Category: WordCamp DFW Speakers

Topic: WP Local SEO Basics: How to Get Your WordPress Powered Website Listed in Google’s Local Map Pack

Doug Stewart is a former tech salesperson turned SEO professional. Doug started what is now DSC Web Services, Inc. in 1999. Doug taught a class helping small business owners get found online at Tulsa Tech. He also spoke at several Social Media Tulsa conferences and a 140 Characters Conference.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I had a blog called “Power to Fight the Big Boys.” It was on Blogger first. Then I moved it to WordPress. After that, I started moving my web design clients to WordPress. This was in 2007 or 2008.

What do you do with WordPress?

I own DSC Web Services, Inc. We build websites mainly for family owned, local businesses. SEO has always been a major part of what we do. WordPress is search engine friendly. That’s why almost everything we do is on WordPress.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The WordPress community is filled with smart, geeky professionals. Professionals who generously give of their knowledge and experience. I like that a lot. Gotta love geeks hanging out and talking about the work they’re passionate about. Right?

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I live in the Tulsa area. We don’t have a strong WordPress community. I’ve been impressed with this D/FW group and want to be more involved in the community. I also have several clients in the D/FW area.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

It’s what I work with every day. My brain is always thinking about local SEO. I eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope after my session (or even during my session), someone will get out their laptop. Login to WordPress and implement something they learned.

I hope they earn one of the 3 top spots in Google’s map pack because they implemented quickly.

This is important: you probably won’t rank for an extremely competitive search term after a 45-minute talk. But you might rank for a keyword that’s important to you; one that’s less competitive.

I also hope someone has an “Ah-Ha” moment. I want people to walk away with a better understanding of “why” the local SEO best practices I’m sharing work.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Deploying WordPress with Git and Continuous Integration (CI)

Ben Word is the founder of Roots and been creating WordPress sites since 2004. He loves dogs, climbing, and yoga, and is passionate about helping people build awesome things on the web.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

My first WordPress site was a blog in 2004, and by 2009 I was building most of my sites with WordPress. I ended up creating a WordPress starter theme (now called Sage) at an agency where I was sometimes making multiple themes a day.

What do you do with WordPress?

I work on open-source tools for WordPress along with my team at Roots, create educational content, and build out client sites and apps with WordPress.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I’ve met a lot of people through the WordPress community who are just as passionate as I am about building/doing good things 🙂

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

Even though Colorado is now my home, I was born and raised in the Dallas area. It’s always nice to have an excuse to come and visit! Do y’all understand what it’s like to not be able to go to Whataburger?

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I feel that implementing CI to deploy my WordPress sites is the biggest improvements to my workflow over the last few years.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I’d love for others to see how deploying WordPress with Git can make their life easier as a developer.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Keeping Your Themes and Plugins Separate

Writing. Web Development. Storytelling. These are a few of my favorite things. I first loved writing stories, specifically sports stories, and it eventually became my major in college. But along the way, I began to fall for web development, and finding ways to help others tell their stories through websites. I’ve created a couple of WordPress plugins and themes and currently work with Faith Growth, Inc., and as a freelancer.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I first got started in WordPress in 2009 when I joined my high school’s newspaper staff. That year we went from printing one issue every six weeks to fully online with a WordPress website. Naturally, I became interested in how it all worked.

In the summer after I graduated high school, I learned all of the web development basics and began to develop WordPress themes and plugins. The rest, as they say, is history.

What do you do with WordPress?

I currently work as a freelance developer. My primary gig is working with Faith Growth, Inc., building websites for churches.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

My experience with the WordPress has been nothing short of amazing. I attended my first WordCamp DFW in 2016 and joined the Ft. Worth WordPress User’s Group Meetup shortly there after and I have always felt welcome in the space.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I love this community and really wanted to give back to a community that has helped me a lot.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

As someone who has submitted themes and plugins into their respective WordPress directories and someone who had trouble when switching themes, I wanted to help people not make those same mistakes and/or understand some of the risks when using a theme that adds functionality it really shouldn’t.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope non-developers are able to better understand what themes and plugins really are and why that matters in WordPress so that they can make better decisions when picking the right theme. And for developers, I hope they make sure that they respect the difference between the two so that their products work for the user.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Automating Your Client Onboarding & Client Mangement Process For A High-End Customer Experience

