We are currently working on gathering bios for each speaker. They will be posted here soon!
Victor Drover
Following a career in academia as a Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Victor emigrated from his native home in Canada and founded a number of open-source powered companies based in Wisconsin including the TreeFla.me consultancy and the website management tool for WordPress and Joomla.
Matt Green
Matt Green is a Web and Software Developer Instructor at WCTC for the last seven years. Has professionally created websites since 1998 and has created sites for non-profit organizations and state agencies using WordPress for the last three and half years.
Co-Presenter, Tamur Farrokhnia, Web and Software Development student at Waukesha County Technical College.
Freelancer who offers one-stop solutions for a variety of small business needs. This includes design and development of websites, logo and brand identity design, and on-site assistance for computer and network troubleshooting.
Wendy Bolm
By day, Wendy is the Director of Support and Nonprofit Advocacy for CommitChange. By night, she is a writer, artist, and activist. She has worked in the intersection between technology and nonprofit work for more than ten years. She got her start in WordPress while working as a freelance journalist in Florida and has made basic coding a cornerstone of her skillset ever since.
Sarah Kloth
Sarah has a matchless passion and outlook on digital marketing. Her background in digital design, website development, photography, video production, and journalism provides a unique combination of skills to help her succeed in the digital marketing industry. Recognizing a need to bridge the gap between branding and business development, Sarah started to explore digital marketing. Sarah graduated from University of Wisconsin – Whitewater with a dual degree in Multi-Media Digital Arts and Journalism. Today, Sarah continues to develop a method for connecting the right businesses with the right customers through comprehensive digital strategy planning and execution.
Ryan Erwin
Ryan is a web strategist at Orbit Media Studios. Before joining the company and becoming an Orbiteer, Ryan founded a web design, development, and digital marketing company in Chicago. His passion is learning about different digital operations and applying them to Orbit’s success. His skills are rooted in analysis, strategy, problem solving and mobilizing all parties involved around the accomplishment of the objectives.
He brings years of experience with WordPress to Orbit, ranging from speaking at and organizing WordCamps to building and marketing successful enterprise websites. Ryan is the current lead organizer for both WordCamp Chicago and Startup Weekend Chicago.
When out of the office, Ryan can be found outdoors or spending time with friends and family doing what they enjoy. His most favorite activities are hiking, skiing, cooking in the kitchen, and traveling.
Rachel Magario
There was a time when Rachel didn’t see her blindness as an advantage. Known to many as the “Blind Visioneer”, Rachel has a unique perspective that allows her to motivate her audience to find solutions to business problems that lead to higher efficiency and greater effectiveness in the workplace.
With over eight years as a user experience strategist and accessibility expert, Rachel navigates her clients through the “information access” journey.
Rachel has an MBA and a Masters in Interaction Design, both of which contribute to her unique approach to product and service development.
Mike Demopoulos
Mike “Demo” Demopoulos is a longtime lover of Open Source Software. He currently works at BoldGrid (a WordPress Page Builder) as an Evangelist. He has spoken at numerous open source events around the world. He has been interviewed by multiple publications and podcasts and as contributed to many as well. Mike also volunteers with the Joomla Project as the treasurer of Open Source Matters (the not for profit organization for Joomla!) as well as serving on the Joomla World Conference and Capital teams. He also co-organizes JoomlaDay Minnesota. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife Kayla and dog B’Elanna.
Eric Kuznacic
Eric Kuznacic is a lifelong technology junkie who began experimenting with computers more than 30 years ago, after his parents purchased a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. He found some BASIC programs in the back of a computing magazine and spent hours inputting and debugging the code to create very simple programs.
During his high school years he became enamored with the Internet via his family’s Compuserv dial-up account. He chose to attend Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, largely because of its “Macintosh in Every Dorm Room” program. During college he taught himself to code HTML and CSS, and after graduation continued to dabble in freelance website design and IT consulting side projects.
In 2013, after several requests from friends and nonprofit organizations for assistance with their websites and online branding efforts, he realized others were willing to pay him for such services and Why the Fuss? Technical Solutions was born. He sees his business as a vehicle through which to provide services and training/education to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, independent musicians and anyone else in need of technical assistance.
Since founding WTF? in 2013, Mr. Kuznacic has amassed a long list of private-, public- and nonprofit clients throughout southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and beyond. The firm specializes in WordPress website development and related training services. Kuznacic believes strongly in the power and dynamism found within the global WordPress community and supports its open-source mission.
