Category: News

Montrealer Kathryn Presner thrives on helping people get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building websites for clients, she joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer in 2012. She’s currently Theme Whisperer on the Theme Team, where she helps folks with customization, configuration, and troubleshooting. She enjoys spreading her passion for WordPress and encouraging new public speakers at WordCamps, Girl Geeks, Ladies Learning Code, and other grassroots events. Non-WordPress obsessions include vintage Pyrex mixing bowls and growing garlic. @zoonini

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

I get tremendous enjoyment from helping WordPress users make their sites look like and do exactly what they want. Whether it’s as a volunteer in the WordPress.org forums, in person at a Happiness Bar, or in my daily work as a Happiness Engineer, helping people one-on-one with WordPress is so satisfying.

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Gavin is a Lead Developer at NATIONAL Public Relations, webmonkey, Apple fan, games nerd, coffee-fiend, and CMS critic. @gavinanderegg

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

WordPress and I have a complicated relationship. I like it best when I can ignore anything to do with themes and just focus on plugin development.

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Brad Touesnard is founder and general manager of Delicious Brains Inc, creator of the popular WP Migrate DB Pro plugin, cohost of the Apply Filters podcast, and founder of the Big Snow Tiny Conf events. Although he was once an employee and then a freelance designer/developer, these days he spends all of his work time managing a fully remote team of 10 people located in the UK, USA, and Canada. @bradt

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Not sure what you mean

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Mitch MacKenzie is a PHP web developer from Prince Edward Island with a bit over a decade of experience building CMS websites. As our web development toolsets continue to grow and become more complex, Mitch is interested in exploring the delicate balance between simplicity in development processes with the needs of modern web experiences.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

I’m a big fan of WP-CLI and have had a lot of fun automating builds of new WordPress sites.

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Allison is a Front-end Developer at WebDevStudios, a distributed company that specializes in WordPress development. Originally from Southern California, she currently lives in Toronto. As a result of her own lived experience, Allison is a mental health advocate and wants to create a more open conversation to combat existing stigma and provide additional resources. She loves guacamole, hula hoops, and Dolly Parton (not necessarily in that order) and her favourite flightless bird is the kakapo. @allisonplus

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Discovering a whole new pocket of friends and colleagues within the coding world.

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Shanta is an Instructor in Web Design and Capstone Project at Sheridan College and Mohawk College. She specializes in Web Development and Educational Training.

She is a problem solver and have been said to have the patience of a saint. She can explain even the most difficult concepts to the most basic user and has developed training that allow clients to learn for themselves. She thrives on understanding the needs of my clients and believes in making technology as simple as possible and making it fun, which allows our clients to seamlessly incorporate it into their organization.

Shanta holds a Certificate in Business Management and a Bachelors of Commerce Degree from Ryerson University in Information Technology Management. Some of her volunteer activities include being the Alumni Advisor for the Women In Information Technology Management program at Ryerson University, and Assistant Instructor at the Canadian Martial Arts Centre. She blogs at shanta.ca and can be found on Twitter @ShantaDotCa

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

One of the latest ones has been the discovery of Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom Fields. I know these existed, but lately, I’ve found them to be one of the most amazing pieces of WordPress and little known by the average user/manager.

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Brian is a renaissance man whose passion and enthusiasm as an experienced digital entrepreneur has shined over the last two decades. With a unique constellation of talents, he successfully multitasks between being a CEO, Internet \professional, author, conference speaker, consultant, content creator, mentor, photographer, web designer, idea generator, media guest (TV, radio, podcasts) and startup founder. His highly praised book, Content Marketing Ideas, is a complete guide to content creation and maintains an influential five-star rating on Amazon.

He is in demand as the head of established brands such as Uniseo.com and RedstoneX.com, President of the Canadian Internet Marketing Association, Editor-in-chief of Citynet Magazine, Founder of the #wplife movement, and Senior Editor at The WP Crowd, among other accolades. Brian holds two Master’s degrees and has taught at McGill University and Boston College. Please visit www.rotsztein.com for more.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Do you have an hour? LOL! WordPress has changed my life. I have even given talks about it (which is where the #wplife movement came from). You can watch the talks on WordPress TV. One of them was they keynote address at WordCamp Rochester where I discuss how my livelihood, friends, travel, and relationships have come from the WordPress community.

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Crystal Picard is a Halifax-based graphic designer and hand-lettering artist behind Hello Sweetie Design. She graduated with the Highest Recognition Award from the Graphic Design program at NSCC Waterfront in 2015, where she developed her side hustle in the wee morning hours between homework and late nights at her part-time job. Passionate about building community and helping others become successful in their goals; Crystal utilizes her experience as a solopreneur to help others get more done outside their regular 9 to 5 grind. @crystalpicard

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Using WordPress has opened a lot of doors for me as a Graphic Designer. I started using it when I was still in school, and I landed my first paid internship with my current mentor because of my growing interest in the platform.

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