Treva Marshall is the owner of Marshall Web Studio, where she uses her signature SMART Website System™ to help small businesses create a powerful website that’s not only beautiful but also search engine optimized (SEO) to bring them a steady flow of warm traffic to their business. Prior to starting her website design and technical support business, Treva spent over a decade in the IT industry as a Senior Software Developer for companies such as ExxonMobil and Atmos Energy. A teacher at heart, Treva’s passion lies in combining her technical skills with her love for helping small businesses thrive by teaching workshops both online and in person. Treva is also an Adjunct Professor in the Business College at Richland College and her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Search Engine Journal, and more. When Treva isn’t geeking out on websites, SEO, and internet marketing, you can find her reading a classic period piece novel or planning out her family’s next road trip adventure.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

When I started my business, I researched various website platforms.

What do you do with WordPress?

I build SMART websites for small businesses.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The community is very informative and helpful.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

To help others understand the importance of having the total package (right platform – WordPress, right traffic for conversions – SEO, a means for tracking and monitoring – Google Analytics) in order for a website to be a valuable business asset.

I’m also passionate about systems. So I want to share my expertise on how to streamline the design and client intake process.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

It’s a topic that I’m passionate about.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

Take-aways they can implement or have someone implement for them.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

With WordCamp DFW just 22 days away, the organizing committee is ready to announce the second round of speakers for this year’s event.

So, without any further delay, here are the second round of confirmed speakers for WordCamp DFW 2018:

Sandi Batik

Topic: Keeping Scope Creep From Killing Your Schedule and Profit Margin

WordPress evangelist, consultant, trainer, curricula developer, author, unapologetic geek, unrepentant capitalist, and lucky enough to do what I love every day. I co-founded Pleiades Publishing Services in 1992 where I serve as Project Manager and support our Clients’ Project Discovery Sessions as a Business Process Analyst. I have served as an Austin WordPress Meetup co-organizer since 2010 and write about WordPress at https://handsonwp.com/. You can follow me @sandi.batik / @WPATX.

Keri Chesire

Topic: The Must Do‚’s Before Going Live

Keri spent about 10 years working in customer service in restaurants before she landed her first Account Management gig in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was there that she met 2 amazing women who took her under their wing to teach her WordPress — and she immediately fell in love. After about a year of that, she decided to move back to her hometown of San Antonio Texas to attended Codeup (a career accelerator for Web Development), and then fell back in love with customer service. Now she gets to do the two things that she loves on a daily basis — Help clients and work with WordPress. She couldn’t be happier 🙂

Ben Word

Topic: Deploying WordPress with Git and Continuous Integration (CI)

Ben Word is the founder of Roots and been creating WordPress sites since 2004. He loves dogs, climbing, and yoga, and is passionate about helping people build awesome things on the web.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: WordPress 101

I wrote my first blog on self-hosted WordPress in October of 2006. Since January 2009, I have developed and maintained websites for churches, nonprofits, and other small organizations through my company, All-In Web Services. My first WordCamp was WordCamp DFW 2017. Since then I have enjoyed getting to know and share knowledge with other WordPress users and I’m honored to be able to speak at WordCamp DFW 2018.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

Back in 2004, a friend suggested that I start a blog. I looked at Blogger but I felt boxed-in with the way that platform did some things. I stumbled upon WordPress and began to acquaint myself with it; I felt more freedom than with Blogger. As I began to blog a little, I saw that WordPress could be stretched a to be more than just a blogging platform. I used a few plugins to make WordPress behave more like a full-blown CMS. I’m glad for new users that they don’t have to jump through those hoops to make WordPress do what it can do now.

What do you do with WordPress?

