2010 CMS Expo Speakers

Over seventy experts from around the world will be at the 2010 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference to share thier insights with you. Whether you're interested in technology, creativity or business - or all three - CMS Expo is the right place to tap into an immensely valuable resource - right at your fingertips for three incredible days in May!

Christopher Johnson

Christopher Johnson is an entrepreneur, making technology accessible and useful for growing companies and organizations. He's the Co-Founder and CEO of ifPeople, an Atlanta-based company that provides strategic consulting and implementation of integrated web tools for websites, email marketing, social media, and relationship management.

Christopher combines a passion for problem solving, a systems perspective and a decade of international experience in order to turn today's challenges into opportunities to create a more just, sustainable world. Though not a developer, he has learned to speak their language and work collaboratively with them through the Open Source movement.
Christopher is an active member of the Plone community and was selected to be a member of the Plone Foundation in 2008. He organizes an open source project for ecommerce in Plone called GetPaid, is a host for the Atlanta Plone User Group, and participates in Plone-Salesforce.com integration projects.

Christopher has lived on six continents and frequently presents at conferences in both English and Spanish. He is known for his leadership and facilitation skills, yerba mate, and a mean cook of fried green tomatoes. He has a son, Alon, who serves as his Junior Officer of Keepin' It Real (aka JOKeR).

Christopher graduated cum laude with a degree in physics from Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he also studied environmental policy, law, and engineering.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Christopher will present Plone KickStart 2: Top Modules

Tony White

Tony White is Founder of Ars Logica, a vendor-neutral analyst firm that helps companies evaluate their Web content management (WCM) requirements and select appropriate WCM software. Ars Logica also assists WCM vendors in analyzing the market and planning their product roadmaps.

Prior to founding Ars Logica, Tony ran the Web Content Management Practice at the Gilbane Group; he was a Senior Analyst at the Yankee Group, and served at Interwoven and the Giga Information Group.

Summarizing Tony White's Experience:

Evaluating content management software
Analyzing the content management market
Helping clients assess their content-technology requirements
Matching clients' requirements with suitable software platforms
Advising software vendors on product development

Specialties

Web Content Management
Document Management
Portals
E-Commerce Platforms

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Tony White will present CMS Head-to-Head: How To Evaluate and Select the Right CMS For Your Business

Calvin Hendryx-Parker

Calvin Hendryx-Parker Six Feet Up Co-founder Calvin Hendryx-Parker has 12 years of experience in fields as diverse as systems engineering, data modeling and information architecture.

As Systems Engineer for Epylon, an enterprise-class company providing integration services to public sector entities, Calvin implemented ERP systems, deployed marketplace application servers and spearheaded network trouble-shooting.

As Chief Technology Officer for Six Feet Up, Calvin is responsible for researching cutting-edge advances that could become part of the company’s technology road map.

Calvin provides both the company and its clients with recommendations on tools and technologies, systems architecture and solutions that address specific information-sharing needs. His goal is to promote best practices and processes, and create a knowledge-sharing culture to enhance the effectiveness of operations and professionals.

Calvin is well-known in the Plone Community for being an excellent speaker who can communicate effectively with all levels of an organization. Calvin holds a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University. He can be reached at: calvin AT sixfeetup DOT com.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Calvin will present Plone KickStart 3: Plone Site Administration. Calvin will also take part in the Plone Case Studies 1 session.

Nate Aune

Nate Aune is President and Founder of Jazkarta, a Boston-based web solutions provider with deep experience helping organizations realize the full potential of their website. Some of Jazkarta's recent customers include Oxfam America, UNICEF and Harvard School of Engineering. Nate is an expert in the Plone CMS and has served on the Plone Foundation board for 3 terms.

Whether it's teaching video activists about open source tools in the jungles of Indonesia, extreme programming with sprinters on a mountaintop in Austria, or brainstorming with a customer about new ways to improve their website, Nate brings passion and dedication to everything he does.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Nate will present Plone Site Theming.

Alan Runyan

Alan Runyan is one of the two Co-Founders of Plone. Alan is President & Director of Development at Houston-based Enfold Systems.

Alan has spoken at numerous conferences and consulted with Fortune 100 companies on content management and other technology strategies. Alan’s other titles in life include Art Consumer, Software Producer, Ski Indulger, Dog Trainer and N’awlins Aficionado. He also enjoys fishing and biking. "Python on every desktop" is his vision.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Alan Runyan will present the Plone Future Roadmap session, as well as participate in CMS Expo's CMS Head-To-Head Interactive Panel, designed to help CMS buyers compare and contrast the strengths of top CMSes such as Plone.

Alan will also be presenting Content Types & Workflow and Enterprise Plone. Join Alan and Ken Wasetis for Plone in Action and Plone Case Studies 2.

Chris Coyier

By day, Chris Coyier is a designer for a small design company out of Madison, Wisconsin. By night, he is a blogger, author, and speaker about a wide range of web design topics, from HTML/CSS and standards, to JavaScript libraries like jQuery, to CMS systems like WordPress.

Chris has spoken to audiences from High School students to College students to professional conferences like the Front-End Design Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. Chris Coyier's new book, Digging Into WordPress, is an intermediate-level exploration of building sites with WordPress, the World's most popular publishing platform.

Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Chris spent some time in Portland, Oregon and is now in Chicago, Illinois, only a short hop away from CMS Expo 2010.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Chris will present WordPress Advanced SiteBuilder and Tricked Out WordPress

Dries Buytaert

Dries Buytaert is an innovator. Dries developed Drupal while he was a college student, and opened the code, creating a community of supporters and contributors which continues to rapidly expand to this day.

What started nine years ago as a simple bulletin board solution for a college dorm is now powering the official website at the White House. Not bad for humble beginnings.

We are very fortunate to welcome Dries Buytaert to CMS Expo. His story is sure to inspire others to innovate, build strong community connections, and create the next generation's solutions.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Dries will be a Keynote Speaker, and discuss the future Roadmap of Drupal, including the much-anticipated Drupal 7. His firm, Acquia, is a Drupal Track Sponsor of the 2010 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.

Ben Bassi

Ben Bassi is President & CEO of CommonPlaces

Ben Bassi has been at the forefront of online innovation for almost two decades. Under Bassi’s leadership, CommonPlaces is one of the fastest growing web development firms in New England, boasting 100% year-to-year revenue growth over the last five years.

