Category: WordCamp DFW Announcements

WordCamp DFW is pleased to announce that it’s partnered with the Tarrant Area Food Bank for a canned food drive during this year’s event. Organizers are asking for attendees in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to bring canned food for those in need in Tarrant County this Thanksgiving.

“This years WordCamp DFW is focused on community,” lead organizer Marc Gratch said. “With Thanksgiving just around the corner and our hosting such a large group of amazing folks, I would be remiss if I didn’t try to seize this opportunity to benefit as many folks as possible.”

A table will be set up inside the MET Building at the UNT Health Science Center to collect canned food for the drive.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

With WordCamp DFW just 26 days away, the organizing team is ready to announce the final round of speakers for this year’s event. The schedule for WordCamp DFW 2017 will be released in the near future.

So, here is the final round of confirmed speakers for WordCamp DFW 2017:

Isaac Irvine

Topic: Using social media to grow personal brand and build your freelance business

A cheerleader for small business owners and buying local, Isaac “loves the heart and soul that local businesses put into their products and services.” He’s especially interested in helping people build their personal brand using stories on social media. When he’s not at work, you can usually find Isaac and his kids riding their bikes at the local skatepark or sampling local coffee offerings. Isaac is a native of Northern California who transplanted to Phoenix ten years ago to work for GoDaddy.

Jeff VanDrimmelen

Topic: Integrating VR (Virtual Reality) Content into WordPress Websites

Jeff VanDrimmelen’s biggest claim to fame is that he build the University of North Carolina’s WordPress Network. This initiative has now grown into tens of thousands of websites that runs all their web systems on campus. Since then he has owned several WordPress based website and software companies and is currently the Senior Marketing Director at a Virtual Reality start-up that is focused on making virtual collaboration and productivity spaces. He is the father of 4, and husband to one amazing woman. Together they reside in Frisco and work to try and figure out how to raise these amazing kids they have been blessed with.

Aaron Edwards

Topic: Introduction to WordPress Multisite

CTO of WPMU DEV (140+ premium plugins and support) and Edublogs (hosting 3 million+ education blogs), managing a team of 30 developers around the globe. WordPress plugin developer specializing in Multisite for 9 years, working from home in Dallas. Proud father of 3 and a world travel nut.

Matt Hayman

Topic: Sales 101 – Finding clients and freeing up dollars

Sales, Sales Management, Team Builder, Branding, Speaker, Trainer. As the Head of SAP Anywhere, Matt is responsible for working with the broader team to declare product market fit, achieve financial aspirations and maximize customer satisfaction. He currently oversees the Sales, Customer Success, Support, and overall execution of SAP Anywhere’s employees/clientele on a global scale. Matt has spent the majority of his career focused on SMB sales. From door2door sales, selling to fortune 100 companies, or running his own companies, Matt has a diverse sales background which he now uses to manage, teach, and train others. As an international sales leader he travels the globe sharing his insights through keynotes, blogs, and social media, on overcoming the 2 major obstacles in sales; prospecting and freeing up dollars without making major changes to how you work today. Matt currently resides in Dallas, TX with his wife and 6 kids. When he isn’t traveling he spends his time coaching multiple youth sports and building his community. Come to listen, learn and participate in a fun presentation!

Chris Wallace

Topic: The State of User Experience in WordPress

Chris Wallace is the VP of Experience Design at 10up, a full-service digital agency creating amazing web and content management experiences with a team of 120+ strategists, designers and engineers working around the globe. Chris has spoken at various conferences like PressNomics, Squares Conference, and WordCamp DFW on topics ranging from WordPress themes to combating workaholism. In addition, Chris has appeared on a number of podcasts in the WordPress and design community and previously led the St. Louis WordPress Meetup for a year and organized the inaugural WordCamp St. Louis in 2011.

Cathy Rueter

Topic: Five Tips for Better Blogging as a Beginner

Cathy Rueter took time away from an active freelance writing and editing career to work as a reporter and newsletter editor for ten years. She’s returned to her passion of writing and pursuing a career as a Christian author, blogger, and Development Editor. She is currently the vice president of the DFW Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. Originally from the Greater Grand Rapids, MI area, she now lives in Dallas/Fort Worth with her family. After a few stumbles, her WordPress website – “Up in the Attic” with Cathy Rueter – is growing up thanks to the wonderful people at the Fort Worth Chapter of WordPress. Running her own website/blog, FB Writers page, guest blogging, editing, and writing keeps the words tumbling out of the attic. Open one of the boxes “Up in the Attic” and discover a variety of topics and treasures.

Peter Walker

Topic: Get Paid! Plugins, Gateways, BitCoin: WordPress Ecommerce Project Management

Peter Walker has been on the online journey for over 25 years, starting with the Star Fleet Command BBS in October 1988. His previous experience on his digital journey include being a professional audio engineer and a post secondary new media instructor. His main purpose in professional life is content editing & managing, UX/UI, front end HTML5 development, WordPress and project management.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Free tickets to this year’s WordCamp DFW are now available to veterans who wish to attend the event, the organizing team announced on Tuesday.

The first day of this year’s event will be Nov. 11, which is also Veteran’s Day.

“It was brought to our attention by a ‘local’ business owner and USMC Vet, Jonathan Kim, CEO of techmillennial.com,” Gratch said. “So I contacted our gracious sponsors and one by one they all began offering to donate tickets.”

Veterans who wish to grab a free ticket will need to email dfw@wordcamp.org for more information or contact us at https://2017.dfw.wordcamp.org/contact/.

