Web Agency Summit 2025 recap

We were preparing for this year’s Web Agency Summit organized by Atarim and Omnisend, gone through many articles about what to expect and, boy, did we still end up speechless by the amount of great lecturers and sessions 😊

It’s hard to put all the value that’s been shared into one post, you really needed to be there to experience it all, but we’ll try to give you a recap worth reading, saving, sharing and implementing so, grab your hot beverage of choice, prepare pen and paper and dive in!

If we were to sum it up in one sentence, Web Agency Summit 2025 was the place to be this past week to learn about all the things Agencies, developers and businesses can benefit from when it comes to current, tested and tried applicable strategies that will help you adapt, scale and thrive in this, what seems, neverending AI environment we’re all in now. With that in mind, here is a recap of past 5 working days, how long the summit lasted!

Web Agency Summit day 1

The first day started strong and was, pretty much, Agency industry oriented, just to give us a boost into what works now and what needs to be done in the near future to scale.

The Summit started strong, with GoDaddy’s session about building the ultimate agency toolset to help better serve your clients as well as scaling your business. Key takeaways for us were the direct, specific and outmost helpful clarification on what they make around the people and type of audience they have. With that in mind, we were inspired to do even better in that context, starting with sharing on point data to who uses page builders and how WPBakery fits into it.

Then we had a panel talk between WP Engine and American Eagle who talked about Agency scalability the right way, how to do it without burning out, packed with on-point tips and real examples from American Eagle’s experience and work. Knowing that scaling Agency is tricky and stressful, this session was the one to hear given the fact how much strategies and advice were being shared, like:

• Automation and optimization tools (manual performance doesn’t scale when you deal with multiple clients)
• Template-driven processes (reusable templates for common website builds, templates in almost every step of a client’s journey, project management templates, surveys and KPI’s, accessibility, SEO,…)
• Outsourcing routine tasks (offloading repetitive, low leverage tasks like QA testing, staging environments, form testing…)
• Investment in hiring and training (each person must be billable as fast as possible and valuable for the customer, by investing in them with the latest and greatest trainings)

Karl Sakas, from Sakas and Company, talked about scope creep and how to protect your profit while keeping clients in check, ultimatelly how to calm the chaos, respectfully. And knowing how, no matter how every agency is unique, scope creep is one of the main insidious threads which is why he shared how to fight back. For example, knowing that most client’s arent terrible rather and usually normal people in terrible situations. Why is this helpful? It creates an opening to create a win/win situation by understanding those situations and how your agency, what you do fits in resolving it successfully. And only giving them options that you are ok with them choosing.

These were not the only panels and session during the first day, just a quick recap of, related to us, industry oriented ones. The rest of the topic went around cutting client delivery in half, building scalable website systems for large clients, customer success, AI and the future of design, as well as on-point tips for making white-label email management easy – just so you know what you all have missed 😊

Web Agency Summit day 2

The second day was somewhat personal for us. There was this amazing panel about the No-code/Low-Code shift and what it means for web design agencies, with some amazing names like Miriam Schwab from Elementor, Bogdan from Brizy and our marketing team member, Lawrence Ladomery. They talked about where agencies find themselves fit in this enviroment, especially now with AI in the picture. Some key takeaways from this talk were to take balanced approach to AI, it cannot be a substitute to the end work. At the same time, to optimize operations and deliver websites in less time, while using AI as a research and learning tool for more quality output. Ultimately, all of us need to learn how to use AI to be better, faster and give more quality.

Later on, we tuned this extremely insightful and data packed panel about domains, security and, yes, data intelligence with best practices for web agencies in 2025. Berend van Dalfzen from Realtime Register, Stephen Nyhan from Sectigo and Wences Garcia from Marketgoo gave out incredible insights around the power of domain names and domain management for agencies to use, why and how to take care of website security and data to best serve your clients. Why? Because, if you’re managing dozens or hundreds of domains for clients – you’re not just a buyer or reseller, but a domain infrastructure provider and should start acting as one.

One of the highlights of the day was surely the panel talk about essential site security measures for agencies and their client websites where we had Oliver Sild from Patchstack , Victor Santoyo from Sucuri, Robert Abela from MelaPress and David G. Johnson from SolidWP. When we say it was web security packed talk, it was! The team talked about some of the biggest security risks and common mistakes, practical solutions as well as how automation and AI can help streamline site security management accross multiple websites. And the very thing they somewhat agreed upon: data privacy and misunderstanding of the responsibility of who is supposed to be in charge of maintaining, isolating data is one of the biggest security threats. Big thing to think about, folks!

