Austin Gil will speak on “Designers vs. Developers: The Final Showdown” Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the Talladega Room at WordCamp Los Angeles. Austin prefers a big picture view when it comes to projects and feels that it’s easy to get sidetracked by smaller decisions. According to Austin, his talk will focus on ways “to make the right decisions when it comes to a project and not get caught up in the developer vs. designer war.”

Austin hopes session attendees will gain “a clearer approach to decision making,” an especially helpful skill for keeping team members on the same page. Because, as Austin said, “Ultimately, knowing what determines the right decisions for a project can lead to more successful projects and happier clients.”

Austin had to make plenty of good decisions in college, as a valet at the Downtown Hilton, where he was provided the opportunity to drive some very fast cars. “I’ve driven Ferraris, Audis, BMWs, Corvettes, and more,” Austin shared. Unfortunately all had to be driven under 15 MPH.

His own first car was a red, ’95 Ford Mustang that was given to him because his cousin got a new car. While it was cool, it was not very economical and he doesn’t really have a dream car. According to Austin, “Cars never really did anything for me, but today I drive an ’05 Honda Civic Hybrid that I’ve taken on many road trips and am in love with,” he said. He explained he may be open to considering a Subaru Outback as a different option since Civics are not known for their off-road capabilities.

Catch Austin Gil LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: Designers vs. Developers: The Final Showdown
• Time and Date: Saturday, September 30 at 2:30 p.m.
• Room: Talladega Room

Devin Walker will speak on “Using WordPress For Social Good” Sunday morning in the Daytona Room at 10:00 a.m. at WordCamp Los Angeles. As a young driver, Devin stood apart from the crowd in his 1998 white, lifted Toyota Tacoma. Ten years later, in 2009, Devin used WordPress as a tool to lift others throughout the world by developing the GiveWP plugin. His talk is geared to “encourage and spread the word about how WordPress is being used effectively to empower many great causes.”

Devin has big dreams for himself (his dream car is a Bugatti Veyron) and for each attendee’s organization. “If you’re unsure about helping a cause or nonprofit client,” Devin explained, “this will give you many ideas about the various forms of fundraising and how to plan effective campaigns.” Plus, since he’s driven a Turbocharged Tesla Model S, it’s safe to assume, Devin knows a thing or two about speed.

Catch Devin Walker LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: Using WordPress For Social Good
• Time and Date: Sunday, October 1 at 10:00 a.m.
• Room: Daytona Room

Lisa Ghisolf will speak on “From Zero to Launch: A Walk-Through of the Website Process” Sunday morning in the Talladega Room at 9:00 a.m. at WordCamp Los Angeles. Lisa’s goal is to remove the ambiguity of website creation for those who have not worked with a designer or developer. Having talked with clients “who haven’t even discussed content, SEO, or how they’re differentiating themselves” when working with previous vendors she understands the need for education on this topic. Lisa said, “I want clients to be informed when they talk to designers and devs, and get an overall better product.” She further explained, “Redesigns can be more than just pretty. They can draw from real data to be useful.”

When it comes to the cars in Lisa’s life, a trend can be seen. She likes red.

Lisa’s first car was a Ford Tempo and, as she said, “It was neither cool nor sporty but it was red.” The fastest car she has driven is a Porsche 928… though she kept her pace under 40 MPH. Lisa’s dream car is the “Porsche 911, always and forever” in, you guessed it, “Guard’s Red.” Despite her love for red cars, Lisa is not one to speed through the web design and development process. She hopes her session will provide designers and developers additional tools to add to their arsenals and provide clarity for clients new to the web dev process. Her goal for the client, is that they’ll “know what to ask and what to expect during the process of design and redesign.”

Catch Lisa Ghisolf LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: From Zero to Launch: A Walk-Through of the Website Process
• Time and Date: Sunday, October 1 at 9:00 a.m.
• Room: Talladega Room

Jarrett Gucci will speak on “Backup Before You Crackup” Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in the Daytona Room at WordCamp Los Angeles. Jarrett describes himself as “very passionate” about teaching the importance of backing up WordPress websites. He believes that interaction is key for attendees seeking pole position. “The thing I like the most about WordCamps is interacting with new users and feeding off their enthusiasm of the software and community,” Jarret said. “I hope to contribute to that in a massive way.”

While Jarrett is a big fan of WordPress website safety and backups, he definitely doesn’t mind a fast car. The fastest vehicle he’s driven is a Super Charged Range Rover Sport, known to be capable of going zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. However his dream car is a Honda CRX and his first car, a 1960 Dodge Dart, was a gift from his neighbor.

