Speakers

Shannon Smith

Shannon Smith is a platform services specialist with WordPress.com VIP. She delivers content solutions to some of the biggest names in media, marketing, and enterprise. Shannon has over 15 years experience in open source web development. She is a long-time supporter of diversity, accessibility and internationalization, and was a WordPress Montreal community organizer for seven years. Shannon is also a hiker, poet, and mum of four.

David Andrew Wiebe

David Andrew Wiebe is a hardworking, fun-loving, dynamic individual. A year out of College in 2002, he started teaching guitar in every setting imaginable: studios, community centers, in his own home, in his client’s homes, churches and even online.

Simultaneously, he continued to progress and advance his abilities as a guitarist, studio engineer, producer, blogger, podcaster, multimedia designer and online marketer. Having recorded his first solo album in 2006, he has since contributed his talents to the likes of Andrew Riches, Jonathan Ferguson and The Active Light.

However, his entrepreneurial spirit was always an undercurrent to every project and job he undertook. He began a journey of personal development in 2007 and hasn’t looked back. He engages in books and audio on a daily basis. While music still proves to be a significant part of his personal and professional life, his entrepreneurial efforts have come to the foreground of his life in the form of leadership development and online marketing.

Wiebe believes in working daily towards the achievement of his own dreams and goals, and his purpose is to enable and encourage others to do the same. As Zig Ziglar has often said, if you can help enough people get what they want, you can have what you want. Wiebe is a believer in this concept, tackling problems of various sizes to better people’s lives.

Sean Leonard

Sean Leonard is the CEO and co-founder of ActiveDEMAND, where he remains dedicated to helping businesses by way of implementing advanced online marketing strategies, marketing automation technology, and sales and marketing expertise that is simple, effective and affordable. As an entrepreneur, Sean boasts more than 25 years of successful experience launching, owning, operating and growing businesses, in addition to over 20 years of successful global sales and marketing experience in the industrial automation industry.
To say this results-driven entrepreneur holds a track record rich in profitability growing technology-based product businesses is something of an understatement; with extensive experience building global sales organizations, advanced e-marketing strategies and market-leading brand equity, Sean knows a thing or two about piloting an execution-focused corporate culture.
Among his other specialties are product marketing, technology start-ups, global sales expansion, software development process optimization, brand development, sustainable profitable business growth, and international business affairs.

Tom Drake

Tom Drake has been blogging on WordPress for over a decade at MapleMoney.com and now runs multiple blogs like RetireHappy.ca and GetRichSlowly.org, with a focus on SEO that has led to over 1 million pageviews a month. His MapleMoney Show can be found in the top 10 personal finance podcasts on iTunes.
 
Tom helps people understand online marketing topics like search traffic and social media over at CreateHype.com and brings together personal finance, travel, parenting, and entrepreneurship bloggers on the Canadian Money Bloggers Facebook group.

Mariama Barry

Business Analyst by day, Mariama Barry is the founder of  yourfrenchcorner.com, an online language learning platform, a freelance designer/ content creator and the executive director a  non-profit that helps grieving families.

Roya Chalaki

Roya is a Software Development professional with more than 12 years of experience in the Information Technologyand more than 8 of those years have been focused on Web Development.

Roya has worked in multiple sectors from the public to private including working with The City of Calgary and Avanti Software Inc.

In Roya’s last role at Avanti, Roya is focusing more on the User Experience Design. She has always been interested in psychology and humans interactions and she finds the Design process as a gateway to practice empathy and to put humans in the center of our thinking and creation process.

Roya holds a certificate from the Interaction Design Foundation for “Accessibility: How to design for all” and is passionate about sharing and learning design and accessibility related topics with others.

Roya has a three-year-old daughter, Elsa and enjoys hiking, reading and being close to the Mountains in Calgary.

Ian W. Bowden

Back in 1988, Ian founded an enterprise dedicated to providing hardware, software, supplies, and consulting for systems that use bar code and RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies. In 2013, he sold the business and continued consulting in the industry. When faced with declining desire for folks to hire his consulting services, he turned to website design and consulting. After all, he’d designed and built websites since the dawn of the internet for his business, his wife’s business, his church, etc. and it just seemed like a natural progression!

So, after beginning with FrontPage over two decades ago and then hitching his wagon to the DNN (DotNetNuke) CMS, he finally saw the proverbial WordPress light and began working with it a couple of years ago. Since then, he’s been immersed in all things WP and loves how it’s blossomed in the past couple of years with the advent of page builders. (Ian loves Elementor. Sorry WP hard cores.)

Ian lives in Spruce Grove with his wife and their furry son, Rufus (a husky). His only human son – and two grandchildren – live in Australia and he visits them as much as he can.

Michael Bourne

I’ve been immersed in the world wide web since the 1990’s. From network administrator training to PHP development, I got an early start in life in all things internet. These days I work full time in both web development and marketing. Running my own company URSA6, and working with a stellar company in New Zealand called 5forests, I get to help clients discover their business’ true digital needs, and I work with them to hit their goals and grow along with their online presence.
On the side I run a Facebook group for fans of Themeco’s WordPress products and I even have a plugin or two in the WordPress repo. I believe in the community spirit around open source projects, and try to always give back, even if it’s just helping out with WordPress meetups and WordCamp.
Beyond my love for WordPress, I also have a fiery relationship with hot wings. No doubt you will one day meet me at your local wing night testing out their version of suicide wings.

AmyJune Hineline

As the Open Source Community Ambassador at Kanopi Studios, AmyJune helps to ensure her team remains connected to open-source communities.

AmyJune co-organizes various open source camps and conventions throughout North America, all while helping each of the communities be more inclusive. This focus enables others to forge deep community connections that benefit the whole. As a self-described non-coder, she helps communities discover how they can contribute back in more ways than code.

In addition to her work building community connections, AmyJune is an avid geocacher, noted Volkswagen enthusiast, and eats with her elbows on the table.

Paul Thompson

Often called a geek translator by his clients, Paul specialises in helping transform the buzzwords of web marketing into solid strategies and business results for bloggers and small/medium businesses as well as enterprise clients.

As a web marketing and SEO consultant, Thompson focuses primarily on optimizing existing sites into powerful marketing platforms. Using his extensive expertise in technical SEO audits as a basis, he incorporates custom analytics, content marketing, conversion optimisation, email marketing, paid search, and social influence marketing (ah, the buzzwords!), depending on the client’s needs. Thompson also provides one-on-one coaching and training in these areas.

He’s been managing and marketing sites since 2002, including stints running major web programs for Banff and Lake Louise Tourism and Travel Alberta, and has been working with WordPress since 2009. When he’s not at the keyboard, he’s likely on his bike or cross-country skis, or on the hiking trails around his home in Canmore, camera in hand.

Website: www.buzzwordstobusiness.com
Twitter: @thompsonpaul

WordCamp Calgary 2019 is over. Check out the next edition!