If there was one thing I could say about Ross Johnson it’s that he’s not afraid of clowns. Not even a little bit. Is there more to know about him? Let’s find out.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

I love learning. It gives me an opportunity to improve my understanding of a topic (if you want to know something deeply, teach it) and share what I’ve learned with others.

What is your session about?

Differentiating yourself in a crowded market using design.

Where can people find more about you?

You can find my design agency here and my project management plugin here.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I’d like to see an improved admin experience. For a long time WordPress was considered the easiest CMS to learn and understand but I no longer think that’s the case. The admin interface hasn’t changed in a long time and could benefit from rethinking.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

I’m going to say children because they rarely come up in these conversations yet the younger generations will start building websites at a much earlier age than we all did.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

I only work on easy projects. I did build a bid management system that allowed a general contractor to post jobs to a network of sub-contractors who would submit their credentials and proposals. I also worked on a custom BuddyPress implementation for a niche Instagram like social network hosted on WordPress VIP.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

We built a custom proposal plugin that allows us to create proposals for clients within WordPress and track views to the proposal, which sections were viewed the most / longest and a form to approve the proposal at the end. It was a simple mash-up of custom post types, advanced custom fields and gravity forms.

Brian is a designer, developer, photographer, educator and finder eradicator of bugs. I suspect he only addresses bugs in software but I’ve never asked him… he might also hunt live bugs. Let’s get to know him better.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

I love helping others be more effective and efficient in what they do.

What is your session about?

Adding testing and continuous integration to an every-day workflow

Where can people find more about you?

WPSessions.com

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I would like to see better onboarding experiences become standard. I would also love to see less and simpler UI. Both of these are extremely difficult and have been the forefront focus of many people, so I believe we’ll get there and I’ve been excited to watch them with each minor breakthrough.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

Non-English speaking users far outnumber all other user groups, but I think they are both underrepresented and underserved.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

I worked on a team that built an incredible blend of WordPress and Laravel used for managing hundreds of thousands of pieces of content and media, each with unique, cascading visibility rules. It was a project that took more than a year to build and nearly as long to plan and scope. The effort that the team put into the project was a serious sight to behold and the fruit of their labor is unlike any other WordPress project I’ve seen before or since.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

Most recently I helped build the functionality to surface nearby clubs groups for a university’s alumni on their new WordPress site. Each group has an address (most of them partial and incomplete) which is geocoded. The site then uses geolocation to locate the visitor and turn up group posts within the geofenced area. It was a lot of fun to build and gave me a reason to learn several new things along the way.

I’ve learned that you can learn a lot from Topher DeRosia. That’s a lot of learning in one sentence but once you meet him, you’ll see it’s fitting. Let’s get to know him.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

I love teaching. I love helping people understand things.

What is your session about?

Intro to HTML and CSS

Where can people find more about you?

http://topher1kenobe.com

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

Nothing, it’s perfect. 🙂

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

People of color.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

A project involving ElasticSearch to catalog hundreds of thousands of data points.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

We built a Law site and interconnected Cases, Staff, Updates, and two other posts types seamlessly.

Seth Alling just might replace Daniel Craig for the name James Bond franchise. He also is a talented designer, developer and tight ropewalker. Let’s get to know him!

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

My path to WordPress development would be easier if I knew what I know now when I was starting out. No matter where someone is with their experience in WordPress, the knowledge of others can help. I hope I can contribute to that and make things easier for others.

Where can people find more about you?

https://sethalling.com

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I would like it to be easier for people to just start using. To me, it’s simple, but I’ve been using the software for years. Posts vs. pages, unlimited plugins, countless themes, etc. It all gets confusing for someone who is just starting out. I want to see it become more streamlined so someone can have and manage their own site with an almost nonexistent learning curve.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

People with disabilities. Accessibility is being mentioned more and more in the community, but it’s still an afterthought on many people’s minds, myself included.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

I developed a custom importer that would take a CSV file containing almost 20,000 entries and turn them into custom post type entries, and then creating a relationship between them and other custom post type entries.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

I built a membership site that would add members to a public, searchable directory with all of their desired info immediately after payment. Once their subscription expires or is cancelled, they are removed from the directory.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

1. My husband, if it’s more than six hours or so in the car. Oh, wait. That’s a who, not a what.
2. I’m pretty sure CSS jokes don’t go over too well at Open Mic Night. So WordCamp is my comedy store.
3. I really think it’s possible to render in CSS almost any design we can conceive of, subject to browser support and its limitations.

