Speaker Spotlight – Chris Wiseman

Chris is a WordPress developer born and raised in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Currently living in Halifax and working in Bedford, he has been developing professionally with WordPress for the past four years. He has spent a lot of time looking into a dev stack that makes WordPress easier to maintain, and more enjoyable to develop with.

 

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

So far it’s been getting a maintainable stack up and running at my company. It’s very rewarding to see lots of hard work come together to make everyone’s lives a little easier.

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Speaker Spotlight – Remy Perona

I am the lead developer of WP Rocket, a popular premium WordPress plugin to optimize the speed of websites. I love sharing my knowledge about website performance optimization, loading time & development for and with WordPress, by speaking at WordCamps in France and Canada.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

It is thanks to WordPress that I have been able to become a freelance developer, meet a lot of people, and then thanks to that, become part of a team creating great products for the WordPress ecosystem.

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Speaker Spotlight – Heather Deveaux

Heather Deveaux is a full-time freelance writer who works with clients all over the world from her home in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. Heather launched her career as a freelance writer within hours of losing her job as an executive director of a career college in Cape Breton. After the college closed, Heather decided she was ready to dedicate her skills and abilities to her own business and has been successfully growing her freelance writing business ever since. She’s recently branched out to create The Freelance Writing School, in which she’ll teach others how to start and run their own freelance writing businesses in rural areas across Canada. Heather holds a Master of Adult Education degree and taught herself how to use WordPress when she realized she needed a website that was fully customizable that she could build when she wasn’t working on client projects.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

I love WordPress because it has provided me with a platform to share my business(es) without having to fork over a lot of money. I appreciate the high quality platform and the ease of use. It has literally changed the way I see web design and no longer feel intimidated by what it takes to get a business on the web. Plus, it’s also evolving and there’s something to learn every single day.

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Speaker Spotlight – Gary Thayer

Gary Thayer is a WordPress Developer at Hall Internet Marketing who specializes in eCommerce websites and analytics tracking. He is an active member of the WordPress community, acting as an organizer for the Southern Maine WordPress Meetup and as Lead Organizer for WordCamp Portland, ME.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Getting to build some really cool stores and applications for businesses with a diverse set of needs. WordPress is super flexible, while always offering a familiar framework for users.

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Speaker Spotlight – Lisa Patts

Lisa Patts is an entrepreneur who enjoys learning new things. She has been using WordPress as her web hosting platform for various websites since 2012.

She operates PianoVideoLessons.com where she teaches adults who have never played piano before how to play and read music. Lisa has been teaching piano since she graduated from University. She is also a YouTube Creator with a Silver Play Button, and she is a Voice Actor who can often be heard on local radio ads. Taking the advice she is giving in today’s talk, she has just launched FreelanceToFreeLaunch.com on the WordPress.com platform.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

The ability to control my own content and learn at my own rate.

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Speaker Spotlight – Jennifer Gyuricska

Jennifer Gyuricska is a digital marketer and strategist from Fredericton, NB. Jennifer began her career hosting small town radio and has since accumulated over 15 years experience in marketing and communications.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

The best thing about WordPress is their consistency. I can always work successfully with websites on this platform: it’s so highly customizable and there’s a ton of reference material available.

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Speaker Spotlight – Renée Downs

Renée Downs is an avid culinary adventure traveller and creator. Never leaving home without paper and pen, this published author is an accomplished wordsmith. Once upon a time she called herself a reluctant blogger. She has come a long way since her first post back in November 2013. Her WordPress love is strong but there were other platforms before trying it on for size; this non-techie writer could not find her groove until WordPress. Now she is hooked for life. Her blog, Gettin’ Fresh with R.H. Downs, is the place to find everything from what’s hot around Halifax to topics on self-care and mental health. Renée is also one of the founding members and producers for BlogJam Atlantic; a fun, informative, and unique event for the region’s blogging community.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

When guest bloggers send me their words and I get to make them look pretty on my WordPress blog.

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Speaker Spotlight – Floria Aghdamimehr

Floria Aghdamimehr is the catalyst and facilitator from information to transformation. Recognize Your Potential (RYP) creates and fosters a Growth Mindset. Floria has a Solutions-based focus and works on Leadership Through People & Effective Interpersonal Communication Skills. She offers training on Growth Mindset, Gratitude at Work, Difficult Conversations Simplified, and Diversity & Inclusion. RYP becomes the Co-Creative Partner to achieving your goals. Floria has developed the Performance Unleashed program to enhance trust and respect, while building a strong engaged team that collaborates and improves Productivity & Innovation in the workplace!

Attitude = Outcome

Floria has many years of experience working with Dalhousie University, RCMP, Trade Centre Limited, Teachers Provincial Professional Development conferences, and Correctional Services Canada, to name a few. Floria is a coach, trainer, keynote and speaker for Professional Development events and conferences. Floria serves on Creating a Positive Business Environment task force, co-chair of Partners for Human Rights and Ability Employers.

“Leaders Embrace difficulties to find opportunities.” ~ Floria

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Answers to my questions as a newbie to WordPress

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Speaker Spotlight – Tim Covell

Tim is a technical writer by day, and a freelance writer and editor/web consultant/film studies academic by night. He built his first website, using Notepad, in 1997, after deciding there was room on the internet for one more site. He looks after several WordPress sites, both .com and .org, and assists individuals and small organizations maintain and update their sites.Tim is a writer and editor/web consultant/film studies academic. He built his first website, using Notepad, in 1997, after deciding there was room on the internet for one more site. He looks after several WordPress sites, both .com and .org, and assists individuals and small organizations maintain and update their sites.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

Seeing other folks “get it” and start doing their own posts.

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Speaker Spotlight – Michael MacMillan

While working as a developer for an agency in Vancouver around 2009, Mike started noticing the patterns in the action items sent by third-party SEO consultants. In an effort to save his customers communication time and reduce costs he offered to not only consult on the onsite optimization opportunities but also work with the developers to implement them. After moving into an in-house SEO position with a startup SaaS company in 2013 he was able to round out his skill set to include off page ranking factors and a more in-depth understanding of analytics. Currently he leads up the SEO team at VERB Interactive. When not digging through spreadsheets Mike enjoys skateboarding, grappling and getting records to make weird noises.

What’s been your best experience with WordPress?

That is hard to say, it’s interesting how versatile platform it is. I have been involved in sites that range from 5 to 10,000+ pages and each project has taught my something.

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