Heather Acton is the founder of Helio Interactive, a WordPress-centric digital agency in Chicago, IL. Heather is speaking on Financial Business Planning for Freelancers at WordCamp Minneapolis.What got you into working with WordPress?
In 2009 as I was building my first website, a collection of photos and stories about my young kids, I stumbled on WordPress as a website framework. Within a couple of weeks I had a nice looking and very functional website running and was hooked on doing more with the platform. That little family site led to a few projects for friends, and from there the referrals poured in. Fast forward 6 years and WordPress is the basis of my custom development agency.
What do you like best about WordPress?
While in 2009 the thing that sold me the most was the simplicity, now I love the flexibility and extensibility. And, one aspect of WordPress that I’ve always coveted is the tight knit and helpful community.
What WordPress project has been your favorite?
We had a blast building AttachaPack. It’s an Underscores-based custom theme and we also built an extension for WooCommerce that powers the backpack builder. Another favorite of ours from a design standpoint is Big River Steel, as we have been part of developing their entire brand identity, and the launch of the website recently was the public unveiling of the past several months worth of work.
What’s your WordPress design preference?
○ Starter Theme ○ Free Theme ○ Premium Theme ○ Framework ○ Other
Starter Theme
What would we not guess about you outside of WordCamp?
At this point, not much 🙂 I’ve been to enough WordCamps (especially around the midwest) that I’m pretty tight with the community and many of us know each other very well. I think I’m all out of secrets!
What do you like about WordCamps?
WordPress and the community has become such a big part of life for me, and WordCamps are an opportunity to spend time with other people that feel the same. I love the brainstorming, collaboration, and camaraderie that comes out of WordCamps.