AND I think it’s possible for any designer to learn to render their vision in CSS and template PHP, irrespective of age, temperament, education or professional background.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

The Media Library. I’d like to be able to upload media files with FTP or push them from version control, with their meta data intact.

I love that Core automagically makes images responsive (shout-out to fellow STL peep Joe McGill on that!)

And happy as I am with the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin, which keeps going and going and going, shouldn’t that functionality be part of Core at some point?

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

Fat Jewish tennis ladies over 55, of course! Tennis pros and other athletes …

In my experience of the STEM space, the two most welcoming communities for white women and people of color are probably WordPress and aerospace (or at least Boeing fighter programs).

Now, my real experience is of WordPress. My perception of aerospace is skewed by who shows up at Taco Tuesday here in the high desert of Aerospace USA in California.

So I don’t have much standing to say either way, and we can always do better.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

The most fun I’ve had recently was building a Genesis child theme that uses Flexbox every which way from Sunday. It’s called GardenFlex, because I used some shots of flowers and leaves as the featured images.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

I’m still working on it at stltennishall.org – in the Inductees category, I want each archive to show only its immediate subcategory archive (there’s a plugin letting me add featured images to the categories, so I can make pretty layouts on the archive pages).

Right now, I’m hiding things I don’t want with hacky CSS. I need to write a better function, with better array arguments, to control those archive pages properly.

Where can people find more about you?

racquetpress.com is the product/service site I’ve been soft-launching for two years now 😜 ; marginhancers.com has endorsements and some non-tennis case studies.

I live on Twitter, basically, unless I’m on the court or doing something halfway productive. There’s my somewhat pathetic Github account – my Genesis child themes live there. I’m marybaum both places and on wordpress.org.

And if you’re in the mood for lame comedy mixed into somewhat more solid CSS and templating how-tos, check out my speaker page at wordpress.tv/speakers/mary-baum.

Thomas Stirling is an interesting man. If you do any client services you need to attend his talk and meet him afterward. His knowledge and insights will help change the way you approach the web design process.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

WordPress has such a wonderful community of people behind it and I feel honored to be a part of that. My talks focus on process and passion, exploring things I have learned running a creative agency that is growing. I like sharing some of the things we have tried and have helped other people like me who are starting out. There is nothing more satisfying than helping someone else out.

What is your session about?

In this talk, I share how to improve the quality of the websites you build by simply changing your approach to the design process. The outcome is a stronger relationship with your client, a repeatable method for continued website improvements, and an outstanding experience for both the client and its users.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I look forward to seeing how people leverage WordPress for its REST API as it continues to be used more an application framework. Anything we can do to empower users to do more with less expertise is a good thing because it exposes more people to the underlying technology out there. Beyond that, as more of a wishlist – I am excited to see how WordPress evolves to meet the needs of its users as we move into the VR and IR web experiences of tomorrow.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

I think the community could benefit from two things, a more comprehensive job board and some mentorship programs. I think some of this exists in some of the larger cities in the form of meetup groups, but a centralized place.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

Working with local Governments has posed new challenges. We are doing some creative stuff with WordPress multi-site, along with advanced modules and custom pages for departments.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

Transitioning larger institutions with thousands of pages into WP can be challenging. We are doing a lot with custom post types for categorizing, displaying and filtering data across a wide array of use cases with the goal of making it easier to update and edit these larger sites.

Where can people find more about you?

