Introducing Your Speakers and Sessions
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 19 years to his amazing wife & has 3 wickedly cool kids.
Adam Warner
Adam W. Warner discovered WordPress in 2005 and has been working within the community ever since. To feed his entrepreneurial spirit, he founded several WordPress-focused businesses that provide education, plugins and consulting services for online business owners.
He is a true WordPress Evangelist in spirit and personality, and that happens to have been his job title when joining SiteLock.com. Today, he’s the Open Source Community Manager there, continuing to bring his experience and knowledge of the web, business, and security to many other communities.
Adam is also passionate about his family, robots, and of course Life, the Universe and Everything.
Aida Correa
Aida Correa is a self-described Renaissance woman. She’s an artist, writer, poet, designer, teacher and more recently a regular WordCamp attendee, volunteer, and speaker.
She moved to Jacksonville from New York in 2000 to pursue her dream of becoming an artist full time. She’s since blessed the Jacksonville community with her creative gifts. She owned her own flower shop for several years and is now the Owner/Operator of LoveBuilt Life, an Arts and Creative Lifestyle company, where she teaches arts, crafts and the art of creative living. As her “side hustle” she creates WordPress websites for her clients.
She’s spoken at WordCamp Miami, volunteered at WordCamp Jacksonville and others and will be attending future WordCamps. She enjoys spending time with her kids, grandkids and her loving boyfriend who introduced her to the world of WordCamp in the first place
She also has a thing for Wapuu.
AJ Morris
AJ Morris is the Product Manager for Liquid Web’s Managed WordPress/WooCommerce Hosting. He’s been involved in the WordPress community for over a decade focusing on building, designing and launching WordPress websites and businesses.
Alonso Indacochea
Alonso Indacochea is the CEO of 11 Online, a full service digital agency in Albuquerque, NM. At 11 Online, Alonso lives and breathes WordPress, where he and the team build, fix and maintain websites for their clients.
Anna Blanch Rabe
Anna Blanch Rabe is an Australian-born speaker, writer, attorney and social entrepreneur. In 2016, she founded Anna Blanch Rabe & Associates, a boutique communications consulting company which serves Law Firms, socially-responsible businesses, and social enterprises with high quality strategy, research, and content services and products. Their mission is to making legalese easy to understand; to share meaningful stories; and to empower those who are building communities.
April Wier
April is the Director of Sugar Five Design where she 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 the Metro Atlanta WordPress community, is a co-organizer of the Woodstock WordPress Meetup and is a former organizer team member for WordCamp Atlanta.
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 in 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 around Atlanta.
Chris Edwards
Chris is co-owner of Data Driven Labs, a WordPress Maintenance and Marketing agency. He is a 17-year Internet marketing veteran with experience in web design & development, search engine optimization, online marketing, social media marketing and mobile development. He specializes in WordPress custom development utilizing either Genesis Framework or underscores and is very active in the WordPress Orlando community. Chris has held development and Internet marketing positions in some of Orlando’s top technology companies.
Cindy Cullen
Cindy Cullen is a freelance WordPress developer, wife and mother. She graduated from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN with a degree in Computer Science in 1989. She worked for the American Chemical Society, General Electric Information Services and an advertising agency before quitting her J.O.B. to stay home with her 3 children and start her freelance business.
She’s taught computer and programming skills to children and adults in homeschool co-ops, elementary schools, high schools, colleges and online communities. She hires interns from local colleges to help with her freelance business because she enjoys mentoring and helping others learn about web development and computer programming.
David Zimmerman
David Zimmerman is an internet marketing consultant who specializes in search. He has several years experience working with B2B companies, especially manufacturers. He started his own consultancy, Reliable Acorn LLC, after working in several agencies.
David grew up in Wichita, Kansas as the son of an electrical engineer and an art teacher. He brings these dramatically different perspectives together to help his clients. This allows David to understand the technical and creative aspects to internet marketing. He is equally comfortable speaking with developers and designers.
David’s core belief is that all marketing should be measured. Measured marketing is more effective and less expensive. There’s no excuse, in David’s mind, for marketing efforts whose results are not measured.
As a consultant, David is often hired to supplement existing marketing teams. Sometimes these companies aren’t as familiar with internet marketing. Other times these companies don’t have time to execute an internet marketing campaign. This is where Reliable Acorn can help.
David Zimmerman on LinkedIn and at Reliable Acorn LLC.
