• Mitch Canter
• WordPressing since 2003
• Developer, Designer
• Studio NashVegas
• Twitter @studionashvegas

Mitch Canter’s career in WordPress began by fiddling around on some old-school platforms (remember Xanga and LiveJournal?) and not accepting their limitations. He actually “discovered” WordPress right here in Nashville, and it was love at first…code.

“WordPress is simple enough that anyone can jump in and use it, but powerful enough to be able to handle what you can throw at it,” he says. “I’ve found very few things in my development career that WordPress couldn’t handle, and most could be done without having to ‘code outside the box.’”

To say you could trust Mitch on this is an understatement. He started out solely as a WordPress designer. Since then, he’s developed WordPress sites, spoken about WordPress at conferences, edited WordPress books… And now?

Mitch manages some extremely high traffic sites (150K+ a month), including a 4,000+ product WooCommerce-based site, and to “stay frosty” and keep his “edge,” he occasionally takes on freelance projects.

Are you a budding developer? Want to change the world? Think you’re too old to give it a shot?

Mitch has some advice just for you:

It’s never too late to start. WordPress has a fantastic track record, and by joining the community you join a long list of users and developers who have changed the world by taking publishing into their own hands. If you’re a developer, don’t just learn PHP and be done with it – make sure you understand the basics: HTML, PHP, CSS, and jQuery. If you can at least read (and later write) those four languages, you can handle most of what the WordPress-driven web can throw at you.

Still not convinced to love WordPress? Read more on Mitch’s website, Studio NashVegas.

As part of the build-up to WordCamp Nashville 2014 Faces of WordPress will highlight members of Middle Tennessee’s great – and growing – WordPress community. We will feature WP users at all levels, newbies to advanced developers. And mark your calendar. This year’s Big Event is May 3, 2014.

As part of the build-up to WordCamp Nashville 2014 Faces of WordPress will highlight members of Middle Tennessee’s great – and growing – WordPress community. We will feature WP users at all levels, newbies to advanced developers. And mark your calendar. This year’s Big Event is May 3, 2014.

• D’nelle Dowis
• WordPressing since 2009
• Intermediate (advanced user, intermediate designer, beginning developer)
• berry-interesting.com
• Twitter @d_nelle

D’nelle Dowis began using WordPress in 2009 as a website manager. She fell so in love with the flexibility of the platform that she now builds WordPress sites as a part of job as an internet consultant (a delightfully vague term meant to encompass content writing, social media management, website development and email marketing).

“I had created HTML websites and used other Content Management systems before,” says D’nelle, “so I figured that using WordPress would be just another CMS to wrangle. I had no idea how it would suck me in… I’m totally a WordPress evangelist now.”

D’nelle attended WCN12 after years as a participant and volunteer at Nashville’s BarCamp and PodCamp, “Once I saw what a great community has built up in Nashville around WordPress, I wanted to be more involved.”

After attending WordPress Nashville meetups, her professional network expanded and her business grew. “Not only have I made amazing connections with people I now call my colleagues and friends, I’ve seen new work come my way directly from this community.”

Speaking at WCN13 seemed a logical step. D’nelle threw her hat in the ring and let the planning crew decide where she fit best.

“I work best when I’m asked questions or challenged to solve a problem,” she says, “So when I was asked to talk about images, plugins and themes for Track 1, I couldn’t wait. And, as nervous as I was going into it – it was my first time speaking at a professional conference like that – I relaxed almost instantly and had a great time. It was like what I do with my own clients every day, only with a big group all together.”

This year, D’nelle is organizing all session submissions and is the point-person for anyone on the schedule to speak. “I want everyone in the community – in Nashville and at large – who is considering speaking to take the plunge whether they have experience or not,” she says.

(If you haven’t already, hop over to the session submissions page and submit your ideas – even if they’re vague or you’re not sure where you fit, we want to hear from you!)

You call follow D’nelle at http://twitter.com/d_nelle

As part of the build-up to WordCamp Nashville 2014 Faces of WordPress will highlight members of Middle Tennessee’s great – and growing – WordPress community. We will feature WP users at all levels, newbies to advanced developers. And mark your calendar. This year’s Big Event is May 3, 2014.