Speaker Spotlight: 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.

Shanta is presenting: WordPress For Small Businesses

1) Why do you like using WordPress?
WordPress is extremely easy to use, but can also be as complex as we need it to be. It truly levels the playing field and empowers people to take charge of their own online presence.

2) Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Ottawa?
It has been a number of years since I have been in Ottawa, and it fit in nicely with my gall to speak at five WordCamps this year. It is a beautiful city, so it seemed like a natural fit.

3) What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?
I want them to be able to manage their own website. It may only be the beginning, but they will certainly walk away with more than what they came in with especially as it relates to organizing the data on their website. If nothing else, they will walk away with a lot of post-it notes and a lot to think about.

4) What is your favourite WordPress plugin or theme? Why?
This is a tough decision. However there are two plug-ins that I would install for any of my clients: WordFence and Backup Buddy. WordFence helps protect against things like viruses and attacks on a WordPress site. It is the security plug-in. Backup Buddy does backups of your site automatically and it is also used as a migration tool. Both are extremely easy to use and I teach my clients how to use them.

About Rick Radko

Website/app developer/designer and tech trainer. At R-Cubed Design Forge, I develop custom plugins, themes and multilingual sites and mobile apps. Ottawa WordPress Meetup organizer, WordCamp Ottawa organizer and WordCamp Canada Organizer. I have spoken frequently at WordCamps Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal.
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