We are happy to invite over 25 speakers from across Canada and the United States to talk at WordCamp Ottawa 2016!
Please see the Sessions page to see what each speaker will be presenting.
Alison Knott
As a web designer, Alison Knott wants to dispel the myth that design is about looking good. It’s about effective communication… that works and looks great!
Alison’s career as a print designer turned web geek has seen her give presentations in an unusual blend of creativity, marketing, community and web. As an emerging public speaker, she brings high-octane enthusiasm to her presentations, with a focus on audience involvement.
When not tooting the WordPress horn, she can be found drawing strange portraits in the company of her two parrots in Halifax. She runs the WordPress Halifax Meetup and E3C, a meetup for visual artists.
Anthony D Paul
I help build great digital experiences and software through usability research, IA concepts, and prototypes. Outside the office, you’ll find me spread across regional meetups and conferences—evangelizing IA/UX, accessibility, and a variety of open source dev projects. When I’m not doing responsible adult things, I grow the world’s hottest chili peppers and bottle my own hot sauce. I’d divulge something funny from my past, but these days the Internet does a better job of surfacing our embarrassing moments; find me anywhere by Googling “anthonydpaul”.
Brian Hogg
Based in Cambridge, Ontario. Creator of Event Calendar Newsletter. I’ve been consulting in WP and doing training, speaking and courses for the last few years. I’m also currently the lead organizer for WordCamp Hamilton.
Brian Rotsztein
As an experienced entrepreneur, Internet marketer, consultant, speaker, and author, Brian has spent much of the past two decades helping companies excel. His latest book, Content Marketing Ideas, is a trusted guide to online marketing, has been highly praised by critics and is rated five stars on Amazon. He’s the head of well-established brands such as Uniseo (a boutique online marketing company) and Redstone Online Communications (a web design and Internet marketing specialty shop), where he brings a hype-free, seasoned approach to working with clients. He is also the editor of Citynet Magazine, a lifestyle, food, travel, beauty, and pop culture website in Montreal and beyond. You may have caught his appearances on CTV News, or various radio shows and podcasts. He writes about content marketing, SEO, social media, business, and entrepreneurship, among other topics. His work has been used by USA Today, ABC News, Social Media Today, Search Engine Journal, and other prominent sources. He’s a Senior Editor at The WP Crowd and President of the Canadian Internet Marketing Association. Brian holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides training services on Internet marketing. He’s been using WordPress since 2005 (version 1.6!) Connect with him on Twitter (@brianrotsztein) and Instagram (@brianrotsztein).
Christopher Ross
I’m a WordPress consultant, and online marketing expert with a passion for using technology to solve problems, create new ones, and build better ways to keep visitors engaged.
David Bird
A content marketer at heart, David understands that good content starts with knowing the audience. He blends what people say (customer conversations) with what customers do (website data) to help businesses build smart more attractive content. David has contagious passion for using data to guide content development and better marketing decisions. He’s the owner of Bird’s Eye Marketing.
Hector Jarquin
As front-end developer Hector ensures that the projects that he is involved follow accessibility and web standards. At work… communication (content, graphics and interfaces) accessed via multiple devices and channels. When free… travel, food, adventure and vintage stuff.
Jai Sangha
I write weekly posts for two eCommerce blogs – sellwithwp.com (focused on WordPress), and shopstorm.com/blog (focused on Shopify). This includes plugin reviews, marketing and shop tips, how-to articles, and other eCommerce topics. I also work in the digital strategy team at TD Bank in Canada, and do freelance web strategy. Outside of all that work, I like to try new things (tried snowmobiling and drove a NASCAR so far this year).
Jamie Oastler
Jamie has a wide range of experiences across the WordPress solution stack and is currently the lead WordPress developer at Innovapost supporting 20+ internal domains / external microsites for the Canada Post Group of Companies. Whether working as front-end designer, plugin developer, DevOps resource or solution architect, he is equally capable / comfortable helping clients deliver small projects that might convert legacy applications into highly-engaging user experiences as he is launching enterprise-scale initiatives that integrate complex workflows to APIs and other infrastructure.
