Category Archives: Speakers

Speaker Interview: Mary Baum

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We know there’s been a lot of posts being published and shared to your inboxes in such a short time, but we’re a little half-way through our Speaker Interview series. We really hope you’ve enjoyed some of them and have learned something behind each individual.

This interview is with well-connected local, Mary Baum. Mary is a really spunky lady with a lot of knowledge of St. Louis and even design. You can find out more about her in her speaker bio.

Mary is scheduled to present – Structure, Style, Story: What Goes Where?

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

MARY BAUM: I was involved with a hardcore direct marketing group, and it was becoming clear I needed to be able to design for WP – it was a problem that I’d never done anything with the platform to speak of.

Suddenly, the summer I turned 50, I had three WP projects: A news site for the mayor of U City, a blog for my SIL and the branding of your pal and mine, Retail Rich. (Note: Mary and I worked with Retail Rich.)

As freaked out as I’d been over turning 50, suddenly I had a whole new challenge: PHP. (And at that point I was only fair to middling with my CSS.)

Further, I had started using a purported no-coding solution for functionality – commerce, email marketing, events – and was paying a fortune for no support, even when something broke. Also, their no-code/shortcode system was plenty convoluted – it’s really just as simple to learn PHP and to tweak plugins.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

MARY BAUM: Porting Frontenac Racquet Club to Genesis in fall 2012 from static html. I was doing it for my own reasons, so the design needed to look exactly like the previous version. It took me two tries and some CSS3 nth-child shenanigans, but it lives and breathes.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

MARY BAUM:1. Reveal IDs, because I like to be SURE what categories (etc) I’m targeting for blog-page and other layouts.

2. iThemes Security, because: I really don’t ever want to hear about a hacking from the client.
Also, my fighter pilot did get hacked – while another security plugin was running. And, while I know he’s left iThemes, Chris Wiegman is a Twitter bud. He’s often the only one to answer when I have a question or make comments on my VERY twisted perspective. And he’ll politely tell me when I’m wrong.

3. Regenerate Thumbnails, because I change image sizes a lot.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

MARY BAUM: Everybody on Twitter knows how proud I am of my daughter the sportswriter.

Well, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree:

  • In college in Rhode Island (she went to school in Boston),
  • I did sports on the radio (she was sports editor of the paper)
  • and was a student of pro football (she’s a huge baseball fan).

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

MARY BAUM: Learn some CSS, even if you’re not a designer, so you can make simple tweaks without bugging your developer (you’ll save money, too.)

Security, security, security:

  • Install a security plugin and learn to configure it.
  • And I don’t care if a name like Adminonnia or Vicadminnius has been in your family since the Hundred Years’ War – NOBODY registered on the back end should have the letters ‘admin’ as any part of their user name, their real name or their dog’s name. It’s the one thing that makes it way too easy to get compromised.

You can kick it with Mary at WordCamp St. Louis on March 14th and 15th. She’s really witty and you’ll learn a lot. You can also reach out to her in the comments below. 🙂

Speaker Interview: Jason Yingling

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St. Charles resident, and Cardinal’s fan, Jason Yingling is next up to bat in our Speaker Interview series.

You can read more about Jason in his speaker bio too. Jason will be presenting on Advanced Custom Fields’ Flexible Content Field.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

JASON YINGLING: My first experience with WordPress came while trying to set up a site I could easily update and manage content on back when I was only familiar with basic HTML and CSS. I kept seeing WordPress pop up as a suggestion and decided to try to figure it out.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

JASON YINGLING: At Red8 Interactive we recently launched a large site at BishopRanch.com. It’s got tons of custom functionality and has the biggest ecommerce setup I’ve ever worked on. It also was created to use reusable templates so they can add new pages of any kind in the future using Advanced Custom Fields and flexible content fields.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

JASON YINGLING: Advanced Custom Fields is number 1 and 2 through 3. But instead of cop out on the question I’ll say Gravity Forms as number 2. Although it’s not the most fun to customize styles on. And for 3, I’ll throw out Easy Footnotes if it is a blog, because I built it, and I use it in every post I write.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

JASON YINGLING: I developed and write for a St. Louis sports based site called ViewFromThePine.com. Although I guess that is not really that interesting.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

JASON YINGLING: If you’re a developer get familiar with Advanced Custom Fields, it will save you tons of time. As a user, learn some basics of development. It’ll save you time and money trouble shooting small issues.

