This year, we’ve added a third track of speakers which is why we need your support more than ever. Learn more.
Al Davis
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. @adavis3105
Alexandre Simard
Depuis 4 ans, Alexandre Simard gagne (modestement) sa vie comme consultant indépendant spécialisé en WordPress. Il a été présent à toutes les éditions de WordCamp Montréal et conférencier à trois d’entre elles. Il est aussi scénariste de la bande dessinée. Cette année, il a à peine changé sa bio! @qbert72
Brad Muncs
Président de Symetris, entreprise de développement web qu’il a fondé à Montréal en 2004, Brad croit fermement aux CMS open-source. Symetris se spécialise dans le développement de sites web basés sur WordPress et Drupal.
Il est aussi un citadin qui aime le bon thé et le cappucino, lire le Economist et voyager à travers le monde. @symetris
Brendan Sera-Shriar
Brendan Sera-Shriar has been an interactive designer, developer, college and university professor, community manager, author, consultant, and professional speaker at some of the largest corporations and festivals in the world, including Microsoft, Mozilla Firefox, Sun Microsystems, WordCamp, BlogWorld, SXSW and more. His work has also appeared in TechCrunch, TechVibes, WordPress TV, and a host of other blogs. He was also featured in the October 2012 issue of Marketing Magazine.
Not only does Brendan help others build their businesses he has also founded a few himself, including StartupBump, Creer Magazine, and PressWork.
Despite being known best for his work as a WordPress designer, developer, and WordCamp speaker and organizer, Brendan’s best communications skills lie in his ability to help organizations understand how they can build communities around their products and services. @thebrendans
Brian P. Hoke
Brian Hoke is Principal of Bentley Hoke, a web consultancy in Syracuse, New York, USA, founded in 2000. The firm offers development, design, and marketing services for clients from the professional development, nonprofit, education, retail, and government sectors, with particular development strengths in WordPress, jQuery, Ruby on Rails, and responsive design.
Brian is author of several online training courses – please see LinkedIn for more information. @bentleyhoke
Brian Rotsztein
With over 16 years of inbound marketing experience, entrepreneur Brian Rotsztein brings a seasoned approach to working with clients. As the head of two full-service web companies (RedstoneX.com and Uniseo.com) that specialize in web design, mobile websites, SEO, social media and Internet marketing, he helps businesses gain a competitive advantage. He holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides professional consulting and training services for topics such as SEO and social media. He’s been a WordPress fan since he started using version 1.6 (in 2005!). @brianrotsztein
Carolyn Sonnek
Carolyn Sonnek has been involved in podcasting and podcast production using WordPress since 2007. She has been the host of a number of (now defunct) podcasts (PownceCast, Tech Snark, Snark Fu) and has made guest appearances on other podcasts (The Digital Cowboys, The Widget Show). Carolyn has also been using WordPress since 2005 and can cook a mean tater tot hotdish. Carolyn is currently working for Automattic as a Happiness Engineer at WordPress.com. @carolynsonnek
Chris Burbridge
Chris Burbridge is a human-centered WordPress developer and consultant, who prides himself in working well with de-mystifying WordPress for the average user, and maximizing the advantage that can be gained by creatively using this software. @ChrisBurbridge
Christine Rondeau
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. @bluelimemedia
CT Moore
CT Moore (@gypsybandito) is a strategist, writer, and speaker who specializes in SEO and social content strategy for companies in the entertainment, tech and travel industries. He’s worked with both start-ups and multi-national brands alike, including WatchMojo, Microsoft Canada, and Luxury Retreats.
Danielle Guérin
Danielle Guérin, adjointe virtuelle depuis 2002, passionnée de WordPress et du Marketing Web, est tombée dans la potion Internet en 1999. C’était à l’époque où il fallait faire les sites Web avec du code HTML ou un WYSYWYG de Geocities. Les plus anciens s’en souviendront…
C’est en 2008 qu’elle commence à utiliser WordPress et à offrir ses services d’intégration et de gestion de sites WordPress aux entrepreneurs en ligne, notamment aux coachs et consultants. @Adjointeducoach
David Hamilton
Over the past six years, I’ve been lucky enough to made a living as a professional writer. At various points in my career, I’ve been a journalist, a content strategist, and a copywriter, but always a blogger.
