Blogger Track

Tom Hapgood

Tom is an art professor at the University of Arkansas who specializes in digital design and interactive media. He teaches art and journalism students how to use such whiz-bang programs as Flash, Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop. Tom lived in Germany during the 1980s and continues to find a place in his heart for that country’s heavy metal music.

He will present the following seminar:

• Making it Mine: Customizing a WordPress Theme

Sonia Davis Gutierrez

Sonia is a co-founder and the president of the New Design School and the New Design Center. She is applying her 15 years of experience, knowledge, and appreciation for design and technology on these nonprofit entities providing design research and education opportunities in Northwest Arkansas.

She will present the following seminar:

• Crafting a Beautiful Blog: Principles of visual design

Syed Balkhi

Syed is the founder of WPBeginner. He is a 19 year old, University of Florida Student, who is known for his agressive marketing skills, creative designs, and expertise in SEO. Syed has been in the industry for over seven years, and he has worked with some of the top clients in the industry. He blogs at Balkhis.com. Check it out, and follow him on twitter.

He will present the following seminar:

• I’ve got a Blog, Now What do I do? (The holy grail of Blogging)

Blogging is fun. It is cool. And yes your blog can make you famous that is only if you do it right. This presentation will discuss everything that you can and should do once you have launched your blog, so you can take it to the next level.

Christopher Spencer

Christopher is a co-owner and co-publisher of Ozarks Unbound, an online news and culture site for Northwest Arkansas and The Fayetteville Food File, a coming source for all things foodie in Fayetteville. Before becoming a born-again WordPresser, he was a print reporter for about a decade, working for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.

He will present the following seminar:

• Toward a Free Press: Publishing Online With WordPress

Anna Miller

Anna has experience in technology, marketing, media planning and advertising. Her media and advertising experience includes online, direct mail, print and television. She’s worked in the high tech, travel, insurance, media and entertainment categories and held management positions at Telenovela TV, PacifiCare (United Healthcare), Apex Learning, Sunmakers Travel and Atinera. Prior to her marketing career, Anna was a database developer for over eight years including two years at Microsoft on the SQL Server 2000 replication team.

Anna developed a proprietary analytics program used by one of the largest online video game companies in the U.S. and by Telenovela TV.  At Telenovela TV, Anna designed the first direct to advertiser television ad placement system that allowed an advertiser to select and purchase a television schedule based on viewer demographics. During this time, Anna worked with major U.S. and international advertisers including Duracell, Mattel, McDonalds and FiberTel (a telecommunications company in Argentina). Currently, Anna is working on several projects with her family company, Green Ventures LLC, including the commercial release of the new version of her analytics product and quality assurance technology for the healthcare industry.

She will present the following seminar:

• Understanding Analytics – Why Google Analytics Matters

“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital” – Aaron Levenstein

In this session, Anna will show you how to use Google Analytics to gain actionable intelligence from your website or blog usage data. Intelligence that can help you improve your traffic flow, search engine rankings and attract advertisers.

Developer Track

Michael Van Winkle

Michael is a web designer and developer hailing from Little Rock, AR and living in the greater New York City area. He’s been working with WordPress since 2006. In 2009, one of his projects won the Web Marketing Association’s “WebAward” for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development. When he’s not consulting for small businesses and non-profit organizations he works full time as Web Director for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) where he uses WordPress as the primary content management system. He received a Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2005 and a BA in Political Science from the Universirty of Illinois-Chicago in 2002.

He will present the following seminar:

• WordPress + Pods = CMS. Sort Of

He will demonstrate how to use the Pods CMS plugin to turn WordPress into a Content Management System and discuss the potential risks and rewards of doing so.

Tammy Hart

Tammy is a successful, self-taught, freelance designer who has leveraged trial, error, and observation to become a WordPress expert. She loves to talk about deep customization of WordPress content and templates. While specializing in WordPress themes and CMS development, she also does all levels of Web Design and XHTML/CSS Coding. You can find her website at Tammy Hart Designs.

She will present the follow seminar:

• Freelancing with WordPress

WordPress is a powerful tool for launching the most basic blog, to the most complex and intricate page-based site. Learn how to sell WordPress to your clients, walk them through the design and functionality, and the holy grail of web development: how to get them to deliver their content. We’ll also go over some tips on helping them learn to use their new site.

Mitch Cantor

Mitch is a WordPress designer living in Franklin, Tenn. Labeled as the “Chief Creative Mercenary” of studionashvegas, he loves taking WordPress to new heights by creating websites that are both visually stimulating and functional to the last detail. His client list includes some of the superstars of the marketing and social media world, as well as bloggers and businesses from coast to coast and beyond.

Mitch also travels around talking to anyone who would listen about how awesome WordPress is, and how anyone can better their blogs and their business by switching to the most popular content management system around.

Mitch currently blogs on studionashvegas about all things WordPress, and a few personal things too.

He will present the following seminar:

• Making WordPress Do Everything: Unlocking the CMS

Brian Colinger

Brian is a code wrangler for Automattic and a database guru. He proves there is poetry in mysterious exchanges between PHP and MySQL. He’s a native Arkansan who once lived on the west coast where he spent long hours working in the data mine.

He will present the following seminar:

• Plugins: Debugging and Developing