Get to Know Your Speakers: Cameron Barrett

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1) What do you do for a living (company you work for, official title, daily responsibilities, etc.)
I’ve has been blogging since you were in grade school (well, some of you). I pioneered the blog format in the late 1990s and remember an eager, bright-eyed young man named Ma.tt being excited to meet one of the “founding fathers of blogging” in 2003.
I have designed and built web sites for presidential candidates, the U.S. Army, the World Economic Forum, Teach for America and I lead the migration of 70+ web sites from a terrifically-bad, proprietary SaaS to WordPress Multisite for New Jersey’s largest public school district.

I hail from Northern Michigan, but grew up internationally, and currently live in Northern NJ with my family. I am leading the charge for embracing “WordPress in Schools” and my goal is to eventually have all 14,000+ public school districts in this country using WordPress in some way through a services-based company called SchoolPress.

2) How did you get into WordPress?
Now, this is a story about how my site got flipped-turned upside down. I’ll take a minute to just sit right here and tell you how I came to use WordPress. I was born and raised in West Philadelphia where I spent most of my days chilling out online. But then I got all mixed up with 4chan and some guys who were up to no good. They started to make trouble in my online neighborhood. I got into one little Internet fight and my mom got scared. She said, “You’re moving with your aunt and uncle to California.”

I begged and pleaded with her day after day but she packed up my  MacBook Air and sent me on my way. She gave me a kiss and gave me my ticket. I put on my earbuds and said, “I might as well switch it up.” I flew first class, orange juice out of a champagne glass and all. Is this what living in California is going to be like? All right.

Well, the plane landed and when I came out there was a due who looked like a cop standing there with my name on a card. I wasn’t sure what to do, I just got here, so I hightailed it out of there and whistled for a cab. The license plate said Ma.tt and it had dice in the mirror. If anything, I could say this cab was rare. But I thought, “California, take me and my MacBook Air.”

We pulled up to a house around 7 or 8pm and I yelled to the cabbie, “Yo Ma.tt, see ya later.” I looked at my kingdom. I was finally there. To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?
I especially appreciate the willingness and eagerness of WordCamp attendees to help others out, no matter their level of expertise. I spend a lot of time at very technical conferences and the technical vs non-technical cliques are very obvious. WordCamps span the gap quite well.

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?
Biking, hiking and travel. About 15 years ago I came very close to starting an adventure travel company in Siberia but the funding fell through and the local Russian mafia advised me against it.

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?
Wapuu. It’s not every day that you get to be the mascot for every WordCamp in the world.

Get to Know Your Speakers: George Stephanis

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George Stephanis1) What do you do for a living (company you work for, official title, daily responsibilities, etc.)

I work for Automattic, leading the team that builds the Jetpack plugin! 🙂

2) How did you get into WordPress?

I got into WordPress in depth around 2011 while freelancing — I was looking for a way to give back to the community and software project that had made my life so much easier.

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?

While at the contributor day following WordCamp Philly 2011 — my very first WordCamp — Nacin merged in my first changeset to core, which I think was converting three sequential periods `…` into an ellipses `…` entity.

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?

I enjoy woodworking and letterpress printing.

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Probably Gilad Pellaeon, from the old Star Wars Extended Universe.  While he was an officer in the Imperial Navy and later the Imperial Remnants, he wasn’t evil, but rather an advocate for order, peace, and providing as best as could be managed for all the citizens under his purview.

Yes, I’m picking a Star Wars character, and no, this decision was in no way influenced by Joe.

Tell People You’re Going to WordCamp Scranton!

News,

We’ve created a few badges for you to let people know where you’ll be on July 18th!

wc-volunteer-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-volunteer-badge.jpg" alt="wc-volunteer-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-sponsor-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-sponsor-badge.jpg" alt="wc-sponsor-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-speaker-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-speaker-badge.jpg" alt="wc-speaker-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-attendee-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-attendee-badge.jpg" alt="wc-attendee-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

What the Fork Truck will Provide Lunch at WordCamp Scranton

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WordCamps are a jam-packed day of learnin’, networkin’, talkin’, and WordPressin’. Because of that, we want to make sure all of the attendees are well-fed so they have all the energy they need! Since our venue would require folks to get in a car and drive to get lunch, we decided to bring lunch to them.

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We are happy to announce that the What the Fork Truck will be providing lunch to our attendees from 11:30am – 1:30pm!

Not only do they have a wide range of delicious food to choose from (I recommend the pork tacos), but they also ranked #2 in Kelly and Michael’s Truckin’ Amazing Cook Off!

You can check them out on their website…we can’t wait to have them at the event!

Getting to Know Your Speakers: Dustin Meza

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Dustin Meza1) What do you do for a living (company you work for, official title, daily responsibilities, etc.)

I’m the Director of Customer Experience Operations at WP Engine. While my world changes every single day, the goal of the Customer Experience Operations team is to enable WP Engine to scale and maintain a world class experience for our customers. This is done by constantly innovating and providing tools, knowledge, resources, and more to our Support team, our Customers, and the Community.

2) How did you get into WordPress?

