Nothing in life is free. Well… except for maybe WordPress. But if you are a WordPress Developer, design graphics for use on a WordPress website, act as a business and technology consultant for companies looking to move their website to WordPress, or do any kind of WordPress-related work where you charge a fee for your services, then the last thing you want to do is work for free.

Together with WordCamp Las Vegas Keynote Speaker Chris Lema, Steve Zehngut will teach you how price your WordPress projects during his Sunday session. Talking dollars and cents is never an easy task, especially for an entrepreneur. As the Founder and Chief Technologist of Zeek Interactive, Zehngut is well-versed in the art of business development, growth and success. This is your chance to find out from an experienced entrepreneur and technology expert just how much you should be charging for your WordPress work.

Steve Zehngut
Website: http://zeek.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

SZ: Rapid development

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

SZ: John Hawkins. Although I guess the time for butt-kissing has passed since I have already been selected as a speaker.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

SZ: Gravity Forms, Advanced Custom Fields, Custom Post Type UI

WCLV: Are there any fun activities you have planned while you’re in Vegas? If so, what are they?

SZ: I come from an era when what happened in Vegas actually stayed in Vegas. I will never tell.

WCLV: Favorite book and why:

SZ: I usually only have time for technical books. The last book I read for fun was “Ready Player One.” It will make an amazing movie.

WCLV: Are you smarter than a 4th Grader? Do you think you can dance?

SZ: I may not be smarter than most 4th graders, but I will beat them up and steal their lunch money. I don’t think I can dance…I know I can dance.

WCLV: What are your plans for surviving the zombie apocalypse?

SZ: Slow-moving “Night of the Living Dead” zombies or four-minute mile “28 Days Later” zombies? In an apocalypse, you don’t have to outrun the zombies, you only have to outrun your friend.

WCLV: What are three of your pet peeves?

SZ: Bad grammar, food porn, and interview questions.

How does someone who participates in two to three WordPress meetups a week, speak at 12 WordCamps in a year, and help to organize WordCampLAX remain so bright-eyed and cheerful while showing no signs of stopping? We have no clue. You’ll have to ask Suzette Franck yourself, as she conducts the Leveraging CSS3 in WordPress Workshop at WordCamp Las Vegas this year. The woman is a ball of fire! But she manages to nurture her softer side through crafting projects. We suspect she finds her Zen balance among the aisles of Michael’s.

Franck blogs frequently at suzettefranck.com (which is about WordPress), is a regular contributor on WPWatercooler.com and works as the WordPress Evangelist at (mt) Media Temple, where she educates and advocates for WordPress and the WordPress Community.

Suzette Franck
Website: http://suzettefranck.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

SF: WordPress is a publishing platform that can be anything from a simple blog to a fully featured social media site and/or e-commerce site. It supports a huge economy of professionals and hobbyists from writers to graphic designers, to hardcore coders and programmers, as well as search engine specialists, hobby bloggers, and small business owners. WordPress is easy to start using and there is so much opportunity to learn and grow within the platform.

WCLV: What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?

SF: http://thinkspacegallery.com and http://css-tricks.com

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

SF: Matt Mullenweg is my WordPress hero because he has continually taken WordPress to the next level and provided awesome leadership for several large scale businesses. His message and consistency in supporting a truly open-source platform and the community surrounding it is unwavering and he continues to lead teams that constantly innovate.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

SF: WP Help, Wordfence Security, Jetpack, CodePress Admin Columns

WCLV: Favorite book and why.

SF: Professional WordPress Plugin Development by Brad Williams. I need a copy at home and one at work! It is the ultimate reference for writing plugins for WordPress.

WCLV: What do you love about Las Vegas?

SF: I love the the vintage neon signs the most!

WCLV: Vodka or tequila?

SF: Hard choice, two of my favorite liquors. I think Vodka is more versatile and tastes great with diet Red Bull, but I can’t resist a Margarita on the rocks with salt.

Konstantin Obenland is a WordPress developer who loves food and beer. So coming to Las Vegas to participate as a speaker at WordCamp is definitely the right thing to do.