While at Liquid Machines, a security software firm, Bassi developed and managed strategic relationships with Cisco Systems, Deloitte & Touche, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, McGraw Hill, Merrill Lynch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Warner Music.

As the Visual Strategy CEO, he created a repeatable business model with gross margins in the 65% to 70% range. During Bassi’s tenure, the company released web-based software that performed scenario management, data consolidations, and financial reporting.

During his time as the head of YouthStream Media, the company worked with 250 colleges and universities to facilitate online communication between their faculty and student population (early social networking). Additionally, Ben dealt extensively with the Chinese Ministry of Education to set up their information infrastructure to support communication between their many primary schools, secondary schools, and universities. Under Ben’s guidance, the company developed and sold the technology patents that power LinkedIn.

As EVP of sales and marketing, Bassi directed an organizational turnaround at Firefly Network (which was acquired by Microsoft) enabling the company to launch the Microsoft Passport for MSN e-commerce profiling and the .net platform.

As one of the first business executives of Lycos, Bassi was responsible for creating many of the first portal traffic agreements and licensing the Lycos portal technology to over 35 companies internationally. He also managed strategic relationships, joint development, and joint ventures with third parties such as Bertelsmann, Viacom, Microsoft, and Netscape.

While VP of North America at Object Design, the company was ranked number one on 1994’s “INC. 500” List. Bassi contributed to this ranking by establishing channels worldwide, developing strategic partnerships, establishing inside sales and management of strategic opportunities worldwide, and negotiating key contracts.

Previous to his work at Object Design, Bassi held various sales, marketing, and engineering positions within a variety of industries. He graduated from Syracuse University and SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Ben Bassi will present on Multi-Sites For Drupal.

Shayne Sanderson

Shayne Sanderson has been working in the web industry for over 10 years, and with WordPress for the last four years. He is a partner at 9seeds, which offers WordPress, plugin and custom PHP development.

9seeds also works closely with Instinct Entertainment, makers of the WordPress shopping cart plugin WP ECommerce. He writes WordPress tutorials and offers support at weeklywp.com. He is very active in the WordPress forums and well as the WP Ecommerce forums where he offers support for users of WP ECommerce.

He loves helping people and is an avid WordPress user and developer!

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Shayne will present Ecommerce and Other Must-Have Plugins for WordPress.

Ryan Ozimek

Ryan Ozimek is the CEO of PICnet and a Board of Directors member for Open Source Matters and is the co-founder and CEO of PICnet, Inc. In the eight years since the founding of the company, PICnet has grown from a graduate school idea and concept into one of the most recognized and trusted names in the open source non-profit technology field. Under his management, PICnet has forged relationships open source technology giants, such as the Joomla! project (www.joomla.org) in an effort to provide organizations the sophisticated and affordable services.

Ryan has guided PICnet through a natural evolution in open source business models, including custom development, support services, and currently software as a service (SaaS) models. This business experience, coupled with his work at Open Source Matters (the non-profit supporting the Joomla! project), Ryan has a strong knowledge base of successful lessons learned and best practices for open source business model development.

Ryan has a BA in Communications and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Ryan will be giving a Keynote as well as leading the Future Roadmap: Joomla session on Monday, May 3rd.

Merav Knafo

Merav Knafo is the founder of California-based iJoomla.com and UsabilityTesting.tv.

Merav has years of experience as a Web Product Designer and Developer. Merav specializes in developing web applications that are user-friendly yet powerful. Her experience ranges from developing high-end Joomla extensions to dating sites and business networking sites. She is passionate about usability and bridging the gap between developers and users. Her goal is to help website owners achieve their goals by helping them create sites that look "big" with a small budget using her iJoomla extensions, or by providing web site developers with helpful advice about usability. Merav first presented Usability for Business ROI at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Merav will present Usability for Maximum Business ROI

Brett Wangman

Brett Wangman is President of The Center for Association Growth (TCAG). TCAG is an association management company that provides full-service and project-based management solutions to non-profit organizations, including professional societies and trade associations. Brett is a longtime advocate and evangelist of open source solutions for associations.

TCAG has partnered with Contextual Corporation to help a variety of different associations use Plone to manage both the public and members-only sections of their websites. TCAG has integrated Plone with a leading association management system (AMS) and with other third party applications that are critical to running an association, including social networking applications.

Brett Wangman and his partner, Ken Wasetis presented "What About Plone CMS?" at the pre-conference at the CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At CMS Expo Chicago 2010, Brett will be co-presenting Plone Case Studies 1.

Mitch Pirtle

Mitch Pirtle is a serial entrepreneur, and a past winner of the unofficial "Founder's Award" from the CMS Association (in other words, he's founded several organizations).

When you read his history, you'll get a taste of what that means: After serving as a Core Developer for Mambo CMS (and Lead Web Developer for The N/MTV Networks, he helped co-found Joomla! and its not-for-profit organization, Open Source Matters. He is the Founder and CEO of Spacemonkey Laboratories; Co-Founder of Ivivio; Founder of Buzzwerks Inc; oh, plus he helped co-found the New York Joomla User Group.

Mitch has planted many seeds along his entrepreneurial path, and he's also set an example for others to follow by nurturing those efforts into fully blossomed businesses and organizations, employing and engaging millions of active participants in the communities he helped establish and grow.

Speaking of communities - At CMS Expo Chicago 2009, Mitch was our keynote on Friday speaking about Building Online Communities and he also conducted a training session KickApps Social Media, a Manhattan-based company where he served as the Vice President of Developer Relations. Mitch's high-energy approach, backed by decades of experience, will provide you with inside knowledge you simply can't find anywhere else. Don't be surprised if you see a technology business book show up on the shelves at your local Barnes & Noble written by Mitch Pirtle either. He's one hell of an author. ;)

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, we are pleased to welcome Mitch Pirtle as a Keynote Speaker. Mitch will also be presenting a learning session called MongoDB Database: Built For Speed and Mitch will moderate the Interactive Panel: MongoDB vs MySQL Head-To-Head

Amanda Blum

Amanda Blum is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, and Creative Director of Howling Zoe Productions, a creative strategy firm involved in design, development, marketing and PR.

