Editor’s Note: The Speaker Spotlight post you are about to read will inevitably be the most biased one, as it is written by the speaker’s wife.

Not only is Dan Birlew handsome, debonair, stylish and muscular, the man can also speak geek with a hypnotic and passionate fluency. You may not understand a thing he’s saying, but you’ll be inspired to learn.

Redefining what it means to be a nerd, Birlew authored over 70 video game strategy books before taking a turn in his career to become a web developer. He builds sites mainly on WordPress, PHP, Java and ASP.net and is currently working for Caesars Entertainment. His Las Vegas WordCamp presentation is titled “WordPress and Masonry: Brick by Brick” and will teach developers how to create a WordPress site designed with a column layout style much like Pinterest.

Dan Birlew
Websites: http://DanBirlew.com and http://LasVegasManBlog.com

WCLV: What do you love most about WordPress?

DB: Simplicity of functionality, documentation! And the abundant amount of tasty plugins.

WCLV: What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

DB: Regenerate Thumbnails, Jetpack, Google XML Sitemaps, Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools, Infinite Scroll, LayerSlider WP, WP-Emoji, WP-PageNavi.

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

DB: Mashable, PlayStation blog, The Sartorialist, css-tricks.com.

WCLV: Who is YOUR WordPress hero and why?

DB: John Hawkins! Man, that guy just won’t give up….

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

DB: Feed John Hawkins to the hordes while I sprint to the exit!