Speakers
Aaron Jorbin
Aaron Jorbin (http://aaron.jorb.in) works on AddThis, is a WordPress core contributor, and the lead developer on Phetric. He has spoken at events across the country on a number of topics related to open source technology. When he’s not busy creating and fixing bugs, Aaron serves as a simulation director at an educational simulation conference for over 1500 college students. His favorite toasts involve open source software, whisky, and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Adam Even Engel
Adam Even Engel is a founding writer and editor emeritus of BU Culture Shock, the official blog of Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center. He graduated from BU this past May with a degree in chemistry and computer science, and is currently developing a website dedicated to bringing together organizations and individuals seeking to better the world. His plans involve figuring out his future plans, perhaps getting a little lost on the way. He hosts his own seldom-updated blog, Adam Smasher!, and tweets much more regularly as @HeyAEE.
Al Caldarone
Al Caldarone has been working in the I.T. Industry for the past 20 years and coding websites since 1998. He has developed a wide variety of skills as a web developer and technician by taking on many roles such as Network/Server Administrator, DBA, Systems Analyst, Project Manager and of course Web/Software Developer.
Al graduated Summa Cum Laude from Johnson and Wales University where he earned an A.S. in Applied Computer Science and B.S. in Information Science. He is currently a Senior Programmer Analyst for the State of Rhode Island and freelances as a web/Wordpress developer and technology trainer for various businesses and organizations.
Andrew Nacin
Ben Metcalfe
Ben can track his involvement with the WordPress community way back before it was even WordPress (B2, in fact, which was the name of the former project that was forked and became WordPress). As a software engineer, Ben helped build the BBC News Website. He also rolled out the BBC’s blogging platform (sadly not WordPress) and its developer platform.
Since moving State-side in 2006, Ben has worked as a technologist and strategist – launching the MySpace Platform and advising numerous startups in his portfolio – including Apture (acquired by Google) and NutShell Mail (acquired by Constant Contact). Ben has blogged since 2004 on all manner of technology topics at http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/.
Casie Gillette
Casie has been in the search industry for over seven years, starting out as an SEO Analyst at a large agency with some of the top talents in the field. It was here she’d learn the ins and outs of SEO and just how the online marketing world worked.
After a move to Boston and three years in the agency world working with clients big and small, she decided that like Lebron, she was going to take her talents elsewhere: in-house.
She’s currently the Online Marketing Manager at Grasshopper, a virtual phone service based in Needham, MA.
Chris Cochran
Chris Cochran is the senior designer at WebDevStudios. He sees the world in hex values & dreams in code and is no stranger to WordPress. With about 5 years of experience in WordPress he has worked on and developed many themes from and for WordPress.com VIP clients to food blogs & product sites as well as contributed to core.
Christina Dulude
Christina is the Information Architect/User Experience Designer at Dartmouth College. She also serves as project manager, front end web developer and general jack of all trades on the college’s web team. Prior to joining Dartmouth in 2011, Christina was a web developer at Duke University for six years. She has been using WordPress since 2006.
Daniel Sullivan
Daniel Sullivan is the Executive Director of If I Were President, a new organization working to improve communication between elected officials and constituents. He has managed international development projects with Engineers Without Borders and organized the 2009 EWB Northeast Regional Workshop. Daniel has a BS in Civil Engneering from Northeastern University, and currently works at the NU Center for STEM Education as a Program Coordinator for K-12 outreach. His experience in nonprofit management and civic engagement and organization has helped him lead the If I Were President team to create an effective online e-democracy platform + vision, and a broad outreach model for engaging citizens in constructive, issues-and-solutions-based discourse. An aspiring entrepreneur and social change agent, Daniel sees great potential in the turmoil and paralysis of the current system.
Dave Ross
Dave Ross is a web developer born and raised in Chicago, and moving to Boston in the next few months. He enjoys developing open source software in his spare time, including Dave’s WordPress Live Search, his most popular WordPress plugin. Learn more about Dave and the things he’s created at http://davidmichaelross.com.
David Wells
David believes passionately in the power of the web to further the message and impact of any organization. He is an expert in blogging, search engine optimization, social media marketing, online video, and podcasting, as well as a talented coder. Essentially, if it’s web 2.0, David knows it and practices it.
