Our Speakers

For more information about speaking at the Ottawa WordCamp, please see our Become a Speaker page.

For information about our sessions, please see our Sessions page.

Alan Lok

Alan Lok is the principal owner of WirelessLinx Inc., providing consultant services to business small and large including Trader Corporation, University of Toronto, Toronto Region and Conservation Authority and many others. Previously he was the YellowAPI Developer Advocate at Yellow Pages Group, and have worked almost every job in a software development shop. In his spare time he cycles, dabbles in DevOps work and teaches piano. Alan is obsessed with gadgets and always try to find the latest tech ‘toy.’ His most recent purchase was the Recon Jet.

Alex Ruaux

As a biochemist turned freelance web designer and developer at Molecularcode, Alex now uses WordPress to create fun and interesting websites, frequently perusing the WordPress Plugin repository in search of those little nuggets of gold. Having been so well supported by the WordPress community at the beginning of her new career, she enjoys sharing the knowledge she has acquired with other people passionate about populating the web with clean, functional websites. Alex is also a huge 3D Printing enthusiast and enjoys sharing her love of the technology with anyone who will listen.

Alison Barrett

Alison Barrett has been working with WordPress since 2008, when she started building custom sites for clients and creating plugins for fun. She enjoys speaking at WordCamps and various local meetups, and is a passionate advocate for women in WordPress and tech. When not writing code, she’s usually binge-watching a show on Netflix or building castles in Minecraft. Alison currently works for 10up as a Senior Web Engineer.

Amy Young

Amy is a writer, photographer, musician and a geek of many trades.

Having grown up in a musically oriented family, Amy has spent the majority of her life in the periphery of the music industry, and this likely influences her writing – about the life and times of band Torrent (www.torrentband.com), a classic/AOR rock band.

Angele Lafond

Angele is an award winning accountant and CEO of Shoebox-Be-Gone (the accounting firm that speaks human). Not just your dad’s accountant: she also helps clients streamline their business processes, working smarter not harder.  Her approach is both engaging and informative, bringing in some real-world examples and a few funnies thrown in for good measure.

Ariadni Athanassiadis

Ariadni Athanassiadis is an attorney advising entrepreneurs and professionals about their opportunities to make their expertise, innovations and creativity work for their enterprises and the communities they serve.  Drawing upon her combined experience in science, the arts, teaching and business, she established Kyma Professional Corporation to focus on custom intellectual property solutions for small to medium size enterprises. In the community, Ariadni teaches part-time at the University of Ottawa, and is active in the Women’s Business Network, the Ottawa Chapter for Women in Science and Engineering and the Algonquin College Marketing and Management Studies Advisory Committee.

Ben Fox

Ben Fox is an entrepreneur, consultant and tech skills instructor. He and his team are based out of the Ryerson Digital Media Zone in Toronto. A self-described geek of all trades, he’s that guy you call when {insert technology here} doesn’t work. Ben is the Co-Founder of SIDEKICK, the first guided and interactive help & support plugin for WordPress and WPUniversity, a free and open-source learning centre for WordPress.

Brendan Sera-Shriar

Brendan Sera-Shriar a.k.a. digibomb

Brendan Sera-Shriar has been an interactive designer, developer, college and university professor, community manager, author, consultant, and professional speaker at some of the largest corporations and festivals in the world, including Microsoft, Mozilla Firefox, Sun Microsystems, WordCamp, BlogWorld, SXSW and more. His work has also appeared in TechCrunch, TechVibes, WordPress TV, and a host of other blogs. He was also featured in the October 2012 issue of Marketing Magazine.

Not only does Brendan help others build their businesses he has also founded a few himself, including StartupBump, Creer Magazine, and PressWork just to name a few.

Despite being known best for his work as a WordPress designer, developer, and WordCamp speaker and organizer, Brendan’s best communications skills lie in his ability to help organizations understand how they can build communities around their products and services.  thebrendans.com, @digibomb

Brian Rotsztein

With 17 years of Internet marketing experience, Brian is a strategic consultant, entrepreneur, author, and speaker. As the head of well-established brands such as Uniseo (a boutique Internet marketing agency) and RedstoneX.com (a web design and online marketing company), he brings a hype-free, seasoned approach to working with clients. You may have caught his appearances on CTV News or local radio shows. He writes about SEO, social media, content marketing, business, and entrepreneurship, among other topics. His work has been used by ABC News, USA Today, Search Engine Journal, Social Media Today, Business 2 Community, and other prominent sources. Brian holds two Master’s degrees, has taught university courses, and provides training services on topics such as SEO, content marketing, and social media. His love affair with WordPress began in 2005 when he started with version 1.6! Connect with him on rotsztein.com or on Twitter: @brianrotsztein

Christoph Trappe

A newspaper reporter by trade, Christoph left the newspaper industry in 2007 to research, write and produce training videos for the U.S. financial services industry. He then started a community news site and currently works as a communications executive in the nonprofit sector.