She is one of the three founding partners of Are You Socially Acceptable which teaches social media, technology and marketing classes, a founder of WordCamp Boston, and currently working on WordCamp Phoenix.

Helping microbusinesses, startups and non profits find new ways to reach their target demographic for over 10 years, Amanda bridges the gap between old school techniques and bleeding edge tech.

Amanda has been active in community volunteering for almost 20 years and is dedicated to helping non profits utilize online tech tools to help further their mission. She is also a darn good cook.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Amanda will present WordPress KickStart: WP Dashboard and will facilitate WordPress in Action and WordPress Recap & Favorites Session
.

Tess Neale

Tess Neale is Co-Founder and Marketing Tigress of CapeTown, South Africa-based Prothemer

Tess Neale is a location independent Swedish expatriate with a mixed background of IT, peace & cultural work and HR work & studies. Her journey of life has taken her to a "dream stage where I have the freedom and possibility to combine all my skills and develop my dreams. People, development and technology in one beautiful mix!" Tess handles marketing for CapeTown-based Prothemer, and its sister company, JoomlaJunkie.

Tess' background in coaching and mentoring, uniquely mixed with technology and eMarketing and unique style makes for a high-energy, high-impact learning experience.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Tess will be presenting: Social Marketing Reality Check

Kyle Ledbetter

Kyle Ledbetter is Co-Founder of PixelPraise, LLC in the music capital of the United States - Austin, Texas.

A seasoned web designer and developer, Kyle has quickly become well-known as one of the most talented designers in the CMS Community. In fact, Kyle designed the 2010 CMS Expo website (you're looking at right now). An expert in user experience, creating highly accessible sites with style, the CMS Association welcomes an up-and-coming star in the design world for all CMSes.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Kyle will present Web Design Essentials and ProjectFork.

Ryan Szrama

Ryan Szrama is a Drupal e-commerce developer for Commerce Guys, focusing on Drupal Commerce.

Ryan got into Drupal development during Drupal 4.6; he's been married and fathered a daughter since that time. Off the clock, he focuses his efforts on church and community ministry and slowly chips away at a Masters of Divinity degree.

Affectionately known as "Mr. Ubercart" in the Drupal world, Ryan got his start in web development through an online sales company based in Louisville, Kentucky. Ryan has made his home in Louisville for over 10 years. It was there that Ryan nursed Ubercart through its infancy. Ryan was the Project Lead and community face of the Ubercart project. Ryan later joined Commerce Guys where he continued to lead Ubercart, until branching out into Drupal Commerce, a new initiative focusing on empowering users to build Drupal based e-commerce sites with the latest new features that Drupal 7 has to offer.

You can find Ryan online at his site, By Wombats.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Ryan will present Drupal Commerce. His company, CommerceGuys, is a Drupal Track Sponsor of the 2010 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.

Emma Jane Hogbin

Emma Jane Hogbin - Blogger at EmmaJane.net and Author, Front-End Drupal

Emma Jane Hogbin has been working as a Web developer since 1996. She is well known in the Drupal community not only for her technical knowledge, but also for her engaging and humorous means of bringing Drupal to a wider audience—such as the Drupal socks and their GPL-ed pattern.

Her wildly successful theming book, Front End Drupal (co-authored with Konstantin Kaefer), was launched this spring. Emma volunteers with the Drupal documentation team and blogs at emmajane.net.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Emma Jane will present Basic Design for Drupal & Advanced Design for Drupal

Steve Fisher

Steve Fisher is a Senior UX Designer at Chicago-based Palantir.net.

Steve served as Creative Director for over five years for Alberta, Canada-based web design firm Idea Market - a firm he helped found. Steve is a renowned interactive designer, and a professional member of the Graphic Designer’s Society of Canada. Steve has taught numerous college courses on CSS, Web Standards and Creativity. He has been managing website projects for over a decade.

Steve is involved with several community organizations which keeps Steve connected; and time spent teaching design at College keeps him sharp. A few of his favourite things are running, fancy shirts and Ikea.

We welcome back our Canadian Creative friend. Steve presented at last year's CMSX, in the Business Track, as well as participating in the Interactive Panel, "The Ultimate CMS Showdown" presented in tandem at the 2009 South By Southwest Conference and wrap-up the 2009 CMS Expo.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Steve will lead two sessions in the CMS Business Track: Website Project Management and User Experience Fundamentals

Rafael Diaz-Tushman

A self-taught programmer and life-long entrepreneur, Rafael Diaz-Tushman has started several internet businesses over the years. Rafael is the CEO of Dioscouri Design, a Manhattan, New York-based web-design firm which he founded in 2007.

Rafael was first introduced to Joomla! in February of 2007. Frustrated by Joomla's limited Access Control Levels (ACL), he wrote JUGA, an extension that attempted to address some of those limitations with the explicit aim of not hacking the core. Released in June 2007, JUGA immediately gained a large following and by December 2007, over 10,000 users had registered on Dioscouri.com.

Since then, Rafael has shaped Dioscouri into a leading Joomla! consultancy that provides businesses with the tools necessary for successful growth. In two years, Dioscouri has released 12 Joomla! extensions and has nearly 50,000 registered users.

Rafael graduated from Columbia University in 2002 with his BA in English Literature. In 2008 he earned an MBA from the Darden Graduate School for Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Rafael will present Tienda E-Commerce. His firm, Dioscouri Design, is a Gold Sponsor of the 2010 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.

Daisy Olsen

Daisy Olsen has worked as a WordPress Developer since 2006, specializing in developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting highly customized WordPress configurations to meet the unique needs of her clients.

Daisy serves a diverse client base, which includes online magazines, e-zines, personal bloggers, small localized businesses and more. Daisy is dedicated to promoting the use of WordPress as a lightweight, simple to learn, and highly extensible Content Management System.

Known around the web as WordPress Mama, she writes about WordPress related topics at WPMama.com.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Daisy will present CMS KickStart 3:
WordPress Themes and Plug-Ins and WP Frameworks and Child Themes.

Tom Deryckere

Tom Deryckere is Software Architect for Siruna.com based in New York City. Tom holds a Masters degree in Electrotechnical engineering from Ghent University, in his native Belgium.

