Here you’ll find a list of all the speakers who are donating their time to speak at WordCamp Raleigh 2019. You’ll see that we’ve listed their session below.
Adam Sewell
Adam Sewell is a father, husband, and entrepreneur. Most of his time is spent with his IT support company, MyGeek Technologies. Though he is also known to develop WordPress sites and plugins as well as providing high performance hosting specific to WordPress. Most recently, he has been working on a security plugin for WordPress called tinyShield. He is also very involved in his local community serving on nonprofit boards and volunteering for events.
Adam Silver
Adam is a native of California, though relocated to North Carolina in August of 2017. Currently providing WordPress development and support services through ConciergeWP.com.
He produces 2 weekly podcasts at KitchenSinkWP.com & The Get Options Podcast & was the lead organizer for WordCamp Los Angeles 2016 & 2017. In his free time, he speaks at industry events sharing his insights & expertise into all things digital. Married for 20 years to his amazing wife & has 3 wickedly cool kids.
Session: Podcasting to Grow your Business
Aisha Adams
Aisha Adams is the blogger behind NappyThoughts.com. Her written work has also appeared in publications like The Asheville Citizen-Times, The Asheville Grit, and WNC Woman Magazine. She is also the founder of Aisha Adams Media.
AJ Morris
AJ Morris is a Product Manager at Liquid Web by day, site and store builder by night, AJ has spent the last decade building anything he can around WordPress. He spends most of his time focusing on helping small business build digital storefronts and web presence. In his free time, he is devoted to his family and spending the weekends at the family cottage.
Session: Growing the Small Business Local Economy with Marketplace eCommerce
April Wier
April helps individuals and businesses become the best versions of themselves. This may come in the form of a new, or better, web site or coaching to break through self-imposed limitations. She specializes in helping high-performers reach their goals online. She is heavily involved in Atlanta WordPress community, as a co-organizer of the Woodstock WordPress Meetup and as a former organizer for WordCamp Atlanta. For fun, she runs the digital marketing company Sugar Five Design.
Session: Creating a Content Calendar
Ben Meredith
What makes a guy with a bachelors in Religious Studies and no formal web training into a web developer with hundreds of thousands of downloads of his projects?
WordPress does.
Ben is a developer, focused on the human interaction with WordPress. He thrives on making users (and their sites) play nicely with developers (and their products), like an ambassador from one to the other.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina and a lifelong North Carolinian (if you don’t count 4 years in Middle Tennessee), Ben is a father of two + a foster toddler and a husband of one very patient wife. He works full-time for Give, the donation platform for WordPress, where he spends his time wowwing customers, cracking jokes, and solving problems.
When he’s not working, he’s likely parenting and reminiscing about having free time to play disc golf and guitar.
Fun facts: Once he gave a Bible to a drunken former KGB agent who was nearly naked. He flew east all the way around the world (with the help of commercial airlines) one summer. He used to have significantly more hair. To an embarrassing extent.
Session: What Blues Guitar And Diapers Taught Me About WordPress Support
Beth Livingston
Beth built her first WordPress website in 2009 for a side business, was immediately smitten, and began building websites for other small businesses. In 2016, after a long history as an IT Business Analyst and Instructional Designer, Beth left the corporate world to become a full time WordPress Coach and Designer, and now owns WP Roadmaps and Coaching, providing project and productivity management education to WordPress practitioners.
Beth’s claims to have the “secret sauce” for overcoming the project management obstacles often faced by website development providers and has tailored her training to include the nuances that are “uniquely WordPress.” Her 6 Principles of WordPress Productivity Management and The Complete WordPress Project Management Roadmap (currently in development) include the guidance, best practices, and templates necessary to consistently get projects completed on time and within budget.
Beth also administers the WordPress Project Management Facebook group and serves as an organizer for the Triad WordPress Meetup Group where she often hosts a “happiness bar” event for those who are struggling.