In 2012, I presented a WordCamp Montreal talk on information architecture in WordPress, and in April 2013, I presented “How to Write a Blog Post” at WordCamp Ottawa. I’m actively involved in the Toronto WordPress community, attending monthly meetups and volunteering at WordCamp Toronto. @ko_davidh
Dion Hulse
Dion Hulse is a WordPress Core Developer who been watching WordPress and it’s community grow for over 7 years. By day he’s employed by Automattic as a Code Wrangler for WordPress.com, by night he helps make WordPress what it is. @dd32
Elida Arrizza
Elida is a hybrid designer/photographer currently practicing at acclaimed creative ad agency and has been “WordPressing” sites as a freelancer since 2006. She has earned a bunch of letters in fine arts, digital media, photography, but pays the knowledge forward by teaching college level web design. Elida is slightly obsessed with delightful user experiences and determining the best way to do anything. P.S. You might recognize her as a volunteer photographer from WCMTL 2010 & 2011 and again this year.
Élise Desaulniers
Élise Desaulniers a redécouvert le plaisir d’écrire avec WordPress en 2009 et blogue maintenant sur voir.ca et penseravantdouvirlabouche.com Elle a déjà formé une cinquantaine de débutants à WordPress et réalisé plusieurs sites. Elle vient de publier un essai sur l’Industrie laitière et trouve reposant d’enfin parler d’un sujet qui n’est pas controversé. @edesaulniers
Emmanuelle Demeules
Emmanuelle Demeules est propriétaire de Miou Design, un petit studio de création Web à Joliette dans Lanaudière. Ni programmeur, ni graphiste, elle se situe un peu entre les deux et c’est peut-être pour ça qu’elle aime WordPress. @mioudesign
Hanni Ross
Fiercely passionate about law which has studied in both the UK and France, she can often be found with her head buried in a book, inspiring judgement or perhaps avidly watching The West Wing. She loves to run, can’t sing, travels from time to time, keeps a weblog which is imaginatively entitled Hanni Ross, asks too many questions, and can often be found with a cup of coffee in hand.
Hanni works in Happiness at Automattic where she spends her days looking for next generation of fantastic Happiness Engineers, whist also attempting to engineer the happiness of Automatticians and WordPress.com users alike. @hanniross
Hugh McGuire
I’ve been hacking book culture and its relationship to the web for a about eight years now. I’m the founder of PressBooks, an online book publishing platform built on WordPress, and of LibriVox.org, the largest library of free, public domain audiobooks in the world, all read by volunteers. I’m the founder of the small commercial audiobook company, Iambik Audiobooks, and I’m the co-editor, with Brian O’Leary, of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto – Essays from the bleeding edge of publishing (O’Reilly). I’ve talked about the future of publishing around the world, and my work has appeared in various places in print, bits and audio, including: the New York Times, Forbes, the LA Times, BBC Radio, the New Yorker, CBC Radio, NPR, Techcrunch and Pando Daily. @pressbooks
Jean-François Arseneault
Jean-Francois est propriétaire de ARSENEAULT Consultation, une firme d’intégration web qui, depuis 2009, réalise des sites multilingues et des applications personnalisées sur WordPress. @arscons
Jeremy Clarke
Jeremy Clarke is a human web developer from Montreal. He develops and designs Global Voices, an international citizen media website with hundreds of contributors and dozens of translations.
Jeremy is a WordCamp veteran and a co-organizer of WordCamp Montreal since 2009. @jeremyclarke
Joseph Karr O’Connor
I’m dedicated to accessibility and have been a practitioner since 1999. My speciality is institutionalizing accessibility: planning, organizing, and implementing well-structured and coordinated accessibility systems for institutions. I’ve been using WordPress in education since 2005.
Because of my involvement in the international accessibility community, which includes many persons with all types of disabilities, I am well-connected to other accessibility practitioners. I have been donating my time to help make WordPress, the open source blogging platform, accessible.