After working as a Researcher and Project Coordinator at the Interdisciplinary Institute of Broadband Technology, working on new media projects inclucing recommender systems, mobile services and interactive television, he joined Siruna. Tom has been active in the Drupal community since 2005 and is joining the Joomla! forces in helping in the process of creating mobile Joomla! sites.

You can reach Tom on his MobileDrupal Blog, and on Twitter.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Tom Deryckere will present: Going Mobile! Mobile CMS Using Siruna

Chris Rault

Chris Rault is Co-Founder and Partner of Prothemer, based in South Africa. Prothemer provides highly innovative themes and templates for the Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress Communities.

If you're looking for an adrenaline junkie in the line-up of speakers, Chris Rault is the one. Not only is Chris an avid rock climber, Chris is also a longtime entrepreneur in the high tech world. In addition to being a Partner at Prothemer, Chris is a Partner in JoomlaJunkie.com, Creative Director of WebMonkeys Design Studio, and Founder of a volunteer organization called Inspire Change. Chris and his business Partner Andrew Neale hale from Capetown, South Africa.

A long-time Joomla advocate, Chris is adept developing for Drupal, WordPress, Magento and more. His experience in development and design of Joomla templates and designs has put JoomlaJunkie into a coveted position as one of the stand-out template clubs in a crowded marketplace. Chris was a CMS Expo Denver favorite, covering topics on usability and advanced web development.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Chris Rault will present two Sessions: FlexiContent and "Hello. I Am Morph."

Steve Burge

Steve Burge is the founder of Atlanta-based training company, Open Source Training.

In 2005, he founded Alledia.com which grew into a leading provider of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for Joomla. He wrote the best-selling Joomla SEO Book, created highly-optimized templates and wrote a blog which grew into perhaps the most popular in the Joomla world. Alledia now also developes its own major in-house websites, the most prominent of which are AppalachianTrail.com and LakeLanier.com.

In 2008, Steve started the first regular Joomla classes. From a single location in Atlanta, the classes grew in popularity and are now being taught all over North America and the United Kingdown by over a dozen teachers. In 2009, the business expanded to become Open Source Training and now provides classes in Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress with more to come in 2010.

Steve is an active member of the CMS community. He is an Editor at the Joomla.org Extensions Directory, helped found the Drupal Atlanta User Group and now runs the Atlanta Joomla User Group which has grown to two monthly meetings and several hundred members.

Steve has presented SEO for Success (CMS Expo 2008), How to Make Google Love You and Advanced SEO Techniques (CMS Expo Denver 2008),

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Steve will present the learning session in the CMS Business Track, Training for CMS Clients as well as Write Answers: Writing For The Web

Tom Canavan

Tom Canavan was a "smash-hit" at both CMS Expo Chicago 2008 and CMS Expo Denver 2008. A 22-year technology veteran, Tom is arguably the top security and disaster recovery expert in the Joomla world. Author of two published Joomla! Books, he is genuinely interested in sharing his years of experience. Copies of his second book, "The Joomla Web Security Guide," are availble from Amazon.com.

His no-bull approach is refreshing and highly motivating to audiences nationwide. His extensive knowledge in the highly complex security field, steeped in corporate sales and technical training, makes for a totally engaging session. Top that off with a cut-to-the-chase, tell-it-like-it-is politically incorrect frankness that only an ex-corporate official (or a radio jock) can pull off with authority, and you've got Texas Tom Canavan. Actual testimonials from past conferences included:

"His one-hour session seemed like ten minutes," and "I couldn't get enough truth serum from that guy!"

At CMS Expo Chicago 2010, Tom will be a Keynote Speaker. He will also present Joomla Administration and Secure Your Server

Robert Jacobi

Robert Jacobi is President of Arc Technology Group, a content management and web development firm based in Evanston, IL. Effective deployment and management of content using internet technologies has been a cornerstone of Robert’s philosophy and has helped clients achieve measurable results. At Arc Technology Group, development of a custom Java based CMS eventually led to adoption and implementation of Mambo and Joomla. Today Robert leads the firm in developing complete custom solutions and Joomla implementations with custom extensions.

Prior to starting Arc Technology Group in 2000, Robert spent five years as developer and Vice President, Technology for ReCor Corporation, a local provider of computer based training solutions to Fortune 500 corporations. Before ReCor, Robert worked at IIT Research Institute developing databases for the Department of Defense.

Robert is active in the local business and political community being on the executive board of JoomlaChicago, having been a board member of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Evanston Public Art Committee and program coordinator for Technology Executive Roundtable. Currently he spends much of his time promoting technology in Evanston independently or through the Technology Innovation Center (The Incubator) including the 22nd Anniversary of The Incubator. At CMS Expo Chicago 2009, Robert and Tim Johnson from JellyTelly presented CMS Business Case Study: JellyTelly.

Arc Technology Group has been the Diamond Sponsor for CMS Expo Chicago 2008, Denver 2008, Chicago 2009 and once again for the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago!

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Robert will present Enterprise State of Mind and Video Content Management: A Case Study (Jelly Telly)

Ben Finklea

Ben Finklea is CEO of Volacci^®

Ben entered the world of online marketing in 1995 when he founded a web design company from his dorm room at Texas A&M University. Since then, he has worked in various capacities in sales and marketing, from tiny start-ups to Apple Computer. In 2001, Ben founded Sprysoft, an e-commerce store that successfully sold over $5M in software online to students, teachers and schools. Due to Sprysoft's success, Ben formed SpryDev Online Marketing in 2005 to use the techniques and processes learned at Sprysoft to help other businesses sell online. SpryDev grew quickly and changed names to Volacci® in 2008.

In September 2009, Ben's book, Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization, was released by Packt Publishing. Ben hosts the Volacci^® SEO podcast (almost) weekly. He also blogs: Ben's blog.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Ben will present Drupal SEO and Promotion Techniques

Miles Baltrusaitis

Miles Baltrusaitis is the Senior Marketing Manager with Realogic Analytics, Inc. (www.realogicinc.com) and the Creative Lead with North Side Noise, LP (www.northsidenoise.com).

