The Team

Mark’s firm MacGraphic has been working with WordPress since 2009, after building on a career in photography and print design.

He creates WordPress powered websites for companies and corporations of all sizes. His speciality is creating custom themes and sites to suit his clients needs.

When Mark started out with WordPress, he was living in Scotland where he attended a few of the Meetups in Edinburgh. After returning to his native Northern Ireland in 2013, he found there was no existing WordPress Meetup there. So, he set about creating the WPBelfast Meetup group, which still meets monthly.

“Enjoying a business around WordPress makes me want to see it continue and improve which can only be done through the amazing community which surrounds it,” said Mark.

His enthusiasm for being part of and developing the WordPress Community led him to become the Lead Organiser for the inaugural WCBelfast 2016, a Co-organiser for WCDublin 2017 and is now Lead Organiser for WCBelfast 2018.

• WordPress Belfast MeetUp: https://www.meetup.com/WPBelfast/
  
• MacGraphic: https://macgraphic.co.uk/

Brendan works as an independent consultant at Halcyon Information Technology Ltd, working with a range of manufacturing and professional organisations based in the Greater Belfast area in Northern Ireland.

Previously he worked in government and health IT across a broad range of technologies with interests in security, infrastructure and systems integration.

WordPress has provided a platform for more than 10 years for Brendan’s blog where the stranger or more interesting of the challenges he finds get aired to hopefully to help others.

“I have always enjoyed using WordPress – I like the style and the proactive nature of the platform. Finding new novel uses for WordPress  is one of my favourite challenges.” says Brendan.

Through his broad interest in technology and software development spanning the last 30 years of working in IT, he is a regular attendee at various Belfast Meetups encouraging involvement and innovation from participants.

• Brendan’s blog

Neil is a Belfast-based freelance designer and front-end developer, focusing on working with artists, dance and theatre companies.

He is also a performer with the comedy dance theatre company ponydance  which performs to audiences of 10 in parish halls to more than 10,000 in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

After going to the WordCamp Belfast 2016, he went onto attend WordCamp Dublin 2017, and was so inspired that he is now part of the organising team for WordCamp Belfast 2018.

Neil said: “My favourite thing about WordPress is that it’s FREE! No joke. It has helped me and my peers in the arts create and promote work to audiences worldwide. I am really enjoying being part of the community and the WordCamp Belfast organising team.”

You can find him on Twitter @_neilorangepeel.
@neilorangepeel – WordPress.org

Lesley is a web designer and digital marketer interested in business and tech.

She is currently completing a MSc in Design Innovation at Maynooth University.

She was asked to join the WordCamp Belfast 2018 team after her volunteering role at WordCamp Dublin 2017. Read why she volunteers with the WordPress community here: https://mediadog.ie/wcdub/

You can find her on Twitter @Media_Dog.
@Mediadog – WordPress.org

Colm has been building web stuff since the web was a wee lad.

He first started using WordPress in 2006 and immediately got hooked on hooks and filters. Initially using WordPress as a simple solution to blogging on hobby sites, Colm led the adoption of WordPress as the preferred Content publishing platform for a busy Dublin based web agency with hundreds of WordPress implementations.

Today, Colm is Co-Founder of Create & Code and CommerceGurus.

Colm was co-organiser of WordCamp Dublin 2017 and is part of the WordCamp Belfast 2018 team. When not deep in hooks and filters you will find him running around a mountain or making pizza.

• Discover more about WordCamp Dublin and hear why Colm thinks the WordPress community is so important (Colm’s interview is near the end of the film on WordPress.TV)
• ‘WordCamp Dublin is all about community’ – Interview by Conn Ó Muíneacháin
  with some of the WordCamp Dublin 2017 organisers (Black Knight podcast)
• WordCamp Dublin 2017 speaker presentations – WordPress.TV
• WordCamp Dublin 2017 – write up by Black Knight

Abha works as a communicator and project manager in traditional, web and digital media. As a journalist, she reports and broadcasts on communications topics, digital tools and AI. She is also involved in academic research on digital participation aimed at encouraging wider community engagement.

She is an advocate for continuous professional development and has been part of access campaigns to encourage greater take up of web and digital skills.

Abha believes the WordPress community is “a great way to learn, share, innovate and be encouraged” and has an important role in sustaining digital innovation. She is part of the WordCamp London 2018 organising team and was a volunteer and interviewer at WordCamp Dublin 2017. She was asked to become a Co-Organiser of this year’s WordCamp Belfast – marking the 15th anniversary of WordPress – and is leading Northern Ireland’s first Contributor Event. In addition to her professional communications training work, she is a speaker at management, communications and IT events and WordPress MeetUps.

She is also a volunteer contributor to the WordPress Marketing Team and is keen to hear from other WordPressers on good social media and digital communication examples being developed by WordCamps.

You can contact her via Slack and find curated tweets on management, communications and digital topics on Twitter @NonStopNewsUK and through her clients’ channels and communications campaigns.

Marcin is a front-end developer and a technical SEO geek.

He enjoys optimising websites for performance, users and search engines.

Marcin wasn’t born in Ireland, but he has spent almost a third of his life on this amazing green island.

He was part of the team behind the wonderful WordCamp Dublin 2017 and is now supporting WordCamp Belfast 2018.