Speakers

Dustin Hartzler

Dustin is a Happiness Engineer at Automattic, providing support for the popular eCommerce plugin, WooCommerce. He is also the host of the weekly WordPress podcast at Your Website Engineer. When not spending time with WordPress, he can be found traveling around the world, biking and reading.

Sarah Davis

Maureen Carruthers

Maureen Carruthers is a Happiness Engineer at Automattic where she spends her days helping WordPress.com users turn blank pages into their personal corner of the internet.  She started her career as a theatre major and spent many years as a non-profit program manager (mostly involving combat robots) prior to joining Automattic.

She’s also a board game player, cat-lover, feminist, and geek. Her perfect evening includes wine, coffee and philosophical conversation until the sun comes up.

Nathan Weller

Nathan B. Weller is the Inbound Marketing Manager for Elegant Themes, a proud leader in the premium WordPress theme and plugin market. It is Nathan’s responsibility to set and execute Elegant Themes’ content strategy. To that end he edits the blog and manages a remote staff of freelance writers. He also manages Elegant Themes’ social channels, populates them with content, and does his best to find meaningful ways of engaging with the community–such as creating and hosting their new podcast, Divi Nation.

Brad Griffith

Brad Griffith is a life-long entrepreneur but thinks like an engineer. He grew up working for his dad’s veterinary hospital, learning the joys and challenges of business ownership. Brad is now President of Buckeye Interactive, the web engineering and strategy team he started in 2009. Prior to starting Buckeye Interactive, Brad spent several years consulting and developing web applications in-house for a variety of companies including JPMorgan Chase, QUALCOMM, and the Go Big Network. Brad earned his Masters in Business Administration after completing his Bachelor’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering with honors, both at The Ohio State University.  Brad lives with his wife and two girls (1 and 5 years old) in New Albany, Ohio.
Buckeye Interactive is a web engineering team passionately empowering successful small businesses and funded tech startups with sustainable revenue growth and scalable business processes.  The team focuses on a unique all-in-house combination of business and product strategy, development and design to deliver exceptional results for clients with limited resources.  Buckeye Interactive’s clients have best-in-class products and services, and they partner with Buckeye Interactive to provide technology and design expertise to enable and accelerate growth.  Web and mobile experiences crafted by the team include marketing and e-commerce websites, web applications and mobile applications.

Paul Tela

A recent graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering, Paul has been programming and developing web applications for several years. Working primarily with smaller companies and startups, he enjoys leveraging open source tools to build high quality systems that allow these companies to gain a competitive edge. Paul is always looking to learn new technologies and master new skills.

Justin Rains

Justin Rains is a front end web developer who has worked with WordPress for many years and is an experienced PHP developer.  Justin lives in the Northern Kentucky area and works in Cincinnati.  He has an innovative flair for creative Raspberry Pi and arduino development and discovering new ways of using this technology.

Justin has been programing for over twenty years and has several plugins in the WordPress repository.  He has uniquely developed ways for using WordPress for responsive sites, where whether you have a phone, tablet or any other mobile device, his sites will automatically adjust for optimum viewing.

Erin Olmon

Erin Olmon is a User Experience practitioner currently based in Portland, OR. She’s been using WordPress as her CMS of choice for at least 8 years. Erin is happiest helping people solve design strategy challenges by considering the goals and motivations of end users.

Originally from Cincinnati, Erin has lived in Seattle, Denver, and now Portland. She spends much of her time wrangling a toddler and two dogs.

Angela Bergmann

Developing websites since 2000, Angie started using WordPress in the b2 days, before it was even WordPress.  She counts among her strengths SEO and PPC skills, and design centered around accessibility and usability.  Beyond WordPress, she is passionate about infertility advocacy, gaming, and German Shepherd Dogs.  She is involved in the WP community as a co-organizer of the Northeast Ohio WordPress Meetup, and is the Lead Organizer for the inaugural WordCamp Northeast Ohio.  During the day, she is part of the marketing team at Rolta AdvizeX, a multinational IT infrastructure solutions company.  At night, after routinely saving Azeroth from certain destruction, she does freelance webdev under the BergPress imprint.

Connor Blakley

Connor Blakley is a 16 year old serial entrepreneur, speaker, and Co-Founder, CEO of YouthLogic. YouthLogic helps connect companies to the always evolving younger generations. Before starting YouthLogic Connor ran a social media agency that served 50+ Small to medium sized companies in the U.S and Canada.

Katie Patton

Katie Patton is a local from the Dayton area. She started her YouTube channel in 2011 in college. She has amassed over 3 million views on her ecommerce tutorial videos.

The videos have provided free traffic to her WordPress website where she promotes her book and her email list. In her spare time she enjoys playing the ukulele.

Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker is a Linux Support Analyst for A2 Hosting and WordPress enthusiast. His first experience with WordPress was in high school around the days of version 2.5 and really got into the swing of things a few years later around 3.5. He work with users every day helping to mend the gap between hosting and application issues. This will be his 3rd WordPress event and first speaking, with plans to do many more. When he’s not working on a server or WordPress website he can be found spending time with family and working on home improvements!