Obenland has been a core contributor since WordPress 3.4. After helping out with Twenty Twelve, he was the backup lead and theme developer for Twenty Thirteen, the current default theme. So, you may already be familiar and even using his work!

Get ready to have your mind blown, as Obenland will introduce you to The Customizer, the most unknown and under appreciated feature around. Attend Obenland’s session, and you’ll soon find out why The Customizer is so awesome.

Konstantin Obenland
Website: http://konstantin.obenland.it/

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

KO: The community and the openness of people that make it up. I love going to WordCamps and chat with people, and to the more I go, the more fun it is. The WordPress community is very tight knit, which can make it hard to “get in” some times when groups of people have a history together, but it also makes for great times catching up with acquaintances you made at a prior WordCamp or meetup.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

KO: Everyone who donates their time in the support forums and in the theme and plugin review queue. It’s a ton of work for the people involved, mostly unrecognized by the general public or enduser.

WCLV: Favorite TV show and why:

KO: The Neighbors. It’s a silly show in its second season and I’m not really sure why I like it, but it just makes me literally laugh out loud at least once an episode.

Captain Ahab has nothing on Ben Lobaugh. Not only does Lobaugh sail for adventure on his boat zzZippety Doo Dah, but he also organizes Seattle WordCamp and works as a Jetpack Engineer for Automattic. With over fifteen years of experience working with open source communities, Lobaugh is an active contributor to the WordPress Community. He looks forward to teaching WordCamp Las Vegas attendees how to test plugins and fix bugs before they happen. His favorite part of visiting Las Vegas? John Hawkins’ wife’s cookie. [Editor’s Note: The appearance of Mrs. Hawkins’ cookie has not been confirmed, yet.]

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

BL: I love the community behind WordPress. Nowhere else have I seen such a great blend and interaction of users, designers, developers, and business owners all working together with a passion for the software they love as in this community. Even “rival” WordPress studios can be seen sharing ideas and helping each other grow better and stronger.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

BL: It is hard to have a hero when there are so many excellent people driving so many neat projects, from functionality in core, sweet plugins, and fun businesses that provide excellent lifestyles. Above all of them though there are the WordPress newbies that I think deserve the greatest respect and admiration. Learning a new system can be scary but watching new community members come in and not only embrace the platform but get excited about being involved and contributing back, those are my heros.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

BL: Jetpack, Ship Log, Parent Category Toggler

According to Amanda Blum, Project Manager and Head of UX at Etch Software where she helps companies execute strategy, a website build is much like finding a home. Some of us are happy renters, some are ready to make the jump to home ownership.

For those with a desire to build a home, hiring an architect, a general contractor, a landscaper, interior designer, keeping everyone on budget, on timeline and on task can seem impossible. A website is no different. Understanding what your money can and can’t buy, what you should look for in your contractors and timelines, understanding everyone’s role and responsibilities is key. Blum is prepared to teach all of that to you and more in her session “Acting As Your Own General Contractor for a WordPress Buildout.”

Blum is a past lead organizer of a various WordCamps and a speaker at WordCamps and WP Meetups all over the world. When not Pressing, she makes pickles, knits scarves and manages her bat-shit crazy doberman Clementine in Portland, Oregon.

Amanda Blum
Website: www.etchsoftware.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

AB: It levels the playing field for organizations of all sizes to attain a viable presence.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

AB: Advanced Custom Fields, Term Management, Backup Buddy, and using Zapier in wacky ways to distort Gravity Forms.

WCLV: What do you love about Las Vegas?

AB: The museum at the Bellagio.

Plow Alex Vasquez with Hendricks Scottish gin, and he’ll plow you with a load of crappy jokes. Or, he might just tell you what he’d really like to do (or who to do) during a zombie apocalypse, but since we’re trying to keep this blog G-rated, we’ll give you his alternative answer at the end of this post.

What you really want to know about Vasquez is that he runs DigiSavvy, a digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles. He also organizes a WordPress meetup in Pasadena and is a co-organizer of WordCamp Los Angeles. His session titled “Choosing the Right Tool for the Job: Child Themes, Starter Themes and Frameworks. OH MY!” will help you improve your skills as a theme developer, whether you’re at the beginning stages of development or more advanced.