David Wells currently runs Inbound Now a WordPress and Inbound Marketing consultancy firm.
Derek Christensen
I work full-time for Accenture implementing SAP, but moonlight as a freelance web developer (http://media-spine.com), blogger (http://derekchristensen.com), and have dabbled in startups (http://fundly.com).
I have an incredible amount of technological curiosity, led by my burning inner compulsion to play with all the settings of any software I use. That curiosity extends to the real world – I read a book a week. Since I moved to Boston 3 1/2 years ago I’ve read 196 books.
I started building websites with WordPress in 2009, and each one has been more complex and challenging than the last. It’s addictive, fun, and keeps me continually learning.
Diane Darling
As principal consultant for Effective Networking, Inc., she founded the company on the premise that everyone can learn to network, they just need to find their own style.
Combining interactive training, strategic planning and an exploration of the natural fears of networking, Darling demystifies the process by providing techniques that can be immediately implemented.
She has received rave reviews for her seminars and speeches and is increasingly sought after as an expert resource on the subject of networking.
McGraw-Hill commissioned her to write the definitive book on networking called The Networking Survival Guide which was published in April 2003 and went into a 2nd printing just 90 days after the book hit the shelves. The book has been translated into Korean and Taiwanese. In 2005, McGraw-Hill published her 2nd book, Networking for Career Success which has since been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Thai.
She has appeared on NBC Nightly News, in The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and TheBoston Globe. She is a member of the CEO Club. Darling is also a blogger and random columnist for a variety of publications. She’s a former columnist for the Boston Business Journal. She recently taught in the MBA program at Boston University.
She has lived in the Philippines, Thailand, Colorado, Indiana, Alabama and now in Boston, MA. Her travels include all seven continents and approximately 60 countries.
Her hobbies include watching football, reading, and attempting to play tennis. In order to overcome her fear of public speaking, she took acting and standup comedy classes.
Diane’s email is: Diane at EffectiveNetworking dot com
(We use this format in order to reduce spam)
Douglas Hanna
Douglas Hanna is the CEO of A Small Orange, a provider of high quality shared, VPS, reseller, and dedicated web hosting. As CEO, Douglas leads the company’s management team and is directly responsible for the company’s finance, product and business development, and M&A activities. He is also responsible for HostNine and SEO Web Hosting, two companies that A Small Orange acquired in November 2010. Before joining A Small Orange in March 2010, Douglas was the Customer Service Manager at HostGator.com LLC, a world leading web hosting company with more than 225,000 customers. At HostGator, he was responsible for customer service and customer service operations, as well as corporate communications and public relations. Douglas also founded and writes for Service Untitled, a leading blog on customer service and the customer service experience and has done customer service consulting for companies such as Dell.
Erick Hitter
Erick Hitter is a Boston-based web developer with Oomph, Inc. specializing in complex WordPress implementations for high-traffic sites, including several on the WordPress.com VIP platform. He is also responsible for the company’s BuddyPress projects and is a core contributor to WordPress. Erick has created a number of plugins available from the official repository, including WP Print Friendly and View All Posts Pages, as well as the WordPress.com VIP External Permalinks and View All Posts Pages plugins.
Frederick Townes
Frederick Townes was the Founding Chief Technical Officer of Mashable, one of the top independent media sites worldwide and is currently the Senior Technical Advisor.
As a search / social media marketer and WordPress consultant, Frederick’s projects typically include WordPress as a core element. One of his largest contributions to the WordPress community was his web performance optimization framework W3 Total Cache.
Since 2003 his agency W3 EDGE has assisted startups and well-known brands like: ASOS, Adorama, AIGA, Brian Solis, Center for Disease Control, Constant Contact, CVS Pharmacy, Envato, Hyatt, Jonathan Snook, Kodak, Lord & Taylor, Mashable, Microsoft, Neil Patel, Pearsonified, R.E.I., Sanyo, Sherwin Williams, Smashing Magazine, Southwest Airlines, Staples, Sony, Weight Watchers, Yahoo, Yoast and others.
He is also a serial web entrepreneur and technologist. One of his recent projects, W3 MARKUP, launched in 2007, was acquired after only 11 short months prior to his moving to Florence, Italy in 2008. Frederick currently splits time in Boston still where he focuses on his latest project Placester as a co-founder.