Miles coordinates Realogic’s web presence, both on the corporate website and in social marketing initiatives, and is responsible for graphic design, layout, copywriting and site administration.
Outside of Realogic, Miles uses Wordpress and Joomla! to build efficient and aesthetically pleasing sites for clients with big dreams and tight budgets. In his design adventures, he’s built e-commerce stores, corporate sites, sports team blogs, family sites, sites for musicians, and non-profit sites.
When Miles isn’t working on the web, he’s most likely playing a stringed instrument of some sort or watching Cubs baseball. Miles lives with his wife Heather on the north side of Chicago.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Miles will present Strategic Ecommerce and CMS KickStart 1: WordPress Introduction

Scott Kingsley Clark

Scott Clark Web Developing since the age of 15, Scott Kingsley Clark has worked on hundreds of website projects. Scott specializes in WordPress and Pods CMS Framework development using PHP, MySQL, and AJAX/JavaScript. He currently offers Development and Consulting services for WordPress projects around the world.

Outside of work, Scott focuses on spending as much time as possible with his fiancee, Cassidy and his music project, titled Soft Charisma.

To find out more about Scott Kingsley Clark or to contact him, visit his website.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Scott Clark will present Pods CMS For WordPress .

Michael Reynolds

Michael Reynolds is President & CEO of Indianapolis-based SpinWeb

SpinWeb creates and markets professional websites for associations and corporations. Michael lives in the beautiful city of Indianapolis and has worked in the marketing and technology sector since 1996. He has assisted a number of businesses and non-profits utilize marketing and technology. Michael also serves as a board member for a number of local and national organizations. He conducts regular educational workshops and seminars and is available for speaking engagements on the topics of Internet marketing, technology, social media, business development, extreme productivity, and networking.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Michael will present Twitter for Business and 7 Habits of Highly Effective Websites

Barb Ackemann

Barb Ackemann is the Founder and Lead Developer at IrisLines, LLC. She is also an Adjunct Faculty member, Marlboro College Graduate School.

As a student at the Marlboro College Graduate School, Barb won the President’s Award for her capstone project in 2006 - a Joomla 1.0 site. Since then, she’s been instructing the Designing with Web Standards course at Marlboro College Graduate School.

Barb's been teaching colleagues and students about technology for over 20 years. Prior to launching her own web developent firm, IrisLines Designs, Barb was a teacher, librarian and computer coordinator in public schools of southern Vermont.

A presenter at Joomla! Day New England last spring and active member in the Joomla! New England User Group, Barb lives in Brattleboro, Vermont.

At CMS Expo Chicago 2010, Barb will present two sessions: Joomla Template Design 1 and Joomla Template Design 2

Wilco Jansen

Wilco Jansen was born in 1967 in the Netherlands where he still lives. After years of being a programmer, Wilco has worked as Project Manager and IT manager. He discovered Joomla! when he was creating his own content management system, and never lost focus after then.

Wilco joined the Joomla! Core Team as Development Coordinator in September 2006, just hoping to make Joomla! even better then it was already.

Since then, Wilco has accomplished a great deal. He was responsible for the overall organization of Joomla! Development as Development Coordinator; he is now a Board Member with Open Source Matters; he was the driving force behind the Joomla! Google Summer of Code 2006, 2007 & 2008 editions; and he was instrumental in the creation of the Joomla Bug Squad.

During Wilco's tenure with Joomla.org and the Open Source Matters Board, Wilco has traveled the world to help build the Joomla! community. Along with his fellow colleagues from Joomla!, they have been instrumental in helping Joomla! to become the leading Open Source Content Management System.

Wilco has a Bachelor degree in Business and Information Engineering and studied knowledge and Information Engineering at the Middlesex University in London.

Wilco Jansen was an opening Keynote Speaker at the 2009 Spring CMS Expo in Chicago.

Mike Zicha

Mike Zicha is the founder and CEO of the Chicago-based market research firm, Zicha & Associates.

Zicha & Associates is a full-service custom marketing research firm using all methods of data collection including focus groups. Zicha & Associates specializes in research design and data analysis services.

Mike takes a holistic approach to marketing research, placing equal importance on problem formulation, research design, sample design, questionnaire development, data collection, data processing, and statistical analysis and reporting. He has conducted research across a wide range of industries and issues. Studies involving market segmentation, discrete choice modeling, conjoint analysis, and pricing strategy are his specialty.

He has a great deal of experience using advanced analytical methods to answer key research questions. He never force-fits a research problem into a methodology; rather, he uses the “best” set of tools given the problem at hand. Mike has published several papers dealing with analytical issues in marketing research and is a frequent speaker at national AMA conferences. For example:

Tutorials

Measurement and Questionnaire Design
Attitude Measurement and Models
Survey-Based Pricing Research (with Dave Lyon)
Conjoint Analysis: Design, Analysis, and Extensions

AMA’s Advanced Research Technique (ART) Forum Presentations

On the Inclusion of Situational Variables in Choice Modeling
The Black Box of Conjoint Analysis: An Enlarged View

Mike has been a hybrid project manager/statistical methodologist for the past 25 years, holding previous positions at Total Research Corporation, Marketing Research Services, Inc. (MRSI), and Opinion Research Corporation.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Mike will present Results-Driven Market Research

Rick Blalock

Rick Blalock is a business partner in the South Florida based web firm, Expression in Design (XiD). XiD specializes in CMS consultancy and custom solutions for medium-size businesses. Rick's passion is training clients with one-on-one session, as well as creating video tutorials, and just having fun helping others find their way through the Joomla! world.

Rick also operates BeautyInDesign.com, a training resource for all things Joomla! in web design and development. BeautyInDesign.com features Rick’s free, regularly produced screen-cast tutorials.
Rick Blalock presented Joomla SiteBuilder 1 & Joomla SiteBuilder 2 at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Rick will present This Is Adobe Air and Building Your Open Source Web Business

Rafael Corral

Rafael Corral is the lead programmer at ‘corePHP,’ a leading custom website development company based in Michigan. Rafael has developed many website applications over the years and specializes in website application security and dynamic applications.

Recently he developed WordPress for Joomla! Integration. This component integrates the most powerful CMS and the most robust blogging engine into one, this extension has grown at an exponential rate since the day it was released.

Rafael has extensive knowledge in PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and CSS. He loves his job and everything that comes with it. "Basically he eats, dreams, lives and thinks programming." He enjoys sharing knowledge and helping others with their websites. Please do not hesitate to ask him questions.

