Kristen Symonds, (aka Kristarella) is co-organiser of the WPSydney meetup group, co-organiser WordCamp Sydney 2014 and a WordPress fanatic. She also loves photography, craft (especially knitting and crochet), Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and board games.

Kristen is married to Dave and has two pet rabbits named Kaylee and Monty; they all live together in suburban Sydney.

You can follow Kristen on Twitter.

Meryl has been using WordPress since 2011, but still considers herself to be a novice. Having seen the list of august speakers coming to the WordCamp, people with serious dev skills, entrepreneurs and the like, she has some trepidation about volunteering to present; however, we all had to start somewhere and if she can inspire another newbie to think “Hey, I can do that too”, then the anxiety will have been worth it!

As a non-coder she finds the WordPress platform perfectly suited to the skills she can bring to the table. With over 20 years’ experience as an Information Professional (aka a Librarian), helping small businesses and not-for-profit organisations to create well-structured websites, with quality content, that they are able to manage themselves (to a large degree) is something she finds very satisfying.

Being programmatically challenged, Meryl uses quality commercial themes to do the heavy lifting and has begun to delve into the mysteries of CSS in order to tweak the design to suit the client. Still unsure about whether this fascination with WordPress can actually generate an income, she has nonetheless taken the plunge and finally got a business card. ☺

You can follow Meryl on Twitter.

Nik Cree is the lead developer and WordPress consultant for PostiveBusinessOnline.com His primary focus is helping bricks and mortar businesses double their leads, enquiries and sales on by implementing systematised, replicable systems online to generate leads enquiries and sales.

You can follow Nik on Twitter.

Ricky is a self taught web professional who found and fell in love with WordPress, and the community behind it while looking for a CMS platform to build websites for clients. He soon fell down a rabbit hole full of plugins, themes and passionate WordPress devotees, which forever changed his life and has taken him on an extraordinary journey, filled with late night talks with equally enamoured Wordies and fueled by craft beers.

Ricky runs Data Guru, a small web design business based on Brisbane’s Northside, which develops sites for small to medium sized businesses, as well as doing Pro Bono work for not for profit groups.

He is a Co-Organizer for the Sunshine Coast WordPress Meetup Group, and also regularly attends the Brisbane WordPress Meetup and Brisbane Web Design Meetup groups.

In his spare time (not that he has much of that), he is a temporary Australian (motorcycle rider), plays keyboards and sings in a local Brissy band and tries to stay on top of the ever changing Web Development world. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge of WordPress with anyone who will listen, and loves helping newbies find their legs with the WordPress back end, and show them what can be achieved with this powerful platform.

You can follow Ricky on Twitter.

Selina Power is a social media specialist and founder and owner of Super Power Digital – a WordPress website design development and social media agency.

Selina’s native genius moniker, ‘Social Media Powerhouse’, is pretty apt, as she has been in the social media and digital marketing industry for over eight years and has worked with non-profit organisations and large commercial companies. She was also the founder of Social Media Online Academy which is now being run by Bluewire Media. Selina has been featured on Nova (Brisbane), ABC Radio and has spoken with Facebook at their Small Business Bootcamp. Selina is a renowned international keynote speaker and is the co-creator of the Social Media Planning Template and the 5 Minute Social Media Marketing Plans which have been downloaded 1,000+ times worldwide. Selina is always on the look out for the next social media trend and gadgets.

Follow Selina on Twitter.

Tracey’s professional background is in digital media design and production.This includes many years designing and developing online and digital media, including using content management systems and other cross platform interactive experiences. Today, this includes content and digital media strategy development and user-centered design for engagement.

The healthcare technology space is of particular interest to Tracey and she is very active in this community in Brisbane, especially as a co-organiser of a successful and rapidly expanding meet up group called Healthtech Innovation QLD (http://www.meetup.com/Healthtech-Queensland-Meetup/events/220964056/) which has grown exponentially since it began in October last year.  

Tracey has managed and delivered content for international brands as well as small, local clients and her talk will cover some case studies in:

• Corporate communications – online, brand establishment and management, copywriting, visual communications.
• Instructional videos – motion graphics, combined with voice-over and video content.
• Information graphics – visual communication of complex data and concepts.
• Website advancement – design, build, content strategies and maintenance.
• User experience design – engagement, task focused outcomes, GUI design.
• Creative direction and brand management – guidance on target audience perception, branding guidance, social media etc.

You can follow Tracey on Twitter.

Working as a Business Analyst on technical projects for over 15 years, Warren has developed a knack for moulding available technologies into business solutions. As a WordPress Consultant, Warren has spoken at WordCamp Melbourne (Australia) and regularly speaks at WordPress Meetups in Melbourne (for which he is a co-organiser).

When not creating websites or helping people with WordPress technical issues, Warren likes to test his physical endurance, having already completed the Oxfam 100km walk 3 times and Tough Mudder in 2014.

You can follow Warren on Twitter.