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.

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. 🙂