My WordPress theme creation project, Cities, now has theme teams working to create accessible themes in Montreal, Copenhagen, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, and 12 other cities. @AccessibleJoe
Kathryn Presner
Kathryn thrives on helping people get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building websites for clients, she now supports WordPress.com users around the world as an Automattic Happiness Engineer. She enjoys spreading her passion for WordPress at WordCamps, Girl Geek Dinners, Podcamps, and other grassroots events. Non-WordPress hours are spent collecting vintage Pyrex mixing bowls, growing organic garlic, and cavorting with her three cats. @zoonini
Kaylynne Johnson
Kaylynne Johnson est une jeune femme originaire de la Beauce qui œuvre dans le domaine du web et du graphisme depuis près de deux ans. Toutefois, son expérience avec WordPress remonte en 2008, année où elle débute un blog BD intitulé « Le petit monde à Petite Kay ». Au fil des ans, ce qui n’était au départ qu’un simple blog WordPress se développe et le besoin de migrer vers WordPress.org se fait sentir. Comme plusieurs, c’est à partir de ce moment que Kaylynne découvre les multiples fonctionnalités de WordPress . Son intérêt pour le web et l’illustration grandissant, la jeune femme qui était auparavant enseignante au primaire décide de se réorienter et débute une carrière en graphisme et intégration web. Ces temps-ci, Kaylynne met de la vie dans les bureaux de Zonart Communications, apprend la guitare, parle d’elle à la troisième personne et travaille sur un gros projet qui l’empêchera de dormir jour et nuit pour les 9 prochains mois. @Zonart
Kirk Wight
Liesl Barrell
As Digital Marketing Director at w.illi.am/, Liesl Barrell helms projects of all shapes and sizes. She loves thinking, talking and writing about just about everything Internetz and manages a team of meme-hunting consultants solving marketing riddles for great clients. In her spare time she enjoys public speaking and organizing Montreal Girl Geek events for local women in tech.
If you feel like stalking: hit her up on Twitter, LinkedIn, or her oft-neglected but whimsical WordPress blog.
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of the open-source blogging platform, WordPress, the most popular publishing platform on the web, and the founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Jetpack. Additionally, Matt is a principal and founder of Audrey Capital, an investment and research company.
Matt got his start in technology working at CNET Networks as a senior product manager. He went on to found Global Multimedia Protocols Group, an experimental metamemetics company, to develop open data formats. He has been recognized for his leadership and success by Forbes, BusinessWeek, INC., PC World, and Vanity Fair.
Matt is originally from Houston, Texas, where he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer. Matt splits time between Houston, New York, and San Francisco.
Meagan Hanes
Meagan Hanes is the Creative Architect of Love Digimedia, an Ottawa-based online presence solutions company specializing in WordPress for small businesses, solopreneurs, and artists. With over a decade of digital design experience, Love combines technical knowledge with business expertise to produce fantastic long-term digital solutions. Connect with @LoveDigimedia on Twitter and Facebook.
Michael Corkum
Mike is seasoned web developer with over 14 years of experience. Currently, he works at Carleton University where he and a small team manage 250+ WordPress sites. When he’s not up to his neck in code, or banging his head against his desk, he enjoys playing music and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. @cuweb
Michal Bluma
Michal Bluma wrote his first lines of HTML in the late 90s, is guilty of having used tables for layout a long time ago, loves tech and geeking out.
He left the office world at the end of 2012, after being told to do so by everyone except his own conscience. He’s currently using his skills to pay the bills full-time as a WordPress integrator and kicking butt in Front-end ChopUp-Fu (jCrane style). He greatly misses the days of Shift magazine. @isotrope
Michelle Weber
I’m a professional writer and editor and semi-professional napper. A food and humor blogger, I’m currently a Story Wrangler for Automattic, which means my job is to teach, engage, and inspire WordPress bloggers. I generally like dogs more than people, and love Montreal but hate poutine. @michelleinchief
Mo Jangda
I wrangle code and VIPs at WordPress.com. I enjoy ice cream and other sugary things.
