Marian Konop

Speaker, Sponsor, Organizing Committee

Marian's first computer experience, in the early 80s, was with a 28 lb Compaq "portable" with 128KB RAM and a 9" monochrome monitor built-in. Endless hours were spent playing Colossal Cave, the first text adventure game. PLUGH!

Marian has taught experimental psychology, child psychology, and fine arts photography at the university level, and coordinated a university self paced learning program. Projects in three decades as a tech guru in Ophthalmology started with computerizing a large clinical department, swapping out IBM Selectric typewriters for Xerox word processors and later networked PCs. Coordinating the implementation of the first North Shore- Long Island Jewish Hospital System online scheduling system, which included wrestling appointment books from secretaries, was accomplished with no lives lost.

Her first major website was for the Department of Ophthalmology at North Shore - Long Island Jewish Health Care System in the 90s. Later, development of dozens of html and asp sites for small businesses and not for profit agencies led to studying Java and Software Engineering for E-Commerce at Columbia University. Thinking there must be a better way of doing things led to her discovery and continuing love affair with Joomla! Marian is the president of Gotham Websites. She also serves as President of the Board of Directors of the JoomlaNYC Users Group.

Laura Gordon

Speaker, Sponsor, Organizing Committee

Laura Gordon is a teacher, speaker, and developer who focuses on content management systems, specifically Joomla!. A trainer with JoomlaTraining.com, Laura regularly teaches classes on Joomla!, is a Board Member of the Joomla! NYC User Group, and has coordinated JoomlaDayNYC. She is also a developer and creates sites using Joomla!, Dreamweaver, HTML, and JavaScript.

Laura began as a programmer using Sybase and Unix to build reports and queries for clients. She started teaching at Chubb Institute/Computer Services as a database/Unix instructor. After being introduced to web development with Visual Basic and Dreamweaver, she built some small sites using Dreamweaver and Fireworks, then discovered Joomla!, the open source content management system. Laura has built dozens of Joomla! websites in many different industries, from synagogues and nursery schools to manufacturing companies and public libraries. While building websites she also teaches Joomla! in New York City and to her current clients.

Personally, Laura enjoys being with her husband, her two boys, and their dog. They frequently visit amusement parks around the country. While at home she loves watching her sons' ball games when not building websites. http://www.rytechsites.com

Donna Marie Vincent

Donna Vincent is a web developer specializing in building custom extensions for Jooma!, a web-based business developer and a website photographer. Donna has served on the board of the NYC Joomla Users Group since its inception.

Scott Wolpow

Speaker, Sponsor, Organizing Committee

Scott started in business at the tender age of 7, selling craft items to a kiosk in a major local store. His interest in computers started in junior high school.

He started working on websites in 1995 and soon made a profession out of the Internet. His primary company Netalytical inc, specializes in managing the Internet Assets of companies. The company mantra is problem solving.

Scott was the founding president of the New York Joomla Users Group and has heen instrumental in all Joomla Day events.

Currently he is working with complex sites built in Joomla and Drupal. Scott works with many Open Source platforms including: Joomla, Drupal, Redmine, Magento, XCart, and others. He is also building his own platform for the restaurant industry.