Looks like his presentation, you’ll all have to take some great notes. Feel free to ask Jason questions in the comment area below or at WordCamp St. Louis.

Speaker Interview: Ryan Markel

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Ryan Markel is a Happiness Engineer for WordPress.com VIP and a St. Louis local. I’m happy to be able to slip him some questions for our Speaker Interview series. I hope you enjoy it too.

You can read more about him at his speaker bio. Ryan will be presenting on Jetpack.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

RYAN MARKEL: I had been involved in blogging basically since it was a thing, and tried pretty much everything available at the time. WordPress is what “stuck.” I’ve been using it ever since.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

RYAN MARKEL: I work daily on WordPress.com VIP, which is by far the most interesting thing I have ever done with WordPress. We support high-traffic and complicated WordPress sites for major publishers and companies, all on WordPress.com.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

RYAN MARKEL:1. Jetpack – the essentials for almost all WordPress sites. It covers so much of the necessities and makes WordPress better out of the box.

2. WP Super Cache – at least for shared hosts, having static caching is a must for site speed. This is usually the second thing I install.

3. Akismet – because no one likes spam. 🙂

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

RYAN MARKEL: I participate in a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network every year called Extra Life – it raises money for local hospitals. In the last two years, I’ve raised over $1500 for St. Louis hospitals. It’s a great program that has real benefits for kids who need treatment for various illnesses.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

RYAN MARKEL: CREATE! You should start creating, writing, and posting as soon as possible when you start a site, and do this as often as you can. Experiment. Shotgun code and design. See what sticks.

The more you actively create, the better you will come at creating and the less work it will seem to be.

Speaker Interview: Nile Flores

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Our next person in our Speaker Interview series is Nile Flores, and since it would be a little odd to have her ask herself these questions I went ahead and asked for her thoughts.

Nile is going to be talking about Blogging and Content Creation

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AARON GRAHAM: What got you interested in WordPress?

NILE FLORES: I used b2 cafelog prior to WordPress. I got into b2 because I manually blogged before that. Manually blogging means that I wrote my post onto a page and had a 3rd party comment script like Haloscan. What sold me on b2 cafelog at the time was a combination of things- 1, a stable platform that could save comments and posts, and 2- Emoticons!

One of my favorite plugins at the time was b2 grins (eventually called wp grins) by Alex King. I had made smiley graphics (emoticons) in many different styles, and gave them for free. I even told people how to change the built in ones that came with b2 and how to add even more. 

Eventually, I got the news about WordPress and made the switch. It took rolling back b2 to a non-hacked version so I could smoothly transition. Since then, I’ve been happy with WordPress.

AARON GRAHAM: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

NILE FLORES: I think the most interesting project I’ve worked on is when I worked on Melinda Emerson’s website. Melinda is Forbe’s #1 Small Business Expert. While I was merely the developer hired for the project, I got to speak directly with Melinda and learned a lot from our talks. 

AARON GRAHAM: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

NILE FLORES:
1. WordPress SEO by Yoast – I may work for Yoast, but I’ve been using WordPress SEO for years. It’s a great tool and always first on my recommendation list.

2. FooBox – I do write a lot of tutorials and sometimes the screenshots are really big. FooBox by FooPlugins has been a great addition

3. Plugin Organizer – I don’t have tons of time writing conditional statements to prevent specific scripts from loading on a single page. This plugin has allowed me to shut down unnecessary scripts from running, while allowing me to optimize web page speed.

AARON GRAHAM: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

NILE FLORES: Hmmm… what doesn’t the community know that I haven’t already said? That’s kind of tough. So, I guess, what people don’t know is that while I am a 1st Dan black belt in Shoren Kempo (I’m working toward my 2nd Dan), I also study Kyusho, which is the study of vital points. Kyusho, if done properly has medical applications. It can also be used in offensive moves of martial arts (in fact, well done kata can also clue Kyusho practioners on vital points) and works well with joint locks.

AARON GRAHAM: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

NILE FLORES:
1- You don’t need to be perfect at writing. Just write. You can always go back to edit it later.

2 – Always have a back-up plan for your WordPress site!

Don’t forget that you can ask Nile questions here or at the event, so please don’t forget to buy your ticket.

If you’ve got any more questions for Nile, free to post them here in the comments.  Or if you’ve got your tickets, you can stop by and ask her at her session or the happiness bar.

Speaker Interview: Chase Replogle

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Our next person in our Speaker Interview series is Chase Replogle.