George Stephanis
George Stephanis is a freelance Code Monkey and WP Core Contributor based out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His obsessions include human readable code, typography, debate, efficiency, open-
Gregory Cornelius
Gregory Cornelius is a Solutions Architect in Information Services & Technology at Boston University where he oversees the technical underpinnings of BU’s large WordPress-powered content management system. His current projects include leading an effort to re-architect the various server environments, reworking our caching system, and developing an approach to unit/functional testing that should shorten our upgrade cycle. Some past projects include the development of the Flexi theme framework and the migration of BU Today from Drupal. He has been hacking on WordPress plugins and themes since 2006 and takes pride in understanding as much as possible about the various components of the stack. When not tinkering with web, Gregory composes modern “classical” music and produces concerts with Amp New Music.
Jake Goldman
Jake Goldman is the owner of 10up LLC, a web agency focused on awesome WordPress implementations with 10 full time employees. At 10up, Jake works on exciting and wide ranging WordPress projects, like TechCrunch, Universal Sports, 9to5 Mac, Hip2Save (the official deal blog of NBC’s Today Show), and Trulia. Jake is a writer and expert reviewer for Smashing Magazine, teaches WordPress at Boston University, and has authored over a dozen highly rated WordPress plug-ins. Jake founded the WordPress Providence meet up, and has spoken at WordCamps around the country, including Boston, New York, Mid-Altantic, Chicago, and Miami.
Janet Aronica
Janet Aronica is the Head of Marketing for Shareaholic, one of the top 20 most popular WordPress plugins and fastest growing content sharing and discovery tools for publishers with more than 200,000 websites using its tools, reaching more than 270 million people each month. Janet focuses on user acquisition and public relations efforts, relying heavily on growing community through content. Prior to Shareaholic Janet was a Marketing Manager at HubSpot, where she worked on lead generation through social media. Janet joined HubSpot through its acquisition of oneforty, where she ran community and marketing efforts. Janet is originally from Buffalo and graduated from St. John Fisher College.
Jeff Cutler
Jeff Cutler is a social media journalist with 21 years experience in traditional and new media. With interests that range from food (he’s one of the hosts of NomX3.com) to technology (he regularly attends and reports on technology events like CES Las Vegas), Jeff harnesses the power of social media in his job and his avocations.
Jeff has advised the University of Massachusetts, the Society of Professional Journalists, AIM Mutual Insurance, HRM Diet, MetroWest Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Women Business Owners and a number other organizations on how to leverage social media in their operations. He also speaks regularly to news organizations on how to listen and communicate using these same social media tools.
Jeff is a published author; has written for WBUR (NPR Boston), the Boston Globe, New York Post, Gatehouse Media, MobileMag.com, Technology Review, and other publications; and he has been a panelist at multiple social media events across the nation.
You can find Jeff at jeffcutler.com.
Jess Jurick
Jess joined 10up in Fall 2011 with years of experience working in the interactive space. Jess has worked with and managed projects for Fortune 20 brands, major non-profits, and state organizations, including CVS Caremark, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, Citibank, and the Rhode Island Department of Health. Jess is passionate about creating interactive and engaging audience experiences. From layout concepts, to copywriting, to social media integration, Jess knows how to captivate, measure, and keep an audience. A social media maven herself, Jess is especially interested in innovative ways to weave social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook into standalone website experiences. Jess graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in Communications, and tries to return to the warm climate whenever she can.
Jesse Friedman
John Eckman
John Eckman is Managing Director, Boston, for ISITE Design, a digital agency serving clients from offices in Los Angeles, Boston, and Portland OR. ISITE Design’s mission is to teach clients to thrive in the digital age. They also produce the CMS Myth, a blog covering the challenges organizations face in implementing content management systems and how to overcome them.John is also the primary developer of WPBook, a plugin for integrating your WordPress blog with Facebook, and blogs at Open Parenthesis and Goatless.
Jon Bishop
Jon Bishop is a Web Developer at AMP Agency with a love for writing open source code and playing with the latest web technologies. Jon maintains a few plugins in the WordPress plugin repository and spends the rest of his time blogging at JonBishop.com and the AMP Agency blog. Jon is also one of the organizers of the Boston WordPress meetup.
