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Here are a selection of biographies for WordCamp 2011 …
Paul Holmes
IdeaZone.ca
WordCamp Organizer/Presenter
Since 2000, Paul has been President of IdeaZone.ca, a recognized leader in website and social media marketing. He is a social media speaker and consultant, and PHP web developer.
Paul’s been on CBC Radio, Mashable.com, Techvibes.com, CHEK News, Times-Colonist, and others. He co-founded Canada’s first Social Media Club chapter in Victoria in March, 2009 and is the co-organizer of Social Media Camp Victoria.
Rebecca Bollwitt
Miss604.com
Topic: Securing WordPress & Cleaning Up Hacks
Although she built her first website in 1997, Rebecca has been blogging about life in BC since 2004 on Miss604.com, and podcasting since 2005. Miss604.com was voted “Best Vancouver Blog” by the Georgia Straight for 2009 & 2010, “Best Local Blog” by The Westender in 2010, and has been ranked within the top ten blogs in Canada. Recently named one of BC’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Vancouver Sun, Rebecca co-founded sixty4media, a WordPress website development firm, and has co-authored the book, Blogging to Drive Business.
Kulpreet Singh
Simrun Media
Topic: eCommerce
I’m a solutions & strategy guy for small businesses and small-to-medium non-profits looking to start, or improve, their online sales, marketing and fundraising initiatives. I run Simrun Media, a Vancouver business services & consulting firm. My areas of focus include eCommerce (online business) planning, pay-per-click marketing, copywriting, and custom WordPress development of online shopping sites, catalogues and directories. In other news, in the next few months I will be working on an online flower shopping catalogue, organizing a mental health conference for the South Asian community, and helping organize a web developers conference in Vancouver, BC.
So you want to sell stuff online? My presentation at WordCamp Victoria will be the friendly nudge you need to get started, whether to sell an eBook, your music, or hand-made dog sweaters (joking, please don’t). I’ll talk about why you should start selling, what you will need, and how you can make it happen relatively easily with (or without) WordPress, along with some examples of WordPress powered shopping sites, for inspiration. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter @SimrunMedia (light volume, more biz-tech tweets) or @KulpreetSingh (high volume, across the board topics).
Charles-Frees-Melvin
CEFM.ca
Topic: Advanced Theming: Teaching Your Theme to Beat WordPress with a Stick
I am a WordPress user and theme tweaker. I have been working on my personal site since 1997 and using WordPress since 2.1. I also like to assist other WordPress users hanging around the Support Forums and Trac (as thee17). I have even been known to submit patches to core. Right now my interests are in making WordPress a functional Gallery platform using the latest cutting-edge features WordPress has to offer (taxonomies, post types, post formats, post statuses, and widgets). Aside from tweaking my website I help local non-profit groups with their WordPress powered sites and spend my spare time Directing or doing Graphics for the local community TV station.
John Biehler
JohnBiehler.com
Topic: Using MAMP/WAMP for WordPress Development
John Biehler is a jack of all trades, and can often be seen tromping through the puddles in Vancouver with many of his digital SLR cameras. When not photographing the Vancouver Olympics or random fashion event, John can be often be found hacking away on PHP and WordPress sites while sipping a locally brewed Vancouver beer.
John will be talking about WordPress-related development environments such as WAMP and MAMP. Using these environments, it’s possible to work on a WordPress site offline and simply merge changes to your live site as needed.
Mike Vardy
Eventualism
Topic: A Comedy of Errors: Screwing Up Your Way To Blogging Success
I’m a writer, comedian and productivity pundit (of sorts) based out of beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
I have contributed to various websites (GTD Times, Productive! Magazine), as well as to CBC Radio’s Definitely Not The Opera and Monday Magazine. I’m regularly waxing poetic as an idiotic productivity pundit who shares the same name as myself at Eventualism and am the editor of the popular work/productivity site WorkAwesome. I also co-host Canada’s premier independent pop culture/tech podcast known as DyscultureD (streamed live every Wednesday at 9:30 EST/6:30 PST).
Mike and Cheryl DeWolfe
Those DeWolfes
Topic: Categories vs. Tags: Organization Smackdown!
