We wanted to take a moment to send out a big thanks to all of our Main Street sponsors. We would not have the opportunity of organizing this event without our generous and friendly sponsors. Please take a moment to check out our Main Street sponsors and be sure to thank them for helping with WordCamp Jacksonville.
Jetpack
Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin that simplifies managing your sites. This single plugin enables Photon (a global CDN for images), uptime monitoring, brute force protection, traffic-boosting tools, single sign on, multiple-site management, and automatic or bulk plugin updates. Additionally Jetpack includes several features that help you customize the look and feel of your site without installing other tools. More information can be found at jetpack.com.
Bluehost
Bluehost has been a WordPress partner since 2005 and powers over 1 million WordPress sites worldwide. Their objective is to help customers, whether novice or pro, create a thriving online presence at an affordable price. With a team of in-house tech experts available 24/7, Bluehost dedicates time and resources to providing the best support and services in the industry. Join millions of other site owners and see what Bluehost can do for you and your online presence.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the fastest growing eCommerce software/platform, powering over 30% of all eCommerce stores with over 1 million active installations. It is is built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress, making it the obvious eCommerce choice for existing WordPress users and connects you to the fast-growing WordPress ecosystem which now powers over 25% of all websites on the internet.
With WooCommerce you can start with all the basic tools that any small business would need to start selling online, including product setup, payments, shipping options, and sales reports and as your business grows choose from over 300 premium add-ons available including additional payment processors, shipping methods, inventory systems and marketing tools anyone to sell anything, anywhere from real products and digital downloads to subscriptions, content and even your time.
In July 2015, WooCommerce was acquired by Automattic, the creators of WordPress.com which serves more than 15.8 billion pages a month and also the creators of other popular WordPress services including Akismet, Jetpack, and VaultPress. We look forward to growing WooCommerce to achieve even greater things together with Automattic.
MainWP
Say hello to the web’s best WordPress management solution.
MainWP brings 360-degrees of control to WordPress management with a simple, streamlined interface that lets users control all their sites in a snap. Now schedule automated backups, monitor up-time, manage content and plugins across multiple sites with push-button ease.
MainWP is self-hosted and free. You can download it directly from WordPress.org and take advantage of a cutting-edge, open-source solution that helps you get more done in less time. You get one central and intuitive Dashboard for 1-click updates, adding and editing posts and pages, and creating backups for all connected sites.
You can also broaden the scope of MainWP and make it your own using purpose-built Extensions designed to expand its capabilities. Choose from a wide selection of add-ons including SEO, marketing, security, maintenance and more, MainWP gives you a powerful line-up of Extensions to choose from.
With MainWP, it’s time to make WordPress management effortlessly efficient.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web, a managed web hosting company, offers a wide array of hosting solutions, including VPS, cloud, dedicated, and shared hosting plans. WordPress users will find our fully managed hosting solutions, built on powerful and flexible servers, ideal for hosting WordPress sites of all sizes. In addition, all of our fully-managed solutions come backed by our industry-leading, 24/7/365, on-site Heroic Support®. Our Heroic Promise features a comprehensive SLA with 59 second phone and live chat responses, 30 minute helpdesk responses, 30 minute hardware replacement, and 100% power and network uptime guarantees. With wholly-owned, state-of-the-art data centers in Michigan, Arizona, and Amsterdam, we provide true global reach and geographic redundancy. Whether your hosting needs are big or small, managed or unmanaged, shared, VPS, or cloud … Liquid Web is the perfect match.
Twitter: @liquidweb
Facebook: LiquidWebInc
GoDaddy’s mission is to radically shift the global economy toward small businesses by empowering people to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures. With more than 12 million customers worldwide and 57 million domain names under management, GoDaddy gives small business owners the tools to name their idea, build a beautiful online presence, attract customers and manage their business.
The website management platform for Drupal & WordPress, 
Currently protecting more than one million WordPress sites, SiteLock delivers a patented 360-degree website security solution to find, fix and prevent malware and other threats from affecting websites and their visitors. Services include malware scanning and vulnerability detection, automatic malware removal, an advanced web application firewall (WAF), PCI compliance and website acceleration powered by a global CDN. SiteLock provides phone support, available 24/7/365.
Kuna Co-Work is a shared office space with common area, window bays, suites, meeting space, and a conference room with common amenities. We strive to provide a communal, authentic and community-oriented workspace for independent and multiple members of a business. The energy and casual space will be occupied by free thinkers, creative developers, dedicated professionals and intuitive entrepreneurs. Together we create a space inviting positive brainstorming and success for businesses.