Shelby Elliott

Shelby Elliott is the founder of Corner Market Media, a web design & consulting company that aims to to identify and (beautifully) execute web & design strategies that contribute in measurable ways to business goals. Shelby’s been using WordPress to create websites for about 6 years, and is an active member of the Columbus WordPress community. When she’s not “pressing the words,” you can find her on a yoga mat, in a thrift store, or spending time with her 2 year old.

Ryan Rhoten

Ryan Rhoten is a speaker, podcaster, personal branding strategist and career development enthusiast. Using a 4-step process he calls D.I.C.E., Ryan helps business professionals get unstuck and become known in their field by helping them grow their influence and amplify their online reputation.
Whether looking to move up in a company, start a side hustle or branch out to become a solopreneur, the D.I.C.E process provides clarity of purpose and a roadmap to empower individuals to impact their career.

Danny Santoro

Danny Santoro is a Cincinnati born-and-raised Automattician with an addition to anything with a switch, circuit, or explosion. He’s a creative at heart and a businessman in mind – having started his first company just before he could drive, he’s since formed two additional LLCs in completely different areas – always on the move.
A fan of streamlining and efficiency to a fault, his natural habitat seems to be a spreadsheet. Organizing, planning, and setting the stage for large projects is a passion, but work isn’t ALL he does – of course, he enjoys the outside world, shooting (he’s an NRA Certified Instructor), and consuming crazy amounts of television and movies.
Despite the web-heavy day-to-day work, Danny only actually took one “Intro to HTML” class in college – everything else is self-taught. He instead majored in film and video production, and has interned at multiple news stations and won grants to further his career in video – to this day, he produces videos (be it short skits, promos, or year-long short films). He’s always looking for acting talent, crew, and cohorts to help with all of his ideas and schemes so fire away if you have any questions, ideas, or just want to get involved!

Meggan J. Lanahan

Meggan J. Lanahan is a writer born and raised in Kettering, Ohio. She has been writing since the age of 5. She is currently writing professionally for companies, is a Reporter for a local newspaper, tutors students in writing, and is working on her own fiction novel. In her spare time, she loves to travel, listen to music, play with animals, read a good book from 30,000 feet, and study Los Angeles luxury real estate.

Cyrissa Carlson

Cyrissa is a southern Ohio based photographer
​and business coach, known for her contagious energy and social media savviness!
​

With a Master’s in Art Education, ten years of classroom experience, published articles and photos, experience on the CreativeLive stage, and thousands of photographers in her online community, ​she is well prepared to help YOU shine online!

​Get ready to be encouraged, educated, and empowered to make strategic social media decisions for your business.

Steve Grunwell

Steve Grunwell is an Engineering Manager 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.

Steve holds a B.A. in Telecommunications from Bowling Green State University where he graduated Cum Laude with minors in General Business and Recording Technologies.

More information, including portfolio work and his development blog, can be found at https://stevegrunwell.com.

Bobby Bryant

Bobby Bryant is currently employed as a Web Engineer at 10up, a fully distributed company with employees and clients from around the world. He has been doing web development for around 2 years, with the majority of that time spent within the WordPress space. Prior to getting into web development, Bobby spent 13+ years in the US Marines as a Communications Technician.More recently, Bobby as shifted his technical focus to the great web industry, and has begun to incorporate new technologies into his daily web work. When not building website for clients at 10up, Bobby publishes development tutorials on YouTube for free at Develop With WP.

Gery Deer

Gery L. Deer began his diverse career in mechanical engineering with a focus on computer technical support and programming. Over the last two decades, he has shifted his focus to communications as an independent commercial copywriter and freelance journalist. Currently, Gery is the creative and managing director of GLD Enterprises Communications, Ltd., a marketing communications agency based near Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1998, the firm works in all areas of advertising and marketing including website development and content, digital marketing and customer-centric advertising. GLD Enterprises Communications, Ltd.’s client roster includes heavy hitters like Culligan Water, McAfee Heating & Air, Cox Media, Dayton Mailing Services, Inc., and CMG Financial Services, as well as smaller companies.

Gery’s syndicated op-ed series, “Deer In Headlines,” has been featured in print and online throughout the southwestern Ohio region since 2008 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism in 2010. To help promote writing and literacy in the tristate region, Gery co-founded and serves as executive director of the Western Ohio Writers Association (WOWA), a non-profit group that provides critique sessions, educational programs, professional growth and networking opportunities to writers of all types in southwestern Ohio, northwestern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana.

In 2015, Gery was asked to chair the communications committee for the Dayton regional office of Prevent Blindness and was recently voted into the executive leadership committee of that organization. Since 2012, he has served as a the business contributor and freelance producer for the WDTN-TV2 dayton television program, “Living Dayton.”

