Category Archives: Speakers

Speaker Spotlight: Tony Zeoli of Reese Felts Digital Newsroom

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Tony joined University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in August 2010 as the lead developer in the Reese Felts Digital Newsroom. Previously, he worked as a consultant in the development of digital media applications for corporations and start-ups. He created digital products for Sony/BMG, Associated Press, Entertainment Media Works/StarStyle.com, Cablevision Systems Corp., Fuse, Smith Street Records, Zondervan, Pepsi-Cola and Melibee Global. In 2009, Tony launched Digital Strategy Works, a new media consulting company building web and mobile applications on WordPress for small businesses. A WordPress expert, Tony launched WordPress Westchester through a partnership with White Plains, N.Y.-based, The Journal News (a Gannett publication) to train Westchester, N.Y. web developers on the popular WordPress CMS. Tony has also presented on the topic of WordPress and multimedia at WordCamp NYC and Raleigh.

Tony will be presenting on the topic of WordPress & Social Media in the Power Users track.  Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Tony:

While SEO remains important to users searching for your content, social media has become a powerful way for users to find your blog posts upon the recommendation of friends and others who “Like,” “Buzz,” “Digg,” or “Share” or “Tweet” your posts into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and other social media services.

In this presentation, Tony Zeoli, Lead Developer in the Reese Felts Digital Newsroom at UNC Chapel Hill, will present options to empower your blog with plugins and best practices to help you manage and track audience engagement when your posts go viral through social sharing.

He will share a number of plugins that will help you cross post to Twitter and Facebook profiles and pages, shorten and track your URL’s, and provide social sharing opportunities on your sites pages. And, he’ll discuss why global social commenting is important, how to use related posts services, post ratings engines, and other ways to ensure your audience engage with your posts and those posts go viral into the social media stratosphere.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Tony.  Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @tonyzeoli

Speaker Spotlight: Brad Williams of WebDevStudios

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Brad Williams is the Co-Founder of WebDevStudios.com, a co-host on the SitePoint Podcast, and the co-author of Professional WordPress and Professional WordPress Plugin Development.

Brad has given presentations at various WordCamps across the country. He is also the organizer for the Philadelphia WordPress Meetup Group and WordCamp Philly

Brad has been developing websites for over 15 years, including the last 5 where he has focused on open-source technologies like WordPress.

 

Brad will be presenting on the topic of Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse using Custom Post Types and Taxonomies in the Power Users track.  This is a follow up presentation from last year’s popular WordCamp Raleigh presentation on Custom Post Types and Taxonomies.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Brad.  Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @williamsba

Speaker Spotlight: Adam Ware of SwellPath

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Adam is a self-declared “seasoned web veteran” with a rich web analytics background and extensive digital marketing experience and skills. Well-rounded in most areas of digital marketing and advertising with solid understanding of usability, web design, and underlying programming and CMS technologies. He’s now the CEO at SwellPath, an analytics consulting and digital marketing agency based in Portland. Adam is a WordPress fanatic, and has been a hardcore user since 2006. He’s got extensive experience with a wide-array of analytics applications, and has hacked and plugged-in most of them into WordPress.

Adam will be presenting on the topic of Measure Twice, Blog Once in the Users track.  Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Adam:

This presentation focuses on methods and tools that can help folks get more actionable data out of their WordPress sites. I cover the basics of the Google Analytics plugin, and the other low-cost-or-free analytics application (Chartbeat, Clicky, etc.) plugins that are available for WordPress. Then I cover some basic analytics strategy best practices, before diving into the meat of the presentation, actual examples of ways to use analytics to gain more insight into user behavior. These include some basic tips like capturing off-site clicks to social media connections, and more complex, like feeding Google Analytics cookie data into contact forms and CRMs.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Adam.  Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @wheresitworking

Speaker Spotlight: Adam Ware of SwellPath

Posted on by

Adam is a self-declared “seasoned web veteran” with a rich web analytics background and extensive digital marketing experience and skills. Well-rounded in most areas of digital marketing and advertising with solid understanding of usability, web design, and underlying programming and CMS technologies. He’s now the CEO at SwellPath, an analytics consulting and digital marketing agency based in Portland. Adam is a WordPress fanatic, and has been a hardcore user since 2006. He’s got extensive experience with a wide-array of analytics applications, and has hacked and plugged-in most of them into WordPress.

Adam will be presenting on the topic of Measure Twice, Blog Once in the Users track.  Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Adam:

This presentation focuses on methods and tools that can help folks get more actionable data out of their WordPress sites. I cover the basics of the Google Analytics plugin, and the other low-cost-or-free analytics application (Chartbeat, Clicky, etc.) plugins that are available for WordPress. Then I cover some basic analytics strategy best practices, before diving into the meat of the presentation, actual examples of ways to use analytics to gain more insight into user behavior. These include some basic tips like capturing off-site clicks to social media connections, and more complex, like feeding Google Analytics cookie data into contact forms and CRMs.

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Adam.  Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @wheresitworking

Speaker Spotlight: Andy Stratton of Sizeable Interactive

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Andy is a Zend certified PHP 5 developer and WordPress “Rock Star“, front-end developer, organic search optimizer and entrepreneur. Lover of nature, music, animals, film, art and most things tangible. He runs Sizeable Interactive, a freelance co-op based in Baltimore and has one dance move: the robot.

Andy will be presenting on the topic of Diet Pills, SEO, Theme Frameworks and More: There are no magic bullets in the Power Users track.  Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Andy:

That’s right. There’s no substitution for planning your work and working your plan. You’ve got to put some sweat in to get something great. Eat less and exercise to lose weight, put the time and effort in to build a truly extraordinary website.

Clients (and some newer WP designers/developers/SEOs/entrepreneurs) have been misled by marketing fluff, social media buzz and high hopes of low cost / high return websites.

This presentation will talk all about why you do or do not need a theme framework, purchased theme, purchased plugin, and more. Why using a WordPress theme framework or purchased theme/plugin may cost you more money and will most likely NOT put you at the top of Google’s SERP’s.

I will attempt to debunk the myths that some users and power users believe about out of the box WordPress extensions while still giving justifications for using them when the context justifies it.

It’s all about context, ladies and germs. Find out why buying out of the box and customizing may not get you cheaper costs and top rankings. Hear it from a seasoned web developer, WordPress Rock Star and top Google ranker (Google: “php wordpress developer”).

So register today for WordCamp Raleigh 2011 and come meet Andy.  Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter – @theandystratton