communities & culture

I’m a Founder, Mentor, Developer & Designer creating award-winning digital products & experiences with a holistic approach to problem solving for over two decades (currently building vlt /vōlt/)

tl;dr

🛠 Develop products & experiences utilizing the latest in web technologies
☕️ Manage large teams with multiple squads & leads
📊 Define, Implement & Monitor processes & tools to meet industry standards & best practices
🎤 Speak at events on the future of technology & overall thought leadership
❤️ Organize & run monthly meetups & annual conferences
✍️ Write for & feature in mass media publications
🌎 Contribute to various open source projects & initiatives
🎓 Teach classes & workshops for post-secondary & professional development audiences

Tools & Technologies

Over the years I've come across a number of tools & technologies that help me build web sites, applications & experiences.

Competency or Usage:RecreationalLimited ProductionAdvanced ProductionExpert

Infrastructure
- Docker
- Vagrant
- Dokku
- VirtualBox
- Heroku
- PM2
- Serverless(.com)
- Architect
- AWS (S3, LAMBDA, VPC/API Gateway, DynamoDB)
- Digital Ocean
- Jenkins
- DeployBot
- Buddy.works
- WordPress VIP
- Shared Hosting (ex. Bluehost, GoDaddy, HostGator, IMHosted)
- Firebase
Front-end
- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Pug
- Django
- SASS/SCSS
- Stylus
- LESS
- PostCSS
- CSSinJS/JSS
- Styled Components
- Backbone
- React
- Redux
- CoffeeScript
- jQuery (Core, UI)
- Handlebars
- Mustache
- Bootstrap
- Foundation
E-Commerce
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
CMS & Generators
- WordPress
- Contentful
- Ghost
- Gatsby
- Wintersmith
APIs
- Postman
- StrongLoop
- Google (Maps, Auth, Firebase)
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Last.fm
- YouTube
- AWS
Databases
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- PHPMyAdmin
- Mongoose
- GraphQL
- XML
- JSON
- Graphiql
- Mongotron
- Medis
Back-end
- Node
- Python
- PHP
- Express
- Passport
- Bcrypt
- CodeIgniter
- Drupal
Testing & Linting
- Mocha
- Chai
- Jest
- Enzyme
- Nightwatch
- Jasmine
- ESLint
- Travis CI
- Circle CI
- Appveyor
- SauceLabs
- Browserstack
Versioning
- Git
- SVN
- GitHub
- BitBucket
- GitLab
- Beanstalk
- Versions
Build Tools
- Babel
- Webpack
- Gulp
- Grunt
- NPM Scripts
- Yarn
- Composer
- Bower
Design
- Sketch
- InVision
- PhotoShop
- Illustrator
- Zeplin
- Craft
- Sketchpacks
- FontBase
Text Editors
- Atom
- VSCode
- Webstorm
- Sublime Text
Management
- Slack
- JIRA
- Confluence
- GitHub
- Trello
- Basecamp
- Exchange
- G-Suite
- Skype
- Lync
Misc.
- iTerm (/w zshell)
- Alfred
- OneClipboard
- RecordIt
- Keybase
- TypeIt4Me
- Characters
- Spectacle

Work

I've had the privilege to work with a number of amazing companies over the years spanning the startup, agency & corporate worlds; Listed below are just a few of those incredible brands.

Advocating for Openness, Innovation & Opportunity

Presentation Topics

Automating Processes
JavaScript & Node.js
CSS, Houdini & CSSinJS
Microservice & Serverless Architectures
Documenting UI & UX
Open Source Software
Community Building
Goal-Oriented Design
Holistic Problem Solving

Note: If you'd like me to speak at, run a workshop or attend your event, you must have a code of conduct.

