WordCamp St. Louis

Ryan’s presentation(s): Getting Started with WordPress and Making Awesome Stuff (our finale!)

How many years have you used WordPress? 8

I look forward to speaking because: I find the WordPress community to
be exciting and I want to share that with the WordCamp attendees.

Favorite WordPress Project: I support users on WordPress.com. It’s my favorite because its a really awesome and free tool that enables people to publish content no matter what their skill level. Anyone can have a WordPress site without knowing the technical aspects.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for  all kinds of stuff. It has grown from a blogging platform to powering very large sites. I think in the future it will continue to grow. The success of WordPress is proof that open source is the path to the future.

WordPress has changed the way I live.  It’s what I work with – personally and professionally – 24hrs a day.

Best real-life camping story: I was in high school at a festival and it was about 105 degrees. I had about a dozen people in my group – all sunburned so badly we should have gone to the hospital. At about the end of the festival, I looked in our cooler and found a forgotten jug of water and then jokingly went to use it as a bargaining chip with my friends.

See Ryan & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Learn more about Ryan at ryanmarkel.com

Aaron’s presentation: Advanced Theming: Building Custom Functionality to Make Your Theme Work for You

How many years have you used WordPress? 4 years total, 1 year professionally

I look forward to speaking because: I am excited about getting people to think bigger about their theme and get away from the “out of the box” concept. I want to teach people how small customizations can turn WordPress into a powerful tool.

Favorite WordPress Project: Currently, I am working on a standardized WordPress template for WashU that includes a ton of functionality built in. This template will not only standardize WashU’s brand across multiple platforms, but give us the ability to deploy robust sites quickly.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for  every site that calls for content management. WordPress is the swiss army knife of website platforms.

WordPress has changed the way I approach any web development project.

Best real-life camping story: I love cooking over the camp fire. One morning, I’m unsure how, but my hash browns turned out charcoal grey – they tasted just fine. Now, anytime I go camping I get the request for my infamous grey hash browns.

See Aaron & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Follow Aaron on twitter @CoderAaron

WC 2012 sponsor Marketicity is just as unique as their website!

They are an interactive and communications agency that work with both online and offline worlds. They call themselves an “incubator of creative wisdom in writing and design,” and after being around for almost 20 years that must be one hot incubator!

Marketicity is prepared to be whatever you need to get your message out to the world. With clients like Prairie Farms, we know they have the ability, and strive to do great things!

work

Alex’s presentation: Best Practices and Admin Customization (co-presenting with Joshua)

How many years have you used WordPress? 3.5

I look forward to speaking because: As WordPress continues to grow beyond a blogging platform into a more mature CMS, so do the ways to customize it. There are many options available to enhance the end-user experience, from using simple hooks and filters to add custom branding and UI enhancements, to using more advanced core functions to define new roles and capabilities for users. You can customize just about everything in WordPress!

Favorite WordPress Project: My teams base theme framework. It has taken a while to put together, but now it saves us huge amounts of time whenever we have to start a new WordPress project. My team and I have also just started building a custom locations mapping plugin that we hope to eventually publish into the WordPress plugin repository.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for  Enterprise solutions. We have already seen wordpress.com create a solid solution (WordPress VIP) for their enterprise clients. I think that as developers continue to push the self-hosted version of WordPress more and more enterprise like solutions will start to find there way into the core.

WordPress has changed the way I manage websites. I don’t have to anymore! WordPress allows me to focus on what I love doing the most, development.

Best real-life camping story: Several weeks ago, a friend and I were camping and rock climbing in Arkansas. We made it though half a day of climbing and were about to start our next route, when all of a sudden a huge storm came out of nowhere and trapped us all under a cliff for about an hour and a half. It’s a good thing we decided not to start climbing that next route…

See Alex & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Follow Arod @arod2634
Friend Arod on Facebook

Joshua’s presentation: Best Practices & Admin Customization (co-presenting with Alex)

How many years have you used WordPress? 5

I look forward to speaking because: I’m fascinated by the flexibility and power of WordPress. Customizing themes and the admin is rewarding but knowing the best practices of “”how”” and “”when”” to do so make all the difference.

