Speakers

Matt Mullenweg | Merlin Mann | Jim Christian | Dave Moyer | Clintus McGintus | Lorelle VanFossen | Jayson Cote | Joshua Strebel | Alon Waisman | Chuck Reynolds | John Hawkins | Brent Spore

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Matt Mullenweg
Matt is best known as the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software he guided from a handful of users to the most widely used open source blog tool. In late 2005 he left CNET to found Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Akismet.com. In his spare time he enjoys taking photographs and playing jazz.

Merlin Mann
Merlin Mann is the founding editor of 43folders.com, a family of websites about personal productivity, “life hacks,” and simple ways to make your life a little better.

Merlin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised on Florida’s humid Suncoast. In his senior year of high school, Merlin dropped his 1st period BASIC class so he could strum Major7 chords in the school’s stage band. Somewhere in this is a story that should tell you much of what you need to know about him.

Aside from writing for 43 Folders, Merlin is also the creator of The Merlin Show, 5ives, and 30 Seconds with Phone Guy. And, in addition to doing an occasional podcast for 43 Folders, Merlin is a host on the popular MacBreak video podcast as well as appearing as a regular guest on the MacBreak Weekly audio roundtable on Leo Laporte’s TWiT network.

More recently, Merlin’s become a sought-after speaker and presenter, and does most of what he does in front of a Mac in the western third of San Francisco, California, where the climate is foggy, the pork xiu mai is plentiful, and his gorgeous wife and daughter are within arm’s reach.

Jim Christian
Jim Christian joined Go Daddy in 2007 and is the lead SEO Guru for the company. Jim’s experience includes an extensive background in search engine optimization spanning a total of 9 years.  Before moving to Arizona Jim managed internet marketing for an aerospace & defense company in California. After moving to Arizona Jim ran his own search engine marketing firm for a few years before finally starting his career at Go Daddy. Jim spends most of his free time studying the three major search engines for changes in the algorithms and how that information can be used to improve rankings for the company and his personal websites.

Dave Moyer
Moyer is the founding president of Bitwire Media, a digital media content network that produces a variety of audio and video shows, and offers multimedia consultation and production services. There he hosts and produces the popular WordPress Community podcast, WordCast, The Aimless Agenda Show, Bitwire: Behind the Scenes, and Best of the Net. He also produces Liz and Lorelle with Liz Strauss and Lorelle VanFossen, is the technical producer for Living a Created Life with DeBorah Beatty, and is the technical and production coordinator for many independently produced podcasts and video shows.

Dave Moyer also just happens to be 16 years old. He lives with his family in the Denver, Colorado area, taking over the entire basement to create a full recording studio facility for his podcasts, video shows, voice over, and development work. He is an accomplished broadcaster, writer and actor, and understands marketing, social media, and self-promotion. He is a gifted speaker and exceptionally entertaining voice character.

He is one of the few recipients of MIT’s Promise of the Future Award, recognizing students for outstanding work and activism in the technology world.

The Clintus
Clintus McGintus (Clint Comer)
Video blogger, father, tea drinker, sushi lover, dirt bike rider, UFC fan, all around attention whore…  Clintus currently resides just outside of Phoenix with his wife and two children and has a background in 3d animation and digital video production. He’s worked on multiple productions in the past but currently is a big fan of the internet and the social scene around it. He carries a camera with him at all times and attempts to capture moments of his life to share with the world.

Lorelle VanFossen
Lorelle VanFossen is considered one of the top bloggers, and women bloggers, in the world. She is the host of the Lorelle on WordPress, providing WordPress and blogging tips for bloggers of all levels, and a contributor to the popular blogging news source, Blog Herald. A web publishing consultant, she also serves as the editor-in-chief of Woopra, the hot new web analtyics program that is changing the web, and Official Distruptive Thinker for Bitwire Media, the multimedia publishing network. She speaks as a keynote and trainer at many WordCamps, blog, and corporate events, and is the author of “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”. Lorelle has been blogging and web publishing since 1994 with Taking Your Camera on the Road, one of the oldest websites on the web, and hosts the Liz and Lorelle Show with Liz Strauss and the popular Bitwire: Behind the Scenes show with Dave Moyer. She is also a regular contributor to the WordCast WordPress Community Podcast, WordPress Podcast, The WordCamp Report, BlogFlux, and Blogger and Podcaster Magazine, as well as in many other print and online publications around the world.

Jayson Cote
Founder – WPCOOP.org – The WordPress Cooperative, an autonomous association of WordPress professionals dedicated to solving problems, creating innovative solutions and constantly redefining the way people and business publish content on the world wide web.

Lead Creative Visionary – GroundUpMedia.com – my company

Jayson is a loving father of 3, entrepreneur, web developer and designer, WordPress authority, social media fanatic and Internet business consultant working with individuals and small businesses on how to maximize their exposure and manage their brand on the social web.  He is currently developing applications to help company’s manage their social media campaigns, build loyalty marketing programs and extend their client, customer communities.

Joshua Strebel
Joshua Strebel is founder of several web startups and lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona. Most recently launched Page.ly, a premium WordPress hosting service.

Alon Waisman
Raised on the mean streets of suburban New Hampshire, Alon can’t help but keep it real, all day, every day. So real, in fact, that you can see him in a couple documentary films (10 MPH and An Evening with Kevin Smith) or hear him host the weekly AM radio show and podcast, ChatterBox Video Game Radio.

An aspiring singer, songwriter, model, key grip, and all around sparkling human being, his days are spent as GoDaddyGuy, pushing the limits of GoDaddy.com’s customer service via social media. Nights are spent being real(er).

Chuck Reynolds
Chuck Reynolds handles Web Strategy at rYnoweb in Phoenix Arizona. He specializes in Wordpress CMS implementation, SEO and helps professionals and businesses with local search marketing and reputation management through social media.

Chuck is heavily engaged in the local community and responsible for organizing the first WordCamp to come to Phoenix, PodCampAz, an un-conference about emerging digital media, and is involved with the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. You can find him online practically everywhere, working at all hours of the night and when not working fidgeting with tech gadgets, riding his mountain bike and hiking and camping throughout Arizona.

John Hawkins
John started his first blog back in 2003, moved to WordPress a short time later and hasn’t looked back. John has been active in all aspects of the WordPress Universe; creating custom themes and plugins, hosting WordCamp:Las Vegas and presenting at WordCamps all over the US. You’ll currently find him blogging at JohnHawkinsUnrated.com.

Brent Spore
Brent Spore is a designer, creator, imagineer, blogger, entrepreneur and friend to anyone who will let him be. With over 20 years experience in the design and multimedia industry, he seems to have done it all and is most likely currently doing it right now. Brent’s passion for life, design and creative media is absolutely contagious. His motto: “Let’s create something together that’s greater than ourselves.”

Brent Spore is also an avid blogger, and is creator and co-author of iboughtamac.com and The Starving Designer blogs. In 2007, he established PodCamp AZ. In 2009, he started CreateLive, a live stream of creatives and tech co-working in their local communities. Brent aims to bring together and educate all comers, young and old about new techie communication tools for business, non-profit, and personal use. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and guest at online shows about social media, community, web design, blogging, podcasting, email marketing and media design.