As WordCamp NYC approaches, we are featuring some of our speakers on the blog. Be sure to get your tickets before they sell out!

I have been using WordPress since early 2008, when WordPress was on version 2.5. It was surprisingly similar to what we know and love today at v4.3, with great advancements made by the early team long before I’d ever even heard of it. Before that, I had been building static websites and had begun doing some dynamic work with PHP, when this tool was suggested to me to make that job even easier. To say that it changed my life would be an understatement.

I used WordPress for personal websites first, still getting around it while on client work. These were general blogs, a failed attempt at affiliate marketing and my own ramblings. I was already a heavy LiveJournal user in high school and college, and WordPress let me do even more with my own content.

It wasn’t until around three years later that I even realized that there was a community around WordPress. I’m embarrassed to admit that the first WordCamp Orlando I only heard about via Twitter on the day of, but within a year of that I was involved with the brand new WordPress Orlando Meetup, and when the previous organizers opted not to continue WordCamp, I got involved with that, too. For the past three years I’ve been lead organizer of both events, and it has had a tremendous impact on my life. The time commitment is sometimes grueling, but the number of people that I get to meet and help, as well as the opportunities that it has afforded, have all been well worth it.

I swear that my whole life doesn’t revolve around WordPress, though it can often feel like it. I run my own web development firm and have returned to school to get a second degree, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things. I still make sure I carve out time to read voraciously, travel to multiple conferences and camps per year, and do all of the general social things that keep me from becoming permanently fused to my laptop. If you see me at WCNYC, talk to me about the things that you’re interested in. I’d rather help others succeed with WordPress and make new friends than bore you with my life 🙂