Frank Corso
Frank has been working with WordPress since 2009 and is the founder of Markasio, an agency that creates digital marketing software products. He is the organizer of Gainesville’s Digital Marketing Meetup, WordPress Meetup, and PHP Meetup. In his spare time, he also teaches web development both as an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and a Subject Matter Expert at IT.Pro TV.
Frank has developed many types of software including Xbox 360 games, mobile phone apps, websites, and AR apps. He loves to blog about marketing, business, and user research.
Above all else, he enjoys spending time with daughter. Follow him on Twitter: @fpcorso
Gordon Seirup
Gordon Seirup founded Copper Leaf Creative in 2011 with the vision to create a small, elite, agile-minded team that builds websites that make profound impacts on our clients’ businesses. Six years and just over a million dollars later, so far so good!
When he’s not working, he’s cooking, catching concerts, reading, mountain biking, racing sailboats, backpacking, day-hiking, swimming, running (ugh), Jeeping, and slow-smoking ribs. He’s also an aspiring comedian. No joke.
Helen Rittersporn
Helen Rittersporn, PMP, Project Manager, holds PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) ® certification credential through the Project Management Institute (PMI).
She has been blogging daily for over three years at her website, AnchoredScraps.com, encouraging old-style correspondence letter writing. Helen uses digital technology to reach other analog kindred letter writing souls.
Furthermore, you can hear Helen being interviewed on Guest Podcast Appearance of Episode 11 of “The Blog You Want in The Time You Have Podcast”.
If you find the idea of blogging on a regular basis elusive and/or wonder how you sustain blogging ideas, then this WordCamp Birmingham Presentation is for you. You will want to join Helen for “12 Lessons from Daily Blogging for over 1200 Days & Still Counting”.
It will include a look back at previous 2017 & 2016 WordCamp Wilmington Presentations sharing Lessons from blogging over 900 Days, and 600 Days respectively.
Helen’s presentation will help inspire you to increase your blogging frequency and with confidence!
Jacob McKinney
Jacob is a WordPress developer at Image in a Box in Huntsville and has been developing for WordPress for nearly a decade. When not breaking his clients’ sites or working on side projects, he spends his time building stuff with wood, reading, and/or chasing/wrangling a toddler.
Kathryn Lang
Kathryn Lang is a hopesmith, a dream ignitor, and an aficionado of inappropriate laughter: She knows that if you focus on making friends, helping out, and enjoying the journey then you can’t go wrong.
Words have always been a focus for Kathryn. Her dad will tell you that she didn’t talk until she was two but she hasn’t shut up sense. She loves words and is always looking for ways to put words to work and wield the words that will challenge you to pursue your extraordinary.
Kathryn says, “I know you have a unique purpose and a designed path. Together we can find the way that works.”
Kerry Putman
A web and database developer, Kerry developed her first professional website in 1993 in HTML using vi. Since then, she’s developed database-driven web applications for government and corporate clients, managed projects and servers, and taught at a community college. Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease over 25 years ago, she continued to work as a full-time developer until 2016, when chronic pain and fatigue forced her to quit working outside the home. She is now a freelance web developer (WordPress is her jam), and she’s still learning how to balance work and self care.
Kyle B. Johnson
Kyle is the Special Projects Developer at Saturday Drive (WP Ninjas / Ninja Forms).
Laura Bosco
Laura Bosco is a digital project manager for Range and freelance copywriter. Coworkers have called her “Maintainer of Sanity” and, less creatively, “the One-Who-Runs-Things.” She’s managed complex humans for six years and excels at getting things done. When she’s not working, she’s trail running, cooking with wine, and eating all the chocolate out of the ice cream in Chattanooga, TN.
Marc Gratch
I am a WordPress Consultant, a life long student, a husband and father. I have been developing themes and plugins for WordPress since 2.8 (give or take a point release,) with a strong focus on simple, specific, niche functionality. Most everything I know about code comes from the WordPress community which is why I try to give back as much as I can. I love the WordPress platform and the community!
Melanie G Adcock
Melanie G Adcock has been designing websites since the late 90’s. In May of 2010 Melanie became a full-time freelance Web Designer / Developer. She has been using WordPress exclusively since 2011. Her current clients include several small businesses, continuing care retirement communities, churches, and other non-profit organizations.
Melanie Adcock is a past presenter at WordCamp Atlanta, WordCamp Birmingham, and WordCamp Miami and various local WordPress MeetUp Groups. She lives in Newnan, Georgia.
