Camp Tech Instructors

Camp Tech Instructors are not only experts; they’re fun and engaging teachers. Check out our roster.

Emily Baillie

Grow Your Business Using Instagram

Emily is a Toronto-based social media expert whose love of travel inspired her to build Compass Content Marketing, a business that specializes in digital travel and lifestyle content. She has 10 years of marketing experience and she has worked with brands including Goway Travel, Northern Ontario Travel, Tourism Quebec, Tourism Toronto, Kensington Tours and MasterCard Priceless Cities. Though she works with all major social media platforms, Instagram is her current favourite. Emily is the Social Media Lead at Humber College and she also teaches an e-Marketing course at George Brown College. When she’s not creating social media content and teaching, she’s dreaming of her next travel adventure.
Sheila Bergeron

Google Analytics

Sheila Bergeron is a Google AdWords certified digital marketing expert with Vector Media, who ironically enough began her career with a print company. With fourteen years of marketing experience, she specializes in building objectives-driven marketing campaigns that integrate all aspect of the digital media spectrum. Passionate about storytelling, Sheila firmly believes that Google Analytics tells a story of its own, one that can be unlocked by brands to inform strategic direction.
Amalia Biro

Online Marketing with Google AdWords

Amalia Biro is a paid search ninja, Excel nerd, and Google partner. She specializes in working with small businesses one on one to develop a paid search marketing strategy in line with their goals and budgets. Currently the Senior Paid Search Specialist at local Vancouver agency Convertus, she also works individually with clients in tourism, retail, and non-profit. Her background and degrees in both psychology and marketing have led to her developing a true passion for online advertising, and a rather surprising love of math and algorithms. She's curious, driven, and when she isn't geeking out over algorithms and quality scores, you can find her watching the latest season of Survivor or playing ultimate frisbee.
Rebecca Bollwitt

Business Blogging

Rebecca Bollwitt built her first website in 1997 and she has been blogging about life in BC since 2004 on Miss604.com. Rebecca co-founded sixty4media, a website development and consulting firm in 2008 and in 2010 Rebecca literally wrote the book on Blogging to Drive Business with first and second editions published by Pearson/Que. She has been named on of BC's Top 100 Women of Influence by the Vancouver Sun, Miss604 has been voted “Best Vancouver Blog” by the Georgia Straight for 9 years, and “Best Local Blog” by The Westender for 4 years, and Toronto-based Notable recently named Miss604 the Best Blog in Western Canada. Rebecca has consulted and partnered with some of the world's largest companies (Coca-Cola, Lexus, Samsung) as well as local community businesses and non-profit organizations.
Spencer Callaghan

Writing Killer Web Content

Spencer Callaghan is a writer, content strategist, and account director at Thornley Fallis Communications. He has been a writer in journalistic, marketing and creative capacities since 2006, and enjoys helping brands tell stories that turn customers into lifelong fans. Spencer began his career in journalism which sparked his love of storytelling, an interest that he pursues at websites such as Erica Ehm’s parenting hub, Yummy Mummy Club, the Ottawa Citizen, and his personal creative writing on Medium. Spencer has worked with clients both big and small in a variety of industries from automotive to healthcare, and from startups to multinationals. He believes that stories, not content, are the key to connecting with an audience, and enjoys helping to craft them.
Emily Chow

SEO: How to Drive More Traffic To Your Website

Emily Chow is a search engine optimization specialist, digital marketing trainer, and founder of Chow Communications. She loves helping her small business, big corporate, and agency clients build online brand presences that audiences can’t help but love, share, and buy into. Emily has been working in web marketing since 2002, with software startups, entertainment powerhouses, and global pharmaceutical brands. Companies like LivingSocial, Mary Kay, and Vespa have trusted her with identifying ideal customer segments, fostering engaged online communities, and driving qualified leads. Emily has developed own unique process for creating search engine optimized multimedia content and has been sharing her tried-and-true SEO strategies and conversion tips to organizations that want to create an unshakeable online presence that sells itself – even when you’re not around.
Melissa Jean Clark

Teaching Assistant, WordPress, HTML & CSS

Melissa is a web developer with a keen eye for classic and “warm minimalist” design. She builds websites that are responsive, accessible, and easy to use. Her kind and straightforward approach makes her an excellent teacher and mentor, and her superb organizational skills ensure she can find (or create!) an elegant solution to any complex problem. Melissa has a degree in photography from OCAD and can often be found exploring one of Toronto’s many gorgeous libraries. You can find out more about Melissa’s work and process at melissajclark.ca.
JP Davidson

