Joshua Alexander –

Joshua will be presenting Plugins and Dashboard on Friday in the Foundation Friday 101 track.

I own a small development company in the SW Burbs of Chicago that caters to other agencies. We do custom WP work such as theme development, plugins, and modifications for other tech companies.

Interview:

Why do you use WordPress?
WordPress is flexible and the open source nature and the community make it all worth while. The people you meet in this community are awesome and that really does help in the development and growth that WordPress sees.

What would you say to convince someone to attend a WordCamp?
Its a great group of people to network with. For the techie crowd its great to have others that understand our language. For the non-techies its a great way to realize the technology that is available and a place to pickup techie people for your organization.

What is your favorite WordPress project you have worked on recently?
I’m doing more web based application development now so that has been an interesting development for me at least.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to start or grow a WordPress based business?
Come out to the WordCamp you can talk to those that are already running businesses in the industry. You’ll find that the community is very friendly and helpful to making sure you can get going the right way and can provide help if needed.

What is your favorite WordPress-related resource?
I’d have to say github because of the broad code you can get and use there. Although I’ll throw a plugin for Desktop Server from ServerPress as well for local development environments.

Tell us something awesome about yourself that is not WordPress related
Non WordPress related I’m an advocate for Autism Awareness I personally have PDD-NOS which is a form of Autism and try to break the stereotypes of what people see on television about us.

Shanta Nathwani –

Shanta will be presenting WordPress 101 on Friday in the Foundation Friday 101 track

Shanta R. Nathwani is an IT and Social Media Consultant and an Instructor in Web Design and CCIT Capstone at Sheridan College, which includes teaching WordPress. The ICCIT program is a joint program with the University of Toronto at Mississauga.

She teaches students and small businesses how to use their websites and social media to increase their online presence leading to increased revenues and improved customer service. She has assisted companies to incorporate social media in the real estate, financial, non-profit, education and technical fields to name a few.

Shanta is a problem solver and it has been said she has the patience of a saint. She can explain even the most difficult concepts to the most basic user and has developed training documents that allow clients to learn for themselves. She thrives on understanding the needs of her clients. She believes in making social media as simple as possible and making it fun, which allows her clients to seamlessly incorporate it into their organization.

Interview:

Why do you use WordPress?
WordPress is extremely easy to use, but can also be as complex as we need it to be. It truly levels the playing field and empowers people to take charge of their own online presence.

What would you say to convince someone to attend a WordCamp?
If you ever want to get into WordPress, this is the cheapest and most fun way to do it. Think of the wealth of knowledge that you have around you!

What is your favorite WordPress project you have worked on recently?
My own WordPress blog, Shanta.ca. It is constantly a work in progress and I love playing around with it. I also put together an alumni website for my high school, malverncollegiate.com. I use it regularly as a case study for small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to start or grow a WordPress based business?
Ask a lot of questions! there is a lot of information on WordPress out there.

The beauty about WordPress is that it is not a one size fits all, out-of-the-box solution. Everyone can use it, but you have to take the time and make it your own.

Lastly, make sure that you give back to the community. Attend Meetup’s and WordCamps as much as possible. Continue to grow your knowledge!

What is your favorite WordPress-related resource?
There are two plug-ins that I would install for any of my clients: WordFence and Backup Buddy.

WordFence helps protect against things like viruses and attacks on a WordPress site. It is the security plug-in. Backup Buddy does backups of your site automatically and it is also used as a migration tool.

Both are extremely easy to use and I teach my clients how to use them.

Tell us something awesome about yourself that is not WordPress related
I’ve always been a teacher. The first thing I remember teaching was a module on India in my sixth grade class. After that I taught origami at Parks and Recreation at the age of 17. I’ve taught technology and even martial arts, which I’ve been doing for about 12 years.

Andy Christian –

Andy will be presenting Choosing and customizing WordPress themes (no code required!) on Friday in the Foundation Friday 101 track

Andy has been involved in the WordPress community in New York for five years. He is an active member of the WordPress.org Community Contributor group, and has volunteered or spoken at more than a dozen WordCamps around the USA. Andy also volunteers at the monthly WordPress NYC Meetup.

Andy is a co-founder of Tadpole Collective, a web development firm specializing in WordPress and CiviCRM integration. At Tadpole, Andy provides technical support to clients and develops documentation and training for various projects. Andy also provides customer support for WordPress themes at CyberChimps. He blogs about his travels at Andy Was Here.

Interview:

Why do you use WordPress?
WordPress makes expressing yourself on the web easy and accessible. I’m a strong believer in democratizing the web, which just happens to be the main mission of WordPress.

What would you say to convince someone to attend a WordCamp?
Everything is awesome! Seriously, WordCamps are a great place to learn about WordPress, meet other awesome people, and just

What is your favorite WordPress project you have worked on recently?
The site for WordCamp NYC 2014. 🙂

Do you have any advice for someone looking to start or grow a WordPress based business?
Don’t go it alone. A team, even a team of two, is exponentially more productive and supported than a single freelancer. Even if you freelance alone, build a support network of other developers, designers, financial gurus, etc., to rely on when things get overwhelming.

What is your favorite WordPress-related resource?
http://plan.wordcamp.org/

Tell us something awesome about yourself that is not WordPress related
I was a member of a Beatles tribute band for about a year and a half. I played woodwinds (clarinet/flute) and hand percussion, and sang backup vocals.

Mel Choyce –

Mel will be presenting Getting the Most out of WordPress.com in the 101 Foundation Friday track.

Mel is a Design Engineer at Automattic. She loves big type, cold brew coffee, and printmaking.

Interview:

Why do you use WordPress?
I love how easy it is! You don’t need to be an expert developer to get a beautiful site up and running.

What would you say to convince someone to attend a WordCamp?
WordPress has an incredibly vibrant, diverse, and welcoming community. Attending a WordCamp is like hanging out with a bunch of friends, even if you’ve never met anyone before. There’s always something interesting going on, and you’ll learn so many new things. Continue reading Interview with Mel Choyce →