Distinguished speaker list below (in order by first name):
Do you want to be listed here? Send us your stuff and we’ll reach out to you!
Brent Schultz
Brent Schultz is an Engineer on the CMS team at Digital Evolution Group(DEG) in Overland Park. The CMS team does work with Umbraco, Sitecore and WordPress primarily. He’s been a WordPress developer for 4+ years and is constantly exploring other PHP CMS platforms like Bolt. He’s a University of Kansas graduate with a passion for gaming and sports.
Sessions
Better Theme Organization | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Lawrence, KS
Links: @brentrschultz | cmsmess.com | DEGDigital.com
Brianna Privett
Full-time human. Part-time chair warmer. Stuffing my identity into text boxes since 1996.
Sessions
Customizing the WordPress Dashboard for Better Workflow | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Richmond, MO
Links: @briannaorg | brianna.org | facebook.com/briannaorg
Dave Navarro Jr.
Dave Navarro, Jr. is the Director of Digital Media for Morris Communications, a media conglomerate of radio stations, newspapers and magazines. His primary duty is development of a common WordPress platform for the radio division, starting with WIBW in Topeka, KS and KGNC in Amarillo, TX that will be later rolled out across 30+ radio stations.
Sessions
Mobile Development vs Responsive Design
Bio Info
From: Topeka, KS
Links: topekadesign.com | wibwnewsnow.com | @Dnavarrojr @WIBWWebGuru | facebook.com/dnavarrojr
Frankie Jarrett
Frankie is based in St. Joseph, Missouri and works as a WordPress developer for X-Team, a WordPress.com VIP partner agency, working full time on the Stream plugin team. Prior to this, Frankie founded a WordPress theme shop designed for churches and non-profit organizations. He has been building with WordPress since 2007 and was a core contributor during the 3.6 release cycle. Outside of work, Frankie is the director of music and worship at his local church, enjoys traveling with his wife and smoking his own BBQ.
Sessions
Version Control Using Git | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: St. Joseph, MO
Twitter Bio: Lucky husband, Head of WordPress Product @xteam, co-creator of @stream_wp and worship leader at LHC.
Links: frankiejarrett.com | churchthemes.net | @fjarrett | facebook.com/frankiejarrett
James W. Lane
James began working with WordPress in 2009, which is when he built his first theme for Macenstein.com. He has become addicted ever since, and try to keep current on any upcoming and developing issues. Currently he is employed as a front end developer for Consumer Media Network. Also doing some freelance on the side. His education has been all self taught for the 15 years he’s been developing websites.
Sessions
Modern Development Environments for WordPress | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Springfield, MO
Links: jameswlane.com | @jameswlane | facebook.com/james.w.lane.3rd | facebook.com/consumermedianetwork
Jason Woolliscroft
Jason is the Sr. UI/UX Designer at Freightview, an app incubated from within Freightquote. Prior to working at Freightview, Jason was a consultant who had the opportunity to work with clients like The Kauffman Foundation, Space Center Houston, TD Bank, and Aviation Schools Online.
Sessions
How to: Find, Hire & Manage Designers & Developers
Bio Info
From: Leawood, KS | dislocated from the west coast
Twitter Bio: Sr. UI UX designer & developer at freightView.com
Links: jasonw.me | @jasonw_me | freightview.com
Jason Yingling
Jason is multimedia designer in Springfield, MO specializing in web and graphic design. He’s built websites, designed print materials, created motion graphics, added visual effects to films, and dabbled in creating apps. He create unique and engaging user experiences across a variety of media.
Sessions
WordPress Security is Like a HHAM Sandwich | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: St. Louis, MO
Twitter Bio: I develop websites. I also talk about sports, movies, beer and advertising. In no particular order. Except mostly beer. Go Birds.
Links: jyingling.com | jyingling.com/blog | @jason_yingling
Jeremy Fuksa
Jeremy wishes he were an Okie from Muskogee. Because, as you know, it is the place where even squares can have a ball. Actually, Jeremy does originally hail from a very small Oklahoma town named after a poor Irish bastard who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Aside from brief stints as a municipal pool lifeguard or fence builder for a pork farming corporation, Jeremy spent his time as a broadcast engineer, director and producer at a low-power UHF station before nosing his way into the advertising industry in 1999. Since then, Jeremy’s award-winning work has spanned traditional, broadcast and interactive media.
