WordCamp Birmingham, happening October 21-22 at the Pelham Civic Complex. We’re thrilled to bring you a powerful lineup of talented WordPressers from here in Alabama and across the country.
Check out our speakers below:
Andrew Podner
Andrew Podner has been working in and around construction, distribution, light manufacturing, and import/export companies since 1995. He has served in executive and senior management positions in Supply Chain, Customs Compliance, and Information Technology. He has overseen numerous projects to improve inventory management, efficiency, IT infrastructure, as well as the design, development, and implementation of enterprise class custom software.
Additionally, Mr. Podner is currently a C-level executive for a distributor and manufacturer of industrial goods. He has senior management responsibility for Supply Chain, Distribution, and Information Technology. He is also responsible for the company’s day to day operations.
Andrew operates 2 WordPress sites away from work, and focuses his time developing high quality content for subjects related to consulting, leadership, ERP technology. He has also published multiple magazine articles dealing with programming in the PHP space, and has also written an e-book focused on Platform as a Service software.
B.J. Keeton
B.J. is a staff writer and content creator for Elegant Themes from Florence, AL. He is a runner and fitness junkie, geek and gamer. He is pretty much always writing something, whether it’s a weird CSS doohickey, a blog about running, or a tweet about video games. He is the co-host of the Geek to Geek Podcast and the host of the Elegant Themes livestream, This Week in WordPress.
Bill Robbins
Bill has been a WordPress developer since 2008 and presently is focusing on making web apps with WordPress and Javascript.
Brian Krogsgard
Brian is a writer and developer based in Birmingham, Alabama. He’s the owner and editor of Post Status, a news and information website for WordPress professionals. It’s a community-centric project with nearly 1000 members doing incredible things with WordPress.
Doug Cone
Doug has been building for the web since 1997. He’s contributed code for WordPress core, and built dozens of custom WordPress plugins and themes for various customer implementations. Today Doug works for Crowd Favorite building best in class enterprise solutions for companies large and small.
Dwayne McDaniel
Dwayne has been working in tech and open source sales since 2005.
He knew as soon as he started working with Java middleware developers he never wanted to work outside of open source ever again. Dwayne first started building in Drupal and WordPress for the San Francisco Improv teams and projects. He fell in the love the community and then found a position at Pantheon at the end of 2013.
As a Community and Agency Success Manager he has had the privilege of presenting at Stanford DrupalCamp, Drupal Northern Lights (Iceland), WordCamp Europe and many other conferences.
Outside of tech he loves producing and performing improv theater, reading webcomics and singing karaoke!!!
Reach out at https://mcdwayne.com or on twitter @mcdwayne.
George Childs
George has taught WordPress training seminars on three different continents. His passion is to make things easy to use so that nobody feels stupid, because most people aren’t.
Gordon Seirup
Gordon’s first business failed. In 2nd grade he was nearly suspended for operating a business on school property. Worse, he lost his entire initial investment! ($10.00) While ten bucks doesn’t sound like a lot of money to lose on a business venture, it’s a lot of money to an 8-year old!
He got into graphic design and web development in 1999 and launched his first website for a paying client in 2000. After a brief detour at Colorado State University where he got a B.S. in Psychology, he returned to web development professionally and started developing sites on WordPress in 2008 (v2.3.1 for the nerds).
He founded Copper Leaf Creative in 2011. His vision is to create a small, elite, agile-minded team that can make profound impacts on our clients’ businesses. How is it going? “So far so good!”
Javacia Harris Bowser
Javacia Harris Bowser is a writer, educator, and entrepreneur based in Birmingham, Ala., and the founder and editor of See Jane Write, an award-winning membership organization and website for women who write and blog. A proud graduate of the journalism programs at University of Alabama and the University of California at Berkeley, Bowser has written for a number of local and national media outlets including USA Today, Birmingham magazine, B-Metro magazine, and Birmingham’s NPR affiliate WBHM 90.3 FM. By day, she teaches English at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. (Complete bio can be found at http://javacia.com/javacias-bio.)
Jenny Munn
Jenny Munn is a Search Engine Marketing freelancer focused on two things: traffic and conversions. Her mission is to help businesses fill their pipelines faster and to make great organizations more findable. Jenny is passionate about her field, and is a frequent speaker on SEO and website marketing. Jenny has taught SEO at WordCamps around the country, EdNET, NAIS, Digital Atlanta, Business Marketing Association, SuperNova South, PRSA, and various digital marketing organizations. Find out more at jennymunn.com.
Joshua Gilmer
Twice an alum of Full Sail University, Joshua Gilmer has 10 years of front end development experience, and over 7 years of experience with WordPress. He has leveraged WordPress for clients large and small, including Coca-cola and the SEC. His design and development company, Huebris, uses WordPress as a staple CMS to help clients bring ideas to market in a lean manner.
Kathryn Lang
Hopesmith. Dream inspirer. Master of “it’s all about relationships.” Aficionado of inappropriate laughter, Kathryn Lang has been helping others find the time to make their dreams come true. She knows you have a unique purpose and a designed path and believes that if you discover that once you discover it you will find the strength to walk the path with boldness.
Words have power. Kathryn Lang has watched that power heal hearts, and she has also watched as that same power destroyed lives. Her goal is to harness the power of words to infuse courage and purpose in the lives she encounters. Kathryn believes in HOPE and she knows that growing up Hearts Open to Pursue the Extraordinary will begin to change the world.
She puts words to work in her freelance career – where she has penned a dozen print books and over 18 eBooks. She helps others give life to their words as a leader in SouthEastern Literary Tourism Initiative (SELTI.org) and the Mountain Valley Writers, and through Growing HOPE Jump Start coaching program.
