Author: Rich Robinkoff

Make sure you head over to the WordCamp Kent 2017 site and subscribe for updates to this years WordCamp NEO!

WordCamp Northeast Ohio is excited to announced our fourth and final round of confirmed speakers!

Nowell VanHoesen

I’m a PHP developer who enjoys building custom web applications and specializes in integrating third party applications with WordPress.

Danny Santoro

I’m a late twenty-something (which is so weird to say) who has been working with WordPress for around four years now. Out of school, I ran marketing and web for major international brands, and then left to start my own freelance company which still runs today. For two years, I’ve been working at WooThemes and then Automattic for their WooCommerce division. Aside from code, I went to school to make movies which I still do – needless to say, there doesn’t ever seem to be a minute of downtime… But I think I like it that way. 🙂

David Brattoli

I have worked in web industry for the past 9 years. I have been running my own web and graphic design company “Infinite Reality LLC” since 2007 and have been working in higher education for the last three years.  I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Bluffton University and Associate degrees in Graphic and Web Design and Gaming and Simulation Design from Lorain County Community College.  I am also self-taught in a host of different coding languages and have integrated my mathematics, graphic, and web design skills to accomplish whatever web design tasks I have needed to solve.  Utilizing this knowledge allows me to give my clients a powerful and unique set of websites for industry, government, education, and learning environments.

Don Abbott

The Snarky Gardener (aka Don Abbott) is a gardener, blogger, author, educator, speaker, reluctant activist, and permaculture practitioner from Kent Ohio. Professionally he’s a software developer but spends his spare time producing food at Snarky Acres, his rented .91 acre urban farm. His blog – thesnarkygardener.com – assists others with growing food in Northeastern Ohio and beyond. He is also the founder of the Kent Ohio chapter of Food Not Lawns.

Melanie Sklarz

Melanie Sklarz creates smart, social and strategic marketing communications solutions for startup businesses and non-profit organizations. Also an informative speaker, she has facilitated workshops for creative women entrepreneurs, presented a parent workshop on raising creative kids, sat on a panel discussing women in blogging and taught college students how to find their tribe online by building their brand.

Stoney deGeyter

Stoney deGeyter is the CEO and fearless pit crew leader of Pole Position Marketing, a results-driven inbound marketing agency established in 1998. In addition to business training events, Stoney has been known to spin a yarn or two at nationwide conferences, such as WordCamp, PubCon and Search Marketing Expo (SMX). He is the author of The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!, and his articles about how to navigate the web marketing landscape have been published on Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and Search Engine Journal as well as Pole Position Marketing’s own E-Marketing Performance blog.

WordCamp Northeast Ohio is excited to announced our third set of confirmed speakers!

Angie Meeker

I’ve spent the past 10 years digging into WordPress and building websites at Angie Meeker Designs. For several years, I was the lead organizer of WordCamp Columbus. Nowadays, I’m doing technical support and social media for a fantastic company called OptinMonster. I actually enjoy hanging out with my family and am the biggest fan of America’s Funniest Videos. In case you’re wondering, yes, I AM still pursing my dream of having an entire wall filled with National Geographics!

Adam Silver

Adam teaches a WP101 course at the local adult school, presents a monthly WordPress seminar at SBDC, runs the SouthBay WordPress Meetup and produces a weekly podcast over at kitchensinkwp.com. In spare time he hangs out with his wickedly cool 3 kids & wife, and makes some really bad puns, since someone has to.

Seth Alling

Seth Alling is a Detroit-based developer turned designer turned developer, who has been working with WordPress since 2009 and currently works as the Lead Developer for Ranch House Designs. When he’s not developing (or designing), you can find him running, playing soccer or spending time with his wife and sons.

Shelby Elliott

Shelby is a designer and a problem solver by nature, and has been working with WordPress for the last 6 years. Recently, she started her own business, Corner Market Media, where she builds WordPress websites and does Web Presence Consulting. When she’s not “Pressing the Words” or spending time with her 2 year old son, you can find her on a yoga mat, in a thrift store, or completing home improvement projects.

Jessica Garbarino

Jessica Garbarino is the founder and owner of Every Single Dollar, a company dedicated to helping single women navigate the world of personal finance.  She realized that she was experiencing a financial hangover in her early 30s after the lifestyle choices in her 20s caused her to rack up debt. After paying off $56,000 of debt, she felt called to teach other single women how to manage their money, pay off debt, and instill financial confidence.  She offers individual financial coaching, speaks on personal finance, and writes and produces video on various financial topics with the single woman in mind.  Jessica lives the debt free life in sunny South Florida.

Joe Querin

I have worked in Higher Ed for the past 17 years. I’ve been with the website almost exclusively those 17 years. While my training is in Graphic Design, I’ve taught myself Web Design and Development along with a host of different languages to accomplish whatever problems I’ve needed to solve. Outside of my professional life, I’ve spent the last 17 years married to my wonderful, talented wife. Together we have two girls, a 15 year old in her first year of high school, and a 5 year old who can’t wait to start her kindergarten year later this fall.