I joined WP Engine about two and a half years ago and hadn’t used WordPress before that, slowly but surely I grew my knowledge with a goal of being so knowledgeable I could handle customer tickets. When I got married last year I created our wedding site in WordPress which became my first venture into building a complete site, it was a lot of fun! I now want to give back to the community and am speaking at 3 WordCamps in July!

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?

My first ever WordCamp was in Chicago, and it was a blast! Meeting so many people, making so many friends. My favorite part was on the last day a big group of us went on a river architecture tour and then went and watched the San Antonio Spurs win the NBA Championship, it was a night I’ll never forget!

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?

Sports, I’ll basically play or watch any sport. Soccer is my favorite, and I’ve been watching all the Women’s World Cup matches currently going on. GO USA!

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

James Bond, specifically from the Daniel Craig movies. I’m a huge fan of the new Bond movies and I feel they’re doing such an awesome job of making Bond more human, showing his flaws, having him struggle with real world problems. But all the while gallivanting across the world and fighting evil!

Get to Know Your Organizers: Phil Erb

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Phil&Theresa1) What do you do for a living (company you work for, official title, daily responsibilities, etc.)
 
As a Systems Administrator & Programmer at the University of Scranton, I’m involved in a wide variety of technologies including out authentication and management systems, e-mail and collaboration platforms, and (of course) multiple WordPress installations for various blogs and sites.
 
2) How did you get into WordPress?
 
I used to have the notion that, as an IT professional, I should be coding my own sites. What usually ended up happening is that I never did much with my personal sites, because I didn’t have time to put into them. After playing with WordPress off and on with test sites, I finally made the jump to WordPress on my personal site (philerb.com) with WordPress 2.9 (December 2009). The more I dabbled, the more I realized the potential, especially with Custom Post Types in 3.0 and beyond.
 
3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?
 
My first WordCamp was Philly 2012. I’d only had limited interactions with the wider WordPress community up to that point (a couple of podcasts, browsing the forums, a little chat on Twitter), so this was a huge eye opener for me. I knew the software was great, but experiencing all those folks willing to share their experiences and knowledge – not only in sessions, but in hallway conversations, over lunch, exchanging e-mails – it’s incredibly exciting!
 
4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?
 
Living in a beautiful part of northeast PA, I try to get outside as much as possible to go hiking, camping, and playing in the yard with the kids. My other hobby is introducing my kids to all of the geeky greats – of course they’re ready for Star Wars Episode VII.
 
5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Scotty, from Star Trek – because I always multiply my estimates by a factor of four. How else could I be considered a miracle worker?

Get to Know Your Organizers: Joe Casabona

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1) What do you do for a living?

I’m a Front End Developer at Crowd Favorite, where we do enterprise-level development specializing in WordPress. I generally do things like theme and plugin development using HTML, Sass/CSS, Javascript, and PHP. I work with our Backend Developers to make super cool things!

2) How did you get into WordPress?

My freshman year of college (2003-04), my friend Steve Mekosh introduced me to this new blogging platform called WordPress. I checked it out and really liked. From there I started to play around with it, implementing it on my own blog first then doing some pilot programs with freelance clients I had. Around 2006-2007 I really started to push WordPress as a service since it was maturing, transforming from a blogging platform to a CMS. Now, it’s my go-to solution 🙂

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?

Perhaps my most memorable experience is WordCamp Chicago 2014. Not only was there a great crowd at my talk and the conference in general, but Saturday I got to hang out with some really really great people, many of whom I now get to work with on a daily basis, including Chris and Karim! It was an incredibly fun night and the whole conference was a blast.

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?

When I’m not in front of a computer, I like to spend time with my incredible fiancee Erin (pictured), play the drums, travel a bit, and I smoke cigars from time to time. I’m also a very big Star Wars and Disney fan; since my brother works at Disney World, I take a lot of opportunities to visit him 😉

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Luckily the last question informs this one. I think I would be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s wise, a great fighter, strong with the Force. Oh and he’s a Jedi! What more could you want?

Sessions Announced!

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Now that our lineup is sured up (did you see Rami Abraham is also speaking now?), it’s time to announce the sessions and schedule! While we are finalizing the schedule now (announcing later this week), we have posted the sessions here. We have a great line up – everything from getting started to doing some crazy thing! Here’s a short list:

  • Coming Back to WordPress (Keynote!)
  • New Users: Make WordPress Your Friend!
  • WordPress Upgrades: Ready, Set, Go!
  • Birthing a Child Theme
  • Developing locally with ServerPress
  • WP3D: Using WordPress to power 3D environments

…and a bunch more! We couldn’t be more excited for the day. You can see and read about all of the sessions here.

So…did you get your ticket yet 🙂

Announcing the Second Half of our Speakers!

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On Monday we announced the first half our of speaker lineup. Here’s the second half, including our keynote speaker!

…and our Keynote Speaker, Zach LeBar (@zachlebar), who will talk about how he briefly left WordPress, but is back! We know it will make for a great way to start off our day.

You can read about all of our speakers on the Speaker page. Sessions and Schedule are coming soon- get your tickets today!