With WordCamp DFW just 40 days away, the organizing team is ready to announce the next round of speakers for this year’s event. The schedule for WordCamp DFW 2017 will be released in the near future.

So, here is the next round of confirmed speakers for WordCamp DFW 2017:

Adam W. Warner

Topic: 360 Degrees of Security – Setting Standards for Your Websites and Yourself

Adam W. Warner first discovered WordPress in 2005 and has since founded several WordPress-focused businesses that provide education, plugins and consulting services for online business owners. In 2016 he brought his passion for WordPress to SiteLock as a Product Evangelist. Adam has since delivered his zeal for WordPress by speaking at several WordCamps and other events. In addition to WordPress, Adam is passionate about his family, robots and of course, life, the universe, and everything.

John Peterson

Topic: Optimize Your WordPress Website

John Peterson’s first taste of the power of the web came during college. He wrote an innovative grade distribution search engine that peaked at around 21,000 hits a day. Innovation earned John a scary call from the Dean, and later a Distinguished Student Award and a Services in Engineering Award. Don’t ever underestimate the power of crude Perl scripts and HTML! Today, John is the President at Develare and manages a team of five. John and his team love making the web work for small business, and his latest crusade is battling slow websites. In doing so, clients have had dramatic reductions in Cost per Lead (CPL) and big bumps in traffic. Whether you have 300 or 300,000 sessions per month John is happy to share tips to help you succeed. John is one of the Lead Organizers for the Houston WordPress Meetup Group and an Officer with SearchHOU. He enjoys sharing his WordPress knowledge and giving back to the community. He has spoken at the DFW WordPress Meetup Group, the Fort Worth WordPress Users Group, Houston WordPress Meetup Group, and SearchHOU.

Lindsay Halsey

Topic: SEO in an Hour for WordPress

Lindsay Halsey is a co-founder and partner of webShine, a search engine marketing agency in Basalt, Colorado. She is also co-founder and partner in WP SEO Hub with a scheduled launch in late October. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics and spent several years as a mountain guide and ski patroller. In 2008 Lindsay made the leap into search engine marketing. Her primary interest is search engine optimization for WordPress websites.

Sara Graybill

Topic: Creating A Digital Marketing Strategy That Works

Sara is the owner of Graybill Creative, a web design and digital marketing agency. She has been helping business owners and non-profits with their digital marketing since 2009. She does that through website design and development, technical services, and online marketing consulting. Find out more at graybillcreative.com.

Todd McKee

Topic: Centralizing News through WordPress REST API

S. Todd McKee, MEd is the Senior Web Developer for the Office of Communications & Marketing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, AR. Todd and his team are responsible for UAMS’s online visual identity, determining the vision and strategic goals of UAMS’s web presence, providing web and application development services, and supporting their content management systems. Todd has served on the Teaching with Technology committee and given numerous talks on technology in education. He spends most of his day looking at code and solving everyone’s problems. Todd lives in Little Rock, AR with his wife and two of his four daughters.

Elisha and Elyssa Fernandez

Topic: How to Turn Your Blog into a Book in 60 Days or Less

WhollyART.com is dedicated to teaching kids and teens positive principles through art and blog posts so they can be happier, improve their self-esteem, and make a difference in their communities!

Sean Jackson

Topic: Beyond the basics of WordPress SEO

Sean Jackson is a founding partner of Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger) – creators of Copyblogger.com, StudioPress/Genesis, Rainmaker Platform and other online products/services. Often referred to as the “Geek that Speaks,” Sean has a true passion for technology and how it is applied to the needs of marketing. Sean is an active member of the Dallas business community in leadership roles with DFW Search Marketing Association and is a Past President of the Dallas Ad League.

Amanda Giles

Topic: The Way to Theme Enlightenment

Amanda Giles is WordPress Evangelist and Enthusiast who loves converting people to WordPress. She’s been developing websites since 1994 and has been building WordPress themes since 2009. She hails from New Hampshire where she founded the Seacoast NH WordPress meetup in 2011. She works as an independent consultant and also as part of Spark Development, a small agency focusing on WordPress web development. You can often locate Amanda by her loud sneezes and it’s likely because of these sneezes that she leads such a blessed life. Find her on Twitter: @AmandaGilesNH

Elayna Fernandez

Topic: WordPress 101 Workshop

Elayna Fernández, known worldwide as The Positive MOM, is an award-winning storyteller, a master digital strategist, and an avid student of pain. Elayna helps moms transform their pain story into positive growth, step into balance, and create joy and success on their own terms – in all areas of life. Elayna travels the world as an International keynote speaker and panelist in the topics of motherhood, mindset, and mompreneurship. Her guidance encourages, empowers, and equips millions of moms in 134 countries to increase their impact, income, and influence, without guilt, shame, or regrets in motherhood. Elayna is Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer, Certified Passion Test Facilitator, Certified Success Principles Trainer, a graduate of the Steve Harvey School for Business Acceleration, and a web designer for over 20 years. She has been awarded as Best Marketer, Mom Entrepreneur of the Year, Best Latina Lifestyle Blogger of both 2015 and 2016, and the 2017 Best Family and Parenting Creator at the TECLA Awards, and she has been named one of the Top Latina Influencers in the USA two consecutive years. ThePositiveMOM.com, has been ranked one of 100 Top Moms Blogs Worldwide both in 2016 and 2017. Born and raised in a slum in the Dominican Republic, Elayna now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her loving husband and 3 homeschooled daughters. Her philosophy is “BE Positive and You’ll BE Powerful!”

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!