Session: How to Leverage your Project Management Methodology to Set Yourself Apart from Your Competition
Bobby Kircher
Bobby owns Papaya Internet, an Atlanta-based digital marketing consultancy specializing in search engine optimization and marketing. He is a 20-year web veteran who got his start as an intern while studying Information Science at Florida State University. Today, he helps businesses grow by finding customers online and is an active member of the Atlanta WordPress community.
When he’s not sitting behind a computer, he’s riding his bike, collecting vinyl records, and performing improv in the city’s thriving comedy scene.
Session: Site Structure for WordPress
Brian DeConinck
Brian DeConinck is a Boston-based front-end designer and developer with NC State University’s Office of Information Technology. In his work, he is committed to inclusive design and empathy for the users he supports.
Session: Introduction to WordPress Privacy
Chloe Chamberland
My name is Chloe, and I currently work as a Security Analyst at Wordfence. With a few years of customer service and security under my belt, I love helping out the WordPress community and educating everyone on how to secure their WordPress environments to the most optimal degree they can. I am a holder of the Security+ certification along with the CySA+ certification, SSCP certification, CEH certification, and I am currently working towards my CHFI. When I am not learning about security or helping teach individuals about security I enjoy finding new and unique coffee shops, exploring the globe, and hanging out with all of my furry friends.
Session: Passwords are one of your biggest weaknesses. Don’t be a victim.
Doug Foster
Doug Foster is the Founder and CEO of Convinsys, a sales engineering company. Started in 2006, Convinsys specializes in story driven, technical product demonstrations. As CEO, Doug is focused on helping organizations build revenue by delivering convincingly simple and engaging customer experiences.
Prior to starting Convinsys, Doug served in technical and managerial roles for sales, marketing, IT, engineering, and manufacturing companies ranging from startups to global high tech.
Since giving his first demo at age 12, Doug has helped people understand new technology and how it can solve challenging problems. He has built international computer networks, spoken at industry events, developed software, taught classes, provided guidance for licensing NASA intellectual property, given countless executive presentations & demonstrations, and helped close global sales opportunities.
Doug holds a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University with postgraduate work in numerical calculations at the University of Iowa. Learn more at https://dougfoster.me
Drew Wilde
Drew is a passionate sports fan, cartoon watcher and theater nerd. Come up and strike a conversation with him at the Bluehost booth! Currently employed at Endurance International, he’s a Product Manager responsible for gathering and assessing business goals, market research, customer feedback, and other input to formulate product features, functions and requirements which offer significant competitive advantage for the hosting brand Bluehost.com.
Session: Website Optimization Through Quality Experimentation
Dwayne McDaniel
Dwayne has been working in tech and open source since 2005. Once he dipped a toe into the world of Free and Open Source Software, he knew never wanted to work outside of it again. Dwayne first started building in Drupal and WordPress for the San Francisco Improv community in 2013, which lead him to his current role. As a Developer Advocate at Pantheon he has had the privilege of presenting at dozens of community events from Paris to Iceland and from MIT and Stanford.
Reach out at mcdwayne.com or on twitter @mcdwayne
Session: Let’s learn Git. No more excuses.
Eric Kuznacic
Eric Kuznacic is a lifelong technology junkie who began experimenting with computers more than 35 years ago when his parents purchased a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. He found some BASIC programs in a computing magazine and spent hours inputting and debugging the code to create very simple programs.
During high school he became enamored with the Internet via a Compuserv dial-up account. He chose to attend Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, largely because of its “Macintosh in Every Dorm Room” program. During college he taught himself HTML and CSS, and after graduation dabbled in freelance website design and IT consulting side projects.
In 2013, after years of requests for assistance with websites and online branding efforts, Why the Fuss? Technical Solutions was born. The business as provides WordPress-oriented services and training/education to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, independent musicians, and anyone else in need of technical assistance.
Since founding WTF?, Mr. Kuznacic has amassed a long list of private-, public- and nonprofit clients throughout southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and beyond. He believes strongly in the power and dynamism found within the global WordPress community and wholeheartedly supports its open-source mission.