His career has focused on helping organizations tell their stories in authentic and meaningful ways. He uses and teaches brand and traditional journalism as well as content marketing techniques in the pursuit of great stories.

Until recently he helped United Way of East Central Iowa tell its stories in an authentic way through a multi-channel content delivery strategy that engages all of United Way’s key audiences. In April, he started at MedTouch where he works with hospitals across the U.S. on digital strategies.

He lives in Marion, Iowa, USA, with his wife and their daughter.

Christopher Ross

I am a Canadian websites designer, developer, speaker, teacher, and consultant who enjoys long walks with shortcodes, functional arguments, and playing with other people’s APIs.

Elida Arrizza

Elida is slightly obsessed with creating delightful user experiences and determining the best way to do just about anything. She has been WordPressing since 2006. This is her second WordCamp appearance, having spoken last year on ‘Essentials for a Solid WordPress Foundation’. She has 15 years’ experience spanning commercial photography, digital media, design, fine arts and teaching. By day, Elida is a UX Designer at Sid Lee, an acclaimed creative agency based in Montreal. By night, she enjoys sampling fine liquids such as new world wines, craft beers and gourmet balsamics.

Elizabeth Kricfalusi

An online content, design, and production professional, Elizabeth Kricfalusi is often referred to as “the most technical non-technical person I know.” Elizabeth publishes the blog Tech for Luddites, providing tips and tricks for working with WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft Office and other popular technologies. She also teaches an online class on setting up a WordPress site. Originally from Ottawa, Elizabeth now lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

Gregory Young

Gregory is Co-Owner of Alternative Hosting, an Ottawa based web hosting provider. When not helping new clients get setup with web hosting, or performing WordPress maintenance for his clients, Gregory enjoys spending time with his wife and pack of Chihuauas. With over 20 years experience in network and server support, Gregory has seen almost everything (including grilled cheese in the VCR and cookies in the CD-ROM)

James Hipkin

James is an accomplished, forward-thinking marketing professional with 25+ years of multi-disciplinary experience in marketing and marketing communications companies serving high-profile, global brands and B2C clients in consumer packaged goods, durables, transportation, telecommunications and financial services. He has been involved in digital for more than ten years, first as President of a direct marketing agency in San Francisco, where he led the evolution of the agency from traditional direct marketing to digital. Clients included Apple and Wells Fargo online bank. And then as the head of a mid sized agency’s interactive group, with Toyota as the main client. He joined Red8 Interactive (http://red8interactive.com), a long term vendor, as an owner and managing director, 3.5 years ago.

Jasmine Vesque

Jasmine is a WordPress evangelist who enjoys helping people share their most important stories and ideas. She loves teaching and regularly contributes as both an instructor and a mentor to The Ottawa WordPress Group and Ladies Learning Code . This is her second year as a WordCamp Ottawa organizer, and if you’ve ever engaged with @wpottawa on Twitter, you were most likely talking to her.

Jasmine is a freelance web specialist, consultant, and trainer. Her work experience includes government, small businesses, arts groups, and non-profits.  She also volunteers for the non-profit, The Forget for a Moment Foundation, as the VP of Communications and Webmaster.

She is passionate about digital communications, social media and web design. Jasmine also works as a teacher and a freelance web/graphic designer. She welcomes tweets @jasmineVesque.

Joey Kudish

Joey is a Code Wrangler at Automattic, where he works on partnerships, third party integrations, APIs and other projects for WordPress.com. He contributes to several open-source projects including WordPress.org plugins and WordPress core. Joey’s also an enthusiastic world traveller and has been working on the road for several months.

Jordan Quintal

Jordan Quintal is a successful Online Multipreneur, a seasoned Web Developer, as well as a WordPress Contributor and Community Member. Jordan is the current President at The Genius Web Media Inc. that was founded in 2007, and he has over 15 years of web development experience. His skill, intelligence,  and ambition have allowed him and his company to flourish in a very competitive Media market.

