Posted on by Chris Reynolds

Announcing our first round of WordCamp SLC Speakers!

I’m so excited to be announcing our speaker lineup for WordCamp SLC 2017. We’re putting together an amazing mix of locals you may know from the Utah WordPress meetups around the valley,  some amazing individuals that I’ve personally worked with over the years (including some names you might recognize) and some newcomers to WordCamp SLC. We’re still accepting speaker applications for the time being, so if you’d like to throw your hat in the ring, please submit your talk, but time is running out and slots are filling up!

Buckle your seatbelts and grab your tickets (using the wcslc2017-earlybird promo code, natch) for these amazing WordPressers!

Andy Johnson

Andy is a Java developer at Domo, where he enjoys wrangling APIs all day. In his free time, Andy enjoys hacking together pointless IoT electronics & Robotics projects from scratch components and boards. 🤖 He enjoys spending time with his wife and 4 kids, and like all good Americans, celebrates Labrador Day weekend in September with his yellow lab, Rowdy. 🐶

For those of you who are WordCamp SLC regulars, you might recognize Andy as being “that guy with the cool sketch notes”. Example:

We’re thrilled to see him take the center stage this year! 😄

Theresa Smith

Theresa has more than 13 years of communications, design and development experience and loves to make her clients’ visions come to life.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication studies and a certificate in graphic and web design from Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts. She works in the Adobe Creative Suite, WordPress, and Drupal and enjoys helping organizations and businesses find the best solutions for their technical and communication needs.

She owns a CrossFit gym and primarily specializes in creating fitness-related websites. Because of her experience as a gym owner and her technical and design background, she has found a new specialty in helping other gym owners put their best foot forward in their online presence.

Scott DeLuzio

Scott DeLuzio is a WordPress plugin developer from the Phoenix, AZ area. He began working with websites while in college in the early 2000s while studying to be an accountant. After graduating college, Scott worked in accounting for several years while continuing to build websites in WordPress. Scott has since made development his full-time job and has released a new service, WP1099, which makes it easy for U.S. based businesses who run multi-vendor marketplaces, affiliate programs, or hire freelancers to issue 1099s to their vendors.

Carrie Forde

Carrie spent the first eight years of her career wrangling sales data in the tech industry. While on work assignment in the UK, she attended a blogging workshop where she was introduced to WordPress. After spending several weekends learning about WordPress child themes, Carrie set up her first WordPress site, California Love Letters, and realized WordPress and front-end development is where her true passion lies.

After moving back to California, Carrie had an opportunity to pursue her passion, and enrolled in the Graphic & Interactive Design program at Foothill College where she learned about the graphic design process, and how to properly write HTML and CSS. Before graduating from her program, Carrie created her first theme from scratch on the Genesis framework, and realized that developing on WordPress is what she wanted to do for a living.

When she’s not doing front-end development, you can find Carrie at home cuddling with her four cats K2, Whitney, Minnie, and Paul; enjoying a latte or cold brew at a nearby coffee shop; or exploring the greater San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Darren.

John Hawkins

John Hawkins caught the blogging bug early on. He used several platforms, including hand-coded HTML, to publish posts before installing WordPress for the first time in the summer of 2003. He’s been hooked ever since. In 2009, after growing tired of his corporate job, John turned his love for WordPress into a full-time gig as the founder of a WordPress development shop. He’s currently the Business Development Manager at WebDevStudios.

John is a huge fan of the community aspect of WordPress and loves to give back in whatever ways he can. He founded the Las Vegas WordPress meetup group and was its lead organizer for 4+ years. He’s also a frequent presenter at the meetup and at WordCamp conferences around the country.

John lives just outside of Las Vegas with his wife and two grown children. When he’s not working, John enjoys doing CrossFit and is a CrossFit Level 1 trainer. If you meet him at a conference, there’s a good chance he’ll challenge you to do some burpees with him.

John is returning to WordCamp Salt Lake City after a five year absence and we’re thrilled to have him back!

WordCamp Salt Lake City 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!