Jasmine Vesque
Jasmine is a WordPress evangelist who enjoys helping people share their most important stories and ideas. She loves teaching and regularly contributes as both an instructor and a mentor to Ladies Learning Code and The Ottawa WordPress Group. This is her third year as a WordCamp Ottawa organizer, and if you’ve ever engaged with us on Twitter (@wpottawa) you were most likely talking to her. Jasmine currently works as the Digital and Design Officer for an international NGO based in Ottawa, the Micronutrient Initative. She also is a freelance web specialist, consultant, and trainer and volunteers for the charity, The Forget for a Moment Foundation, as the VP of Communications and Webmaster. She is passionate about digital communications, social media and web design. @jasmineVesque
Jonathan Bardo
I’m Montreal based web developer currently working as a senior product engineer for GoDaddy on the managed WordPress platform.
I engineer and scale WordPress products that reach millions of people and I particularly enjoy crunching data in the hope of seeing patterns, understanding behavior and improving the product I work on.
Jonathan Perlman
Jonathan Perlman is an experienced web developer and teacher that works for Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec. He builds custom web solutions for students, faculty and staff. Recently he’s been focusing on the needs of the institution with the creation of custom themes and plugins that help WordPress do the heavy lifting. Some of his sites have been built for a select few whereas others are visited by 12,000+ applicants.
Jordan St Jacques
Jordan St Jacques is the Owner of Digitera Interactive and also the Founder of newly-launched LottoProxy.com. Coming from a background of Digital Marketing, Jordan started his journey into WordPress back in 2013. Currently, Jordan is extensively researching the subject of Web Security with respect to WordPress sites, and is happy to share part of that knowledge with WordCampers this June! Feel free to connect before or after WordCamp at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanstjacques
Kathryn Presner
Kathryn Presner thrives on helping people get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building websites for clients, she joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer in 2012. She’s currently Theme Whisperer on the Theme Team, where she helps folks with customization, configuration, and troubleshooting. She enjoys spreading her passion for WordPress and encouraging new public speakers at WordCamps, Girl Geeks, Ladies Learning Code, and other grassroots events. Non-WordPress obsessions include vintage Pyrex mixing bowls and growing garlic.
Meagan Hanes
WordCamp Ottawa 2016’s Lead Organizer, Meagan Hanes is a designer of digital things, photographer, blogger and all around creative gal living in Ottawa. Through her company Love Digimedia, she enjoys creating easy-to-use websites and technology solutions for artists, entrepreneurs and other creatives around the world. When she’s not giving back to the community, you’ll find her behind a laptop or smartphone screen. @mhanes
Michal Bluma
Michal Bluma is a Montreal freelance developer who loves WordPress, code, cats and metaphors.
Passionate about trying to help make developers’, designers’ and users’ lives easier; he love helping people have “Aha!” moments.
You can find him on Twitter as @isotrope (https://twitter.com/isotrope/), on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/isotrope.net/ or at his site https://isotrope.net/ (He swears he’ll update it at some point!).
Come say Hi!
Michelle Ames
Overextended, overcommitted, entrepreneur & volunteer. Avid Scrabble™ player. Tea snob. Mom. WordPress fanatic. 11th hour expert. Michelle is the owner and marketing diva at Marketed by Michelle, where she makes a living through WordPress.
Mike Dickson
Mike has been programming for 17 years (everything from C to perl, FORTRAN to JavaScript), but his favourite by far is web development using WordPress. About 5 years ago he created Codename:MikeD, his webdev biz, and has been working with WordPress ever since. Along with custom theme and plugin development, he contributes to WordPress core, has a plugin in the repo, and supports many local non-profits here in Ottawa.
Miriam Goldman
Miriam is a front-end oriented web developer who has been specializing in WordPress for the past 4-5 years. Mainly focusing on theme and plugin enhancement, she loves to share her experience with others who share the same passion.
Outside of the web development sphere, Miriam is equally passionate about her martial arts and latin ballroom dance training.
Richard Archambault
Richard loves the web and really loves WordPress. After attending his first WordCamp Montreal in 2010, he was hooked! Now a Happiness Engineer with Automattic, Richard wants to help spread the WordPress goodness to anyone else who’s interested in the web. When he’s not tinkering with his sites, he loves going to Mexico to eat spicy tacos and ride around on the metro!