Sessions
Best Practices for the Post-Photoshop World | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: KCMO
Twitter Bio: Proponent of #postpsd workflows in everyday front-end web design. Host of @theshakes on @muleradio. More scared of you than you are of me.
Links: @jeremyfuksa | facebook.com/jeremy.fuksa | jeremyfuksa.com
Jeremy Green
Jeremy Green started building websites back in 1998. Now he puts his time and energy into building custom WordPress themes and plugins at Endo Creative, a web design company he started four years ago. He resides in Fort Collins, CO, and also organizes the Fort Collins WordPress meetup. After a long day of coding he enjoys listening to podcasts, training for endurance mountain bike races, and reading classic novels.
Sessions
Using Sass in your WordPress Projects | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Fort Collins, CO
Links: twitter.com/greenhornet79 | facebook.com/greenhornet79 | google.com/+JeremyGreen79 | @EndoCreative | facebook.com/endocreative |
Jim Grant
Entrepreneur, owner of Simply Creative Media LLC and Jim Grant Media. Helping small businesses Get Found, Get Social and Get Beautiful on the Web.
Sessions
Unboxing WordPress | Session Slide
Setting Up WP for the First Time
Bio Info
From: Kansas City, MO
Links: @Jim_Grant | simplycreativemedia.com
Kristin Falkner
Kristin Falkner is a WordPress developer who has been building websites since she was only a teenager, getting her first paid website gig at the age of 16. Her work shifted to a WordPress-based focus when she noticed the growing trend of clients wanting an end product they could update themselves without being reliant on a developer to do so. Currently, a majority of her work revolves around building completely custom WordPress themes for clients and she’s had the privilege of working on WordPress-based projects for TOMS, Urban Decay, United Talent Agency, Toyota and more.
Sessions
Building Your Business Around WordPress | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Los Angeles, CA
Twitter Bio: WordPress developer, all-around geek
Links: kristinfalkner.com | @KristinCodesWP | facebook.com/kristin.falkner
Marc Benzakein
Marc has been involved with almost every aspect of technology for the past 30 years. Having built a tech startup from the ground up, Marc has had to take part in the development of every department necessary to make a company function. Customer service is his passion that has driven him to learn, through both good and poor experiences, how to determine what the customer really needs and how to deliver it to their great satisfaction.
Sessions
How to Rock a WordCamp Even if You’re a Total n00b | Session Slide
How I Tell a Customer They are Wrong and Make Them Love Me | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Milwaukee, WI
Links: serverpress.com | @MarcBenzak | facebook.com/marcbenzakein
Michael G. Calvert
Michael is one of the original employee’s at Disqus with over 5+ years of experience working with sites around the globe. He has a corgi dog named Einstein. They’re both peanut butter enthusiasts.
In a survey of 15,000 people (possibly a bit skewed toward techies and gamers), social situations turned up as the #1 most frightening thing ever. Mike is trying to figure out a way to build these terrors into his new video game, Dragged Away – A Night To Remember.
Sessions
Unlocking the power of Disqus on WordPress
Bio Info
From: New York, NY
Links: @rawrsoft | rawrsoft.com | facebook.com/rawrsoft | draggedaway.com A Night To Remember
Michael R. Hunter
Michael R. Hunter started learning HTML & CSS at the age of 15. In 2010, Michael founded a marketing company, Entourage Marketing, and has helped build WordPress websites for dozens of small businesses, authors, experts, & speakers.
Michael is also the founder of CodingOptional.com, a WordPress video tutorial website & help forum, that teaches entrepreneurs, experts, authors, & speakers how to create WordPress websites. He now has students from 7 countries around the world and is helping people learn how to use WordPress every day.
Sessions
How to Find, Choose, and Install The Best Theme for You!
