We received 96 presentation submissions for WordCamp Sacramento 2017 from 81 different speakers and there were A LOT of great choices. It was tough for our speaker selection committee to narrow it down, but we did it and we’re so excited! If you’re even half as excited as we are about how WordCamp Sacramento is shaping up, you’re going to be chomping at the bit to get your ticket.
Tickets will go on sale in the next couple of weeks. Watch the blog for more ticket announcements.
We’re currently working on the official schedule for WordCamp, but didn’t want to keep you waiting to see who will be speaking this year. We’re rolling out the speaker announcements over the next week or so, in no particular order, and today is the first round of talented WordPressers who will be sharing their expertise and knowledge with you in September…
Carrie Ford
Carrie spent the first eight years of her career wrangling sales data in the tech industry. While on work assignment in the UK, she attended a blogging workshop where she was introduced to WordPress. After spending several weekends learning about WordPress child themes, Carrie set up her first WordPress site, California Love Letters, and realized WordPress and front-end development is where her true passion lies.
After moving back to California, Carrie had an opportunity to pursue her passion, and enrolled in the Graphic & Interactive Design program at Foothill College where she learned about the graphic design process, and how to properly write HTML and CSS. Before graduating from her program, Carrie created her first theme from scratch on the Genesis framework, and realized that developing on WordPress is what she wanted to do for a living.
When she’s not doing front-end development, you can find Carrie at home cuddling with her four cats K2, Whitney, Minnie, and Paul; enjoying a latte or cold brew at a nearby coffee shop; or exploring the greater San Francisco Bay Area with my husband Darren.
Jake Goldman
Jake is the owner and President of 10up, a full service agency that makes a better web with finely crafted websites and tools for content creators. Whether you’re a political junky glued to FiveThirtyEight, a car enthusiast reading MotorTrend, a Windows user who keeps up with Microsoft’s newsroom, an Apple fan reading 9to5mac daily, a tech entrepreneur keeping up with TechCrunch or VentureBeat, or even if you just use WordPress itself, you’ve experienced a small sample of 10up’s work, built atop WordPress. Jake grew 10up from a 1 man show (himself!) to over 100 employees with dozens of brand name clients in under 5 years.
Jake started focusing on web content management platforms like WordPress in 2006, releasing free plug-ins, diverting new projects to the platform, contributing code to the open source project, and engaging the community. He has been a writer and expert reviewer for Smashing Magazine, taught WordPress development at Boston University, and has spoken at conferences, universities, and programs around the country. He helped organize the first WordCamp Boston in 2010, founded the WordPress meetup in Providence, and rebooted the Sacramento meet up in a format that continues on to this day. He is a core contributor to WordPress, and maintains some of the highest rated plug-ins on the official repository, with over 500,000 active installations.
Amanda McCoy
After studying art and printmaking in college, Amanda eventually found work doing freelance print production at several San Francisco advertising agencies. She got a staff position at Young and Rubicam and worked there for many years. Seeking more meaningful work she attempted a career change to animation, but was discouraged by an uncertain job market. So she started her own graphic design studio in 2012. In 2014 she expanded her offering to WordPress websites. She is very excited to be back in graphic design and running her own business. She loves the work, with it’s combination of the aesthetic and the functional.
Aaron Campbell
Aaron is the WordPress Security Team lead, has been a regular contributor to WordPress for more than ten years, and is currently funded by GoDaddy to work full time on the WordPress open source project. He has over seventeen years of web development experience and worked with clients ranging from small local businesses to Google, Yahoo, Disney, and Harvard. He’s been called both a coffee snob and a beer snob, but considers both to be compliments. When not buried in code, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, riding his motorcycle, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books.
Catherine Scholz
Cat has been a WordPress coach, front-end developer, and consultant since 2007. She works with authors, entrepreneurs, arts organizations, non-profits, “mad” scientists, musicians, artists, small businesses, companies, healers and hobbyists. Her passion is working with clients to create the look and functionality that they want while teaching them how to update their own content. She teaches hands-on classes through Sierra College Community Education and also offers e-courses for those wanting to learn WordPress from the comfort of home. In addition to her WordPress wizardry, she is also a singer-songwriter and enjoys being a mother of 2, hiking, dancing, roller skating and cooking.