WordCamp Northeast Ohio is excited to announced our second set of confirmed speakers!

Kathy Drewien

Best known for teaching beginners how to use WordPress in the Meetup she has facilitated since 2011, (and self-proclaimed WordCamp Queen of Registration for 6 years), Kathy is the Executive Producer of Kathy Drewien & Company, a web development firm offering WordPress services for creatives, bloggers, consultants, and coaches with bold dreams. Kathy is a professionally trained listener skilled in helping people and their businesses grow. And, she loves to talk! You can find her on Twitter and Slack channels for the make.wordpress.org Community and Training teams.

Hilary Fosdal

Hilary Fosdal is the owner of Red Phone Studio, a design and development company based in Chicago. She started building websites while working in the broadcast television industry. While still a news junkie, she loves to talk shop about all things digital. In her spare time, she seeks outdoor adventures that involve mostly hiking and running.

Ben Cool

Ben Cool is the Application Optimizer at A2 Hosting in Ann Arbor Michigan where he focuses on building “one click” tools for improving Web application performance.  Ben has over a decade of experience in front-end and back-end web development, a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Eastern Michigan University and A Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence.  Ben is a Co-Organizer of WordCamp Ann Arbor and often speaks at and attends local WordPress Meetups in Michigan.  Ben has a passion for making the web faster and easier to use.

Sean Manion

Full-Time Freelance WordPress-er with design/development/marketing experience. I build websites for clients and teach them how to use them.

Kyle Maurer

Kyle is the co-founder of a Jackson, Michigan based firm called Real Big Marketing which specializes in using WordPress to solve complicated problems for businesses. He is also the author of and a contributor to dozens of WordPress plugins, is the co-organizer of the Jackson WP meetup, is a co-organizer of WordCamp Ann Arbor, plays in a band and is an aspiring beer snob.

Steve Grunwell

Steve Grunwell is a Senior Web Engineer and Project Lead at 10up, a World-class web design + development consultancy. Specializing in WordPress and application development he has worked with brands and organizations including TED, Microsoft, Xylem, Elmer’s, and Experience Columbus. Steve has released several plugins in the WordPress.org repositories, including one from the grounds of The White House during the first annual National Day of Civic Hacking in 2013. When he’s not writing software he enjoys hiking, music, and writing about writing software on his blog.

WordCamp Northeast Ohio is excited to announced our first group of confirmed speakers!

Ed Finkler

Ed Finkler started making web sites before browsers had frames. He does front-end and server-side work in Python, PHP, and JavaScript. He is the Lead Developer and Head of Developer Culture at Graph Story. He served as web lead and security researcher at The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University for 9 years. Along with Chris Hartjes, Ed is co-host of the Development Hell podcast. Ed’s current passion is raising mental health awareness in the tech community with his OSMIHelp.org. Ed writes at funkatron.com.

Brad Colbow

Brad Colbow is an independent UX/UI designer from Cleveland Ohio . Brad has built a reputation designing user interfaces and experiences for brands like Smucker’s, Rubbermaid, Starbucks, The Cleveland Clinic and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Design is fun, but Brad is probably best known for his comic strip “The Brads” which was published in .Net magazine and can be seen on his personal website along with his newer comic work. He’s also the co-organizer of the Cleveland Web Standards Association and the midwest’s premiere web design conference, Rustbelt Refresh.

Josh Pollock

Josh, is a WordPress plugin developer, educator and entrepreneur. He is the owner of CalderaWP, makers of Caldera Forms, and a co-founder of Ingot, the easiest A/B testing solution for WordPress. In addition he is a contributor to WordPress core, the WordPress REST API, and plugins by Foo Plugins, Postmatic, Pods, Aesop Interactive, WordImpress, GravityView and more. One of Josh’s favorite things to do is to share what he has learned about WordPress plugin development, business and community. He writes regularly for Torque Magazine and has contributed to many other WordPress tutorial sites. He is also the author of the book The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress REST API.

Jeff Matson

Jeff Matson is the documentation manager for Rocketgenius (Gravity Forms), developer and founder of NotifyBot, and overall super cool guy.  With his giant red beard, he’s hard to miss in a crowd, and will talk to you for hours about arcade games and music (someone at the WordCamp may or may not have a video of him dancing to Taylor Swift).

Melinda Helt

Melinda is a graphic designer who’s worked with for the past 5 years building WordPress websites for small businesses and non-profits.

Ross Johnson

Ross is the founder of 3.7 DESIGNS and SnapOrbital, a teacher at Michigan State University and the original lead organizer of WordCamp Ann Arbor. 3.7 DESIGNS is a web design and strategy firm focused on the WordPress platform. SnapOrbital is the premium WordPress plugin company behind Project Panorama, a project management and visualization plugin that helps business impress their clients, save time and bill more.

Kassey Sikora

Kassey is a Cleveland dwelling designer, marketer, and consultant. She works with small businesses in the Northeast Ohio area, talks too much about cats, and blogs about life. She is a lover of travel, glitter, technology, and brunch.