Podcasting

JP Davidson is a podcast producer, radio journalist, and audio editor. He turns sounds and voices into great stories for brands, non-profits, independent clients, and public radio. His work has appeared on national CBC and NPR radio shows, and in podcasts for brands like RBC Royal Bank, Citrix, and Greenpeace. JP studied radio documentary production at the Transom Story Workshop. He is also the founder of the Canadian Sound & Story Workshop, a community for independent podcast, radio and multimedia producers.
Christina Davies

InDesign

Christina began her career in journalism, which led to her long-term love affair with InDesign. She eventually left the life of community newspapers to dedicate herself to print layout, and is now an Adobe Certified Expert in InDesign. She is currently the Pagination Coordinator at TV Media, providing peripheral print products to some of the most widely circulated newspapers across North America. She also loves all manner of pretzels.
Michaela Davies

Social Media, Google Analytics

Michaela is fierce advocate for social justice and a true believer in the power of digital activism. A lifelong storyteller, Michaela began her career as a founding employee of one of Vancouver's first Social Media agencies. Thousands of wall posts and hundreds of campaigns later, Michaela began working as the Director of Communications for a publicly-traded exploration company for seven years before joining the ranks of a large Vancouver-based foundation's communications team where she currently lords over all things social. As the founder of the Downtown Eastside based creative writing program “The Academy for Young Writers, Pirates, Wizards, and Astronauts” as well as the female mentorship organization “The Glass Ceiling Demolition Company,” Michaela has extensive experience with the branding and social marketing of Non-Profits. Michaela holds an M.A. Professional Communications and wrote her thesis on the emotional effects that Facebook's targeted advertisements have on users.
Linn Øyen Farley

HTML & CSS, WordPress

Linn is a freelance web designer and developer with a degree in technical theatre. She specializes in building beautiful and accessible websites for small businesses, fellow freelancers and arts workers, and believes in enabling even the most non-technical people to take control of their own site post-launch. She gets disproportionately excited about a lot of things, including IKEA furniture, to-do lists, BBC programming and bacon-related cooking. You can see her work and get in touch at drollic.ca.
Dani Gagnon

Social Media

Dani sprang in on the social media world before it got hot with her company Dani G Inc, and because of that has worked with over 400 companies in the last 5 years on their social media campaigns. Her innovative ideas sprout from over 15 years of social media experience, and being a young entrepreneur with a fresh take on marketing. Dani spends most of her time Snapchatting coffee pictures to the world, or playing gigs with her band KINK.
Adam Green

Google Analytics

With almost 10 years of internet marketing experience, Adam is considered a veteran in the space. As the co-owner of Art & Science Digital Experience Design Inc, he and his team manage marketing programs for clients across North America of all sizes. Using Google Analytics combined with a blended traffic generation approach of organic and paid search, social media and content marketing, Art & Science drives increases in traffic for its clients every month. Art & Science is also fast becoming one of the best experiential agencies in Toronto. When Adam isn’t glued to his computer he can be found in or around a kitchen as an accomplished chef, playing baseball or traveling.
Katie Holmes

Photoshop

Katie Holmes is a Multidisciplinary Designer living in Vancouver. She has been working in the digital design world for 9 years but has been pushing pixels since she discovered MS Paint on her parents computer in the early 90s. Some of her client roster includes Starbucks, Lululemon, Nike, Saje, and Destination BC. When she is not sitting in front of a computer she's probably making something with her hands, riding her bike or off climbing one of the local mountains.
Shawn Hooper

WordPress

Shawn is the Chief Technology Officer at Actionable Books. He is an experienced web application developer, having spent over 15 years creating web applications for organizations in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He finds topics like API-driven design, web performance, accessibility, and data modelling interesting. The last few years have seen him focus on the WordPress content management system, adding customized functionality to a variety of sites. Shawn is a core contributor to the WordPress open source project, and speaker at WordPress conferences. He blogs about web technology and WordPress at http://www.shawnhooper.ca/
Leslie Hughes

LinkedIn For Business

Leslie Hughes is the Principal of PUNCH!media, a Professor of Social Media and corporate trainer. An early adopter in the world of web, Leslie has had over 15 years of experience showcasing brands such as Weddingbells Magazine, Fashion Magazine, Visa Canada, Novartis and Prozac. She trains businesses how to leverage “word of mouth on steroids” and use tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging to effectively tell their company story, build quality relationships and convert sales. Leslie is a graduate of the University of Ottawa (B.A. Psychology), and proudly has her Master's Certification in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP).
Stan Ivanov

Facebook Ads

Stan is a Founder and CEO of Intelligence Agency - a Toronto-based performance agency that specializes in Facebook and Instagram advertising. Stan had founded Intelligence Agency in 2009 and prior to that he had worked in a number of Product Marketing and Operation roles in ATI Technologies, AMD, Q9 Networks and Epson Canada. Stan graduated from Centennial College and Ryerson University where he majored in Marketing. Stan is an active angel investor and a mentor to multiple startups.
Lisa Kelly