Rafael presented PHP 5 Must-Know Techniques and as a Power Partner, he also provided WordPress for Joomla training at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Rafael will present Joomla Development 1 and Joomla Development 2

Nick Martinelli

Nick Martinelli has been building websites for over eight years starting with his guitar site The Shred Zone, a community where high octane guitar players go to for lessons, interviews, products, album reviews and to network with other players from around the world. He continues to grow the site following in his spare time and is currently working on a new Joomla version of the website, so stay tuned.

Nick took the plunge into Joomla! Open Source world when he needed to provide a CMS solution for Sourcebooks, Inc. the independent book publisher he works for. Based in Naperville, Illinois, he’s rolled out numerous large Joomla driven ecommerce and community websites. Nick specializes in ecommerce, digital media, CSS, SEO and design. He spends spare time freelancing for small businesses, bands and musician websites to stay connected to the music world.

Nick is an active member on the Joomla Chicago CMS group where he has taught a plethora of topics including ecommerce, digital media on the web and the introduction to Joomla series. Nick brings a passionate and upbeat approach to teaching Joomla to the masses.

Besides being a technology nut he enjoys playing guitar, listening to heavy metal music, playing xbox and taking long walks with his Italian Greyhounds. Be ready to rock and roll when attending the kick start class he’s co-presenting. Nick and Kendall Cabe presented the Joomla! KickStart Program at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Nick, will join Kendall Cabe to co-present the Joomla! CMS KickStart Program: Intro to Joomla!, Content & Navigation, Templates & Extensions

Jonathan Lackey

Jonathan Lackey is the Creative Director and President of Zuno Studios.

Cool flash tricks, sleek designs, crazy code, state of the art paper planes, Jonathan can make it all happen. Although we try to not bring it to his attention very often, in the hopes of keeping him as modest as possible, Jonathan effortlessly leads both the creative and technical teams thanks to his extensive knowledge and experience in both of these worlds.

Jon has worked with clients such as Dole, IKEA, USC and PIcturehouse and received numerous awards for his work, both in the creative and the technical fields. Who knew the computer nerd and the unconventional artist could come in one package?

When he’s not working (and this doesn’t happen often) Jon enjoys cleaning up after his untrainable shih-tzus, Dulse and PeeAir. He is a huge fan of Tootsie Rolls and single-handedly keeps Diet Coke in business. He also likes to travel and enjoys nice cold drinks on the beach. (Ah, to live in a Corona ad....)

Jon presented Magento E-Commerce and Dynamic Design for the Web at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At CMS Expo Chicago 2010, Jonathan will be presenting How to Choose Themes for WordPress and WordPress by Design.

Michel van Agtmaal

Michel van Agtmaal, is the Founder of Amsterdam-based Open Source Support Desk, providing expert support services for Joomla and other open source solutions.

"Professional support for open source solutions is frequently the missing link for its successful utilization", Michel explains. "With Open Source Support Desk we bridge this gap and offer a solution that allow individual and corporate users to run a business critical web site using an Open Source CMS like Joomla, knowing that they have guaranteed support whenever needed."

Michel works for a list of international companies that are registered on the stock exchange, small to medium-sized businesses and starters.

With over 4 years experience in online support services for web based open source software, Open Source Support Desk is the helpdesk of choice for the global Joomla community.

Michel works closely with Extension Developers to help them doing what they do best: develop leading Components, Modules, Plugins and Templates for Joomla.There is a growing number of leading Extension Developers with an Official Partner Status, who have set up paid support services for their clients and members through Open Source Support Desk.

With a corporate headoffice based near Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and an expert support staff based in Asia, Michel's company created and supportded countless Joomla web sites in more then 14 languages. He is a well known speaker at JoomlaDays and Joomla Events, editor of a Joomla 1.5 book (in Dutch) and an experienced Joomla Trainer.

Michel's firm has been a Founding Sponsor for CMS Expo, starting in 2008 at the CMS Expo Chicago, Denver 2008, and once again at Chicago in 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Michel will present "Great, But What About Support?"

Matthew Lechleider

Matthew Lechleider is an Active member in the ACM, IEEE, and Upsilon Pi Epsilon: International Honor Society for Computing Disciplines. Graduated from DePaul University with an undergraduate in computer science majoring in network technologies.

Matthew Lechleider is a product of the Nintendo Generation. He has spent 10 - 15 hours online everyday since before the Internet was cool. Matthew enjoys traveling the world speaking at conferences, skateboarding, and Linux.

Organizing the Chicago Drupal Meet Up Group (cdmug.org) and the annual Drupal Camp Chicago takes up the majority of his volunteer efforts. In addition to saving companies money by utilizing open source technologies, Matthew also teaches Drupal training classes.

Matthew presented Drupal Administration at CMS Expo Chicago 2009. He and Doug Vann teamed up to present the Drupal KickStart Program at the pre-conference in 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Matthew will present Drupal Administration

Matt Butcher

Matt Butcher is a Drupal Programmer at Palantir.net. He has written five books on software development, including two on Drupal and two on OpenCms. He has also written numerous articles on everything from embedding Linux in set-top boxes to writing LDAP-aware Python scripts. Matt has contributed to many Open Source projects over the last decade.
He lives in Evanston, Illinois with his wife and three daughters.

Matt Butcher presented JavaScript and jQuery and in the CMS Foundations Track, and he launched QueryPath at the 2009 CMS Expo, with great success!

At the 2010 CMS Expo, Matt will present QueryPath

Larry Garfield

Larry Garfield is the Senior Lead of Programming Services at Palantir.net

Larry has a Master’s degree in computer science from DePaul University. As the Senior Lead of Programming Services at Palantir, he has been developing PHP for nearly a decade and has been actively involved in Drupal since 2005. Larry currently serves on the Drupal Association Board of Directors and spearheaded the Drupal 7 database overhaul, among other projects. Larry was also a founding organizer of the GoPHP5 effort.

Larry's passion for Drupal is contagious! Larry presented Drupal SiteBuilding 1 & Drupal SiteBuilding 2 at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Larry will present Basic Development For Drupal and Advanced Development for Drupal

Kendall Cabe

Kendall Cabe is Partner and Lead Developer at JoomlaCoaching.com and InfoTeam Corporation.