Liquid Web, a managed web hosting company, offers a wide array of hosting solutions, including VPS, cloud, dedicated, and shared hosting plans. WordPress users will find our fully managed hosting solutions, built on powerful and flexible servers, ideal for hosting WordPress sites of all sizes. In addition, all of our fully-managed solutions come backed by our industry-leading, 24/7/365, on-site Heroic Support®. Our Heroic Promise features a comprehensive SLA with 59 second phone and live chat responses, 30 minute helpdesk responses, 30 minute hardware replacement, and 100% power and network uptime guarantees. With wholly-owned, state-of-the-art data centers in Michigan, Arizona, and Amsterdam, we provide true global reach and geographic redundancy. Whether your hosting needs are big or small, managed or unmanaged, shared, VPS, or cloud … Liquid Web is the perfect match.
Say hello to the web’s best WordPress management solution.
DreamHost is a global Web hosting and cloud services provider with over 350,000 customers and 1.2 million blogs, websites and apps hosted. The company offers a wide spectrum of Web hosting and cloud services including Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Dedicated Server Hosting, Domain Name Registration, the cloud storage service, DreamObjects, and the cloud computing service DreamCompute. More information can be found at 
Plesk simplifies web management activities to align with the way infrastructure is used today for hosting websites and web applications. A widely used web management solution, Plesk provides everything a web professional needs to set up a website quickly and securely – including a WordPress Toolkit, an easy-to-navigate control panel, server level automation, supportability tools, and complete protection with our server-to-site security core.
easyname is unique. We value our customers and are among the few remaining fair and easy going web hosting companies out there. You won’t catch us deceiving you with 1st year price deals or sneakily up-selling you products you don’t need during checkout. Perhaps this is the reason why we grew to be among the most popular 
ManageWP has been conceived back in 2010 by a team of WordPress developers as the ultimate WordPress productivity tool for professionals building and managing multiple WordPress websites. ManageWP is currently managing over a quarter of a million websites, helping you quickly and efficiently migrate websites, run backups, perform restores, monitor, maintain and optimize them, and a lot more.
Steve Burge is from Portsmouth in southern England and now lives in Sarasota in the US.
Marine Corps veteran, offering nearly 20 years of IT experience. Currently working as a Information Security Analyst responsible for web application penetration testing, network system penetration testing, security monitoring, network vulnerability assessments, reporting and coordinating vulnerability remediation. Responsible for analyzing latest security threats, tools, vulnerabilities, network attack schemes, documenting best practices and providing policy update recommendations.
Co-founder and lead code monkey at Presstronic Studios. Software engineer with over 18 years of experience in testing and creating applications. Rookie entrepreneur with almost no experience running a business. Just stubborn enough to believe you haven’t failed until you quit.
I have a bunch of pompous titles like Distinguished Lecturer (for CBS Interactive) and Cyberwarfare Advisor (for the International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals), but my favorite description, by ZDNet, is this: “David is part mad scientist, part celebrity author, and part shadowy government adviser.” ‘Tis true.
Trey, a native Texan, traveled all across the southern US before settling down in sunny Sarasota, Florida with his beautiful wife and daughter. Along the way he’s become a bit of a generalist; connecting the dots in different fields to uncover new perspectives and insights. For the last 2 years, he’s worked with Valet.io in support, account management, and strategy.
I’ve been managing teams of creatives and makers in non-meatspace with my company Highforge since 2001. I was an early adopter of WordPress for delivering powerful websites to small and medium businesses and we’re big fans of Genesis these days. Highforge is also one of the few small WordPress shops that has deep experience with the Shopify platform.
With over a decade of experience in business, content marketing, client management and applying all these things to the WordPress world, Beau believes strongly in connecting his client’s with their intended audiences through clear, compelling copy. As Web Strategist on the team at Open Sky Web Studio, he gets to interact daily with clients to strategize the most effective ways to tell their stories and put them in touch with their customers. Beau is a member of the WPChattanooga Meetup and loves the community and collaboration that WordPress fosters.
President/Co-Founder of a 50-person agency called emagine (headquartered in Boston). 15+ years ago started as a very typical “2 guys in a garage” firm building small websites on a proprietary CMS. Today, we develop WordPress-powered websites for multi-billion dollar, multi-national companies in the areas of B2B, High-Tech, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Professional Services. We’ve built roughly 1,500 websites over the years (over 200 since adopting WordPress a couple years ago).