Micah Wood
Micah Wood is a WordPress Developer at Bluehost. 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.
Mickey Trivett
Mickey owns and operates WebCoUSA Enterprises which is an Award Winning Marketing, Consulting, and Web Design Agency located in Johnson City, Tennessee. He started his company almost 14 years ago in the oldest town in Tennessee which is Jonesborough. It is a very small town and known for the world famous Story Telling Festival. People come all over the world to listen to stories, some true and some just plain ole’ entertaining.
Believe it or not, he is self-taught and the very first website he sold was at a local Flea Market of all places. He has now grown from that one website to having hundreds of clients in over 41 States. He often says that he loves waking up in the morning knowing that he has a career that he chose and at the same time he gets to help people with their businesses.
Mike Demo
Mike “Demo” Demopoulos is a lover of open source first, specific tools later. Because of this, he speaks at Ignite! Conferences, Meetups, WordCamps, Joomla! Events, and more. Mike volunteers with The Joomla! Project as the treasurer of Open Source Matters (the not for profit organization for Joomla!) as well as serving on the Joomla! World Conference and Capital teams. He also co-organizes JoomlaDay Minnesota.
Mike Demopoulos has spoken on various open source topics including WordPress and Joomla! in addition to marketing related talks which include A/B testing content.
Before coming to BoldGrid as a community evangelist, Mike spent years building a strong client base in the financial and insurance industries. He believes in sharing his business acumen and marketing insight as it fits within his main goal of building community.
When he’s not spending time with his wife Kayla, you may find Demo at a Disney Theme park, collecting artwork, or hanging out with his dog B’Elanna.
Be sure to say hi to Mike Demopoulos on Twitter at @MPMike.
Rachel Cherry
Rachel Cherry is a freelance software engineer with a background in higher education and other enterprise-level organizations, like Disney. She is the Founder and Director of WPCampus, a community and conferences focused on using WordPress in higher education. She is a strong advocate for the importance of accessibility and universal design. Rachel lives in Alabama but you can find her on Twitter, GitHub, and bamadesigner.com.
Sandy Edwards
Sandy is the Owner of Data Driven Labs and has been in the WordPress space for over 5 years. She has a passion for education and helping others find their niche. She teaches kids across the country about how to engage with writing through blogging. She can be found on Twitter at @Sunsanddesign, and on her business site and on and SandyEdwards.me.
Sheila Oliver
Sheila has been designing websites for entrepreneurs and small businesses for over 15 years. Her passion is teaching beginners how to use WordPress. She is a co-organizer of the Gainesville WordPress Meetup and has spoken at several WordCamps and Geek Girl Tech Conferences.
Steve Schwartz
Steve Schwartz, the owner of AVT Marketing in Charlotte, NC has been filming web videos for clients since 2006. With 1000’s of videos completed, he has been instructing clients how to successfully shoot their own videos in that same time frame. Whether it’s marketing a product or service, telling a story, working on a film, music video, a webcast “how to” vid, or flying high above the earth doing aerial drone video, he’s done it all and loves to share his knowledge. Steve has been on YouTube since 2008 and amassed over 2.5 Million views and 8000 subscribers. His website is www.avtmarketing.com
William Jackson
William Jackson, M.Ed. graduated from South Carolina State University earning a Bachelor’s in Education, furthering his education earning a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Webster University a focus on Educational Technology, Social Media and STEM.
William’s career includes teaching with NASA as a Internet and Technology instructor, technology consultant with Florida Department of Education, Professor with Edward Waters College; Educational Technology, Social Media and STEAM.
Involved in education over 25 years in elementary and higher education as a Technology and Physical Education teacher. “Coach Jackson” or “Professor Jackson,” a media blogger, speaker on Cyberbullying prevention, STREAM advocate. Is the Social Media Liaison for TEDxFSCJ and for the Jacksonville Sister Cities International Exchange.
Each requires William to monitor, manage and update the Social Media platforms for each organization. Provide training in how to manage content respectfully to each committee.
William is on the Board of Directors as well as a consultant for Social Engagement for several non-profit groups in Jacksonville, Florida. National / International blogger published in the United States, Canada and the continent of Africa.
William is the digital innovator for My Quest To Teach. Find him on Instagram and Twitter.
William has spoken at multiple WordCamps from 2017 to 2018.