Trevan Hetzel is a front-end developer at Flywheel with a background in design and adaptive layouts. Trevan is speaking on Super fast WordPress themes at WordCamp Minneapolis.

What got you into working with WordPress?

In my freelancing early days, I had a few clients wanting to be able to update their table-based websites themselves (I know, right?). I was pretty much a Dreamweaver visual editor kind of “developer” back then, but found WordPress and read a few tutorials on how to build custom themes and have been hooked ever since!

What do you like best about WordPress?

Definitely the community and the amount of passion there is for it. It’s constantly growing as a platform and it can truly do almost anything. I once built a local jail’s intranet using a custom WP theme and plugin. From that end of the spectrum to “mommy blogs” to ecommerce sites, WP is so extensible.

What WordPress project has been your favorite?

I haven’t played a part in it, but the WP REST API is extremely exciting to me. I see it as the future of WordPress and it’s awesome that the folks behind it recognize where the web is headed and have worked tirelessly to provide this API. It plays so nice with JavaScript frameworks like Backbone and Angular that the next generation of WordPress sites will be like nothing else.

What’s your WordPress design preference?
○ Starter Theme   ○ Free Theme   ○ Premium Theme   ○ Framework   ○ Other

Custom all the way

What would we not guess about you outside of WordCamp?

I grew up racing dirt bikes and actually turned pro when I was 17. I still ride, but with family and all my work and side project things, it’s kind of taken a back seat unfortunately. Hetzelracing.com was actually the very first website (it’s original version is probably out there somewhere) I built back in a 6th grade computer class.

What do you like about WordCamps?

I’ve never been! Several people from Flywheel have gone though and have nothing but good things to say about their experiences. I’m excited to take part in the experience and share and gain knowledge about WordPress.