Catch Jarrett Gucci LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: Backup Before You Crackup
• Time and Date: Saturday, September 30 at 3:30 p.m.
• Room: Daytona Room

Nile Flores will speak on “Avoiding Bloggers Block” Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in the Daytona Room at WordCamp Los Angeles. Nile is not new to brainstorming or creativity. This is clearly evidenced by her need to transform her first car, a 1990 red 4-door Chevy Geo Metro, into something a little more artsy while she was a starving student. She spray painted the default rims to red and bought a $15 dollar set of shiny hub caps to make it look fancy. Recalling that time in her life, Nile explained, “I think I was inspired by Pimp My Ride.” Nile put the Metro to good use and drove her fancy red car all over the US and parts of Canada, canvassing at least 150,000 miles in the 7 years she owned it.

Those trips have no doubt inspired her journey as a writer but she still understands the struggles that many have with continually needing content. When reading questions on writers block from her readers, Nile recognized a need to “hopefully help fuel the imaginations of bloggers, so they never have this issue again,” she said. “Avoiding Bloggers Block, or overcoming it seems to be a thing for a a lot of bloggers.” Nile’s goal is that attendees to her talk “will have enough resources and ideas” to “never have a problem creating content again.” And if not, she said she’d be happy to spend a quick 5-10 minutes pointing WordCampers in the right blogging direction at the Happiness Bar.

Speaking of happiness (and speed), Nile’s first dream car has always been a black Camaro with a V8 engine and dual exhaust Camaro style tail pipes. She’s a self-proclaimed “Chevy girl” and likes the current Camaro, even more. Nile owned a 2002 Chevy Impala with the Chevy police package. It had a V8 engine with dual exhaust and chrome Chevy Bowtie tailpipes and had been customized by a local sheriff. She remarked that he had to remove the county sheriff decals before selling it. Though Nile never pressed that car past 110 mph, she was well aware that it could definitely do more.

Catch Nile Flores LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: Avoiding Bloggers Block
• Time and Date: Saturday, September 30 at 10:00 a.m.
• Room: Daytona Room

Scott Stewart will speak on “Gulp.js and WordPress Dev” Saturday morning as part of the Advanced Development Track. Concise, capable and compact is the name of the game with Scott, as evidenced by his first car, a two door, red, stick-shift 1989 Honda Civic. Scott is excited to share tools he provides to compress javascript, convert SASS into CSS and more with WordCampers who attend his talk.

“I chose my topic because everyone developing with WordPress should utilize Gulp.js to streamline their workflow and do a bunch of cool things in a few lines of code,” Scott said. He further explained that by attending his talk, WordCampers could get up to speed and running with Gulp.js for both plugin and theme development, “if they’re not already doing some automation.”

Practical to the core, Scott explained that his dream car was a Tesla, but after he heard that they take forever to be repaired, changed his mind. Now he’d prefer something electric and fancy. The fastest car Scott has driven is a Dodge Neon, stick-shift, which he described as “not very fast, but some what fast.”

Catch Scott Stewart LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: Gulp.js and WordPress Dev
• Time and Date: Saturday, September 30 at 9:00 a.m.
• Room: Advanced Development Track

Dwayne McDaniel will speak on “WP-CLI: Don’t Fear The Command Line” Saturday afternoon in the Talladega Room at 3:30 p.m. at WordCamp Los Angeles. No stranger to fear, probably due to the fact that his first car was a red ’88 Dodge Omni which may have contained the worst engine Dodge ever built, Dwayne is committed to helping you overcome your angst over the command line.

Dwayne said he “loves the command line because it saves me a lot of time and lets me do neat things like automate updates.” He wants to share this knowledge with the world. “If you are doing everything through the WP admin interface you are literally wasting time waiting for PHP to repaint an admin screen,” he explained. “Learning basic WP-CLI commands will make administering users, themes, plugins and well, everything, much quicker and let you streamline your processes.”

The fastest car he’s ever driven is a 1997 SVT Mustang Cobra. Dwayne described his dream car as one with two bubble domes; with one in the front, while the one in the back is for quarreling kids, and comes with optional restraints and muzzles. He’d like the engine sound to cause people to think “the world’s coming to an end” and determined it would need “three horns, because you can never find a horn when you’re mad. The three horns would not be angry sounding, but instead play the song “La Cucaracha.” His dream car would also feature gigantic cupholders, the already mentioned bubble domes, shag carpeting, and tailfins. He’d prefer it came with a metal bowler as a hood ornament.

Catch Dwayne McDaniel LIVE at WordCamp Los Angeles:

• Topic: WP-CLI: Don’t Fear The Command Line
• Time and Date: Saturday, September 30 at 3:30 p.m.
• Room: Talladega Room