“I like to paint a canvas of hope and possibility using words.”
As an award winning author and indie publishing advocate, Kathryn always finds new avenues for moving words. It is not as much about getting the words to flow but about finding ways to harness their powers for good in her life and in the lives of those around her.
Kathy Drewien
When Kathy meets people she hears their stories and perceives how their personalities, strengths and struggles, their passions, and values—each a piece of who they are—weave a wondrous tapestry that is truly unique.
Pieces of her own story reawakened a passion, a gift, for helping others unveil and embrace their individual tapestry—a journey that led her to organize a WordPress Meetup in 2011 … serve on the Atlanta WordCamp organizer team for 7 years … step up to being a WordPress Community Deputy … mentor other WordCamp organizers … and countless other volunteer roles in the local and national community. As some might say, “If you haven’t met Kathy, then you are on the fringe of the Atlanta WordPress community.
Katie Ford
Katie is a developer on the Domains team at DreamHost, where she writes software that eases the domain registration process for the user. You can find her most mornings in a coffee shop in downtown Birmingham, AL as she works remotely. Not to worry: in the afternoons, her cat provides all due supervision. Katie uses WordPress to keep up with her best friend through the epistolary-style cooking blog Tale of Two Zitis.
Kim Camp Smalley
Kim Camp Smalley is a freelance web accessibility consultant and web developer. Kim’s full-time gig is working with The University of Alabama’s Technology Accessibility Initiative as the Technology Accessibility Specialist in the Office of Information Technology. Previously, she worked for The University of Alabama Libraries as a Web Developer where she focused on accessibility and user experience and as a Web Developer in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Kim’s interests include working with WordPress web development, accessibility, user experience, and analytics.
Luke Camara
Luke is a husband, father, and small business owner who loves soccer, coffee and a good book. As the Co-Owner and Chief Consultant of me2graphics, Luke provides marketing services to government entities. He also runs a highly successful political consulting business with experience working in campaigns ranging in size from local government to the US Senate.
Melanie G Adcock
Melanie’s Adcock diverse background enables her to have a unique insight in Web Design and website management. Her former careers include Art Teacher, Computer Applications Teacher, Director of Information Technology, and Apple At Home Expert.
In May of 2010 Melanie became a full-time freelance Web Designer / Developer. She has been using WordPress exclusively for over seven years. Her current clients include several small businesses, continuing care retirement communities, churches, and faith-based ministries. Melanie also mentors and consults with other WordPress enthusiasts.
Melanie Adcock is a past presenter at WordCamp Atlanta, WordCamp Miami and the local WordPress MeetUp Groups. She recently relocated to South Florida with her husband Jay Adcock.
Micah Wood
Micah Wood is the Technical Director at Narwhal Digital, an agency in Atlanta. He’s written and publicly released over a dozen WordPress plugins, is a core contributor and specializes in enterprise WordPress development. He has a passion for learning best practices and sharing his knowledge with the greater WordPress community.
Mickey E Trivett
Mickey is the owner of WebCoUSA.com which is an Award Winning Marketing and Web Design Agency located in Johnson City, TN. He started his company almost 13 years ago and sold his very first website at a local Flea Market. He has grown his business to serve more than 200 clients in 41 states.
In the time since, he has owned and co-founded many different businesses from an Advertising Agency, Mobile App Company and even an Ice Cream Truck. He considers himself a Serial Entrepreneur and loves all things business related and is always looking for the next adventure.
He enjoys speaking and helping others with their businesses. He lives in the oldest town in Tennessee, which is Jonesborough with his wife of whom he met on America Online in the Dial Up days and has two teenage sons and six rescued cats!
Mickey Mellen
As a founder and partner of GreenMellen Media, Mickey is regarded as the token “tech guy” and his insights are greatly valued on the GreenMellen team. With over 13 years of WordPress experience and a passion for helping others, you will often find Mickey leading a North Atlanta-based MeetUp and producing a weekly Podcast, both under the heading of A Brighter Web.
He is also highly involved in social media and knows the ins and outs of everything from Facebook to Google+ and has spoken at many events around the country. You can also find Mickey coaching his daughter’s soccer team, playing softball or enjoying ice cream with his two girls and wife, Kelly.
Mitzi Eaker
Mitzi Eaker has guided individuals, organizations and businesses through the digital marketing jungle since starting Mitzi Jane Media in 2012. With a background in ministry, writing, leadership development and book/magazine publishing, she creates unique digital marketing strategies with trusted and trackable technologies that maximizes influence and investment.
Mitzi lives in Birmingham with her husband, Shane, and two boys. She enjoys leading business Masterminds and church small groups for ambitious Southern women.
Phylecia Jones
During a 5-year span of getting rid of $25,000+ in debt, managing to increase a net worth to over $500,000, and quitting a 6-figure salaried job to start a business, Phylecia Jones realized that that millionaire status does not happen overnight!
Phylecia proudly served 11.5 years a civilian Computer Scientist for the US Navy, supporting sailors and soldiers across the world, but realized that it was not enough. At the age of 36 years old, she took an early retirement and started a journey that would forever change her life… entrepreneurship.
After a lot of grunt work and “let’s get real with my money moments,” Phylecia successfully figured out the best ways to navigate that thin line of personal and business finances while putting her heart and soul into being an entrepreneur.
As the Founder of Budget School and Host of the weekly Budget School Podcast, Phylecia is quickly becoming the savvy go-to budgeting nerd, speaker, and trainer. She thrives on changing the world one budget at-a-time and is opening the door for many coaches, consultants and solopreneurs to have that must needed wake-up call to get serious about managing money and knowing their numbers.