Our Speakers

Al Davis has spent more than 15 years working with small business owners, helping get their businesses online. In his former life as a Hosting Product Manager, Al has seen the good, the bad, and the (very) ugly when it comes from taking a website idea to website reality. Currently, Al is a Program Manager for the world’s largest hosting wholesaler and is in charge of WordPress strategy and product direction for several of the world’s largest telcos and ISPs. Al also teaches Intro to WordPress at George Brown College in Toronto and expands to offering an Intermediate WP class in the summer, in addition to offering both classes online. He has formerly been an organizer of Toronto’s WordPress MeetUp groups as well as the two WordCamps that are hosted in Toronto. When not working with WordPress or writing for his site at WPTeach.com, Al can be found on his Harley or taking in a football game somewhere.

With 16 years of Internet marketing experience, Brian Rotsztein brings a seasoned approach to working with clients. As the head of several well-established web design, SEO and Internet marketing companies (RedstoneX.com, Uniseo.com, MailPrince.com,…), he helps businesses gain a competitive advantage. An entrepreneur with integrity, he implements realistic, hype-free strategies to maximize return on investment. He holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides professional consulting and training services for topics such as SEO, search engine marketing, and social media for business. He’s been a WordPress fan since he started using version 1.6 (in 2005!). Twitter: @brianrotsztein

Former Chemist and University of Ottawa graduate, Christine became a web developer in 2001.  The early days of web development consisted of building custom made php-based CMS and Movable Type blogs. Like so many other developers, Christine gradually migrated towards WordPress and has been using it in almost every project since 2005. Christine teaches WordPress at a community college in Vancouver, BC, is a forums moderator at wordpress.org and an active member of the WordPress community.

After spending more than a decade in Washington, D.C., managing websites for nonprofit organizations, Clarissa Peterson set off last fall on an international road trip that took her through nearly twenty states and provinces. While traveling, she works from the road as an independent UX designer, web developer, and consultant, and she frequently speaks on responsive design and mobile strategy. Clarissa is the author of Learning Responsive Web Design, to be published later this year by O’Reilly Media. You can find her on Twitter: @clarissa

Jasmine is a natural-born communicator who enjoys helping people share their most important stories and ideas. She currently works as the Communications Marketing Manager for the Nedlaw Group of Companies where she does everything from build websites in WordPress, content marketing, and social media. She also volunteers as the VP of Communications and Webmaster for a new non-profit organization, The Forget for a Moment Foundation. With a diploma in NewMedia and Publication Design, Jasmine loves design and sometimes works as a freelance Graphic Designer. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, reading, guerrilla knitting, and photography. She welcomes tweets at @jasmineVesque.