One of JoomlaChicago's Founding members in 2007, Kendall Cabe brings more than 10 years of IT-industry experience, with a high concentration of programming, data analysis, and user training experiences. As a trainer and coach in the Open Source CMS world, Kendall's specialty is in Joomla. With his experience as a website developer, designer and extensions creator, Kendall's "hands-on" approach makes him a highly effective instructor, bringing a breadth of experience to the table. Whether it's creating full-blown websites for small, mid-sized or enterprise-level organizations, Kendall's been there, and he's done that. Through JoomlaCoaching.com, he's now helping others achieve their goals.

It's interesting to note, the Joomla KickStart Program was created over the course of two years, based to a great deal upon a four-part series of Joomla basics lessons both Kendall and his co-presenter, Nick Martinelli, have been teaching every month at the highly popular JoomlaChicago CMS Group meetings. Kendall serves on the JoomlaChicago Core Leadership Team.

Kendall and Nick Martinelli presented the Joomla! CMS KickStart Program at the 2009 CMS Expo in Chicago.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Kendall, along with Nick Martinelli, will present the Joomla! CMS KickStart Program

Ken Wasetis

Ken Wasetis is President and Solution Architect of Contextual Corporation. Contextual is a Chicago-area-based open source software solutions firm that specializes in implementing the Plone CMS, as well as developing custom functionality, designs, and integration connectors to weave a web best-of-breed web business solutions for its clients.

Ken is a member of the Plone Foundation and has presented at numerous Plone Conferences and has been involved with various Plone development sprints and planning summits, in an attempt to help with the continuous improvement of the Plone CMS and to allow Contextual to give back to the Plone community.

Some of Contextual's specialty custom integration and development efforts include:

Connectors for SugarCRM and Salesforce customer relationship management software for sales and marketing teams
Connectors for iMIS and other membership management software for professional associations and non-profits
The PloneGetPaid e-commerce add-on module for Plone
Custom SaaS (Software as a Service) web services development on a per-client basis,
leveraging SOAP and XML-RPC

Ken has worked with clients in many industries including:

Large federal government agencies with strict security and standards-compliance requirements
Professional associations such as Legal Marketing Association with complex member-management and collaboration portal needs
Fortune 100 firms such as Gap Inc. for enterprise intranet applications
Non-profits such as Chicago History Museum with demanding site traffic and rich theme design implementation and content publishing needs
Technology start-ups that require maximum ROI and who already realize the power and value open source solutions offer, such as Cleversafe.com
Entertainment firms with high traffic requirements, such as Feld Entertainment, whose SupercrossOnline.com site attracts millions of viewers each weekend that it appears on CBS television

Ken and his partner, Brett Wangman, presented "What About Plone CMS?" at the pre-conference and Ken presented "Sweet Integration: Plone & SugarCRM" at the CMS Expo Chicago 2009 and is proud to be the first Plone integrator to be working with CMS Expo.

At CMS Expo Chicago 2010, Ken will be presenting Plone KickStart 1: Guided Tour of Plone and Plone Security, SSO and Saas. Ken will also co-present, Plone in Action: Lightening Talks, Plone Case Studies 1 and Plone Case Studies 2 and Plone Recap/Q&A sessions.

Jeff Eaton

Jeff Eaton has been building software for the Internet and desktop applications for over a decade.

Jeff Eaton has participated in projects ranging from web-portals for communities and nonprofits, to enterprise client-server applications for retail industries, to large-scale web applications for companies like Dow AgroSciences and Prudential Real Estate. In 2005, he began developing solutions based on the open-source Drupal content management framework. In the years since, he's become a core developer for the Drupal project, specializing in architecture and API development.

In his capacity as a consultant for Lullabot Consulting, LLC, he's helped plan and build the software infrastructure for Drupal sites including MTVUK's music portal, SonyBMG's artist site platform, and Fast Company's groundbreaking business networking site. Jeff presented Drupal Development I, Drupal Development II and Business Model: ROI in a GPL World at CMS Expo Chicago 2009.

Jeff Eaton is the Drupal Core CMS Track Leader for the 2010 CMS Expo.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Jeff will Moderate the Interactive Panel Discussions: Drupal in Action and Drupal Recap Q&A Panel

Jonathan Shroyer

Jonathan Shroyer is a Co-owner & CTO of Battle Creek-based ‘corePHP'.

'corePHP' has grown to become one of the nation's largest Joomla-focused development firms, co-owned by Jonathan and his partner, Steven Pignataro. Jonathan has over 13 years of experience in graphic design and web development. Interestingly (and for the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" fans, Jonathan has worked on over one million images in Photoshop. Jonathan works simultaneously on a Mac and PC and now works almost exclusively on web development projects. He specializes in XHTML+CSS tableless and accessible designs that are cross-platform to reach the widest possible audience. Joomla! has become his CMS development platform of choice.

Jonathan presented Killer Photoshop Tips and CSS Done Right at the 2009 CMS Expo in Chicago.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Jonathan will present two sessions on CSS:
CSS Basics: Extremely Useful CSS Techniques and Badass CSS: What They Don't Teach You In Design School

Jen Kramer

Jen Kramer She is a senior faculty member at the Marlboro College Graduate School.

For over nine years, Jen Kramer has been educating clients, colleagues, friends and graduate students about the meaning of a "quality website." Jen develops sites that are functional, usable, accessible, and supportive of business and marketing goals. As a senior faculty member at the Marlboro College Graduate School, Jen instructs courses and workshops in web site design and management, including social networking and Joomla! Jen is the Program Director for the Master's of Science in Internet Technologies program (MSIT), advising students and overseeing courses and faculty.

Jen is the Senior Interface Developer and owner of 4Web, Inc., which specializes in custom-built Joomla! websites. She heads up the Joomla! User Group New England.

Jen is an author for Lynda.com, creating the training video series "Joomla! Creating and Editing Custom Templates," "Joomla! Advanced CSS," and "Preparing CMS Web Graphics and Layouts Using Open Source Tools." She has also recently written her first book, "Joomla! Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Website," published in February 2010.

Jen has presented at both the CMS Expo 2008 and 2009 including these sessions; Website Planning 101 & 201, Joomla! Graphics Basics, Joomla KickStart, Joomla Template Design 1 and 2.