Clare Parkinson
Clare has been enjoying WordPress since 2010. She works mostly in the backend, developing custom themes and plugins for specific requirements. Her small web shop focuses on easily maintained, robust websites for nonprofits. Clare is a co-organizer of the WordPress Naperville Meetup in Chicago’s western suburbs, and helps out with WordCamp Chicago. When not camped out in front of a laptop, Clare enjoys tabletop roleplaying, native gardening, and running outdoors in all weather.
Chris Remington
As Ascedia’s Director of Client Strategy, Chris defines strategies and launches engaging digital initiatives that move the needle. He’s seen digital from the agency, corporate and client perspective and his experience spans industries such as travel & tourism, publishing, manufacturing and higher education. He also serves as an adjunct instructor at local institutions teaching classes like Strategies for Competitive Advantage, eMarketing Theory & Application and Organizational Behavior & Group Dynamics. Chris holds a BA in Communications from St. Norbert College and a Master of Science in Administration from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
Tammy Finch
Tammy and her team currently manage and host several hundred WordPress websites and social profiles for her clients in Central Illinois. A strong asset she provides is Online Reputation Management. Online Reputation Management is incredibly important to any industry and she shares tips on this topic on her blog and book.
She is an active member of the WordPress Chat Meet-up in Peoria, IL. Thankfully, she listened to her fellow WordPressers and she converted her website business from HTML sites to all WordPress about 5 years ago.
Geoff Myers
Geoff Myers has been involved in and excited about business, marketing, design, and technology since 2004, when he founded SimDex LLC at the age of 14 in his hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Although SimDex originally started as an IT consulting and support company, it evolved into a web design and development agency by 2008, and eventually matured into a full-service digital marketing consulting firm by 2016, specializing in custom WordPress web application development. For more than 13 years, Geoff has been designing and coding for the web while also growing his – and his clients’ – businesses through the application of strategic marketing technologies and the development of custom-built, user-focused web applications.
Geoff originally started out building static websites with Dreamweaver in HTML and CSS, but shifted to using the Joomla! content management system (CMS) by 2008, when version 1.5 was released. In 2010, he fell in love with – and became addicted to – WordPress and its community. Since then, Geoff has designed, developed, marketed, managed, and maintained over 60 WordPress-powered websites for a wide variety of clients in terms of industry, size, type, and location. Lately, Geoff has focused on building highly personalized web applications and integrations for WordPress using PHP and MySQL, the building blocks of WordPress itself.
Geoff Myers
President + CEO | SimDex LLC
Email | Website | LinkedIn
651.447.6247 | 414.455.6675
Dustin Filippini
Dustin has been working with the web and technology since the late 1990s and first came across WordPress in 2005 using Version 1.5. He has worked on websites of all sizes form local one-person businesses to multi-national Fortune 500 Companies. He loves the WordPress community and has organized WordCamp Milwaukee and the Milwaukee WordPress meetup and was also the founder of the Milwaukee JavaScript User Group. Dustin has contributed to WordPress Core and has been part of other initiatives in the WordPress Community. After years of residing in the Milwaukee area, he moved back “Up North” with his wife and two kids to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and he runs a web design and consulting business, 906 Web Studios, and a WordPress maintenance company, AdvantageWP.
Dustin Drees
Dustin delivers measurable results by gaining an understanding of buyers’ motivations and how they impact business metrics. Then, he uses quantitative data (what your customers do) and qualitative data (why they do it) to find and capture the opportunities you are currently losing online.
Dustin is process oriented and driven by data. He approaches projects with repeatable revenue-boosting processes that incorporate UX, design, analytics, copywriting, and conversion rate optimization. While he follows processes proven to work over years of helping clients grow their businesses, each solution is as unique as the client he’s working with.
Damon Schopen
Damon Schopen has been a professional web developer since 2006. Four years ago Damon started Port Light Technology. As owner of Port Light Technology he develops web applications and custom web-based software for clients. Damon enjoys helping businesses be lean and efficient through software development and integrations.
Zach Stepek
Zach specializes in eCommerce consulting and WooCommerce development, helping companies navigate the complexities of building and running their eCommerce marketplaces. He’s been building dynamic, data-driven websites since 1999 and has worked as a designer, developer and user experience architect. When he isn’t building websites, he’s a professional concert photographer and well-rounded geek.