Ethan Butler
Ethan Butler is a JavaScript and WordPress developer based in Durham, North Carolina. He loves functional programming, making beats, and cooking vegetables – some of which are beets.
Session: Block-wards Compatibility
Jaz White
Jaz White is a developer and designer. She is passionate about sustainability and creating a better world to live in. She is currently living smallish in Pittsburgh, PA with her partner and cat.
Session: What the Hook!? What you should know about WordPress Actions & Filters
Jordan Cauley
Jordan, his wife, and three kids live in Greensboro, NC. He works for Mediavine leading the Publisher Engineering Team product group focused on the publishing tools.
Joseph LoPreste
Hi, I’m Joe LoPreste I’m a St. Pete. native. I bring over 10 years of business and technology experience to the team. With St. Pete Design I have the opportunity to combine my passion for business and my obsession with pushing technology beyond its limits.
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
This is how I feel about software development. I get to wake up every day to a new set of challenges and the opportunity to solve these challenges with new and unique solutions. One of my favorite things in business is the feeling of satisfaction that I get when we are able to successfully create or do something that others said could not be done.
I have 2 amazing daughters Mekenzie and Kennedie who have taught me what’s important in life. They bring balance to me and my life/work ratio. I bring the mindset that as a company we should cultivate creativity and individuality so that allows us to create solutions at the highest levels while still loving what we do.
Session: Web Accessibility for WordPress
Kathy Drewien
I am a web consultant and community leader who recognizes the potential in people and ideas, and have the courage to develop that potential in various capacities and roles.
One, I own a rescue shelter for abandoned, ugly, broken, outdated, and non-productive websites. Under that roof my team builds new sites, repairs broken ones, provides ongoing care, and I coach, teach, counsel, guide, and nurture the site owners.
Two, using the skills honed over a lifetime of self-employment spanning 3 different careers—family therapy, real estate brokerage, and web development—I coach creative professionals to move beyond limitations (often self-imposed) to become a thriving professional.
Three, I volunteer to organize two conferences—WordCamp Atlanta and WordCamp US, a regional and a national conference in the WordPress Community. My volunteer role also includes mentoring WordCamp organizers in nationwide locations.
In short, I do work that matters for people who care. I show up regularly, consistently, and generously to lead, organize, and build confidence in creative people who can change the world.
Session: Steps for Dealing with Difficult Clients (And Preventing Them Altogether!)
Lexi Namer
Lexi is a developer and designer passionate about creating beautiful things for the Internet. She is the UX Developer at Unity Digital Agency and believes that storytelling can change the world. She’s on a mission to tell those stories through visual communication. While Lexi spent five years in New York as a freelance photographer, she is a Southerner at heart, growing up in Tennessee and fervently in support of the word “y’all.” She traded the Big Apple for the Bull City in 2014, receiving her master’s degree in interactive media as a Roy H. Park Fellow from the UNC School of Media and Journalism, where she is now a lecturer. Lexi is a runner, teacher, and pet-obsessed human who is always down to collaborate on a fun project or go play in the woods.
Session: Storytelling Through Design
Lisa Linn Allen
Lisa Linn Allen is a Principal IT Software Developer and Team Lead for the intranet team at SAS in Cary. She’s been working on the SAS intranet since the days of NCSA Mosaic. For the last few years, her team has been working on moving large parts of this intranet into a governed, custom-built WordPress site.
Lisa lives in central North Carolina, and enjoys sewing, swimming, and cheering on her husband and son at Taekwondo tournaments. Her favorite WordPress accomplishment to date: Building a continuous deployment pipeline for WordPress.
Session: We are the gatekeepers – compassion in web development
Mary Baum
Mary Baum is the founder and principal of RacquetPress, a digital consultant to the tennis industry. … Trained as a print designer (there WAS no web) Mary built her first site (wrong) in 1999 and started to learn real CSS and HTML in 2007 — at the tender age of 47. … Today she’s a big fan of design in the browser (after a few thumbnail sketches!) and all the modern CSS the browsers will support, but apparently doesn’t understand how sales works; her newest client is someone she’s known for nearly fifty, yes, five-oh, years.