Mike and Cheryl DeWolfe are ThoseDeWolfes, creators and consultants in Victoria BC; between them, they have several decades of web experience. Both are also active users of Drupal and WordPress and run a variety of sites including FrugalVictoria, IBSJones and the Garden History Blog.
Mike works full time as a web developer with a focus on managing content-heavy websites. He has introduced the concepts of structured taxonomies, tagging and vocabularies to various web sites. He evangelizes the tagging without tears concepts to his clients to bring order to their content. Cheryl works as a library assistant, managing subject headings, cross-references, and meta tags in library databases and believes that there is an appropriate tag and/or category for every piece of information.
Jordan Keats
Outpost Communication
Topic: Including “Press This” as Part of Web Strategy
Jordan is a Communications and New Media specialist with a love for coffee, and a lifelong dedication to Chen Style Taijiquan. He’s the Co-founder of Outpostcommunication.com, a full service web development company in Victoria, and GiveToo.ca, a social media driven donation page built with WordPress. Jordan graduated from Royal Roads in 2009, and has been blogging since 2004.
David Hutchison
InGoal Magazine
Topic: Relationship Building as it Relates to Blogging
David Hutchison is the creator and managing partner of InGoal Magazine along with Vancouver journalist Kevin Woodley. IGM is the leading online location for hockey goaltenders, with a print edition on the horizon. In real life he’s the Director of Advancement for Shawnigan Lake School where the experiences he has had with InGoal are helping the School connect with parents and alumni through the web.
As bloggers we are quick to promote the usefulness of the web for building relationships – we’re all familiar with the tool from email to Twitter and Facebook – but how do we go about using those tools, how can relationships help us and most importantly – isn’t there still a role for offline communications. In my professional life I spend most of my time fundraising and the key to successful fundraising is relationship building – and it is the key to successful blogging as well.
Nancy Fraser
Nota Bene Consulting
Topic: Build A Website That Is A Marketing Asset
Through a lucky fluke Nancy Fraser fell into the radio business in 1981. It was not luck that she succeeded personally because she understood the route to success was through helping her clients achieve success. Working with a diverse range of clients from local small businesses to multinational corporations provided great experience and insights that she later applied to her hobby as a wholesale rep doing business at New York wholesale shows. Later when she opened a retail store and shortly thereafter purchased a commercial building to house it, she learned the benefits of doing things right the first time. In 2003 she left radio and launched her current business, Nota Bene Consulting. Although the business focus has changed over the years, the primary purpose remains the same, to help small businesses choose the right marketing tools and use them effectively. Nancy is also an occasional guest instructor for BCIT’s Venture Program.
Morten Rand-Hendriksen
Pink & Yellow Media
Topic: 10 WordPress Theme Hacks to Improve Your Site
Morten Rand-Hendriksen is a WordPress developer, author and educator living in Burnaby, BC. He is the author of the WordPress 3 Essential Training series from Lynda.com, the author of three books on Expression Web and a frequent speaker at developer conferences across Canada and the United States. Morten blogs about WordPress and web design in general at www.DesignIsPhilosophy.com and provides one-on-one training for users and developers wanting to push WordPress to its limits and beyond. He is also the co-organizer of the Vancouver WordPress Meetup and the creator of the 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon. This winter he also published a 24 day tutorial series on his blog entitled 24 Days of WordPress.
Born and raised in Norway, Morten moved to Canada in 2002 to pursue life, love and standards-based code. He has an university degree in philosophy, a background in national politics and now runs a boutique style digital media company called Pink & Yellow Media. You can find him tweeting @mor10, because that’s his name.
Janis La Couvée
Topic: Promoting Through Blogging
Janis La Couvée is a financial services professional with a long history of community involvement particularly in the areas of capacity building, public relations and the arts. Long before the web, Janis was connecting people and providing answers. It’s just easier now!
In August 2010 Janis was the PR manager for The Road to Port Hardy Charity Bike Ride by Frans Jonker, a fundraiser for the BC Cancer Foundation. Watch for her on the Babes (and Blokes) Go Bare calendar for 2011, another BC Cancer Foundation fundraiser.
Janis is a member of the Social Media Club Victoria leadership team and the lead organizer of Twestival Victoria. Recent speaking engagements include OpenGov West BC, Victoria Social Media Camp, Idea Wave conference and BC Social Media Summit, as well as moderating panels at WordCamp Victoria, Social Media Club and Social Media Camp.