Admin and Organization Tools

Lisa Kelly is an Online Business Manager, Admin Consultant and the founder of Admin Guru. Highly organized, detail-oriented and a problem solver with a prior career (20+ years) in technical/customer support and graphic design — Lisa can guide you with your admin so that you can focus on what you got into entrepreneurship for in the first place: doing your thing. And doing it well while having fun once again!
Paul Kelly

InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop

Starting out in traditional film and photography, Paul has been teaching for over 20 years and has been an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign since 2004. When not training, Paul stays actively involved in layout, design and production, freelancing in a wide range of settings, keeping up to date with the way these programs are being used in the industry today.
Krisztina Kun

WordPress

Krisztina Kun is a graphic designer and web developer with over 15 years experience in communications and community engagement. Her work history includes being an in-house graphic designer for the Vancouver Public Library and Vancouver Community College as well as a front-end web developer for Vancity Credit Union. You can find her at kunstudios designing print materials and making websites for non-profits, public sector organizations, cooperatives, small businesses and artists. Krisztina loves working with passionate people working in the public good.
Nicki Lamont-Cholfe

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Nicki is a search engine optimization specialist and online producer for a web development company in Toronto, Ontario. With over six years of SEO experience and nearly 10 years of published work, Nicki is really, really, really good at exposing brands to a target audience online. With a background in broadcasting from her time at the NYC MTV headquarters and her time at Rogers Television, Nicki has found an easy to understand way of teaching the insider SEO tips and tricks that companies need to grow their website.
Dana Lu

Adobe Illustrator

Dana Lu is freelance graphic designer who loves to work in print and packaging. She's worked in small and huge design studios, as well as in-house for a snack food manufacturer, and more recently at a sunglasses distributor. She can still remember the first time she used Illustrator to manipulate text, it was pure magic, then every zip disk she owned needed its own custom cover art. When not nerding out on design and typography, she can talk about food forever and loves everything DIY.
Geoff Marcy

Online Marketing with Google AdWords, Google Analytics

Geoff has a passion for launching world class digital advertising campaigns and helping innovative, disruptive businesses acquire new customers at scale. He is the former Director of MediaTrust and has over 10 years of experience in online marketing. He started his own agency, Adfluent Media, in 2010 after building a reputation for "not cutting corners" and blowing up revenue and ROI targets. Geoff now assembles highly specialized teams for B2C search, social and display advertising with a focus on ROI to help his clients hit aggressive growth targets. Geoff is Google certified in AdWords, Video Advertising, Analytics and his agency is recognized Google Partner. When he isn’t counting conversions or sweating it out on a running trail, Geoff is hanging out with his rambunctious toddler and plotting travel escapes with his family!
Wendy Kam Marcy

The Business of Blogging, Business Blogging & Content Marketing

Wendy has been working in the Online Marketing and Advertising industry for 10 years. Spending most of that time on the corporate side, she left the rat race in 2010 to become the Managing Partner at Adfluent Media, an ad agency that specializes in digital strategy and affiliate marketing. She is also the Co-Founder of Hip + Urban Girl, a hobby blog that has now grown up to become a popular women's lifestyle website. She's worked with over 50 major brands including American Express, Microsoft, Reebok, Dove, Ford Canada, eHarmony, various Tourism Boards and more. She is a new mom to a rambunctious and curious little boy and has lived in Vancouver and New York City but currently calls Toronto home.
Vivienne McMaster

Taking & Sharing Better Photos With Your Smartphone

Vivienne McMaster is photographer who has created a popular e-course program and brand called Be Your Own Beloved that helps folks see themselves with compassion through their own camera lens. Her photographs have been seen in such places as Oprah.com and the The Huffington Post. She helps make photography feel accessible and fun. Through being an online entrepreneur, teaching and promoting her courses over the past 5 years she’s built up a wealth of knowledge on how to use our photographs to make our brands and business thrive in an authentic and engaging way. You can more about her at www.beyourownbeloved.com.
Brock Murray

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google Analytics, Online Marketing with Google AdWords

Brock is a driven digital marketing specialist. He has helped hundreds of small and medium size businesses reach their potential through the use of online marketing. His extensive experience comes from 13 years of web design & development and graphic design. He has a unique advantage over many web experts, as he can design a mockup, build a website, code a web app, and then boost it to the top of the search engines. He also holds many certifications including Google AdWords Search, Display & Video Advertising. He currently owns seoplus+, a thriving digital marketing agency. When he's not working (which is rare) he spends quality time with his wife, and plays on a number of hockey teams.
Theresa Ramirez