Jen is the Joomla! Core CMS Track Leader at the 2010 CMS Expo.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Jen will be presenting Joomla Site Builder 1, Joomla Site Builder 2, as well as moderating the Interactive Panels, Joomla in Action and Joomla Recap Q&A

Doug Vann

Doug Vann is is a Drupal Developer & Trainer for Chicago-based Duo Consulting.

Doug entered Geekdom as a fifth grader in 1983 with a Commodore 64 and a 300baud connection to CompuServe. Twenty-seven years later he leads the Indiana Drupal Users Group and develops in Drupal full-time.

Catch Doug's blog at www.DougVann.com. Google "Drupal Song," and you're likely to find a few videos of Doug, jamming on the guitar, unabashedly proclaiming his passion for Drupal!

His love for learning and experimenting in Drupal is overshadowed only by his love to teach and evangelize it. He has presented in Minneapolis, Toronto, Indianapolis, Ohio LinuxFest, DoItWithDrupal, and DrupalCamps in Madison, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, Nashville, and L.A. You can often find Doug on the FREENODE IRC Network in Drupal-support helping people get through the steep learning curve of Drupal. Doug, his wife of 14 years, and their 4 children reside in Indianapolis.

Doug and Matthew Lechleider presented the Drupal CMS KickStart Program at 2009 CMS Expo Learning and Business Conference.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Doug will present: Guided Tour of Drupal and Drupal Top Modules

Colleen Carroll

Colleen Carroll is the Senior Lead of Development Services at Chicago-based Palantir.net

Colleen joined Palantir.net from the Art Institute of Chicago where she served as Web Technology Coordinator, responsible for administering the content management system, Serena Collage. She also developed the CMS implementation and training programs for AIC. Colleen has a BA in Studio Art and a BA in Management Information Systems (Business) from St. Xavier University. She provides CMS consultation and project management as well as development, integration, and training services.

Colleen presented Drupal Theme Design 1 & Drupal Theme Design 2 at the 2009 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.

At the 2010 CMS Expo in Chicago, Colleen will present Drupal SiteBuilding 1 and Drupal Sitebuilding 2

Avery Cohen

Avery Cohen founded Metrist Partners in 2001.

Avery helps marketers use interactive media to gain actionable insights into customer needs. Metrist Partners has helped companies rethink their brand experience, optimize web sites and troubleshoot drops in traffic or conversion rates on web sites. Metrist Partners provides an analytics resource for its clients, providing weekly, monthly or quarterly analyst assessments of Internet marketing activities and results, creating a culture of continual improvement and transforming marketing from an expense to an integrated part of the revenue stream with clear and measurable return on investment.

Avery and the staff at Metrist Partners have developed expertise in web analytics, search engine optimization, search advertising, email marketing, test design and social media. Metrist Partners engages with strategic visions and executes successful Internet marketing tactics on behalf of clients in diverse industries. Clients include Advertising Age, Crain’s Chicago Business, and Peapod.

Prior to founding Metrist Partners, Avery held leadership positions in information technology and Business Intelligence. During that time, he helped organizations collect, design, manage, develop and interpret data from their business systems. He worked in a wide variety of industries, and with clients that include Fortune 500 business managers, marketing executives and entrepreneurs. His experience includes supporting and developing a state-of-the-art planning and forecasting system for an international business, managing information technology and introducing new technologies for Fortune 100 companies, and managing consultants on an extensrive range of business intelligence platforms.

Avery Cohen is the CMS Business Track Leader for the 2010 CMS Expo Learning and Business Conference.

At the 2010 CMS Expo, Avery Cohen Will Present:
SEO Best Practices for CMS and On Message, On Target, On the Money with Google Analytics

Bill Tomczak

Bill Tomczak is Chief Curmudgeon for his own firm, Boulder-based Grumpy Engineering.

Bill Tomczak has racked up over thirty years in technology, and despite the name of his firm, he still loves his job (take a look at his photo, and you'll see). He has a passion for dynamic, data-driven websites and database analysis and design. Bill programs primarily in php and javascript and has extensive experience with Visual FoxPro, VB for Applications, ASP, Cold Fusion, and AJAX. During the last several years, he has increasingly focused on creating Joomla! sites and writing extensions for Joomla!. He began programming in FORTRAN and assembly languages in 1970.

Since then, he has had a wide ranging experience with technology and its practical application. Bill lives in Boulder, Colorado, serving national clientele. Beginners and advanced users alike will learn a great deal from Bill's thirty-plus years.

Bill was part of the Joomla CMS KickStart Program team and the presenter on Joomla Components and Modules at 2008 CMS Expo held in Denver. Bill presented Data-Basics: Database Foundations For CMS at the CMS Expo Chicago 2009. Bill also trains for Atlanta-based Open Source Training Inc.

At the 2020 CMS Expo in Chicago, Bill will present two sessions: Ground-Up
JavaScript and PHP 5 Must-Know Techniques

John and Linda Coonen

John and Linda Coonen started their careers as a husband and wife team, partnered in an award-winning marketing and graphic design firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota called The Coffee Group.

The Coffee Group grew into a full-service interactive marketing firm in the 1990s, dedicated to helping upstart brands, non-profit organizations and aspiring political leaders to achieve success through effective campaigns - both online and offline.

As a campaign consultancy for politicians, non-profits and corporations, Coffee Group thrived. Their market research has helped some of the world's largest and most progressive corporations make actionable decisions on key strategies; together, they have raised several million dollars for fundraising efforts for non-profit organizations. In over fifteen years of political campaign consulting for regional Illinois candidates, they've never lost an election. Their design and creative work has helped many small and mid-sized businesses grow and prosper, and their web design business has produced well over three hundred sites since 1995.

In 2007, John and Linda decided to focus all their efforts into one arena: community-building. Combining all the skills of a successful campaign consultancy together - research, strategic planning, leadership training, fundraising, technology, media buying and creativity - they formed the CMS Association. In 2007, they worked with many outstanding leaders to form JoomlaChicago, a grass-roots empowering user group. That quickly led to a regional, and ultimately national spotlight.

The CMS Association made its official debut at the 2008 CMS Expo in Denver. The primary focus of the CMSA is to empower web designers, developers, content producers, administrators and businesspeople to collaborate and succeed, and that's what the CMS Expo is all about.

Together, Linda and John Co-Host the CMS Expo Learning and Busines Conference. They look forward to meeting all of the attendees of CMS Expo Chicago 2010!

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