Janis is passionate about bridging online and offline communities to effect positive social change.
Beth Campbell Duke
CampbellDuke Personal Branding
Topic: Quick-Start Your WordPress Blog
First workshop – bright and early! For those interested in WordPress blogging who haven’t yet set up a blog. See what we can get done in 1 hour… leave with a new WordPress account and a better idea of what questions you want answered during the day.
Beth Campbell Duke is the Principal of CampbellDuke Personal Branding: empowering job hunters, career changers and entrepreneurs to find or (re)create work that’s right for them.
Personal branding incorporates personal success and motivation psychology, traditional career and marketing skills with the power of widely available “new” media. Personal branding helps people find their voice and gives them the tools to use it!
Knowing how to set up and use a variety of social media platforms is critical to managing your personal brand. WordPress is a platform that is simple enough for new users to learn, and is flexible enough to expand as each personal brand evolves. Beth now actively runs 2 WordPress sites, and has set up WordPress blogsites for a number of community groups and small business owners so they can see how easy it is to get their message out to the world!
George Plumley
Topic: The Ten Most Forgettable Things About WordPress
George Plumley is the author of 100 Questions to Ask Before Building a Website (Wiley 2010) and WordPress 24-Hour Trainer (Wiley, 2009), a step by step guide for WP beginners. He also runs the WordPress video tutorial site www.seehowtwo.com. He speaks regularly on WordPress and making better websites in general. He’s particularly interested in the process of moving existing sites into WordPress so that no one knows there’s been any change. He’s been a web developer for over 15 years and had been searching for an interface for his clients to easily manage their sites – which brought him to WordPress. He moved to Vancouver Island six years ago so that he could work in the virtual world but be a short walk away in the physical world from the ocean and the forests, which is where you’ll find him a lot of the time with his daughters.
Lorraine Murphy
Raincoaster Media
Topic: More than Marketing: Social Media as Customer Service
Lorraine “raincoaster” Murphy is a professional blogger and social media consultant at raincoaster media in Vancouver. Blogging daily to five sites on a wide variety of platforms and active on eleven social media platforms, she brings a uniquely informed perspective and attitude to online communication.
John Overall
Topic: Top Five Plugins for Enhancing Your WordPress Website
John Overall has been working online since 1995 since just before the introduction of the first web browser. In 1999, he opened his web design and hosting business, which by chance was the same year that Google came on the scene and the internet, was heating up. For the last 10 years, he has been doing web design and hosting and since early 2009, he has been focusing on WordPress as a platform for people to deliver their messages to the world. With a focus on WordPress, he looks for ways to bring more people into the fold and begin using WordPress to maximize their websites impact. After receiving numerous questions from clients about how to use WordPress, John developed introductory and advanced courses on how to use WordPress and teaches it at Shoreline Community School in Victoria. John spends his spare time with his two young sons, and getting out hiking whenever he can preferably in the Sooke hills. You can find out more at www.JohnOverall.com.
Chris Burdge
bWEST Interactive
Topic: Top 10 Blogs of 2010 and Why
Chris is President of bWEST Interactive, a marketing services firm that helps companies create genuine & lasting relationships with their target audience using social media. Chris has worked with fortune 1,000 clients and local businesses like Aviawest, Island Hearing and Scooter Underground, as well non-profits like Habitat for Humanity and Power To Be, to develop effective social media strategies. Chris is a regular speaker at conferences, trade shows and corporate events on social media strategies and trends.
Alex Blackie
X96 Design
Topic: Building a Portfolio With Custom Post Types
Alex is a freelance web developer in Victoria. Aside from web design, he enjoys music, photography and drumming. Alex loves WordPress because of its friendliness to the average user, its amazing flexibility, and because it’s open-source. Although he’s very young, Alex has lots of ambition and is destined to do big things (apparently).
Steve Zussino
Grocery Alerts Canada
Topic: Monetizing your WordPress Blog
Steven Zussino is the Founder of Grocery Alerts Canada – home of grocery deals, product reviews and money saving coupons. He enjoys personal finance and saving money in beautiful Victoria, BC. The website is seen by over 45,000 visitors a month, and has over 5,500 e-mail subscribers, and over 2,600 Twitter followers. He also works for a local software company as a Client Services Implementer.