Humber College - Advertising GraduatesMarch 1st, 2018Etobicoke, Canada Sharing Industry Experience & Insight
TorontoJS - WorkshopOctober 10th, 2017Toronto, Canada 3D Worlds in JavaScript
functions confAugust 25th, 2017Toronto, Canada Infrastructure as Text: Standardizing Serverless Deployments /w ArchitectSlides
IBM InterConnectMarch 19th - 23rd, 2017Las Vegas, U.S.
Explode ConfMay 5th - 6th, 2016London, Canada The Future of CSSSlides
#DevTO - March 2016March 28th, 2016Toronto, Canada Designing & Documenting Modern Web Experiences
Toronto JS MeetupMarch 22nd, 2016Toronto, Canada The Future of CSS
NodeSchool - March 2016March 19th, 2016Toronto, Canada Workshop: Node.js 101
#DevTO - February 2016February 29th, 2016Toronto, Canada The Future of CSS
NodeSchool - February 2016February 27th, 2016Toronto, Canada Workshop: Node.js 101
jQuery Conf BerlinDecember 9th, 2015Berlin, Germany The Future Of CSS
GUI & DesignDecember 8th, 2015Berlin, Germany By Design
Open Web ConfJuly 22nd, 2015Bangalore, India Workshop: Writing Styles in JavaScript
jQuery Conf IndiaJuly 22nd - 25th, 2015Bangalore, India The Future of VideoVideo
O'Reilly Fluent Conference 2015April 20th – 22nd, 2015San Francisco, U.S. The Future of VideoSlides
Hacker You - Winter CohortMarch 5th, 2015Toronto, Canada Technical Interviews
Full Stack Toronto ConferenceNovember 22nd – 23rd, 2014Toronto, Canada
Access AbilityOctober 8th, 2014Toronto, Canada Video
Hacker You - Fall CohortSeptember 30th, 2014Toronto, Canada User Experience
BlendConfSeptember 11th – 13th, 2014Charlotte, U.S. The Future of VideoSlides Video
Toronto Web Performance MeetupAugust 13th, 2014Toronto, Canada Making Speedy Experiences ~ Browser Prefetching, Preloading & MoreSlides
Hacker You - Summer CohortJuly 10th, 2014Toronto, Canada User Experience
Future Insights LiveJune 16th – 20th, 2014Las Vegas, U.S. The Future of VideoSlides Video
Hacker You - Spring CohortMay 12th, 2014Toronto, Canada User Experience & Beyond
jQueryTOMarch 15th – 16th, 2014Toronto, Canada The Future of VideoSlides
San Francisco HTML5 MeetupFebruary 25th, 2014San Francisco, U.S. Documenting User InteractionsSlides Video
HTML5 Dev ConfOctober 22nd – 23rd, 2013San Francisco, U.S. Web Content & Creative ConstraintsSlides Video
FITC ScreensOctober 3rd – 4th, 2013Toronto, Canada Web Content & Creative Constraints
Web ExpoSeptember 19th – 21st, 2013Prague, Czech Republic Documenting User ExperiencesSlides Video
Future of Web DesignMay 13th – 15th, 2013London, England Documenting User ExperiencesSlides
FITC Web Performance & OptimizationMarch 16th, 2013Toronto, Canada Getting Tooled – A Comprehensive Dive into the Chrome Developer ToolsSlides
jQueryTOMarch 2nd – 3rd, 2013Toronto, Canada Documenting InterfacesSlides Video
#DevTO - February 2013February 25th, 2013Toronto, Canada Documenting InterfacesSlides Video
Future of Web DesignOctober 22nd – 24th, 2012New York, U.S. Front-end Development Techniques for the Modern WebSlides Video
FITC ScreensSeptember 27th – 28th, 2012Toronto, Canada All the new CSS HawtnessSlides
NXNE InteractiveJune 12th – 15th, 2012Toronto, Canada Creating Mind-Blowing UXSlides
Front-end Design ConfJune 8th – 9th, 2012St. Petersburg, U.S. Front-end Development Techniques for the Modern WebSlides
NYC WordPress MeetupJanuary 17th, 2012New York, U.S. Coding for the Masses - Advanced WordPress Theme & Framework DevelopmentVideo
jQuery Conf SFApril 16th – 17th, 2011San Francisco, U.S. Creating Mind Blowing UXSlides
Web Not WarMay 27th, 2010Montreal, Canada

Publications

I've been lucky enough to see my work featured in & write for some of the world's most well-known web development & design publications.

Awards

I've had the privilege to create award winning work for some amazing companies spanning the marketing, agency & freelance worlds. Some notable acknowledgements of this work are from:

Books

I'm an avid reader with an affinity for works of non-fiction; listed below or some of my favorite reads.