Chase builds websites for a living. He’ll be presenting a beginner track on Planning Your Website. 🙂

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I got interested in WordPress while in college. Being open source and free, it was the perfect foundation to learn on.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I’m currently working on an application which allows brand designers to build online brand guides and share with clients. Instead of passing logos back and forth over email, designers can manage all of a brand’s assets online. The whole application with monthly membership fees, a user management system, and front-end posting is built on WordPress Multisite.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

CHASE REPLOGLE: Gravity Forms, Advanced Custom Fields, and WP Migrate DB Pro

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

CHASE REPLOGLE: I listen to a lot of Bluegrass and am slowly working on my mandolin skills.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

CHASE REPLOGLE: “Not all themes are created equal.” Really do your homework when picking a theme or having one built. WordPress’ best asset is its flexibility, but that can often lead to challenges when learning the platform, complicated further by poorly organized and documented themes.

Don’t forget that you can ask Chris questions here or at the event, so please don’t forget to buy your ticket.

Speaker Interview: Lucas Lima

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As part of our Speaker Interview series, Lucas Lima lives in St. Louis, but is from Brazil, and participates in both the St. Louis WordPress community, and WP-Brazil.

Lucas is extremely enthusiastic about being involved in all that is WordPress, and especially the philopsophy of Free Software. You can read more about Lucas in his bio. He’ll be presenting – Managing WordPress Projects.

At the event, Lucas will be helping with Kids Camp.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

LUCAS LIMA: I’m advocate of the Free Software philosophy and democratization of the internet. WordPress was my first and only choice when looking for free software tools that could empower people that need a space in the web but don’t have the necessary knowledge or money to get a website. In addition to that, the strong community and sense of fellowship made me really think that WordPress is the right tool to democratize the web publishing possible.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I work with many interesting projects with my colleagues at Brasa and each of them has challenges and something cool to learn.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

LUCAS LIMA: Contact Form 7​: Amazing plugin, really flexible and with wonderful support documentation.

Jetpack: Wonderful set of tools that can accomplish many of the basic requirements.

Hello Dolly: Which symbolizes the enthusiasm of the ones behind WordPress.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I practice Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art created by African Slaves in Brazil as a means to protect themselves from their oppressors over 400 year ago. Capoeira creates a strong sense of community and develops self discipline, the difference from other martial arts that I know is the mix of agile movements and music which is played when players are in the game called “Roda”. In 2014, Capoeira became Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

LUCAS LIMA: ​I would say to take advantage of this great community of supporters behind the tool to understand better all the possibilities to leverage WordPress for you objectives. There are a lot of people out there willing to help, you just need to find them and ask. :)​

If you’ve got questions for Lucas, feel free to ask here on the website, or wait until the event. He’ll be happy to answer. 🙂

Speaker Interview: Jarrett Gucci

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Jarret runs a WordPress fix it service where he helps fix WordPress problems for a small flat rate fee. He’s taken some time to participate in our Speaker Interview series.

Jarrett also runs a community on Facebook that is WordPress related. You can find out a lot more about Jarrett in his bio.

Jarrett will be presenting on What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

JARRETT GUCCI: At first because I was looking for a solution that I could pass off to client and allow them to manage their own content. What kept me around WordPress was and is the community behind it.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

JARRETT GUCCI: JamesRay.com which included e-commerce and sensei lesson drip.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

JARRETT GUCCI: So hard to pick just 3 but these I would say are a must.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

JARRETT GUCCI: I have a passion to help homeless people and hope one day to start my movement called PB&J Across the USA where 1 million PB&J sandwiches will be passed out to homeless people.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

JARRETT GUCCI: Make sure you have selected a host that accommodates WordPress and offers excellent support. Get involved in online WordPress communities to forge relationships with others that can help when you get stuck.

If you have any questions for Jarrett, you can either ask in the comments section of this post, or at the conference.