Rami Sayar
Rami Sayar is a graduate of Computer Engineering from McGill University. While pursuing his studies, he worked at hot startups in Silicon Valley and Fortune 500 giants. Rami founded the Code Jam @ McGill, the university’s largest engineering competition, in order to improve training in the field. As a Teaching Assistant at his alma mater, he developed interactive educational tools to improve software engineering education. He was awarded the Scarlet Key for student leadership and significant contributions to the McGill community.
Currently, Rami is working at a Montreal-based startup and consulting agency, SayarLabs, which explores new ideas combining design, collaboration and the real-time web. Rami is also launching a monthly lecture series for aspiring and current entrepreneurs in Montreal, Founders Hangout. Rami’s passion for technology and collaboration drives him in search for creative solutions to everyday problems. @ramisayar
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! You can find online as @richardmtl.
Richard Martin
Richard Martin is an online entrepreneur. He created and manages a WordPress site that provides health services to clients and continuing education training for health professionals. Before going online he did product marketing in Silicon Valley with several companies including Apple, Cisco and Broadcom. Richard now lives in Ottawa. Richard is one the organizers of WordCamp Ottawa. @richardgmartin
Rick Radko
Rick Radko is a creative, and artistic engineer with a passion for finding solutions to difficult design problems. He is the owner of R-Cubed Design Forge, where he develops custom web applications, social networking and team collaboration solutions for businesses. Rick specializes in custom application development and multilingual websites. Rick is one the organizers of WordCamp Ottawa and is a co-leader and frequent presenter at the Ottawa WordPress Group. Twitter: @r3designforge
Sarah Semark
I’ve been making beautiful things for as long as I can remember. More recently, I’ve shifted my focus to WordPress design and development. Armed with a lightweight laptop and a surprisingly lightweight suitcase, I take my work with me around the world. I can usually be found tapping away anywhere there’s a power outlet—from ramshackle Soviet sleeper trains to a shack in the Amazon.
I love building beautiful, usable websites, and I hate staying in one place. @sarahsemark
Shannon Smith
Shannon Smith is the founder of Café Noir Design, a boutique Montreal web design company specializing in multilingual web development. She builds beautiful, functional websites that her clients can update themselves and that are easy for search engines to find. She support things like making the web accessible for everyone, using open source software, helping organizations find greener more sustainable ways to operate through online technology and helping non-profits with online community organizing. Also sewist and mother of four. @cafenoirdesign
Taylor Lovett
I’ve been working with WP for 6 years. I have a plugin Safe Redirect Manager that is hosted on WP.com VIP. I am a core contributor. I’ve contributed to bbPress and Jetpack. I love learning, and I love WordPress. I’m more of a backend, caching algorithm, multi-site, database management kind of guy; I do front end stuff but I’m not as passionate about it. I love solving interesting problems. @10up
Troy Chaplin
I am a WordPress designer, developer and enthusiast who enjoys pushing the envelop with each new project. With over 10 years of experience in a creative environment, I have dedicated his professional life to working with WordPress on several levels.
When I’m not doing contract work or building a theme for fun, my main job is helping a small team at Carleton University enhance their web presence and providing content editors around the university with intuitive tools to help promote their activities and initiatives. @troychaplin
Victor Granic
I’ve been building and hosting WordPress websites for about 5 years. During the 15 years I’ve worked in the computer field I’ve managed high performance networks and specialized in several areas of security. Currently I’m a founder of a Canadian managed WordPress hosting company specializing in fast, secure, reliable and easy to use hosting services focused only on WordPress. @boreal321
Yannick Lefebvre
Yannick Lefebvre is a tech enthusiast and the author of the WordPress Plugin Development Cookbook, published by Packt Publishing. He has been blogging since 2003, started using WordPress in 2004 and published his first plugin, Link Library, in March 2005. Since then, he released seven other plugins, all hosted on the official WordPress.org site. He absolutely loves using WordPress to develop web sites and find PHP to be a most liberating language compared to more traditional languages such as C/C++. Follow @ylefebvre on Twitter.