Bio Info
From: Phoenix, AZ
Links: michaelrhunter.com | @michaelrhunter | facebook.com/TheMichaelRHunter
Mike Stowe
Mike is a professional software engineer, PHP 5.3 Zend Certified, and have over 10 years of PHP hacking experience. In his spare time he trys to stay on top of the industry by following multiple blogs, reading, and code hacking. And when he’s not studying or fighting crime, he enjoys being outdoors, sports, watching movies, writing, and spending time with his wonderful family.
Sessions
Getting “Hooked” on WordPress Hooks | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: San Francisco, CA
Twitter Bio: Developer, actor, and a really bad singer. Oh yeah, and the Dev Relations Manager at Mulesoft!
Links: mulesoft.com | mikestowe.com | @mikegstowe
Nile Flores
Nile Flores is a sassy southern Illinois mom who has been a WordPress designer and Developer since it’s beginning. She has also been a professional blogger for 13 years. Her passion is helping people, and of course, WordPress. Her main website is Blondish.net. As a recent highlight, Nile won an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Small Business Influencer Awards by Small Biz Trends in the expert category.
When Nile isn’t knee deep in code, or sharing some twisted humor across social networks, she’s practicing Shoren kempo karate with her son, while working on her 2nd Dan black belt.
Sessions
Making Money with WordPress | Session Slide
Basic Plugin Recommendations To Get Your WordPress Website Started | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Centralia, IL
Links: @blondishnet | blondish.net | facebook.com/nileraeflores
Pippin Williamson
Pippin is a WordPress plugin Developer and founder of numerous plugins. WordPress is his passion, and is constantly striving to make himself better, and hopefully, help out a few people along the way. He posts daily tips and tricks, as well as weekly plugins for free downloads and likes to travel around the United States to give presentations at WordCamps and similar events about WordPress plugin development.
Sessions
Developing Your Own Plugins | Session Slides
Bio Info
From: Hutchinson, KS
Twitter Bio: WordPress plugin Developer and founder of numerous plugins, including Restrict Content Pro and Easy Digital Downloads.
Links: pippinsplugins.com | @pippinsplugins | facebook.com/pippinw
Rebecca Haden
Founder and Creative Director of Haden Interactive, a content-focused WordPress web firm based in Fayetteville, AR. Rebecca has been writing for the web since the 20th century.
Sessions
Learning Your New Favorite CMS
WordPress: When You Mean Business | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: Fayetteville, AR
Twitter Bio: SEO pro, owner of web firm Haden Interactive, educator.
Links: @RebeccaHaden | facebook.com/rebecca.haden
Rick Knudtson
Rick Knudtson is co-founder and Chief Designer at Flywheel, an Omaha-based managed WordPress hosting company built specifically for designers and creative agencies. Before founding Flywheel, Rick was a freelance creative working with businesses on application user interface and user experience design.
Sessions
Building Applications on WordPress
Bio Info
From: Omaha, NE
Twitter Bio: Co-founder & Chief Designer at @HeyFlywheel // Co-founder & Gamer at @Randomnade // Builder of things.
Links: @rickknudtson | facebook.com/rickknudtson
Shane Purnell
Shane is a full time IT professional who speaks part-time at special events and conferences. He’s been using WordPress for all of his websites since 2009. He has multiple blogs on technology, personal development and platform building. His current project is PlatformGiant.com, a WordPress site that provides speakers with tools and resources for becoming better communicators.
Starting as a PC tech in 1998, Shane worked his way up the IT chain serving as a UI designer for web applications, a network support technician, a Network/Systems Administrator and is currently a Senior Applications Engineer for an industry leading, national software company.
He holds a degree in Speech Communication from the University of Missouri and has spent the last 15 years studying how to use the Internet to communicate more effectively.
Sessions
Telling Your Story with About Pages and Author Bios | Session Slide
Bio Info
From: KCMO
Links: platformgiant.com | shanepurnell.com | dialedinforsuccess.com | @HeyShanePurnell | @PlatformGiant | @ImDialedIn
T-Rave
Happiness Engineer at @HeyFlywheel. Aspiring developer. Hummus artisan. New media enthusiast and tech connoisseur that loves to tell stories. WordPress user since 2007.
Sessions
Bio Info
From: Kansas City, MO
Links: @T_Rave | getflywheel.com