Michelle completed her MBA in Marketing, E-Commerce and Information Systems from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business. She has over twenty years of experience in higher education; ten years owning a web design and marketing company; and currently serves as the Head of Customer Success for Impress.org (developers of GiveWP.com and WPBusinessReviews.com).

Michelle is a veteran of public speaking. She’s been an instructor for a wide variety of topics including Using Quantitative Data Analysis Software, Meditative Drawing, Intro to WordPress, and Marketing for Massage Therapy. Michelle speaks at conferences all over North America. You can find many of them recorded on WordPress.tv including “Little Things That Make a Big Difference” and “Hidden Features of WordPress Revealed,” as well as panel discussions on ethics, marketing, page builders, and women in technology.

Michelle is the author “A Good Firm Handshake (and other essential business tips)” available on Amazon.com.

Say hi to Michelle on Twitter at @michelleames and check out her website at worksbymichelle.com.

Michelle will be speaking at 9:00am on Saturday, July 13th in the Rideau room. Her talk is entitled, How to help your Non-Profit (or Non-Profit clients) connect better with donors. She is also speaking on Sunday, July 14th at noon, in the Parliament room, with a session called How to empower clients to use their website – and client-proof them at the same time.

How to help your Non-Profit (or Non-Profit clients) connect better with donors.

There are hundreds of thousands of non-profits in the world, and a huge portion of them use WordPress. How do you make one stand out more than the others when they all compete for donor dollars?

This talk will present several ideas that have proven successful in helping nonprofit organizations reach donors and better achieve their fundraising goals, including:

• Storytelling
• Online fundraiser ideas
• Using reviews to stand out
• Events and the media
• Building a fan base
• Leveraging Giving Tuesday

Attendees will leave feeling better prepared to help their organization (or their client’s organization) be successful.

How to empower clients to use their website – and client-proof them at the same time.

Have you ever had a client insist on having admin access to their website? They own it, so they have that right…but how long did it take before they called you to fix what they broke once they logged in?
While clients who break their own sites are guaranteed revenue, those calls never come at a convenient time and are ALWAYS urgent.
So what can we do to both empower our clients and make sure their sites continue to run well?
This talk will present several ideas for ways that we can do just that, including:
* Helpful plugins
* How to train a client in WordPress
* How to set user permissions
* How to set pricing for fixing mistakes
* Creating a user manual
* Other tips for managing the client relationship
Attendees will leave with some good ideas and action items to better help clients help themselves…or not.

Cami lives, works, and parents in the rainy city of Portland, Oregon. She’s had a love of WordPress and WordCamps since the last century, when she happened to stumble upon the first WordCamp Portland. Since 2013, she has worked at Automattic, as a community organizer for the WordPress open source project. In that role, she gets to work with WordCamps and their organizers from around the world, every day. She continues to write on an irregular basis at camikaos.com where she explores concepts from the plight of modern parents to mental health to marveling at the seemingly mundane. Cami is active on a number of social platforms but can be most readily found as @camikaos on Twitter.

Cami will be speaking at 9:00am on Saturday, July 13th in the Parliament room. Her talk is entitled, There’s a Person at the End of this Project!

Taking lessons from lovable furry old Grover of Sesame Street fame we’ll explore methods for civil and constructive communication within open source projects, on social media, and for remote workers. It’s a playful look at how tone and context impacts the people we work with and share our internet and world with everyday.

Did you know that WordCamps are run entirely by volunteers? From the organizers who plan it all, to the volunteers who work the event, to the speakers who teach you new things – everyone donates their time to make the WordPress community a better place.

We’re currently taking applications for volunteers to help during the event and make it a success. Those who volunteer for a half day or more get complimentary admission to the event! Depending on the task, you may be able to attend the sessions of your choice while also volunteering.

Some volunteer tasks include:

• Setup – These volunteers will be asked to come in early—especially on the first day—to help with elements of the venue before the event begins.
• Registration – Check in registered attendees and hand out name tags.
• Greeter – In the mornings only, greet people at the entrances.
• Video/Cameras – Help setting up cameras and mics for WordCamp and throughout event.
• Photographer – Take pictures throughout the event of speakers and attendees.
• Room Runners – Work with staff, speakers, and everyone else working in the room to keep things running smoothly.
• Speaker Helper – Helps Speaker setup. Introduce speakers/sessions, keep track of time.
• Takedown – Help us clean up and take down any equipment/tables we have setup.
• Happiness Bar Support – Spend some time giving back and helping those coming along behind you. We need people of all levels in the WordPress community to hang out in the Happiness Bar and help answer How-To questions from other attendees. Topics can include all aspects of WordPress (web development, design, SEO, databases, web marketing, etc). Please note: Happiness Bar Volunteers are not granted a free ticket to the WordCamp.

Interested? Fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch! Please hold off on purchasing your ticket to the event. Once we finalize the volunteer list, those helping with get a coupon code for a free ticket.

Thank you to all who submitted applications. We will be in touch closer to the WordCamp to coordinate roles!

Sponsoring a WordCamp offers an opportunity to reach out to an engaged, tech-savvy, informed and intelligent audience. The attendees at WordCamp Ottawa 2019 will include people of all levels and many fields who use WordPress to publish content on the web.

For more details about our sponsorship levels and perks, please read our WordCamp Ottawa 2019 Sponsorship Information Package

Sponsors are required to agree with all of the expectations listed in the WordCamp handbook here as well as following the Organizers/Speakers/Sponsors/Volunteers Agreement here.

Fill in the form below to apply to be a WordCamp Ottawa sponsor!

Do you have a passion for sharing knowledge? Do you love the WordPress community? Then speaking at a WordCamp is the perfect opportunity for you!

We are looking for passionate individuals to give back to the WordPress community by presenting a talk, workshop, or hosting a panel. Never spoken before? That’s fine! We welcome first-time speakers.

Regular length talks (and panels) are 50 minutes in length, and lightning talks are 15 minutes. It’s up to you how much time you would like to allocate for Q+A, but we suggest about 15-20 for full length submissions, and 5 minutes for lightning talks.

If you’d like to propose multiple topics, please submit the form multiple times, once for each topic. Please limit your submissions to 3 maximum.

Please note, we will be doing a blind selection process – as in we will be removing speaker information when we review session submissions. Selections will be based on topic title and description.

Thank you for all who submitted. We are selecting speakers on June 13th, and will informed all speakers of their status by end of day June 15th.

Organizers note: Please update the portions with red text.

We’re happy to announce that WordCamp YourCityName is officially on the calendar!

WordCamp YourCityName will be DATE(S) at LOCATION.

Subscribe using the form in the sidebar to stay up to date on the most recent news. We’ll be keeping you posted on all the details over the coming months, including speaker submissions, ticket sales and more!