Favorite WordPress Project: The one Arod and I just finished for a technology leasing firm. We used twitter bootstrap for the front end and added some  unique custom post types and meta boxes to create a great user experience.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for  Enterprise development projects as a fully customized CMS.

WordPress has changed the way I Develop. I now consider the best possible end user experience and WordPress allows me to achieve it.

Best real-life camping story: Camping in Red Rocks Oklahoma, We ran out of firewood and batteries for our flashlights. A raccoon snuck up in the middle of the night and woke me up by loudly snacking on the Fritos I had left out… scary at the time but funny looking back.

See Joshua & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Learn more about Joshua Ray on his site
Follow Joshua @pdxOllo

WordCamp 2012 brings you Red8 Interactive as one of our proud sponsors. Built from the ground up in 2003, their purpose is to help professionals working in online marketing.

They work on time, and on budget to bring your ideas to life. They have the resources to get your project built whether its a banner, landing pages, or full website development.

Their team of 25 people is focused on building what you want quickly and reliably. They learn what your idea is, what you want, and they will see it through.

“We do it Right. We do it tight.”

Home

Code Poet’s purpose is to give you the information to succeed with WordPress. Whether you’re a freelancer, or work for a big huge company, they can help you get the job done, and make you better at what you do.

One of our official sponsors for WordCamp 2012, Code Poet has many publications for the over 10,000 WordPress designers and developers to tap into. With free resources, and free email updates, who could pass up this great way to keep updated with new and cool things about WordPress? NOT US!

Mary’s presentation: One Theme, Many Variations.

How many years have you used WordPress? 2

I look forward to speaking because: I am not rational on the subject of typography and have cared deeply on the subject of design for many years.

Favorite WordPress Project: I am about to start porting frontenactennis.com to WordPress. I’m very excited and think it will become my favorite project. I am looking forward to giving the club the flexibility that WordPress provides.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for everything.  Wordpress is expanding as a CMS.  When you talk about WordPress it is on the same breath with drupal and joomla – in the future it will be on the same breath with serious enterprise platforms.

WordPress has changed the way I build sites. It has changed me from a designer to a developer.  Working with WordPress makes me feel young.

Best real-life camping story: I did a ropes course and by itself thats crazy enough.  But keep in mind that was 25 years and 60lbs ago.

See Mary & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Follow Mary on twitter @marybaum and on Facebook.

Founded in 1872, which makes it one of the oldest private institutions in the region, and with approximately 3,800 students, Maryville University is ranked as one of America’s Best Colleges in the National Universities category by U.S. News. So why wouldn’t we want them involved in WordCamp 2012?

We’re proud to have Maryville University as one of our sponsors!

This is our second year presenting at Maryville. We are excited, because they strive to give students real-world expertise both in and out of the classroom. WordCamp is a great way to get some awesome information and tips from professionals who have been there and done it!

Come see Maryville’s very own Eric Juden, a Web Application Developer, speak about how to use Multisite.

Reshma’s presentation: That’s a WordPress site? Wow! (Design Track)

How many years have you used WordPress? 3.5

I look forward to speaking because: more often than not, users can spot a WordPress site a mile a way and client’s have a preconceived notion of what it can do. It is so important to push the boundaries of usability and design to create extremely custom looking and functioning WordPress websites, all while leveraging the great flexibility the CMS offers.

Favorite WordPress Project: www.anitaalvarez.com has to be one of my favorites. It was one of those projects where we got to interact with a great client, create a show-stopping political website and include interesting functionality to make it feel really current, smooth and well-made. The design is clean and simple, with small treats that encourage you to keep exploring.

In the future, I see WordPress being used for  robust e-commerce platform

WordPress has changed the way I approach business and dealing with clients. WordPress allows me to teach them how to fish – they can make changes on their own – and we at B&C can spend time working with our clients to innovate.

Best real-life camping story: I am a city girl through and through and avoid camping. Bugs and tents are like torture, buildings and public transport… now you are talking!

See Reshma & other great WordPressers at WordCamp STL 2012

Learn more about Reshma at her site
Follow Reshma on Twitter – @bcdesigners
Friend B & C Designers on Facebook