Ed Adkins @edadkins
Ed Adkins is a freelance web designer, strategist, and internet geek based in Reno, NV. He’s been building sites using Wordpress as his CMS of choice since 2005 and is a cofounder of Reno Collective.
Thom Allen @thomallen
Thom Allen is an entrepreneur, technology geek, and Founder/CEO of PressDev, a web development and engineering company, based in Salt Lake City, UT. PressDev specializes in custom web and desktop application development for platforms like WordPress and Facebook. Thom has over 20 years experience in the technology industry, focusing on user interface design and agile methodologies. You can also find Thom writing on technology, speaking at many local and national conferences, producing various podcasts, such as the The Jazz Show (all about Jazz music), and The CouchCast (a weekly Utah business and technology show).
John Hawkins @vegasgeek
John Hawkins has worked in the Internet Marketing field for over 15 years and
is the Director of Online Marketing for Las Vegas-based PartnerWeekly.com. A
social media junkie, WordPress evangelist and self-proclaimed geek, John is the
organizer of WordCamp:Las Vegas 2009. In his spare, time he blogs at
JohnHawkinsUnrated.com, is an avid Twitterer, talks WordPress at a weekly Beer
and Blog meetup, enjoys photography and spending time with his wife and two
teenagers.
David LaPlante @davidlaplante
David LaPlante is CEO of Twelve Horses , an online brand marketing and messaging technology company. With a vision of combining full-service marketing agency with a software development company to provide core brand marketing technology services to both local and global brands, today Twelve Horses serves over 200 clients from its Reno and Salt Lake City locations. Since 2003, David has been blogging about online branding and marketing technology, entrepreneurship, skiing, cycling and his “Family 2.0” at davidlaplante.com, which he happily converted to WordPress in March of 2007. David is a founding board member and current Chair of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (another great WordPress site) and serves of the Board’s of EDAWN, Reno Bike Project, Holland Project and Artown.
Colin Loretz @colinloretz Colin’s Presentation & Example Plugin
Colin Loretz is a designer, developer, entrepreneur, and project manager. His weapons of choice include a MacBook, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Wordpress, Adobe Flex and the Adobe Creative Suite. Colin is also the Salesforce.com developer and project manager at Twelve Horses and is a cofounder of Reno Collective Coworking.
Michelle Montoya @michellereno Michelle’s Presentation
Michelle has dual careers and interest in both education and technology. She teaches English at Truckee Meadows Community College where she also serves as the Writing Center Coordinator. When not at the college, she works as a freelance copywriter and as an internet marketing consultant, specializing in social media marketing, search engine marketing, and business blogging. In the classroom, she combines her love for education and technology to interact with her subject matter and her students on multiple levels. As a self-proclaimed “word nerd,” she is lucky enough to get to do what she loves every day and actually get paid for it. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in English writing and a Master of Arts degree with an emphasis in Organizational Management.
Matt Mullenweg @photomatt
He is the founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress and writes a popular blog Photo Matt. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet.
Chelsea Otakan @chexee Chelsea’s Presentation & Example Theme
Chelsea Otakan is a student web designer and digital journalist. She worked for almost 2 years redesigning and developing the online verison of The Nevada Sagebrush, the student newspaper at the University of Nevada, Reno, on Wordpress MU. She works as as Jr. Graphic Designer at Twelve Horses and enjoys Wordpress, design, podcasts, and science fiction.
Kyle Provost @ktparadigm
Kyle Provost first began designing websites is 1995, just as the web was becoming a mainstream communications tool. After a stint in the US Navy from 2001-2007, he returned home to Reno and went straight back into web design and development, working as a freelancer under the business name Paradigm Interactive Inc. He is equal parts designer and developer, with a keen interest in content management systems and rapid workflow strategies.
Joseph Scott @josephscott
Joseph is a California native, living in Utah with his wife and two daughters. He got hooked on email when it meant dialing into a BBS with a 2400 baud modem and ended up memorizing way too much of the AT command set. Access to the Internet changed all that and going to work for an ISP cemented that shift. It also exposed to him to the world of open source, starting with FreeBSD in 1996. From there he spent a number of years in IT doing a little bit of everything.
Jim Turner @genuine
Jim Turner is the founder of the One By One Media and it was his vision that began the business in 2004. Jim is a well-respected professional blogger, mentoring others to become professional bloggers and leading companies through successful online strategies. Jim is a leader in the new industry of social media and business blogging, and is well connected in advertising, public relations, marketing and other business circles. Jim has experience in management and leadership from working in the law for more than 20 years and is taking those skills to the social media arena and making companies successful as they enter into the Web 2.0 business space. Jim lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.
Glenn Weatherson @iamglenn
Glenn Weatherson is a freelance web designer living in Sacramento, CA.
When he’s not on the bike or jumping off a cliff Glenn uses Wordpress
as his choice for a CMS the past 3 years. Question everything, accept
change, and create!
Michael Higdon @mhigdon Mike’s Presentation
For the last several years Mike has focused on trying to solve journalism problems. As a designer, photographer, writer and public journalist, he spends most of his time contemplating the future of journalism and evangelizing about reinventing journalism on his blog, in forums and to colleagues.