked with Allstate, CDW, 3Com and dozens of small businesses to manage their web sites. A Certified Internet Webmaster, Patrick is able to translate the technical into easy to understand terms for the non-tech savvy. He attended WooConference 2016 in Austin, Texas and also conducts workshops for ‘Ecommerce for small business’ at SCORE Chicago since 2012
Steve Bennett
Bio:
Steve is a co-founder of Real Big Marketing in Jackson, MI which leverages WordPress to enhance the web for it’s clients. Steve has 8 years of experience with the platform and enjoys sharing his enthusiasm at Meetups and WordCamps. You may find him online @BigActual.
Kyle Maurer
Kyle is the co-founder of a Jackson, Michigan based firm called Real Big Marketing which specializes in using WordPress to solve complicated problems for businesses. He is also the author of and a contributor to dozens of WordPress plugins, is the co-organizer of the Jackson WP meetup, is a co-organizer of WordCamp Ann Arbor, plays in a band and is an aspiring beer snob.
Boone Gorges
Boone is a core committer for WordPress and a lead developer for BuddyPress. His consulting firm, Hard G LLC, specializes in WordPress development for universities and academic organizations.
Ken Granger
Bio
Ken Granger travels the country to connect with entrepreneurs and help small businesses succeed. Having worked for nearly a decade at Walt Disney World, Ken has a unique way of bringing Fortune 100 experience to small business. Ken runs his own agency and enjoys sharing business and marketing knowledge in a no-nonsense way that everyone can relate to. Ken has spoken at WordCamps coast-to-coast and is excited to help some Chicago Campers impact their business.
Nancy S Bishop
Nancy is editor and publisher of Third Coast Review, a Chicago arts & culture website, which was launched in January 2016, and has a volunteer staff of ~40 writers. She’s a retired corporate business writer and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com.
Lisa Ghisolf
Becky Davis
Becky is a native Chicagoan who’s been working with WordPress since 2009 and specializes in custom theme development. She is active in the local community and has been running the Chicago Northside WordPress meetup since 2011. Along with creating beautiful and easily editable themes, she is fond of old movies, getting out on her bike and good whiskey.
Topher DeRosia
Andrew Wikel
Andrew Wikel is a WooCommerce ninja at Automattic. He is committed to open source values and loves working with WordPress. He fell in love with WordPress in 2008, and has been working with it in some capacity since then. A husband, a father, a WordCamp addict, a coffee snob, lover of shiny things, and a California native living in Illinois.
Michelle Schulp
Michelle is an independent designer from Chicagoland, living in Minneapolis. She studied Design, Psychology, and Sociology, resulting in a love of How To Solve Problems. Now, she specializes in WordPress theme development and high-end presentation design. A former WCCHI organizer, she loves to speak/volunteer/organize at events around the country.
Zach Stepek
Zach specializes in eCommerce consulting and WooCommerce development, helping companies navigate the complexities of building and running their eCommerce marketplaces. He’s been building dynamic, data-driven websites since 1999 and has worked as a designer, developer and user experience architect. When he isn’t building websites, he’s a professional concert photographer and well-rounded geek.
Hilary Fosdal
Bio: Hilary Fosdal is the owner of Red Phone Studio, a design and development company based in Chicago. She started building websites while working in the broadcast television industry. While still a news junkie, she loves to talk shop about all things digital. In her spare time, she seeks outdoor adventures that involve mostly hiking and running.
Vincent Wondra
Ryan Erwin
Ryan is a web strategist at Orbit Media. Prior to joining Orbit, Ryan founded Internet Marketing Chicago, a full service digital marketing and web development company, based in Chicago. He brings years of WordPress experience to the organization, ranging from speaking at and organizing WordCamps to building and marketing enterprise websites. Ryan is the lead organizer for WordCamp Chicago as well as the lead organizer for Startup Weekend Chicago.