Micah Wood
A professional WordPress developer for over a decade, Micah has worked on sites for Fortune 100 companies, has released over a dozen WordPress plugins, is a frequent speaker at WordCamps, co-organizes the WordPress Gwinnett meetup, is a co-host on the WP Square One podcast and shares his knowledge by blogging on WordPress development topics.
Michael Baylor
Michael Baylor is a Client Services Digital Project Manager for the fulfillment team at WRAL Digital Solutions. Michael works most closely with radio, TV, and digital only sales people as they offer
integrated marketing services including web design, SEO, PPC, Social Media and more to clients with digital marketing needs. He is a North Carolina native (hailing from Greensboro, NC) who has worked in a variety of industries, including real estate, college athletics, and non-profit businesses. He enjoys sports, music and podcasting and is the host of the WRAL TechWire Tech on Tap Podcast.
Session: Google My Business for SEO – Its importance and how to leverage
Natalie MacLees
I’m a web developer, UI designer, and founder of the amazing creative agency Purple Pen Productions.
Session: 1% Better: How little changes add up to a better, stronger business
Nathan Ingram
Nathan is the Host at iThemes Training where he teaches WordPress and freelance business development topics via live webinar.
He is also the creator of >ADVANCE Coaching, working with WordPress business owners individually and in groups to help them become more successful in their businesses.
Nathan has been a freelance web developer since 1995, and is based in Birmingham, Alabama where he is an organizer for WordCamp Birmingham.
You can learn more about Nathan at https://nathaningram.com.
Session: The Power of Recurring Income
Ray Mitchell
Ray is the owner of Made for You Media, which focuses on meeting the unique marketing needs of small businesses and non-profit organizations. He also serves as a Mentor at the Small Business Center at Forsyth Technical Community College. Active in the local community, Ray is a member of, and sits on the board, of several community non-profit organizations.
Session: Building a Trustworthy Website
Rory Michael Heaney
Rory Heaney has led and created successful, tailored application and website solutions for top brands, including Betsy Farms and PetAction Plus as well as for celebrity personalities such as Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Emily Henderson.
As the Senior Front End Developer for Cie Digital Labs, Rory steers the ideation/execution of web applications as well as mobile and portal development for clients across industries, including Pilot Flying J and Nitto Tire.
He’s proficient in CSS, CSS3, HTML, HTML5, JavaScript, jQeury, Vue, and PHP languages, and has successfully built more than 500 websites over the past eight years.
WordPress rules, I’m out!!
Session: Intro to ADA Development
Sam England
Sam England is an eCommerce specialist and started his eCommerce/Dropshipping business back in 2003…he has built dozens of authority sites and still maintains a number of those top ranking sites in a number of highly competitive niches.
Teaching others how to be successful with Internet Marketing and helping them live their dreams is what Sam enjoys doing most these days and networking with others.
Sandy Edwards
Sandy is the Owner of Data Driven Labs and has been in the WordPress space since 2014. She has a passion for education and helping others find their niche. She teaches kids and adults across the country about how to engage with writing through blogging and marketing. She can be found on Twitter at @Sunsanddesign, her business site, DataDrivenLabs.io, her travel blog FloridaSunAdventures.com, and on her personal site at SandyEdwards.me.
Session: Picking Your Project Management Software for Success
Sarah Ovenall
Sarah Ovenall is a Senior IT Software Developer with the intranet team at SAS Software in Cary. She’s been developing for over 20 years, and joined SAS in 2014 to work on migrating the intranet to a custom WordPress install. Based in Durham NC, Sarah hosts a weekly swing music show on WXDU Durham 88.7 fm, and is a regular contributor to The Five By podcast.
Session: Lightning Fast Performance with a Headless Home Page
Scott Saunders
Hi, my name is Scott I’ve been doing graphic design and web development for over 25 years.