I occasionally blog on WordPress and technology. I also post on our church website to comment on what we’re doing with fellowships and outreaches.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

My first WordCamp was 2017. From that, I began to get involved with the WP DFW MeetUp, getting to know local WordPress users and developers. It’s a good reminder that I’m not the only person who’s working with WordPress and it’s great to have some local people who can answer questions when I run across a complicated issue.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

Just as I have benefited from the knowledge of other people, I felt that I had something to share with new users, to help them avoid some of the issues that I have had to figure out on my own.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

Again, I felt that I had something to offer to newbies, including some best practices on using WordPress.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope the audience gains a better working knowledge of the WordPress and that people are able to pick up on something new that perhaps they haven’t considered before.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: CSS Jam Session

Brent Jett is a designer and developer in Dallas, Tx and is currently the Design Lead at Beaver Builder. He likes exploring new tools and technologies for creating things on the open web as well as finding ways to bring more of traditional graphic design into the digital creative space. 
Brent is also a photography nerd and enjoys filling instagram with adorable photos of his beagle.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started working at an agency after college as a designer. We used a couple different CMSs at the beginning but standardized on WP pretty quickly. I started getting more involved with the general WP community after joining the Beaver Builder team.

What do you do with WordPress?

I’m the design lead for Beaver Builder. We make a page builder plugin that allows you to design pages visually with drag and drop elements.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I started out coming to the local Austin meetup a few times, speaking a couple times and then when I joined Beaver Builder I started going to camps with my team. At first I didn’t know anyone and it was kind of daunting because the community is very tightly knit, but gradually I met more and more people and have really been welcomed into some great circles of friends.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I love how camps work, that you can get a room full of people that want to challenge their own knowledge in different ways and learn new things. Speaking is a great way for product teams like mine to give back their time and knowledge to the community that we’ve built our business around.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I think it’s pretty crucial that web designers be more connected with the browser and the base web technologies, always learning, always looking for new ways to use the web. I stumbled into this idea of a jam session where you’re messing with websites on the fly from playing music and seeing how the electronic music space has evolved its technologies to make discovery more possible. I think the web is due for a similar shift in thinking where we all learn how to have our creative bursts in the browser rather than only in a static design application. I really wanted to explore that, see what’s possible, and hopefully show what I’ve learned.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I’m hoping that people leave the talk thinking of new things they can do with the browser, ways they can use it as part of the design process and not just for their final production websites. Also that they might gain an interest in some of the emerging web technologies and finding ways to use them sooner rather than later.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Immaterial Woo – eCommerce Without Products

Zach is the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce -focused agency that builds and maintains stores for mid-market and larger eCommerce store owners. He’s been in the digital space for the last two decades as a designer, developer, and instructor. When he isn’t sitting in front of a screen, he’s behind a camera capturing images of musicians or pretending to be a musician himself.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I had been watching the WordPress project for a number of years before I started using it professionally. It was the first release of WooCommerce that really got me to take a more serious look, since I had need for an eCommerce store for the business I was running at the time. With a background in object-oriented languages, it took me a bit to get used to PHP and the WordPress Way, but I dove in and haven’t come up for air since.

What do you do with WordPress?

I’m the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce consulting firm that helps run some of the most demanding WooCommerce sites in the world. We handle challenges in speed, scale and custom development that are only generally seen by mid-market and larger stores. Since somebody has to run the business side of Mindsize, I’ve been more focused on sales and marketing recently, but still like to experiment with coding projects on the forefront of where I see the eCommerce industry moving.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I love the WordPress community. It’s one of the most inviting communities I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met through participation in community events like WordCamps and local meetups. They’ve been instrumental to my personal and professional growth over the past six years. I encourage everyone I meet to plug in to their local communities.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I’ve been teaching and speaking in the tech space for over a decade, so I try to find any opportunity I can to share what I’ve been thinking about and working on with others. I find that the knowledge I share becomes more engrained in my head, as well. I’m also fortunate to know quite a few people in the WordPress community in Texas, so this gives me an excuse to come hang out with them and meet new people. Lastly, who doesn’t want to leave the cold of Illinois in early November?

