Speaker Spotlight: Glenn Ansley of Full Throttle Development

Glenn Ansley of FullThrottle DevelopmentGlenn is a local to Raleigh, NC.  He has been developing WordPress plugins and contributing to the core project for several years with FullThrottle Development.  He currently works at NC State University as a PHP / MySQL developer but continues to contribute to the community during his free time.  While he enjoys many aspects of WordPress development, the community is what keeps him here.

Glenn will be presenting on the topic of WordPress Filters and Actions in the Developers track.  Here’s an extract from what you can expect to hear from Glenn:

The hook API is what sets WordPress apart from so many other free and open source software projects. While there are multiple tutorials across the internet that teach you how to add an action or a filter, you’ll never experience the full potential of this powerful feature until you comprehend what’s taking place under the hood. WordPress Filters and Actions will take an in-depth look into the hook API. We’ll explore what it is, how it works, common pitfalls, and advanced techniques that will make you a more robust WordPress developer.

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

Live SitePoint Podcast at WordCamp Raleigh

By now you will know that we are welcoming the SitePoint Podcast team to WordCamp Raleigh. They will be broadcasting live from WordCamp on Saturday 22nd May with a special two-hour podcast.  I thought we’d whet your appetite with some information about this special podcast –

SitePoint Podcast hosts – Brad Williams, Kevin Yank, Patrick O’Keefe, and Stephan Seagraves will be interviewing 12 special guests including:

Aaron Brazell, Author of “WordPress Bible”

Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Author of “WordPress for Dummies” and BuddyPress for Dummies”

Jeff Chandler, Host of WordPress Weekly

Gregory Ng, Frozen Food Master at Freezer Burns

Nathan Rice, Lead Developer at StudioPress

Cory Miller, CEO of iThemes

And as if that’s not enough to get you excited, there will be prizes!  Over $1,500 worth of giveaways including books, theme and plugin licenses.

So if you’re attending WordCamp Raleigh come along and participate as part of the audience to this unique event. And if you’re not attending WordCamp Raleigh then what are you waiting for? Get your ticket today before time runs out!

Register at wordcampraleigh.com/register/

The SitePoint Podcast will start at 1pm on Saturday 22nd and will last 2 hours. Hope to see you there.

Speaker Spotlight: Tony Zeoli

Tony ZeoliWordCamp Raleigh is happy to announce, what I believe is our final speaker addition … Anthony Zeoli is the founder of Digital Strategy Works, a web strategy & development company whose clients include the Associated Press, Cablevision Systems Corp, Lehman Brothers, and JP Morgan Chase.

He also owns and blogs about hip-hop at Netmix.com plus is the Director of Interactive Media at the National Museum of Hip-Hop.

Session:

“WordPress & Multimedia: Podcasting, Streaming Video & Photos”

WordPress is an incredibly powerful publishing engine, but it also has amazing capabilities for audio, video and photos.

In this session, we will cover many tricks, tips, options, and tools to power your audio podcasts, manage your videos and display your images.

Tools that we will cover include ways to power your audio podcasts using Podcasting and Blubrry plugins.

For video we’ll look at Kaltura, a freemium service for video, and WordTube, which uses the Open Source JW Player to run video content directly from your server. This session will also provide options for embedding video from YouTube, Vimeo, Google and more.

Finally we will learn about the popular NextGen Gallery plugin to display albums and galleries and the number of associated image viewer plug-ins that display your photos in a variety of ways, and a few tricks to make sure your php doesn’t exceed the upload memory limit.

Bio:

Tony is the founder of Digital Strategy Works, where he has been active developing media & entertainment-related websites utilizing best of class streaming and multimedia products since 1995 for a wide range of clients, including: the Associated Press, Cablevision Systems Corp, Zondervan, Lehman Brothers, and JP Morgan Chase.

He is also involved in start-ups, including his own Netmix.com, Entertainment Media Works, and the National Museum of Hip-Hop. Tony relaunched Netmix on WordPress in 2004 as a blog and a way to host his DJ podcasts using the Podcasting plugin.

Tony is also the host of the WordPress Westchester Meetup group, which is sponsored by The Journal News, to serve WordPress fanatics in the Westchester County, NY area.

When he’s not plotting digital strategy for clients, he loves to drive the lane on the b-ball court, put a few X’s in frames at the bowling alley, and spin deep and melodic tech-house music in his DJ sets.

Follow Tony:

Website: DigitalStrategyWorks.com
Twitter: @dswks

Speaker Spotlight: Grant Swaim

Grant SwaimWe have our final few additions to round out our Speakers group and are happy to announce our latest speaker, Grant Swaim, who is the author of the soon-to-be-released, “Technology Guide for Today’s Automotive Technician” and an automotive expert and instructor.

Session:

“How to Build a Membership-style Website”

While there are many ways to monetize a website, one of the more lucrative models is to sell access to premium content. This approach requires careful consideration and special software that may differ from a traditional shopping cart approach.

In this presentation, we will cover the best practices for building a membership-based site including WordPress solutions and traditional website solutions.

Bio:

Grant, who has a passion for cars, computers, and education, is a full time automotive instructor in the North Carolina Community College system and the author of “Technology Guide for Today’s Automotive Technician”, due out in May 2010. This book will cover digital technology and how it is utilized within the automotive service industry.

He has also been building the online course to deliver this content. In the process of building this membership-style site, Grant did extensive research on publishing platforms, membership software, and ecommerce solutions. Grant is a true educator and is always willing to share his experiences to make the path easier for others.

Grant’s past presentations include “The Automotive Educators Podcast” which was a weekly show about the art of teaching automotive technology.

Follow Grant:

Website: DigitalLiteracyProject.com
Twitter: @GrantSwaim

Speaker Spotlight: Jeffrey Cohen

Jeffrey L CohenWe’re very excited to announce one of our latest additions to round out WordCamp Raleigh … introducing Jeffrey L. Cohen, who is the Social Media Marketing Manager at Howard, Merrell and Partners, a B2B marketing firm.

He also is a partner in OurHashtag.com plus produces and co-hosts NorthCarolinaWine.TV, an online video show.

Session:

“Business Blogging Best Practices”

Blogging for business is a great way to provide the relevant, valuable and timely content that helps company websites be discovered by search engines.

This session will cover blogging best practices through both actionable advice and examples for those starting business blogs or for those looking to improve existing blogs.

Bio:

Jeffrey is the Social Media Marketing Manager at Howard, Merrell and Partners, a Raleigh, NC B2B marketing firm, and is a partner in OurHashtag.com, which brings together the elements of community, marketing and technology to provide platforms for connection and engagement both online and off-line.

Jeff is also a Contributing Editor at SocialMediaB2B.com, the leading B2B industry social media site, which is highly ranked on the Ad Age Power 150.

Jeff has more than 15 years experience in business to business and business to consumer marketing, on both the client and agency sides.

He is also a photographer and blogger who blogs at DigitalPapercuts.com about social media, marketing, photography and life in general, but especially his kids.

In addition, Jeff also produces an online video show focused on North Carolina Wines. NorthCarolinaWine.TV has provided an opportunity to use video and other social media tools to build out a large digital footprint and create a recognized online brand from scratch.

Jeffrey’s past presentations include sessions for SXSW Interactive, SocialMediaBusinessForum.com, IgniteRaleigh, and others.

Follow Jeff:

Blog: DigitalPaperCuts.com
Website: JeffreyLCohen.com
Twitter: @JeffreyLCohen