Jon Heller
Jon Heller has been designing and developing websites for 15 years, and has worked with WordPress for the past seven. He started writing programs in QBasic at age eight and hasn’t looked back since, graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from Villanova University in 2007. He is currently the I.T. Director at a small investment advisory publisher by day, and partner at Adaro Consulting (http://www.adaroconsulting.com) by night (and early, early morning). While his passion lies with the development side of the web, he is also fascinated by typography, user interface design, copywriting, search engine optimization, color schemes, and coffee.
Jon Moss
Jon Moss is a fourth grade teacher and educational technology leader in Avon, Connecticut. He has used WordPress for several years for both his classroom website and his educational technology website, and he frequently advocates for WordPress’s use at the PreK-12 level. Besides focusing on teacher websites, Jon’s educational technology work often addresses interactive whiteboard integration, data collection and analysis, and professional development for teachers. Jon has a master’s degree in educational technology from Central Connecticut State University’s Center for Innovation in Teaching and Technology, and he enjoys networking with other educational technology professionals on Twitter (@JonMossEdTech). Jon has been a teacher and educational technology leader for eight years and enjoys woodworking, cooking, and home improvement projects in his free time.
Jonathan May
Jonathan May has been designing, developing and deploying information solutions of all sizes, types and technologies for over 30 years. In his most recent endeavor with YourPresenceOnTheWeb.com, Mr. May provides e-marketing services to small businesses, specializing in WordPress-based Web site design and development. He has also developed and delivered a series of WordPress training courses, including “WordPress Bootcamp for Non-techies” (for beginners), “Advanced Topics in WordPress” (for intermediates) and “Creating Online Stores with WordPress” (for e-Entrepreneurs).
K. Adam White
K.Adam White practices the art of JavaScript at Grand Circle Corporation in Boston, MA, and has been known to design and implement custom WordPress solutions for small businesses throughout the greater Boston area. He has been using WordPress since 2007, and is pretty jazzed about the future of the web.
Kevin McCarthy
Graduate of Hamilton College with a degree in Chemistry and originally from NJ, I have been working on media-focused companies since 2006. Streetwise Media, the umbrella company for BostInno.com, InTheCapital.com and some neat proprietary tools for our editorial staff, is now about 20 employees.
Lanna Lee Maheux
Lanna Lee Maheux (http://lannaleemaheux.com/) is a speaker, podcaster, actor, geek, silly person, femme fatale, singer, lover, twit, ex-clown and recovering Stand-Up Comic. An award-winning balloon twister, she taught at Twist & Shout 2004, The Best Balloon Twister’s and Entertainer’s Convention and was featured in the documentary Twisted: A Balloonamentary (http://twistedballoondoc.com/).
Podcasting since 2010, Lanna is the host of Lounging with LannaLee, adventures in conversation (http://lannalee.com) , a weekly audio podcast that’s a face-to-face, half-hour conversation between LannaLee and a fascinating person. She is also the co-host of The Lex and Lanna Show (http://lexandlanna.com) with Alexis Lyon, and The Bureau of Awesome (http://bureauofawesome.com/) with Edmund Charles Davis-Quinn.
Lanna started her website journey in 1999 starting out with jury-rigged blog on her her self-hosted site. She attended the first WordCamp Boston in 2010 and afterward moved all of her blogs from self-hosted Blogger to self-hosted WordPress installations, and she never looked back.
Liz Manicatide
With a degree in Architecture and a background in fine arts, Liz Manicatide has been designing user interfaces for computing and online applications since 1996. She is most passionate about making information easy to navigate and appealing to interact with. She runs Emphasis Creative, a small online design & marketing firm based North of Boston, with a suite of technical, marketing, writing and design collaborators, specializing in startup tech businesses.
Luke Gedeon
Building and extending frameworks in many computer (and natural) languages for over 20 years, 10up’s Luke Gedeon is a language geek. In addition to working on TechCrunch and several other high traffic sites, he is also an organizer of the Providence, RI WordPress Meetup.
