It's that time again! Ticket sales are now open, and we're delighted to announce our fantastic roster of speakers this year!
Keynote
We're pleased to introduce our two keynote speakers, presenting a joint talk this year to WordCamp Lancaster: Graham Hoefer and Samantha Quiñones.
Graham is a Senior Engineer at Slice in Manhattan, author of the CodeManifesto, creator of HelpMeAbstract.com and US Lead for PHPWomen. He's a passionate engineer that enjoys solving problems, mentoring others and being involved in the community. He can usually be found on twitter talking about his kids, food, or code.
Samantha is Head of Payments Engineering at Etsy, and is active in both the PHP Framework Interoperability Group and New York PHP.
Speakers & Sessions
We're also thrilled to detail our outstanding cadre of speakers for 2018. The sessions can be seen here, and we hope to have the final schedule public in the next week or two.
Nicole Kohler
Nicole Kohler works on content, communications, and marketing on the Jetpack Growth team at Automattic. When she’s not at work, you can find her playing video games, cuddling her two dogs, or trying new craft beers in search of the perfect porter. She is currently based out of Manchester, PA, but has dreams of someday moving to a place where it never snows and potholes are but a figment of the imagination. Christie Chirinos
Christie Chirinos is one of the co-owners and the business development lead at Caldera Labs, a WordPress plugin company best known for its popular contact form plugin, Caldera Forms. Christie started making websites at the age of 14, and before joining Caldera Labs did everything from selling items on eBay to leading website re-launch projects for major nonprofit organizations – on WordPress, of course. Christie recently received her Master of Business Administration degree from Florida State University (2015), and is currently based out of New York City.
John Parkinson
WordPress user since 2010. Volunteering with WordPress TV since 2014.
Kerch McConlogue
Kerch McConlogue, retired ADHD coach and front end developer, has been writing code by hand for 18 years and using WordPress since version 1.5. Her passion is helping WordPress novices to understand the basic care and feeding of their own sites and to get past their fears of breaking the internet.
Aaron D. Campbell
Aaron is the WordPress Security Team lead, has been a regular contributor to WordPress for more than ten years, and is currently funded by GoDaddy to work full time on the WordPress open source project. He has over seventeen years of web development experience and worked with clients ranging from small local businesses to Google, Yahoo, Disney, and Harvard. He’s been called both a coffee snob and a beer snob, but considers both to be compliments. When not buried in code, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, riding his motorcycle, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books.
Birgit Pauli-Haack
Since 1998, I have worked with nonprofits as a web developer, a technology strategist, a trainer and community organizer. Since 2010, my team and I have used WordPress to build nonprofit sites and applications.
Founder of Pauli Systems, LC in 2002, I now have six team members. This year we are a 100% distributed team.
In my spare time, I serve as deputy with the WordPress Global Community team, a WordPress Meetup organizer and a Tech4Good organizer. I have been a Regional Netsquared Ambassador since 2015.
I am a native German. When not in front of a computer, I run, play tennis, or hang out with friends. My husband and I love to travel and visit city art museums.
Solomon Scott
I’m a web developer based in Washington D.C. at Reaktiv Studios where I build custom WordPress solutions for amazing clients. I love solving complex problems, as there are always new challenges to solve. I am also one of the organizers for WordCamp DC. When I’m not coding, you can find me playing tennis, practicing trapeze, reading comics, traveling, or watching cult classic movies.
Joe Casabona
Joe Casabona is a Front End Developer, Instructor, & Course Creator. When he’s not writing code, he’s teaching people how to build things with and for WordPress. You can find his courses over at WordPress in One Month. He also hosts a weekly podcast called How I Built It, where he interviews product developers and business owners about how they create. In addition to the profession stuff, he loves Star Wars, Disney, smoking cigars, and playing the drums.
Tracy Rotton
Tracy Rotton is Founder & Principal of Taupecat Studios. With twenty years of web development experience for large corporations, government contractors, and boutique agencies, she has experience building dynamic web experiences for clients both large and small. She’s also a co-organizer of WordPress DC, one of the most active and popular WordPress meetup groups in the world, and has spoken at WordCamps and other technology conferences throughout the U.S.