Julie Harrison

Julie loves to play with words – for business and pleasure. As an independent communications consultant with CaffeineCommunications.ca, Julie develops strategies and creates content for businesses. As a personal blogger, she shares travel tales and family anecdotes on CoffeeWithJulie.ca. She’s a big fan of strong coffee, social media, and life-long learning. You can connect with her @coffeewithjulie.

Laurie M. Rauch

Laurie M. Rauch wants to live in a world where code is pretty and well-written, proper grammar isn’t a lost art, and chocolate cures everything.

A WordPress-loving front-end web developer, Laurie runs Code Diva, which specializes in WordPress theme development, customizations, and coaching.

When she’s not playing with code, you can find her trying to add a little pretty to her home, unashamedly watching more tv than anyone possibly should, and playing soccer with her dachshund, Oscar.

Lucas Cherkewski

Lucas Cherkewski designs websites and plays with typography in tea-serving establishments all over Waterloo. He believes that humans are people, too, and that we move so quickly we forget that nowadays.

Meagan Hanes

Meagan Hanes is a designer of digital things, photographer, blogger and all around creative gal living in Ottawa. Thorough her company Love Digimedia, she enjoys creating easy-to-use websites and technology solutions for artists, entrepreneurs and other creatives around the world. When not giving back to the community, you’ll find her behind a laptop or smartphone screen. @mhanes

Michael Corkum

Mike Corkum is seasoned web developer with over 14 years of experience. Currently, he works at Carleton University where he and a small team manage 250+ WordPress sites. When he’s not up to his neck in code or banging his head against his desk, he enjoys playing music and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. @cuweb

Michal Bluma

Michal has been around the web for over a decade but has only recently decided to pursue his quest for Internet domination full-time. Having tried his hand at Office automation, Motion Graphics and 3D, he finally realized that the web is where he wants to be. Last year, he gave his first talk at WPMTL and got hooked.
When not writing code or integrating designs, Michal likes to take care of his spouse, his three cats and read comic books. You can see how little he posts online at http://isotrope.net or follow him on Twitter at @isotrope

Michel Fortin

A direct response copywriter and marketing consultant for the better part of 25 years, Michel Fortin is also an expert trainer, web designer, WordPress geek, and serial entrepreneur. He was instrumental in selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products and services for his clients in a wide variety of industries, which included some of the most successful marketing campaigns on the Internet. For example, over a decade ago, Michel was the copywriter behind the first online training product launch in history to have sold over a million dollars in its first day. Together with his wife Sylvie Fortin, Michel is the co-founder of The Licorice Group, an online training and publishing company, that shows you how to build, manage, staff, and grow online businesses. He is the author of “Power Positioning: How to Position Yourself For Internet Success.” Today, he is an in-demand public speaker and highly sought-after consultant around the world.

Mike Venables

Mike got involved with marketing in general and aerospace marketing in particular in 1980 and has been active in that field ever since. He has also developed and licensed GPS mapping software. His marketing activities got him involved with website development 2005. Since incorporating WordPress into his toolbox, this aspect has become increasingly significant. All client websites are now based on WordPress.

Mikey Arce

Mikey is a Happiness Engineer at Automattic where his day to day job is helping people use WordPress, and he absolutely loves it.  In previous jobs, Mikey led support efforts at a computer repair shop, a creative firm, and a University campus.  When not engineering happiness on WordPress.com, Mikey can be found playing tennis, badminton, helping his wife with their hobby farm, or out exploring the beautiful outdoors in Vernon, BC.

Mohammad Jangda

Mo lives in Toronto and wrangles code at WordPress.com (Automattic). He enjoys ice cream and other sugary things.

Paul Bearne

Paul is a senior WordPress Developer currently working on WordPress VIP themes for Metro News and a supper secret WordPress Start-up.

Richard Martin

Richard Martin is an online entrepreneur. He builds online businesses that find, engage, convert and retain customers. Before going online, Richard worked in Silicon Valley with Apple, Cisco and Broadcom. He lives in Ottawa and is one of the WordCamp Ottawa organizers. He has presented at WordCamps in Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal. He can be found at richardgmartin.me and on Twitter @richardgmartin.