Rick Radko
Rick Radko is a WordPress guru, developer/designer and tech trainer. He has been creating web sites and apps since 1996, and has worked with WordPress since 2008. Rick began teaching tech topics to others when he was elected leader of the Southern Ontario AutoCAD Practitioners in 1988. He is as comfortable talking to beginners in plain English as he is talking geek speak to developers. Rick was one of the founders, and still is one of organizers of the Ottawa WordPress Meetup. Rick lead the launch of the inaugural WordCamp Ottawa in 2013. He is the founder of R-Cubed Design Forge, http://r3df.com, where he develops custom: plugins (several are in the wordpress.org repo), themes and multilingual web sites. @r3designforge
Ryan Erwin
Ryan is a Web Strategist at Orbit Media in Chicago. Ryan also is the Founder and CTO of Internet Marketing Chicago, a full service digital marketing and web development company, based in the city of Chicago. He brings years of WordPress experience to the organization, ranging from speaking at and organizing WordCamps to building and marketing enterprise websites. Ryan is the lead organizer for WordCamp Chicago as well as the lead organizer for Startup Weekend Chicago. In his spare time, he likes to get outdoors and camp, hike, and ski.
Sébastien Sanche
Co-founder of Impeka, software engineering graduate, and website development fanatic; Seb was born for the Information Age. Composed of 20% engineer and 80% cowboy, he is a true Code Slinger. When it comes to high noon in the Wild Wild Web, you want him and his spurs on your side.
Shanta R. Nathwani
Shanta Nathwani is an educator and serial WordCamper. By day, she teaches Web Design with a focus on WordPress at Sheridan College and Mohawk College, as well as the Capstone Course at Sheridan, which pairs students with real clients. By night, she travels to WordCamps around the world, spreading knowledge and giving people the “alphabet” of WordPress so that attendees get the most out of their experience. She is a co-founder of Web Weapons, a company focused on Web Design, Custom Software and Educational Training. If she has time left in her busy day, she is a martial artist in karate, kobudo and tai chi. You can find her on Twitter: @ShantaDotCa and on her website: http://shanta.ca.
Shawn Hooper
Shawn has been a web developer since the early days of the web, with experience developing sites for private, public and non-profit sectors. He is now the Chief Technology Officer at Actionable Books, where, in addition to other duties, he manages several sites built with WordPress. At night and on the weekends, he’s a WordPress Core Contributor and plugin author. He’s also spoken at WordCamps and Meetups in Canada, the United States and Australia.
Shawn blogs about WordPress and other technology things at ShawnHooper.ca and as part of The WP Crowd. You can follow him on Twitter as @shawnhooper.
Shelly Peacock
Shelly Peacock, @Spinbird, has been in sales and graphic design since 2001, moving focus to include Social Media Management and Marketing in 2007. She built her first website in 2009- as a way to make her designs “do stuff”, and as a portfolio for her art business, ShellyPeacock.com. Shucked it all to run The SpinBird Group, a WordPress boutique agency specializing in consulting and design. She likes short walks on the beach, cabanas, and shooting opossums off her back deck with her shotgun. Mantra: Life is short- GET #FIERCE WITH IT.
Stéphane Boisvert
Stéphane Boisvert is a team lead for WordPress.com VIP working on some of the world’s largest site. Stéphane spends his time consulting clients on architectural decisions as well as helping review code for security and performance as well as gardening, sadly that last one is only for himself.
T-Rave
T-Rave spends his days responding to a wide variety of WordPress related questions as a Happiness Engineer for Flywheel managed WordPress hosting. He dabbles in code when time allows and enjoys time offline in his wood shop. He’s been known to enjoy a good IPA.
Ting Yang
A girl who is addicted to programming. Ting is a software developer that spends most of her time fueling APIs with IPAs and avid contributor to open source projects.
Toufic Sbeiti
Toufic Sbeiti is the manager of the web operations team at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Beside managing day to day postings to both External and Internal websites, Toufic leads major web projects such as interface redesign and performance improvement. He provides guidance and recommendations to implement web accessibility standards and responsive design approaches to the department. Toufic implemented an accessibility assessment methodology to facilitate WCAG validation for the coding team. He is also the co-organizer of #a11yyow Accessibility Camp Ottawa.