My primary jobs have developing easy and efficient ways for clients to maintain their CMS based content specific to their needs, by creating accessible and easy to manage administration areas that lets clients manage the most complex content with minimal training, and no coding experience.
I have done development with all the major content management systems Joomla, Drupal, OpenCMS, ModX, and WordPress as well as keeping up with new and developing CMSs, tools, modules, and plugins that help website performance and content management. I pride myself on creating lightweight, thoroughly optimized, easy to use themes that are require very little maintenance and preform well with SEO and all page speed testing.
I also specialize in AV production and film editing, while this has never been my primary job I feel my work is far above average and can provide additional support when needed.
Session: How to improve Advanced Custom Fields for use with Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0
Sharon A. Dawson
Sharon Dawson is a Marketing Manager at TheeDesign. She plans and executes marketing campaigns to help small, local, and national companies get more customers and strengthen their branding, and leads a team of SEO gurus. She has two Amazon Echos and one Google Home, and has tested side by side results of search queries, and the differences are enlightening.
Prior to TheeDesign, Sharon was the Webmaster at Burt’s Bees where she managed the b2b and b2c websites for the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
Session: How to Break your WordPress Website
Steve Mortiboy
Steve Mortiboy is the COO and Service Delivery Manager for Semper Plugins. He leads the team that develops plugins such as All in One SEO Pack. He has been working with WordPress for over 8 years and devotes much of his time to helping people get the most from WordPress. He is also one of the co-organizers of WordCamp Raleigh and the Raleigh WordPress Meetup Group. When not hard at work he’s working on DIY projects at home or off traveling.
Session: Successfully implementing Open Graph for improved social media marketing
Steve Schwartz
Steve Schwartz is the owner of AVT Marketing in Charlotte, NC and has been developing WordPress Websites for over 10 years. After experiencing a hacked site in 2012 he has become obsessed with website security and with educating others on “end to end” online security. He is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and is currently pursuing the Offensive Security Certified Professional cert (OSCP) through Kali Linux. His teaching style has always been to try to take complex technical jargon and bring it down to a level where end users can understand it. He differentiates himself as an educator by not just telling students to do (or not do) something, but rather explain the importance of “Why” – and through story telling to get the point across and make it stick.
Session: How An Attacker Sees Your Website – A View Through The Eyes of the Hacker
Tony Zeoli
Tony Zeoli is founder of Digital Strategy Works, an Asheville, NC-based WordPress consulting and digital strategy company . Tony has worked on WordPress since 2004 on 300+ WordPress projects of all shapes and sizes for a variety of small business, nonprofits, education, and large corporations. He has planned and managed the creation of WordPress multisite networks (Jazzboo), social networks with BuddyPress (Neighborbee), restaurant websites (Sen Sakana, Posana Restaurant), nonprofit platforms (Save The Great South Bay), content publishing sites (Fuel The Future / AdWeek), and many more. He has also implemented and managed social media, PPC (Facebook/AdWords), email newsletter marketing, landing page lead generation, content production and management, and SEO for clients ranging from All in One SEO Pack to Total Merchant Resources, who appeared on an episode of Shark Tank.
In addition to his client work, for the past two-years, Tony has been the resident Digital Strategist at Mountain BizWorks, an Asheville based lending and learning organization, which lended over $5M in low-interest business loans to small businesses in Western North Carolina.
Through MountainBizWorks learning programs, Tony trains on WordPress and guides digital strategy for over 30 small businesses on how to best leverage WordPress as a CMS for content publishing, marketing, scheduling, SEO, e-commerce, and other small business applications.
Tony is a 2009 graduate of New York University with Bachelor of Science in Digital Communications and Media. Tony is also a prolific house music DJ with a career spanning 30-years. He podcasts and live streams on his WordPress powered, Netmix.com, website.
William Earnhardt
William works as a WordPress core contributor at Bluehost. Before joining Bluehost last year, he spent 6 years building and running WordPress multisite and multi-network environments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
When not fiddling with WordPress things, he loves tinkering with old Jeeps, kayak fishing and cheering on the Tar Heels.