Rick Radko

Rick Radko has been creating web sites and applications since 1996. He launched his first WordPress site in 2008. Rick is at home coding plugins, designing custom themes, building multilingual sites and teaching others to do all of those. His involvement in the WordPress community began when he became a co-founder of the Ottawa WordPress Meetup Group and spoke at WordCamp Toronto around the same time in 2011. Since then he has been a repeat presenter at WordCamps Toronto and Montréal, and launched WordCamp Ottawa in 2013.  Rick is the founder of R-Cubed Design Forge, where he develops and designs web sites and applications using open source software. @r3designforge

Ryan Parent

I took economics at Carleton University. Soon after I realized I wanted to start my own business. After considering many ideas I decided to open a photography business here in Ottawa. Over the past 6 years while marketing my photography business I discovered I have an equal passion for the marketing side of running my business. While doing a talk at a web marketing meet-up I was offered work with Marketing Whats New a local marketing agency. Over the past 2 years I have worked on many projects focussing specifically on social media marketing, Search Engine Marketing and email marketing. I recently discovered a problem in our marketing strategy. How to easily get user generated video. So I decided to start tech startup Vidrack and build a WordPress plugin that will solve this problem. And now I spent much of my time marketing our plugin. Vidrack Video Capture

Scott Walkinshaw

Scott Walkinshaw is a full-stack developer from Toronto. He’s one of the main developers of the Roots theme (http://roots.io) and creator of the Bedrock WordPress Stack (https://github.com/roots/bedrock). Scott’s mission is to help WordPress developers modernize their workflow by using the best tools and practices.

Shanta Nathwani

Shanta R. Nathwani is an IT and Social Media Consultant and an Instructor in Web Design and CCIT Capstone at Sheridan College, which includes teaching WordPress. The ICCIT program is a joint program with the University of Toronto at Mississauga. She teaches students and small businesses how to use their websites and social media to increase their online presence leading to increased revenues and improved customer service. She has assisted companies to incorporate social media in the real estate, financial, non-profit, education and technical fields to name a few.

Shanta is a problem solver and it has been said she has the patience of a saint. She can explain even the most difficult concepts to the most basic user and has developed training documents that allow clients to learn for themselves. She thrives on understanding the needs of her clients. She believes in making social media as simple as possible and making it fun, which allows her clients to seamlessly incorporate it into their organization.

Shawn Hooper

Shawn Hooper has been a web developer for almost 20 years, creating applications for both the public and the private sectors.  He is a GIAC certified secure software programmer. At Fivesense Technologies, his current projects include work in e-commerce, 3rd party API integration and custom plugin development.

Stéphane Boisvert

Stéphane was a Senior Advisor for the Federal Liberal party for 4 years leading the party to radical growth in online data acquisitions and donations. He currently works for Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com as a VIP Engineer.

Taylor Lovett

Taylor is a core contributor, plugin contributor, and plugin author. He works for 10up as a Senior Strategic Engineer. He has a BS in Computer Science and builds enterprise level websites with WordPress!

Tony Perez

Tony Perez is one of three co-founders at Sucuri, Inc. Sucuri is a globally recognized organization committed to making the interwebs safer, one website at a time. Tony functions as the Chief Operating Officer at Sucuri, managing the growing staff of 30+ employees, 20,000 + clients and over 200,000 unique domains, performing over 2,000,000 unique website malware scans a month. He is very passionate about website security awareness and education, with a special passion for intrusion forensics and attacker psychology. Tony is a former Marine Corps veteran with two combat tours in Iraq, and holds an undergraduate degree in Technology Management and spends most of his spare time on the mats refining his Jiu Jitsu technique. 

Troy Chaplin

Troy is a passionate WordPress theme developer who enjoys finding new ways to push the envelope and provide more powerful, yet even more simplistic tools and options for clients with each new project. With over ten years of experience in creative environments, Troy has dedicated the last six years, both professionally and personally, to working with WordPress in a variety of ways. Currently a web developer at Carleton University, Troy is heavily involved in assisting a small team to enhance and strengthen the universities online brand and web presence and provide hundreds of content editors with intuitive tools to help promote their various initiatives and activities.

Victor Granic

I’ve been building and hosting WordPress websites for about 5 years. During the 15 years I’ve worked in technology I’ve designed high performance networks and specialized in network security. Currently I’m a co-founder of easyPress.ca, a managed WordPress hosting service operating in Canada.

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