Speaker Interview: Christoph Trappe

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Speaker Interview Series

Christoph is from Iowa and regularly speaks to spread the news on the very topic he will be presenting here at WordCamp St. Louis – Re-Imagine Blogging as Authentic Storytelling. You can read more about Christoph in his bio here at WordCamp St. Louis.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

CHRISTOPH TRAPPE: I first used it to launch EasternIowaNews.com. It’s so easy to get started. I heard about how easy it is to use.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

CHRISTOPH TRAPPE: Probably EasternIowaNews.com, but I’m currently in love with my current project at AuthenticStorytelling.net. It was also fun and a learning experience to launch topical websites for a local media company a few years ago. Details: http://authenticstorytelling.net/topical-websites-gazette-company-2010-2012/

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

CHRISTOPH TRAPPE: Editorial Calendar, Jetpack, and Yoast SEO.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

CHRISTOPH TRAPPE: I blog on the mobile app while riding a stationary bike. A lot. 300 words in 30 minutes is possible.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

CHRISTOPH TRAPPE: Just start. Share great stories!

Speaker Interview: Hilary Fosdal

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As part of our Speaker Interview Series at WordCamp St. Louis 2015, we’ve turned our attention to Hilary Fosdal.

Hilary will be speaking about Steps to Finding and Hiring a Web Designer. Hilary is from Chicago, Illinois, and runs a business that helps builds the presence of other businesses.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

HILARY FOSDAL: After I learned HTML and CSS I started exploring open source content management systems. WordPress had great documentation and an active community – two things that were important to me.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

HILARY FOSDAL: Most recently, the most interesting WordPress-related project I’ve worked on is the Leukemia Research Foundation’s ABC7 Gibbons 5k website.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

HILARY FOSDAL: iThemes Security = Safety first!

Contact Form 7 = Keep the lines of communication open.

Google Analytics by Yoast = Tracks everything!

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

HILARY FOSDAL: I am fascinated by competitive eating. Attending (not participating in) the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is on my bucket list. I watch Furious Pete’s YouTube videos. You should too.

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

HILARY FOSDAL: Never stop experimenting. Don’t be afraid of breaking things. When things break you get an opportunity to fix them and in the process learn more – which in turn makes you more courageous in your work.

Please feel free to say hello to Hilary in the comments below, or at WordCamp St. Louis. Don’t forget to buy a ticket to the event or you’ll miss out on a lot of awesome stuff, including Hilary’s presentation.

Speaker Interview: Tim Sisson

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Hope you’ve been enjoying some of the answers that our presenters have been sharing for our Speaker Interview Series. This interview is with Tim Sisson.

Tim is with InMotion Hosting as head of their Customer Community Team. You can learn a little more about Tim in his bio too.

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NILE FLORES: What got you interested in WordPress?

TIM SISSON: In 2009 I took a job with an engineering company managing their internet marketing and they happened to use WordPress for a blog. But the interest didn’t fully take hold until I was writing about it at InMotion Hosting about 5 years ago. There’s where the love of all things WordPress really took shape.

NILE FLORES: What is the most interesting WordPress-related project you’ve worked on?

TIM SISSON: They’ve all been interesting in their own right. I definitely favor projects that expand the boundaries of what WordPress can do. The fact that its such a flexible tool makes it incredibly strong. Lately, moving content from other platforms on a large scale has interested me and proven to be a great challenge.

NILE FLORES: Name 3 WordPress plugins that have always been on your MUST install list, and why.

TIM SISSON: This is such a loaded question! It’s like asking me which child of mine is my favorite… but right now…

Gravity Forms – Small price to pay for an incredibly flexible plugin especially if you have unique needs within your forms. It’s much more these days than contact forms.

Events Manager Pro – This allows us to plan events, have people register, manage the spreadsheets for check-ins. The Pro version is worth it and really has allowed us to expand revenue streams for the non-profit.

W3 Fastest Cache- Caching can make a huge difference in page load performance. We all know what speeding up your page load times does for your user experience. This particular caching plugin is simple to use.

NILE FLORES: What is something interesting about you that the WordPress community doesn’t know?

TIM SISSON: I smoke and cure meats. It’s a neat hobby to learn the science and art of curing meats (without killing folks!). Last year we made some cured hunters sausage and wild goose prosciutto. Cooking in general is a way to step away from a computer screen and interact with my kids. Cooking is a family experience in my house!

NILE FLORES: In regards to new WordPress users, what one or two pieces of advice would you give them that could be very helpful?

TIM SISSON: Take your time and ask for help. There’s plenty of people especially at WordCamps who are experts in their own right. Take advantage of their accessibility and ask them for advice. The great thing about WordPress is it’s been used for so much, someone before you has likely tried what you’re trying to accomplish. I haven’t met a single person in the community that wasn’t willing to offer up advice.

If you have questions for Tim… don’t be shy. Feel free to leave them in the comment section below, or catch him at the event. 🙂