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

The primary use that people think about when they see WooCommerce is selling physical products that you need to ship to the buyer. But there’s so much more that Woo can do! I designed this new talk, which I’m giving for the first time at WordCamp DFW, to share all of the other ways, ways that don’t rely on physical products, that you can use Woo to power a business, from membership sites to booking rooms in your bed and breakfast.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

My hope is that people who have been hesitant to take a step into the eCommerce realm because there’s a lot involved in sourcing, warehousing, packing and shipping physical products are given some new ideas for how they can leverage WooCommerce to build new or augment existing businesses.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: WP DIY Gone Awry… NOW WHAT?!

Startup and Tech Enthusiast byways of San Diego, CA. WordPress was my true entry point into the world of development and I wouldn’t have it any other way… from working in agencies to now as a client facing lead for a WP development firm. I’m stoked to represent and advocate for the non-technical WordPress user.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started my first foray into WordPress while working in digital marketing. The agency realm gave me the opportunity to work on lots of different projects at varying degrees of involvement and really get my self-involved in the work. I had no training or technical background… it was truly a sink or swim situation. Having primarily worked within the startup and early-stage company space, I was given the opportunity to learn all the things required as they came up.

What do you do with WordPress?

Moving out of my agency and Marketing days, I now have the absolute pleasure of working within a WordPress services company called PressTigers. While I’m not a developer (…yet!) I have the daily opportunity to support non-technical WordPress users building their projects with our team.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

So far my WordPress Community experience has been nothing short of absolutely stupendous. I had always used WP and then consulted on it from the sidelines, which left me with a smidge of “do I really belong here?” feels. The WordPress community especially at the WordCamp level changed that completely. From the org teams to the speakers and sponsors, and fellow attendees everyone is not only welcoming and encouraging but also from such varying backgrounds and levels of involvement. It’s truly a treat to geek out about this common thing we all use and love despite our spaces and places.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

DFW was actually one of my first WordCamps ever and truly, truly the first time I felt at home being a part of the WordPress Community.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I chose my topic from sheer personal experience. While I’m not a trained developer, I’m tech savvy and an overall self-starter. I like to do things to learn them and it never hurts to have resources to fall back on when trying something new. Starting out I wish I had known the most common pitfalls and mistakes so I could avoid them from the get-go. That being said…

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I built my talk around the most common mistakes starting out and then how to remedy those mistakes. I hope the audience feels empowered to take on their imagined WP projects. There are endless resources which can be challenging to sort through and I hope I’m able to counteract the “you don’t know what you don’t know” bit of starting out.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Cut the Copy: Take Your Marketing Message from “Meh” to Mesmerizing

With a unique background which includes education and work experiences in technology, market research, and marketing communications; Summer Alexander is uniquely qualified to help businesses combine their data with their story to create client-centered messaging.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

When I decided to launch my business seven years ago, I had been laid off for a few months and my bank account had been dwindled down to less than $30. With the remaining money I had, I purchased my company domain name and found a free website template that I was able to customize on the WordPress platform. I literally could not have launched my business at that time without WordPress because hiring a website designer was out of the question. The ease of use of WordPress made it easy for me to create a professional website and it was from that website that I attracted my first clients.

What do you do with WordPress?

I use the WordPress platform for my primary website and blog and I also have several other webpages and landing pages on WordPress that I use to reach out to the various audiences I serve. Some of my websites are informational and others I use for sales and event registrations.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

My experience with the WordPress community has been fantastic. In the early stages of using WordPress whenever I had questions I would visit the community and I was always able to find help or resources. When I am updating my current websites or creating new pages I frequently refer to the WordPress.org support forums for assistance.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I have given many talks over the years and I always reference the WordPress platform as being a key factor in me being able to launch my business however, I have never had the opportunity to share this with the WordPress community. Speaking at WordCamp DFW will allow me to share how valuable WordPress is for small business owners.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

Having a great website is only one step in creating an effective marketing campaign. One of the most important factors in being able to build a connection and establish trust with your audience is having a compelling marketing message. In my session, I’ll share the steps to creating simple yet effective marketing messages designed to encourage your potential customers to take action.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

My goal is always to provide actionable steps that my audience can implement right away. I want the audience to leave my talk with an understanding of how to develop marketing messages that feel less like a targeted sales message and more like a conversation with a trusted advisor.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!