Alex Vasquez
Website: www.digisavvy.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

AV: It’s flexibility. It may not be the most advanced platform out there, but the fact that so much can be built with WordPress is astounding. There are so many use-cases of WordPress that span simple Blogs to Enterprise level network sites. But more than that the community. There’s nothing else like it and it has inspired me to give back to the community as much as I can.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

AV: There’s a ton; it’s hard to name just one. The WordPress community has so many brilliant people that I look up to, it’s hard to whittle it down to one… So I’ll give you two: Brandon Dove and Jeffrey Zinn at Pixel Jar are two people I look up to quite a bit. I see what they do and it inspires me, just from their own professional work and also how they give back to the community. I would say it’s largely because of them that I’ve become more involved in the So. Cal WordPress community.

WCLV: What do you love about Las Vegas?

AV: I love that you can do anything at any time. Period. And that one can drive less than an hour to have amazing waffles in the quiet mountains… There’s no party better.

WCLV: Are there any fun activities you have planned while you’re in Vegas?

AV: I think I might twerk… No promises though!

WCLV: Sushi or steak?

AV: Can we just take sushi and steak, blend them up and put them into a failure bowl, mounted on a pile of sadness and tragedy? I mean, I really LOVE both.

WCLV: What are three of your pet peeves?

AV: 1. Boastful Folks. 2. Folks who don’t say “thank you.” 3. People looking over my shoulder when I’m working and asking me, “So, what’cha doin’?”

WCLV: What are your plans for surviving the zombie apocalypse?

AV: I would fashion my MacBook Pro into a big giant deli blade and solder it my left fist. And to my right fist I would screw in a hook that could hold bags of bacon so that I could eat bacon all the time every time for all the days. Additionally, yes, I would solder a chainsaw to my right fist; I don’t know how I could be much more awesome…

Face it. It’s a Google world and we’re all just living in it. As founder of the online marketing consultant firm Local Stampede, Benjamin Beck is equipped to teach you Google SEO and the basics of optimizing a WordPress site. You can pick his brain all you want, but just don’t ever poke him – in person or on Facebook. That’s one of his pet peeves. But you can challenge him to ride a bull. He’s done it before and claims it’s the best $20 he’s ever spent.

Benjamin Beck
Websites: LocalStampede.com and BenjaminBeck.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

BB: It’s a quality and flexible platform that allows people to start & grow their website easily.

WCLV: What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?

BB: PeopleofWalmart.com, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, Spotify, and TypoGraphica.org.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

BB: Yoast – Creates amazing plugins and gotta love all his cartoon animations of himself.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

BB: Yoast SEO Plugin, Scroll Trigger Box, and Jetpack for WordPress.

WCLV: What do you love about Las Vegas?

BB: The shows are amazing!

WCLV: Are there any fun activities you have planned while you’re in Vegas? If so, what are they?

BB: I plan on doing the Stratosphere free fall anyone want to do it with me? Also plan on seeing the Bellagio water show and maybe catch one of the Circus Olay shows.
[Editor’s Note: We think Beck means Cirque Du Soleil, but maybe he knows something about Vegas that we don’t.]

WCLV: Do you think you can dance?

BB: I thought I could in college; there are some hidden gems on YouTube. Drink on me if you find it and tell me the crew’s name.

As the Vice President of Communications and Innovation for United Way of East Central Iowa, Christoph Trappe is implementing a multi-year strategy that focuses on building connections between the target audiences and United Way’s mission of being the catalyst for change to better the community.

A newspaper reporter by trade, Trappe left the newspaper industry in 2007 and has since focused on helping organizations tell their stories in authentic and meaningful ways. He uses and teaches brand and traditional journalism as well as content marketing techniques in the pursuit of great stories.

Are you ready to tell your unique story? Of course you are. Attend Trappe’s seminar WordPress for Beginners, where he will teach the beginner the basics of setting up his/her WordPress-powered site.

Christoph Trappe
Website: www.ChristophTrappe.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

CT: The ease of use and community. WordPress allows many to update a website, which used to be a much more complicated process before WordPress. Also, there are always people who are working on improvements or are coming up with new ways of using WordPress.

WCLV: What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?