Justin Busa
Justin Busa is a developer and co-founder at FastLine Media, the parent company behind Beaver Builder. Prior to the success of Beaver Builder, FastLine Media specialized in a range of digital services for clients all over the world.
Katie Elenberger
All in. Go-getter. Laughs the loudest. With more than a decade of industry experience, Katie excels at developing effective design and messaging that cuts through the clutter and connects with target audiences. Katie’s enthusiasm for her work is contagious, her clients have noted creative talents and outcomes, personality and easy-going nature, and general feeling that she is an extension of staff as just a few reasons why they love to work with her. Plus, as an adjunct design instructor for six years, she will naturally coach you through any process.
Katie is the owner and Creative Director at Spark27, a premiere, full-service design + digital studio that partners with clients to solve complex business problems through strategy and effective communication. Katie is dedicated to the quality of her work and it shows—her designs have earned her 14 ADDY awards and she prides herself on strong client relationships by being focused on building brands with robust identities and measurable results.
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. After 4 years of building and managing WordPress sites, he founded a company called WP Fix It and since 2011 his company has serviced over 54,000 WordPress support tickets. 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.
Dorothy Kern
Dorothy Kern is the blogger behind Crazy for Crust, a popular dessert and baking blog. She started her blog in 2010 and has learned everything from the ground up, from posting in WordPress to food photography and video to SEO and social media. Dorothy specializes in recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of her life.
Cory Miller
Cory Miller is a former newspaper journalist turned full-time entrepreneur. In 2008, he started iThemes, which builds web design software and offers cutting-edge web design training for WordPress for thousands of customers around the globe. Named the 7th fastest growing company in Oklahoma City in 2011 by the Metro 50, iThemes employs over 20+ people, with headquarters in Edmond, Oklahoma.
In 2011, he co-founded The Div, Inc, a nonprofit tech foundation aimed at inspiring and training the next generation of web developers through its kid’s program, Div Jr.
He is the co-author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies (Wiley, 2011) and is a member and past communications chair of the Oklahoma chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a network of over 8,000 entrepreneurs in 40 countries with companies that have revenue over $1 million dollars annually. He blogs regularly about his adventures in life and entrepreneurship at CoryMiller.com. He is a mental health advocate, sharing his personal story and struggles, for the past several years.
He is married to Lindsey Miller, who is the WordPress Partner Manager at Liquid Web, and formerly a political fundraising consultant and entrepreneur. They have two young children, an adorable son named Caloway and a little sweetheart daughter named Lillian.
Heather Hogan
Heather has been making websites since the dawn of this millennia. She has taken on many roles in the communications sphere including: webmaster, designer, developer, artist, project manager, event coordinator, and marketing specialist. She has had the pleasure to work with organizations like the Sacramento Public Library, The Nature Conservancy, The World Economic Forum, Sacramento State University, and the City of Rocklin.
Currently, she divides her time teaching web design and digital illustration at Sacramento City College, performing feats of web and print marketing for Sierra 2 Center, juggling freelance web projects and making fine art.
Adam Silver
Adam Silver is a native of Southern California, and is a serial entrepreneur. He currently provides WordPress development and support services through ConciergeWP.com, produces two weekly podcasts at KitchenSinkWP.com and The GetOptionsPodcast.com and runs the SouthBay WordPress Meetup. Additionally, he was and is the lead organizer for WordCamp Los Angeles 2016 and 2017.
In his free time, he speaks at industry events sharing his insights and expertise into all things digital. Has been married for 18 years to his amazing wife and has three wickedly cool kids.
Stay Tuned For More Speaker Announcements
WordCamp Sacramento is delivering not only a stellar lineup of speakers, but one value-packed session after another. We’re also excited to be bringing you a complete beginner track teaching attendees how to use WordPress. Stay tuned for more speaker announcements, Beginner Track announcements, ticket information, and more!
Oh, and if you haven’t marked out the dates on your calendar yet, do it now! WordCamp is happening September 16-17, 2017 and trust us, you’re not going to want to miss this show!