Lead Organizer
Best known for teaching beginners how to use WordPress in the Meetup she has facilitated since 2011, (and self-proclaimed WordCamp Queen of Registration for 6 years), Kathy is the Executive Producer of Kathy Drewien & Company, a web development firm offering WordPress services for creatives, bloggers, consultants, and coaches with bold dreams.

Kathy is a professionally trained listener skilled in helping business owners grow. And, she loves to talk! You can find her on Twitter and Slack channels for the make.wordpress.org Community and Training teams.

Sponsors
This is Carel’s fourth year helping to organize WordCamp Atlanta. He loves this community, “Everybody is very friendly and always willing to help. We were overwhelmed by the interest from sponsors and have a great list of sponsors this year!”

He is the owner of ClickHOST.com. “We love to educate our customers on how to get the most out of their websites; including how to use mobile websites to generate more leads, more business, and ultimately more profits for their businesses.” They specialize in WordPress friendly hosting and many other web hosting services.

PS: Fun facts about Carel

• Born in South Africa, and now a US Citizen.
• Speaks 3 languages, English, Afrikaans, and German.
• Lived and worked in South Africa, Germany, and now the US.

Social Media
Renee Dobbs is a self-proclaimed Domestic Goddess who loves to eat, drink, and dig in the dirt. She started blogging to share and connect with the world. Renee loves both cooking and baking and is equally happy chopping vegetables as whipping frosting. She is always on the search for the next great recipe to make, delicious wine to taste, new restaurant to try, beautiful flower to plant, and nice place to visit. Her blog is Magnolia Days and you can follow her on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

Speakers
“Thought leader” is one of those accolades that many aspire to, but few deserve. Mickey is the real thing –– a widely acknowledged thought leader in the WordPress space. He follows more than 500 blogs to stay current on every aspect of digital media. He’s also a sought-after teacher, sharing his expertise across Metro Atlanta on all aspects of technology, social media and analytics through monthly WordPress-focused Meetups and other gatherings of experts and learners. He’s competitive but generous as he helps others develop their skills. Along the way, he has retained the stamina and determination of the long-distance runner he used to be.

Away from his three-screen workstation, he coaches his daughter’s soccer team, plays softball and enjoys ice cream with his wife, Kelly, and their two girls.

You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn, among others.

Website Developer
Born and raised in Atlanta, Aaron is one of the co-founders of Sideways 8 and the lead geek on most projects. His background is all over the place—built first computer at age 12, started first job as a 3D animator in high school, designed first website in 1996, on and off did web design and I.T. support.

Aaron started developing a while back, but in 2001 is when he first started actually writing code that was dynamic. From that point on he has been a huge fan of building things that make sites “do stuff” instead of a just a static page. He is an active contributor to the WordPress project as co-organizer of the first Atlanta WordPress Meetup, a frequent WordCamp speaker, and plugin developer.

Design

Nicky breeds unicorns. She wants to live in a world where culture is taught as a core class, a rainbow includes all 152 Crayola colors, and the words technology and beauty become synonymous.

As a Brand Specialist and Website Designer, she been trusted to create the brands of business and organizations all across the country—amazing solopreneurs and bigger names like Days Inn, Comfort Inn, Frito Lay and Aveda.

When not obsessing over difference between sunrise pink and sunset pink, you can find Nicky studying Vogue while binge-watching Hulu, road-tripping to a stationery store two states away that she saw on a postcard, or hot-gluing her fingers together while trying to conquer her last Pinterest post.

Mentor, Lead Organizer (2012-2015)
Not your typical web developer, Judi brings an unusual wealth of experience to her work at her company, New Tricks, with a background that includes being a Ph.D. Psychologist and serial entrepreneur.  Judi hosts the Atlanta WordPress Users Group with over 2,200 members, as well as mentoring  WordCamp Atlanta. She is a blogger, frequent national speaker, and publishes Just a Digital Minute, a popular weekly newsletter providing actionable digital marketing tips.