CT: TheGazette.com, IowaPrepSports.com, CedarRapidsRAGBRAI.com, UnitedWayofEastCentralIowa.org, and my kindergartner’s site (sorry, not sharing her URL, but she has her own WordPress site! Seriously. It’s popular with family!).

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

CT: Custom Sidebars, Gravity Forms, Related Posts. Details on what they do can be found here: http://unitedwayofeastcentraliowa.org/some-of-the-plugins-that-we-use/

WCLV: What is the strangest thing you’ve ever done with a piece of bacon?

CT: I don’t understand the fascination with bacon… 🙂

He’s probably completely unaware of it, because he’s that humble of a guy, but Chris Lema is a really important part of this year’s WordCamp Las Vegas. Why? Well, not only is he our Keynote Speaker, but he’s also a sponsor. His expertise brings a lot of street cred to our WordCamp event. Over the past 20 years he’s started and sold off several software startups and has turned many around. Today, he is the is the Vice President of Software Engineering at Emphasys Software; and when he’s not doing that, he helps companies leverage WordPress and helps WordPress companies find leverage, while also blogging daily at ChrisLema.com.

Chris Lema
Website: ChrisLema.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

CL: I love the fact that non-programmers can manage their own website directly – putting all the power in their own hands. Instead of being beholden to developers, WordPress gives business owners freedom to control their own sites.

WCLV: What are some of your favorite WordPress-built websites?

CL: I love what my friends Syed and Brian have done as they’ve created WPBeginner and Post Status.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

CL: I’m really digging three plugins right now – RAMP from Crowd Favorite, Sidekick from WP University, and OptinMonster by Syed Balkhi and Thomas Griffin. RAMP not only prices itself well, but delivers fantastic value, Sidekick is a new plugin that is offering a new way to think about product support, and OptinMonster rocks for growing my mailing list.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

CL: I’m lucky enough to live relatively close to Dre Armeda – which I’m sure makes everyone else jealous. But his support in introducing me to the WordPress community, his model of building a fantastic startup (Sucuri), and his constant upbeat attitude which leads to sharing and networking all make him my hero!

WCLV: What do you do for fun that’s off the grid?

CL: I love cigars. Smoking them and finding new ones, and hanging with friends while we enjoy them are all tons of fun.

WCLV: Favorite TV show and why:

CL: House – because being a jerk isn’t a problem if the menace you’re fighting is worse (deathly).

WCLV: Favorite book and why.

CL: Microsoft Secrets – because it highlighted a role (as a connector between tech & marketing) that changed how I thought about my career (at the start of my career).

WCLV: What are your plans for surviving the zombie apocalypse?

CL: None.

WCLV: What is the strangest thing you’ve ever done with a piece of bacon?

CL: Eat it.

WCLV: What are three of your pet peeves?

CL: Questions about my favorite books, questions about zombies, and bacon. 🙂

So, let’s say you’re traveling and you want some stellar restaurant recommendations, do you know who to ask? The answer is Kelley Kassa and her “food travel agent” website Foodie Journey. But now, let’s say you need advice on content strategy and marketing. Who do you go to? That’s right. The answer is Kelley Kassa, again. From writing to marketing to strategy, and yes, even food, Kelley Kassa is your go-to gal.

Kassa ‘s experience includes working with technology companies, start-ups, non-profits, and consumer/entertainment brands in both consulting and staff roles. Most recently, she has worked with a wide range of companies on their web and sales fulfillment content as key pieces to drive prospects and close sales. Her content strategy and pieces incorporate website content, blog posts, eBooks, white papers, case studies, videos and more. Her WordCamp class is titled “How to Take the Dread Out of Blogging.” Blogging shouldn’t be a struggle, and Kassa will teach you how to start a blog, make it successful and make it generate leads for you and your business.

Kelley Kassa
Websites: www.midnightoilcomms.com and www.foodiejourney.com

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

KK: Yoast SEO. A significant part of blogging is about being found.

WCLV: What are three of your pet peeves?

KK: Random capitalization. Incorrectly capitalizing titles, i.e., President Obama is correct, Mr. Obama, president is correct. Mr. Obama, President, is wrong. People who use PowerPoint when they really shouldn’t!