Organizer Q&A: Bill Mead

WordCamp Sacramento Bill Mead

This is the first post in a series to help you get to know our 2015 WordCamp Sacramento organizers a little better! Today we’re introducing you to this year’s lead organizer, the one and only Bill Mead.

Be sure to give Bill at shout out on Twitter and don’t forget to use our hashtag #wcsac.

Get To Know Bill

Bill is currently the Director of Design at Art Institute of California, Sacramento, where he also teaches web classes. He has been building custom WordPress websites since 2005, and loves the platform and the community. He helped found the Sacramento WordPress Meetup Group in 2010 and after a long hiatus is glad to be back involved in the community. Bill lives in Davis with his wife, cat, dog and chicken.

WordPress Q&A With Bill

Why WordPress? Why do you use it?

I use WordPress because I want to enable site owners to manage their own content, and to give them control of their own digital landscape.

What is your favorite thing/feature in WordPress?

The separation of content into a database. The separation of content, structure and presentation is, to me, the holy trinity of web development. I enjoy finding clever ways to get content from the database and display it the way I want it to display on the page.

Share 1-2 plugins you use often and think people need to know about.

I’m not a big fan of plugins in general, but I have found the All-In-One SEO pack useful, as well as Advanced Custom Fields. Programming stuff like that manually is a pain.

How has the community made a difference for you or influenced you?

The philosophy of open source software has shaped my entire adult life. WordPress, and it’s place in that movement, is huge and important to me. I really believe that these tools and attitudes can change the world for the better.

What makes Sacramento awesome? Why should people be excited to come to Sacramento for WordCamp?

Sacramento has so much to offer, yet is not overwhelming. It is a great city to live and work. Great food, friendly people, beautiful weather (although a little hot sometimes).

What’s not to like?