Category Archives: Speakers

Speakers

Getting to know Ansel Taft

Ansel Taft is a San Diego front end developer. He’s still in love with his entry point into web development, CSS, and is currently winning the battle to learn JavaScript as fast as possible. ‘As possible’ is a relative term though. Ansel juggles a schedule around his beloved family of three (soon to be four), full-time employment, SaaS side business, personal projects, and the occasional bit of help for a friend to squash a website issue.

In his free time Ansel helps administer a handful of Facebook groups including Advanced WordPress and WordPress Hosting. It’s a constant challenge to keep thousands of members happy. Some days it’s easy breezy in the neighborhood. Other days would sour professional cat wranglers. Through it all he learned that an admin needs to be patient, empathetic, mindful of members’ interests, and to abstain from injecting one’s feelings into replies as often as humanly as possible. It’s Facebook for crying out loud; let’s have a bit of fun while we chat about WordPress.

WCSD 2015 Panelist – HELP ME! How to Help Others Help You

This panel-style discussion will cover the following topics and is an open forum through which we encourage our attendees to ask questions.

We will cover:

  • The basics of letting people know what info they need to provide in order to get the best support possible – whether in the WP.org forums or from their designer/developer.
  • How to get your “Helper” the details they need related to your hosting environment, WordPress version, browser, etc.
  • Tips on what to try on your own, before even asking for help.
Speakers

Getting to know Pamela Bey

Pamela Bey is the founder of Be Brilliant Media, a web design and tech curriculum development agency. She is a WordPress trainer, UX designer and mentor for women and children. After working as a WordPress teaching assistant for Girl Develop It Philly, she started a new chapter of Girl Develop It South Jersey. In 2013 she started mentoring high school students in WordPress and since then has help lead her students to win hackathons using WordPress. She is currently developing WordPress curricula for the Comcast and Techgirlz high school pilot program. When not working, she’s trying to teach herself Spanish, French, and Italian, simultaneously.

WCSD 2015 Session – Migrating Websites to/from WordPress

Do you have a website built with an outdated CMS, or not using a CMS at all and you wished it were on WordPress? Moving to WordPress doesn’t have to mean starting over from scratch. Depending on the current format of your site, whether it’s basic HTML/CC or using another CMS like Joomla or Drupal, the process for migration will be different…but not impossible.

This session will cover:

  • Analyzing functionality of your existing site
  • Planning the migration process to WordPress
  • Finding a WordPress theme vs Building a new theme
  • Importing content manually and using plugins for importing content
Speakers

Getting to know David Sutoyo

David Sutoyo is a freelance designer and developer based in Southern California. He started learning CSS years ago as a means to translate his designs for the web. Since learning WordPress, he enjoys crafting themes that utilize the power of the platform. He can be found blogging about WordPress and front-end development at davidsutoyo.com

Outside of work, David enjoys photography, movies, basketball, and tennis.

WCSD 2015 Session: Shaping Your WordPress Theme with Style

How do I make my theme look like that? If you’ve asked this question before, then you’re probably looking to learn CSS. In this talk, we’ll cover the basics of integrating CSS into your child/starter theme. I’ll show you how to inspect and learn from the styles of your favorite website, and how to find help when you need it. I hope to provide you with the resources to get started on your CSS journey and fully harness the power of WordPress themes.

Speakers

Getting to Know Chris Ford

Chris became a storyteller in the third grade when she wrote and bound her first book. She became a graphic designer in junior high when she was introduced to a proportion wheel and Proper Cropper as co-editor of the yearbook. She became a computer nerd when she discovered the Mac and Pagemaker as a journalism student in high school. When she stepped foot into her first college graphic design classroom she knew she’d found her life’s work in a field that combined all three of those passions. Over the last 18 years the tools and technologies she’s used have changed, but her design philosophy has stayed the same: she helps her clients tell their unique story—the story of who they are and why their customers will love them.

WCSD 2015 Session: Finding Design Resources

For 18 years Chris has been an avid collector of fonts, Photoshop plugins, and stock illustration and photography. Knowing where to find these tools can not only make your designs look better, but save you valuable time and money. In this session she’ll share her favorite resources and how she uses them in her design work. If you’d like to learn more about Chris’ techniques for customizing stock illustrations, building wireframes more efficiently and attractively, or creating unique infographics (and where she finds the resources to do all that cool stuff) you won’t want to miss this session!

Speakers

Getting to know Matt Cromwell

Matt is the Support Guru at WordImpress. He’s the author of FooThumbnails for Galleries and many other free WordPress plugins, a popular blogger at his website, an admin of the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, co-organizer of the San Diego WordPress Meetup, and a WordCamp speaker and frequent attender.

WCSD 2015 Panelist – HELP ME! How to Help Others Help You

This panel-style discussion will cover the following topics and is an open forum through which we encourage our attendees to ask questions.

We will cover:

  • The basics of letting people know what info they need to provide in order to get the best support possible – whether in the WP.org forums or from their designer/developer.
  • How to get your “Helper” the details they need related to your hosting environment, WordPress version, browser, etc.
  • Tips on what to try on your own, before even asking for help.