Ryan King
Ryan King is the Digital Experience Designer at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. An open source evangelist, he joined the Smithsonian as a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design’s Exhibition Design M.A. program with a vision of fusing technology with the built museum environment. Ryan grew up in Gainesville, Florida and fell in love with the museum world working in the education department at the Harn Museum of Art during his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida. He was a Windgate Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, a fellow in the Getty NextGen Leadership Institute, and served as social media consultant at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art before joining the Freer|Sackler. In addition to his daily coding and design work, Ryan is Co-Chair of the Smithsonian GLOBE (LGBTQ) Employee Group and serves as the Smithsonian Wellness liaison for his unit. He has presented at the Museum Computer Network and numerous WordCamp conferences covering WordPress and open source software in museums. Art, food, thirsty plants, and lingering oxford commas keep him busy.
Pam Ann Aungst
I own an agency in NJ that specializes in SEO, PPC, and Analytics. We have a very strong reputation for being experts in results-driven white-hat SEO and highly-effective PPC campaigns, as well as advanced consulting for Google Analytics. We recommend WordPress to almost all of our clients, and consult with developers on how to maximize its search-engine-friendliness. I personally have been using WordPress since approximately 2009.
Tara Claeys
Based in Arlington, Virginia, Tara Claeys is the owner of Design TLC, and a founder of Nice Work, LLC, producing custom websites for small and medium businesses. She works closely with her clients to create effective, clean and personal communication platforms.
In addition to running her own companies, she is a regular attendee at the WordPress DC Meetup and recently started and runs a branch of the WordPress DC Meetup focusing on freelancers and business owners, and is an Ambassador for Outpoken Women. Tara is also a co-host of the podcast Hallway Chats. On top of that, she prides herself in being a digital efficiency expert and loves to find time saving and stress reducing apps and digital tools!
Outside of work, Tara is a runner, a cyclist, and a musical theater enthusiast.
Keep an eye out for Tara on Twitter: https://twitter.com/design_tlc
Davis Shaver
Started building news sites with WordPress in 2008 and haven’t looked back. Currently focused on helping smaller independent publishers implement open source technologies so they can do more with less.
Laura Byrne Cristiano
Laura started her first WordPress site back in March 2006. Since then, she’s created/written for over twenty WordPress sites mostly in the areas of education and entertainment. She has spoken at WordCamps in Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, and Baltimore. She’s on the marketing team for WordCamp US. Aside from her her love of WordPress, Laura is also an Anglophile, avid traveler, theater lover, fantasy junkie, and occasional actor. She currently writes for Hypable.com and does freelance marketing and social media work.
Joe Howard
Joe is the Head Buff at WP Buffs, a WordPress technical partner for serious website owners and agency partners. This is his 2nd time at WordCamp Lancaster and he’s thrilled to be back to see some old WordPress friends and meet new ones 🙂
Abbey Sager
Abbey Sager, 18, was born and raised in northern New Jersey and now resides in southwestern Pennsylvania. She currently goes to Southern New Hampshire University majoring in Nonprofit Management. Already putting these skills to use, Abbey also runs her own 501(c)3 non-profit – Diverse Gaming Coalition – which fights to end online harassment. Her interests include how people use their emotions, bullying and harassment, and how these two ideas correlate. She actively volunteers for organizations such as Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Peace First, and Youth Service America.
Ashley Orndorff
I’ve been a professional marketing geek since 2010. As a “nerd of several varieties”, I love all things marketing, but have a special place in my heart for strategy, SEO, social media, content marketing, and analytics. I am also a fan of the Arts, funny hats, hockey, and animals (particularly ponies).
Eileen Violini
Eileen is the User Experience and Front End Design half of the design and development team at Sidetrack Studio. She is a co-organizer of WordCamp Philly, a frequent speaker on WordPress topics and enjoys solving real-life problems through smart design.
Jim & Kathy Echter
Jim and Kathy Echter run two businesses under the umbrella of True Creations. True Creations Woodturning (tcturning.com) and True Creations Quilting (tcquilting.com). Jim has an extensive background in high technology sales, marketing and customer service. He has been involved in several start-up companies but now follows his passion with his woodworking. Jim has a MS – Service Innovation and Leadership from RIT. Kathy has run a successful longarm quilting service for over 11 years. As a quilting instructor and author, Kathy has taught 100s of people how to quilt. They live in Penfield, NY and they have two adult children.