Ben Byrne

Ben Byrne is Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Cornershop Creative, a small distributed agency focused on nonprofits and WordPress. As Chief Creative Officer, Ben oversees the visual design work and code produced by Cornershop. Before founding Cornershop in 2012, Ben left his position as Senior Front-end Developer at New Signature, where his extensive experience with languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript were put to good use implementing his designs on several CMS platforms.
Ben has a BFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State University and has been working on the web for about 20 years. He has presented on a variety of topics, including the differences between print and web design, web typography, and high performance front-end performance optimization at various organizations and events, including several WordCamps. Ben lives in Richmond, Indiana with his wife, two kids, and labradoodle Barcelona, though he’s moving to California this summer.

Daniel J. Lewis

As an award-winning podcaster, Daniel J. Lewis help others launch and improve their own podcasts for sharing their passions and finding success. Daniel creates training resources (like SEO for Podcasters) and podcasting tools (like My Podcast Reviews); he offers one-on-one consulting; he leads an elite community for podcasters (Podcasters’ Society); is a keynote speaker on podcasting and social media; and Daniel hosts a network of award-nominated shows covering how to podcast, clean-comedy, and the #1 unofficial podcast for ABC’s hit drama Once Upon a Time. Daniel also writes about entrepreneurship and technology.

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.

Janette Dywasuk

Originally from Michigan, Janette now lives in Cincinnati where she is the co-founder of the WordPress Cincinnati Meetup. Her favorite things are her dogs (Australian Shepherds), traveling, golfing and photography. Her travels are typically focused around sandy beaches and beautiful golf courses.

A passionate & driven marketing executive with 20 years of marketing experience, Janette specializes in the digital web space using WordPress & marketing automation software.

Tired of the rat race, Janette recently left corporate America to focus on her own company, Murder Ink Agency, which does killer WordPress websites. You can find Janette’s company at murderinkagency.com.

Mike McDermott

Mike McDermott is President of Bash Foo, a digital marketing agency that specializes in web design, social media and digital campaign strategies. With more than 15 years in the marketing and project management trenches, Mike is recognized for his focus on customer service and results-driven marketing campaigns. He built his first WordPress site back in 2006, and felt like the ability to give his clients access to make changes would be a real game changer in the web design field. Today, with more than 300 custom-designed WordPress sites under the Bash Foo umbrella, Mike focuses his sights on developing better user experiences and conversion focused designs. You can find out more about Mike by visiting Bash Foo.

Jared Banz

Jared Banz was first exposed to search engine optimization and WordPress upon graduating from college in 2010. Since then, Jared started a digital marketing agency called SumoLeap, where he serves clients for small and mid-sized businesses. When not drinking way too much coffee and reading about the latest marketing trends, Jared enjoys traveling with his wife Linnea.

Jeff Long

Jeff Long has had the opportunity to serve entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations around the world since 2003 by creating engaging online courses, building flexible websites and producing compelling videos. His company specializes in creating online course systems, and video based online learning. He’s the host of The Online Course Coach Podcast, which is THE podcast for the latest in online course creation tips, news, interviews. He not only talks about strategies of how to best teach online, but also interviews industry leaders who share their insights & experiences. You can find Jeff at OnlineCourseCoach.com. In his free time he loves watching Ohio State Football.

Nile Flores

Nile Flores is a long time WordPress designer and Developer. While she grew up a military brat, she’s settled in the St. Louis metro east region. Nile blogs at Blondish.net, where she covers topics on WordPress, Blogging, SEO, Social Media, and Web Design.

She also loves contributing to WordPress, and that includes speaking at WordCamps across the United States. She loves helping people and supporting Open Source projects.

In other news, Nile is a proud support member at Team Yoast. She also runs a 7,000 member Facebook roup dedicated to helping WordPressers, called All About WordPress. Nile is also the 2014 and 2015 Community Choice Winner at the Small Business Influence Awards, hosted by Small Business Trends. When Nile isn’t knee deep in coding and design, she’s spending time with her son, who is also a WordPress user.

Chris Hardie

Chris Hardie is an Internet technology professional living just across the state line in Richmond, Indiana. Having previously co-founded and managed a web development agency for over 16 years, he now works on the WordPress.com VIP team at Automattic, Inc. where he supports some of the biggest WordPress sites on the web. Chris serves in leadership roles for a variety of local community improvement organizations, and writes about technology, culture, marketing and community-building at ChrisHardie.com.

Steve Stewart

Steve Stewart has been using WordPress for almost a decade for his coaching business. Since then he has released a podcast, which regularly ranks in iTunes’ Top 20 for Investing, and his blog won “Best Debt-Focused Personal Finance Blog” in 2014. While he truly lives on the internet, he calls St. Louis his home. You can find out more about Steve at SteveStewart.me

Jarrett Gucci

Jarrett Gucci comes from a retail background that started at Home Depot in buffalo NY as cashier and 18 months later was asked to be a project manager based out of Carson California with a goal of opening 12 stores in 14 months. This goal was accomplished. He has also been an area manager at Big Lots and Bed Bath and beyond. He left his very last retail career as a district manager at Linens & Things in 2007 to pursue a hobby of website development as hope he could make some money doing it. Something you may not know about Jarrett besides all this, is that when he was 15 his neighbor gave him a 1962 dodge dart and he completely took it apart and rebuilt it.

March 4th – March 5th 2016

2016 WordCamp Dayton is over. Check out the next edition!