Amy Hendrix has become a WordPress core contributor and developer specializing in custom theme and plugin development. In her free time, she enjoys “fencing and searching for the perfect beer/cheese pairing”. She believes that if she can do WordPress, then so can you. Her presentation at the WordCamp Raleigh event is for anyone who loves WordPress, but who does not realize how much they can contribute and how involved they can be in building the community of WordPress – no matter their background or interest.

“The WP community isn’t just about developers; designers, writers, event organizers, support volunteers, and testers are every bit important to making WP as good as it is,” says Amy. She says that WordPress has a ton of resources for those who want to learn more or build other skills, unlike closed platforms. At the same time, the tools are easy to use and distraction-free for others who do not wish to get involved in the functionality.

During her session, you can ask Amy more about her favorite plugin, which she says has made her look at what she could do with sites differently than she did before. She explains that this plugin “makes it incredibly easy to build any kind of relationships you want between different kinds of data.”

Amy wants to empower everyone to take a more active role in the WordPress world. Anyone who comes to WordCamp is already taking the first step in becoming a community member exclaims Amy. “A lot of people are afraid to even get started because they think they aren’t good enough to try, including some people who are way, way better at this stuff than I am! But just by taking the very first step, whether it’s helping someone in the support forums, learning to improve on some sample code instead of just copying it – and then sharing that as your own first plugin, or learning to fix something as small as a typo in core, can improve your own skills just as much as it improves WordPress.”

Attend this session and get even more WordPress awesomeness at WordCamp Raleigh 2012 on Nov 3-4. Tickets are only $40 and you can register online now!