I’m the CEO of FileLogix, a cloud based software platform for Document and Records Management. Before becoming actively involved in PHP development, database design and hosting, I spent many years in the TV industry, behind the camera, producing, shooting, and editing videos. I am passionate about combining the world’s of software development and multimedia production.
Angelica Yarde has been designing for over nine years of experience combining the world of digital aesthetics with strategic functionality to develop and implement successful branding techniques. She is the co-owner of Sevenality, a brand strategy firm she runs with her husband. She is also the editor of Studio 404 Design Blog, the designer of Studio 404 Paper, and the co-host of the Heat + Hustle Podcast. .
I’m a Product Manager for Liquid Web, a fully managed hosting company. I work on various WordPress products and initiatives focusing on open-source, community, and spreading the love of WordPress. I have been involved with the WordPress community since 2006, working with theme and plugin companies in support and project management positions. In my spare time I love to travel and spend time with my lovely wife.
I’m the writer, photographer, editor, and subject matter of 2TravelDads – a travel blog about my husband and I taking our sons out into the world and experiencing it as an LGBT family, learning about culture, having great food, and playing in the sand. I come from a career in hospitality and HR, having worked with Disney, Starbucks, Princess Cruises and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants.
Steve Dimmick has been a WordPress developer since version 2. He started out building custom membership websites with WordPress and now works with clients on retainer and in long term relationships.
James Tryon is the Creative Director of Valet, the founder of Easily Amused, Inc, and a father of two. He’s also one of the co-organizers of WordCamp Orlando and the WordPress Orlando meetup group.
Bruce Chamoff has been a web developer for 20 years and developer of WordPress plugins and themes for 9 years. After trying all of the major content management systems, Bruce found WordPress to be the most effective and fastest growing, so encouraging clients to use WordPress was an easy decision.
Mike Herchel is a front-end web developer at Lullabot, and is fortunate to be able to work on some of the highest-profile sites on the web. Mike has been developing for the web since 2001(!!!) and enjoys the rapid pace of front-end web development and wonders if it’ll ever settle down (and what that will mean).
Zach is a Senior Developer at Reaktiv Studios, WordPress core contributor, and Netflix binge watcher. He’s passionate about front and back-end development and is always learning something new.
Growing up in the Silicon Valley, as the Silicon Valley was growing up, taught me much! I took my first data entry class at 14 in a summer program (yes, I was geeky enough to take summer school because it was fun), and I was hooked. I had a gift, I suppose, because soon I was setting up electronics equipment, running the IBM keycard machine, and programming ASCII graphics calendars. Shortly thereafter I was in my first programming class (yes on an Apple II), and I ate it up like candy. Eschewing the traditional route, I enrolled in college part time, and started working full time, temp work mostly, at places like DEC, NEC, and the Wollongong group – early groundbreakers in networks, communications, and all things digital, including the World Wide Web. I programmed my first website in HTML, by hand – no WYSIWYG here, and designed the graphics using paint – one pixel at a time. Things have changed since then, I’ve had two kids, been married twice, moved from the west coast to the east coast and then to DC, Florida, North and back south again. I’ve worked in the private sector, the public sector and now run my own business. The kids are grown, my passions are established – business, writing, design, gaming and helping others.
Chris is currently the Director of Technology at Effin Amazing, an analytics and growth consultancy. He is a 16-year Internet marketing veteran with experience in web design & development, search engine optimization, online marketing, social media marketing and mobile development. He specializes in WordPress custom development utilizing either Genesis Framework or underscores and is very active in the WordPress Orlando community. Chris has held development and Internet marketing positions in some of Orlando’s top technology companies.
I’m a freelance WordPress web designer and photographer. I started a design company called Design Theory LLC. founded in 2008 where I manage over 52 client websites in various business fields from dentists to mechanics and in between.
Aaron is a designer turned developer turned an agency starter. He has been working with WordPress since 2008. He has worked on WordPress projects with many Fortune 100 companies and many other businesses. He regularly speaks at Meetups and Wordcamps and currently helps lead the Atlanta WordPress Meetup.
In 1999 Gary discovered Server Side Includes and the web was never the same (for him anyway). An ardent DIY-er in nearly all things, he is deeply intimidated by cooking and if found on a desert island would likely remark “I’m so over sashimi”. In college his frequent network disruptions warranted a dorm-visit from the IT department.