Speakers

Jim Raffel is a business owner, speaker, blogger and gadget lover. Through his WordPress-powered blog, JimRaffel.com, he shares thoughts about life as a small business owner utilizing social media to grow his network. After developing a comprehensive social media strategy for his company ColorMetrix, he realized he needed help with implementation and hired Shelby Sapusek, who he met on Twitter. After editing one of Jim’s blog posts, Shelby was inspired to offer an alternative opinion and their “She Said, He Said” blog post series was born. They now share their social media enthusiasm in a weekly Twitter chat accessible by following the #shehechat hashtag. Watch for Jim’s Twitter handle @raffel when you join the chat.

Josh Feck hosts daWPshow, a podcast for people who use WordPress. He uses open source software and web standards to help small businesses and organizations improve their presences on the internet. When he’s not working on a project, you’ll often find him reading up on topics like HTML5, WordPress theming, and adaptive web design. He lives in Traverse City, MI with his wife and two children. You can find him on twitter @joshfeck.

Mert Sahinoglu is the online marketing manager at Robert Bosch Tool Corporation. Previous he has had seven years of SEO & Integrated Marketing Consulting with a portfolio of over 100 international and local brands including Allstate, CDW, Rustoleum, Ryland Homes, Cision, Pampered Chef, CBOE, DePaul & Rush. He is also a local Chicago entrepreneur as a partner at Falcon Living Real Estate. As an avid fan of WordPress, he has previously spoken at Wordcamp Minneapolis-St.Paul. He is also a popular speaker and active participant in Chicagoland marketing groups.

Nicole is currently Principal of aelloLUXE, and contracts as a social media strategist, content developer and consultant. Nicole utilizes WordPress to power her online presence. She is a Hootsuite Certified Professional and shares the knowledge and strategy of Hootsuite in Chicago. She moderates three live online courses with The American College, including Marketing Financial Services to Women. Nicole is a member of OpenID, Clever Girls 1000, Twitter Top 15 in Chicago by WeFollow.com, listed by Huffington Post as Women In Tech and Chicago People to follow on Twitter.

Rachel is the founder of Plugged In Consulting, a WordPress Development and Consultancy in Chicago. She can write custom loop queries, create custom post types, develop custom themes, and write custom JQuery plugins, but she still thinks of herself more of a consultant than a developer. She enjoys advising her clients to stay with their overall goals and strategy to increase the effectiveness of their websites.

Rachel has bounced back and forth between server/network administration and freelance web development for the past 13 years. She just recently cleaned out her closet of old computer parts and cables (Dot Matrix printer anyone?), so she is invested in sticking to the web development thing for awhile.

Rachel blogs at rachelbaker.me, tweets at @rachelbaker, and is often seen wearing a collared shirt while drinking a diet coke.

Shelby Sapusek is owner of Panoramic Interactive, a digital marketing consulting and design agency. Her passion revolves around the way information is shared and the technology behind it. Shelby spent 17 years in the print media industry as a reporter, blogger and designer. She describes herself as a social media hound who is a shameless promoter of all things great. Shelby is also the marketing coordinator for Jim Raffel’s company ColorMetrix. After working side by side, Shelby and Jim started a venture through blog posts and on Twitter called “She Said, He Said” where they debate social media and blogging topics. Shelby’s handle on Twitter is @ShelMKE and the weekly chats can be found by following the hashtag #shehechat every Thursday at 8 p.m. CST.

TJ Stein is a technology enthusiast, BBQ lover and Alabama native living in sunny Los Angeles, California. Since 2008, he has worked for (mt) Media Temple, an industry-leading web hosting and software application services company. In his current role, he manages a team of incredibly smart and passionate customer service ninjas. He also contributes to (mt)’s social media efforts, incident response team and customer service leadership group.

Prior to joining (mt) Media Temple, TJ received his B.A. in Communication from Flagler College. After graduating in 2005, he became the online content manager for the St. Augustine Record and Online Editor of Drift Magazine. During his time in online publishing, TJ specialized in building WordPress-based websites and has continued working with WordPress for over 5 years.