Travis Smith

Current

Co-Founder at ExpressionEngine Roadshow
Owner at Hop Studios

Past

Lecturer at British Columbia Institute of Technology
Lecturer at University of Southern California
Editor, Variety.com at Reed Elsevier

Vice President, Client Relations at Pressflex
Deputy Editorial Director, LATimes.com at Los Angeles Times
Consultant at USC Computer Services

see less...

3 more...

Education

University of Southern California

Recommended

7 people have recommended Travis

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Online Media

Websites

Travis Smith’s Summary

I've carved out a career that ties my vocation, journalism, to my avocation, computer. On a daily basis, I strive to build web-based services that users will love so much they'll recommend them to people they have just met.

* * * For Hop Studios, my independent consulting company, I merge technology, editorial and management skills together each day. I have no unhappy clients.

* * * As an individual, I can explain an online media concept to any group of people in a straight-forward, entertaining way with no big words.

Travis Smith’s Specialties:

* EXPLAINING to people what they're supposed to be doing and why, clearly, concisely, and in a way that gets everyone moving in the same direction.

* KEEPING a cool head.

* FINDING the source of problems quickly, and accurately figuring out the best way to fix them.

* PRODUCING online media using HTML / CSS / JS / Perl / PHP / MySQL / Apache / MT / EE / VB / ASP / regex and so forth.

Travis Smith’s Experience

Co-Founder

ExpressionEngine Roadshow

(Partnership; Internet industry)

2008 — Present (1 year )

Partner and organizer of the ExpressionEngine Roadshow, a traveling conference designed to bring together experts and users to learn ExpressionEngine techniques and share insider tips about this incredible CMS.
Owner

Hop Studios

(Online Media industry)

January 1997 — Present (13 years )

We develop any-sized Web sites from branding through launch, and perform regular maintenance and feature enhancements on demand. Technologies we use include cascading style sheets (CSS I and II), DHTML and Flash. We develop site maps, plan business expansion via the Web, do site redesigns, and more. We also do on-location consulting, and training in blog and general Web technologies. Online at http://www.hopstudios.com/
Lecturer

British Columbia Institute of Technology

(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Online Media industry)

May 2005 — December 2005 (8 months)

Taught intense, 6-week classes on advanced Dreamweaver MX 2004 techniques, focussing on database-driven dynamic site creation. Classes size: 12-20 students.
Lecturer

University of Southern California

(Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

May 1997 — May 2004 (7 years 1 month)

At USC, I taught graduate and undergraduate classes on New Media Technology and Online Journalism, to classes of 7-16 students. Lecture topics included emerging technologies, online ethics, new media marketing, online advertising, online media growth, user trends, as well as advanced web site and web page design. Top course rating given by students: 4.86 out of 5.
Editor, Variety.com

Reed Elsevier

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; RUK; Online Media industry)

March 2000 — March 2004 (4 years 1 month)

Los Angeles. At Variety, I supervised the editorial development and production of the Web site of Hollywood's "bible of show business." I oversaw producers, copy editors, designers and web developers. I created new tools for readers and staff. The box office charts won a major award for best B-to-B database tool. The site migrated through a complete redesign, new hardware, software and administrative tools; it went relatively smoothly. Under my watch, Variety began intra-day news updates, posting original content, streaming video and interactive special projects. Paid subscriptions increased from 1,000 to 16,000 (compared to a print subscription base of 55,000) and page views increased to more than 3,000,000+ per month. I also implemented a series of user interface tests that resulted in significant design improvements. Separately, I wrote a column (A Wide 'Net) and launched four blogs and dozens of RSS feeds.
Vice President, Client Relations

Pressflex

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

June 1999 — March 2000 (10 months)

Budapest, Hungary; Paris, France; and Pasadena, CA. Pressflex, an ASP, provides web publishing tools to newspaper and media clients in North America and Europe. For them, I supervised and coordinated feature development, user interface design, internationalization efforts, customer support, documentation, internal and external training, and quality assurance testing. I also developed the marketing and intranet sites for Pressflex. The work I did was performed in English and French, but not Hungarian.
Deputy Editorial Director, LATimes.com

Los Angeles Times

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; tmc; Online Media industry)

August 1994 — September 1998 (4 years 2 months)

Full time. Supervised a staff of 12 editors for the Los Angeles Times and Calendar Live! (a local entertainment database). Project manager for major rollouts such as a newsroom workflow system (Teamsite). Coordinated redesign -- met schedule and budget goals for relaunch, which required modification of 50,000 pages and dozens of CGI applications. Negotiated partnerships with national and local information providers. Coordinated staff training. Created all site page templates using HTML and JavaScript. Planned and developed Web site features including major traffic drivers such as Business section and Times Pick, e-commerce Archives and groundbreaking personalized Custom News Service, the first web-based personal news service by a major newspaper.
Consultant

USC Computer Services

(Online Media industry)

1991 — 1994 (3 years )

Travis Smith’s Education

University of Southern California

B.A. , Journalism , 1990 — 1994

Minored in Law and Society (required cross-discipline study). Lived in Paris, studied at Sorbonne 6 months. Received National Merit Scholarship, 1990, and several others.

Activities and Societies:

Campus newspaper (Daily Trojan)