Matthew Dorman
In late 2006 I built a custom blog platform powering a XML app for Spike TV, soon after I found WordPress and never built another custom CMS. With my experience building and managing large scale sites, I built out the WordPress development/deployment/theming platform hosting all the MTV.com blogs. Since starting at NorthPoint I’ve seen our Open Source Practice grow from 0 to over 35 Consultants. I now manage or oversee the development of WordPress implementations for clients such as Time Inc., Martha Stewart, Rodale, Hearst and Shaw Media.
Meeky Hwang
As a member of NorthPoint Solutions, which has been at the forefront of delivering some of the highest traffic content-managed sites, I have been involved in development of WordPress implementation for clients such as Time Inc., Hearst and Shaw Media, and to support large spikes in traffic coming from show events like the Autoshows.
Michelle Goodwin
Michelle Goodwin is an Account Supervisor of PR & Social Media at AMP Agency where she calls on 10 years of experience to develop PR and social media initiatives that connect online communities with brands in exciting and fun ways. She enjoys exploring and sharing emerging technologies and new social networking sites with anyone who is equally enthusiastic about social media and the power of social communities.
Ramesh Kumar
Ramesh has been consulting with brands like LEGO, Verizon, 48HourPrint, and Deluxe in Digital Marketing. Search, Analytics, Content and Web Site Strategy are some of his focus areas. He has turned around many online programs with superior analytical skills and automated, scalable marketing programs.
While trailing his life as a dad and staying up to date with all things social media at http://www.thepapapost.com, he also creates playful learning opportunities IRL at http://www.dadsdogood.com. He teaches field hockey at the local school.
Connect with Ramesh at http://www.linkedin.com/in/
Reiko Beach
Reiko Beach is a Principal at TRB Design, Inc. Since 2002, at TRB we had been using WordPress for building websites for 3+ years when we figured out that it was a complete CMS system and not just a blogging platform. We believe that WordPress is the most powerful and most user friendly CMS platform for small business owners and individuals. As a company we offer web marketing, website creation, content development and video for the web. We blog consistently on The Non-Profit Toolbox and run The Gymnastic Minute channel on YouTube. When we talk about web marketing it’s because of doing it as successful video production company, years of marketing know-how, with years of personal experience in marketing products on the web through our GymSmarts line of products. Reiko has spoken about using WordPress at Podcamp, Western MA, Podcamp NH, and GeekGirl Camp.
Ross Beyeler
A graduate of Babson College, Ross Beyeler has been an active entrepreneur in the technology space since 2005 with experience ranging in digital marketing, business development and strategic management. In 2007, Ross co-founded For Art’s Sake Media, Inc., a technology company servicing the art industry, where he led the organization through its seed funding, team building and product launch. In December 2008, Ross went on to start Growth Spark, a WordPress and Shopify design and development firm with a focus on conversion optimization. Growth Spark’s success brought Ross a BusinessWeek nomination as one of 2010’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25.
Sam Hotchkiss
Sam is a WordPress developer and principle of Hotchkiss Consulting Group, based out of Portland, Maine, and he loves to make people say: “I didn’t think you could do that with WordPress!” Sam uses his background in PHP development (since 1997) to manipulate the WordPress core, and loves to talk (to anyone who will listen) about how flexible it is!
Sam works exclusively with WordPress, and has clients ranging from start-ups to non-profits to Fortune 500 companies, and he loves the challenge of learning new industries, new products, and coming up with new solutions.
Sean Butze
I’m a full-time web developer at Growth Spark, an agency based in Cambridge MA. I’ve been developing websites since the late 90’s and working with WordPress exclusively for over 4 years. At my job I wear several hats including Web Developer, Technical Support Lead, and Project Manager.
My daily activities range from building custom WordPress themes & plugins to training clients in how to use WordPress more effectively.
Stephanie Schechter
Stephanie Schechter has over 18 years experience in consumer marketing related graphic design and industrial design. After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, she has spent her career designing countless product merchandising programs, retail store fixtures, logos, printed promotional materials, environmental graphics, websites and advertisements.
Through her freelance consultancy, she now helps entrepreneurs define their brands and create an effective web presence. She is passionate about WordPress and the unlimited opportunities that it affords designers.
Tom Catalini
Tom Catalini is a technology and marketing strategist, a CIO, a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Bentley University where he teaches a graduate course on eMarketing, current VP of the Boston SIM professional association, a cyclist, guitarist, and a student of people & technology.