Excel

Theresa is a research and data analyst by day, and a stand-up comedian by night. She has a background in finance but has always had a passion for the environment and sustainability, which fits in great with her current role at Ontario EcoSchools. She was recently given a Data Diva award for her animated approach towards spreadsheets. She graduated in Mathematics in the UK and moved to Toronto over five years ago, where she now resides with her little cat. She was also once on the TV quiz show the Weakest Link.
Jason Ryant

HTML and CSS for Beginners

Jason is a technology consultant striving to change the status-quo of IT support, working with clients in their homes and businesses. He is the co-founder of Blue Lotus Creative, a Vancouver-based creative agency with a conscious. When he's not working with clients, he's in the classroom teaching topics ranging from web programming, user experience design, and WordPress. His classes have been taught across Vancouver, including at Langara Collage, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and at the University of the Fraser Valley. In his spare time he enjoys playing music, hiking, and cycling.
Dara Skolnick

Teaching Assistant, WordPress, HTML & CSS, Shopify

Dara is an independent web designer and front-end developer from Toronto. After working as a web developer at a number of places from large organizations to small agencies, she now runs her own one-person shop where she designs and codes websites for entrepreneurs, creatives, and big-hearted small businesses. She also enjoys speaking, art, photography, and befriending cats. You can visit her online at daraskolnick.com.
Sara Slater

Teaching Assistant, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign & WordPress

Sara is a Toronto based freelance graphic designer who has been using Adobe products for over 20 years. She has 18 years experience in digital design, providing the user interfaces for touch screen kiosk software applications for clients including Moneygram, All Weather Windows, Bass Pro Shops and Dave & Buster's. In her spare time, Sara is an avid volunteer leading her cottage association's communication team, and mentoring at Ladies and Kids Learning Code workshops. Her love of animals has also led her to become an active volunteer with Annex Cat rescue as a Community Manager looking after their social media one day a week, as well as feeding a colony feral cats, ensuring their health and quality of life. Sara loves to learn as much as helping others to learn, especially in fun workshops like those at Camp Tech.
Kurtis Stewart

Photoshop

Kurtis is a self proclaimed Efficiency Architect born and bred in Vancouver, BC. Simply put: he makes everything run smoothly. He wears many hats in his day to day life including Project Manager, Business Consultant, Pitching Mentor, Non-Profit Webmaster, and Freelance Photographer. When he’s not hoisting a camera of his own, he’s teaching others to use theirs properly at Langara College. It may seem like Kurtis is all work and no play but in between work and juggling many volunteer positions he enjoys coaching Ultimate frisbee and cycling around the city.
Andrew Symes

Online Marketing with Google AdWords

Andrew is an Ottawa-based communicator and marketing specialist. As a marketing manager at Kaszas Marketing, Andrew offers his clients a full range of marketing and communications strategy, execution, and management services in addition to expert marketing writing. He also provides a strong analytic discipline to marketing activities, specializing in analysis and strategy for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. In 2013, Andrew was certified as a Google AdWords professional with a specialization in Search Advertising. An avid astrophotographer, Andrew enjoys sharing his photos of the moon, stars, and planets on social media.
Anne Thomas

Shopify, WordPress

With a wide variety of experience in web development, Anne has worked for government agencies, small businesses and some of the top advertising agencies in Toronto. She loves a good content management system and believes that you can create a great web presence even if you don’t want to become a web developer yourself. However, if you do, she also teaches at HackerYou helping to get people excited about HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In her downtime, she attempts to teach her dog tricks, goes hiking and tries not to kill the various plants in her garden.
Helen Tremethick

Writing Killer Web Content

Helen is a writer and a renegade who brings over a decade of experience to The Communications Distillery. She specializes in crafting personalized web content for inspired entrepreneurs, artists, and quaint-but-established start-ups. The champion of the hesitant writer, Helen walks the careful line between branding, ghostwriting, and editing. Helen is a fierce Scrabble opponent.
Tara Wilkins

Digital Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

Tara oversees marketing and runs the day-to-day operations at Camp Tech. She is passionate about connecting people with learning resources and she believes that learning should be fun, non-intimidating and hands-on, especially when it comes to technology. When Tara is not at Camp Tech, you can find her curating events for The Makers Nation, fostering kitties with The Annex Cat Rescue and delivering workshops for the Toronto Youth Job Corps program at West Neighbourhood House.
Jessie Willms

Teaching Assistant, WordPress

Jessie is a freelance front-end web developer by way of the Toronto Star, iPolitics.ca and HackerYou. She specializes in building fully custom, intuitive WordPress websites for small businesses and quality people. She is learning React and d3.js. She likes mountains and tiny black bears.