I am pretty easy to find, add me on social and ask away if you can’t find an answer to the question you are looking for. There is a lot of good content about me and my team on our website at stboston.com. My social media presence is pretty tame, but there is some good content on Facebook and Instagram.

You never forget a Kevin Skarritt presentation. He’s smart, funny and engaging and his talks always both teach and entertain. Let’s get to know him a little better.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

Making connections and meeting new peeps.

What is your session about?

Going “Social” with “Word Press” ….. Exploring the possibilities of managing, enhancing and integrating your social media activities into your WordPress site.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

More flexibility

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

The UI/UX Industry. There are several groups here in Michigan (IXPA, MiUPA, MichiCHI, various MeetUps, etc.) but I rarely encounter them at Word Camps.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

A site with a complex CPT where the client had poor communication skills. Bad combo.

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

Boosting SEO in a site by creating a robust Project Gallery CPT.

Where can people find more about you?

http://linkedin.com/in/skarritt

You can find Rebecca speaking at conferences all around the U.S. and she has been speaking at WordCamp Ann Arbor since our first year. She’s an expert in SEO, WordPress, user experience and marketing. Let’s learn more about her!

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

I speak at WordCamps for two main reasons. First, I like to give back to the community and speaking is a great way to accomplish this task. Second, I’m a firm believer in the power of SEO and that anyone can perform quality SEO if they have the right education and desire. I speak about SEO at conferences so I can get people excited about SEO, let them see the possibilities SEO offers, and show them how to take the steps necessary to learn and execute quality SEO.

What is your session about?

In my session we’ll be exploring three core SEO tactics for creating search engine friendly websites and blogs. We’ll deep dive into setting up content silos, the pros and cons of content depth, and super powers found in internal links.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I would love to the active WordPress community to better reach those who are not active. The majority of WordPress users are unaware of the robust community, the willingness to help, and the amazing conferences that are available.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

End users because they simply don’t know enough about what is happening in WordPress and how they can get involved.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

A large project that integrated WordPress, LearnDash, WooCommerce, and an outside forum into one learning platform. It involved a number of companies working together to produce a solution set for the client.

Where can people find more about you?

https://www.rebeccagill.com

Ian Wilson is an incredibly talented designer, developer and break dancer. How do those skills relate? Trust me they do. I never miss a chance to see Ian talk, he delivers brilliant insights with the perfect about of wit. You should also listen to his podcast. Let’s learn more about him.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

The look on peoples’ faces as they agree, disagree, or maybe start to see things in a new light, and that is a magical thing. Getting feedback, as well as simply gaining more experience as a speaker is incredibly valuable and insightful.

What would you like to see change about the WordPress platform in the next 5-10 years?

I would love to see the core become more opinionated, more honed and carefully curated— efficient and lightweight. Continue to be a rock solid foundation and let the development economy thrive in providing different flavors of platform extension- eCommerce, eLearning, visual website builders, etc.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

I can’t say that anything jumps to mind, the WordPress community in my experience has been inclusive and diverse.

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

Easily answered! Managing a transition of over 70k SKU’s from different vendors into WooCommerce. The post_meta table hit over 2.3 million rows. Let me tell you, importing that many products on a weekly basis for managing inventory, remapping fields to better organize products, removing discontinued products, etc is pure insanity. It’s easily the most challenging project I’ve worked on and there are still product attributes that must be managed by hand.

Where can people find more about you?

buildcreate.com/about or on Twitter @wilsonography. Some day I’ll actually have a personal site…

Christie knows a thing or two about web forms, just ask her about what Caldera Forms is doing these days! Let’s get to know her better.

What drives you to speak at WordCamps?

Community participation.

What is your session about?

Contact forms of great victory.

Who do you think is under represented in the WordPress community?

Young women

What was the most challenging WordPress project you’ve worked on?

Growing Caldera Forms!

What’s a problem you recently solved creatively using WordPress?

Voterunlead.org was a nonprofit I worked with and we implemented a creative solution with WordPress for them to be flexible in the political environment in the US

Where can people find more about you?

Calderalabs.org/team