The second day also included amazing tips-oriented talk shared by Iris Guelen from Progress Planner and, boy, do we have notes on that one! Then, there was an awesome talk on scaling a SMB community, held by Céline Riemenschneider from Canva, more tech-oriented panel about how businesses can leverage technology to scale efficiently, stay competitive and drive innovation. Finally, design session with Vitaly Friedman, the founder of Smashing Magazine, who talked about AI in the design industry and how it helps users get work done better and faster. The second day concluded with very fluid and informative creative session with Maurice Cherry from Lunch, who talked about his unique perspectives on entrepreneurship, the evolving creative landscape, and the intersection of design and technology.

Web Agency Summit day 3

The third day continued to serve us useful industry and agency information, as well as how to save time on hosting maintenance using AI. This talk was interesting to us, given the very industry we’re in. Mohammed Moeez from Cloudways shared how digital agencies can benefit from using AI (more efficiency, less troubleshooting) to do some hosting related maintenance tasks. Allowing AI to step into some of this work, ends with agencies saving time and money – if you do it the right way. And we agree with it, to some degree, only because AI cannot replace human work, precision and delivery – no matter how repetitive and time consuming some of those tasks can be 😊 Not to mention more serious issues or threats that may occur or scenarios where you really need human support. Either way, Mohammed’s talk was very informative and helpful, giving us a lot of things to think about, for sure.

Then we had agency insights panel led by WP Engine, where the industry leaders talked about the strategies for scaling your business, ways to stay at top of the game and grow client base. On top of that, they talked about talent acquisition and how to keep that talent thriving within our fast-growing industry. The main thing we took from this insightful panel was sector specialization. The overall clarity and focus on who specifically you serve which, in turn, helps in better approach, targeting and messaging, unique value proposition and getting more qualified leads. Something we all strive for, right?

And then there was Google. More specifically, Thierry Muller, their Engineering Lead and co-founder of Site Kit, the fastest-growing WordPress plugin in history. He brought us unique perspective on optimizing user experiences, building for scale and how to navigate all these challenges of the modern web. To sum up his session, whatever type or subcategory of our industry we come for, the 3 things we should all focus on, are:

• Accessibility
• Capability
• UX

Later on, Nicholas Petroski from Promethean Research talked about the trends reshaping agencies in 2025, what’s changing, what’s winning and what’s next upon surveying 182k agencies. 3 trends we’re seeing this year?

• Average agency size tiny relative to the size of clients they typically serve.
• Specialization – which aligns with the facts stated during WP Engine’s panel.
• Shift in client size – going for larger clients is much more beneficial and lucrative, compared to getting more smaller ones.
• Project dynamics – increase in project sizes was also highly correlated with higher net margins, due to having multiple projects done for the same clients.

Next to come? Room to run for AI, agencies becoming more specialized, niche-oriented, full-time employees and contractors in sync. The future looks like smaller, more specialized agency augmented heavily by AI and specialized contractors.

And, we had Ben Gabler from Rocket.net talked about how to choose the right web hosting strategy for you and your clients, a real experienced talk during which he shared his company’s approach, focus and how they do what they do and with which third-party partnerships. Main points from his unique presentation were focused on various choices when it comes to hosting projects for agencies:

• Client provided: where your client provides you with access to their own hosting
• Agency/Reseller hosting: your agency would deploy each project on your agency hosting and repackage to your client as part of your care plan
• Agency Partner Programs: refer your clients to hosting companies and generate passive income for your agency.

As for AI use within their company, Ben shared they have no interest in it as he’s not a huge fan in putting AI in front of human beings – what’s the point of talking to a chat bot instead of real person for the best level of service. That being said, he concluded that he believes AI can play a role for some tooling and within automation some processes.

The third day included sessions about giving and receiving feedback the right way, with best practices and tips on how to do better. Then, we had talks about branding and what it means for all businesses across the industry, email marketing go-to tips for growing not only your email list but businesses as well. The day concluded with sessions on balancing AI efficiency with human touch with practical tips and advisable talk on how to build lasting partnership in Open Source.

Web Agency Summit day 4

Day 4 had amazing talks as well, starting with the session about where and how the agencies should leverage AI and which parts shouldn’t take part on this trend. We had agency experts from CrowdFavorite, Human Made, rtCamp and Seahawk share their insights and inputs on key areas where AI can enhance efficiency and productivity, real-time examples of AI tools and how they use them, all to the common mistakes together with specific strategies to handle them.

Key areas where AI can significantly improve efficiency and productivity for web agencies, talking from the enterprise companies?

• Sales assistance in providing more context and understandment of hard complex documentation to translate it into easily understandable sales letters.
• In creating secure sandboxes and framework for using SaaS systems that are safe for customers
• Vibe spreadsheeting and deep researching for planning and strategic thinking

And to finish the recap of this session, here are some AI tools they recommended us to use (more): ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Libra Chat.

Then, we had Greg Zakowicz from Omnisend who talked about automations as a strategy to increase our clients’ sales and retentions. And not just theirs, his tips are surely applicable to us as well! Key thing we took from his talk was the fact that all predicts a challenging year and slow spending so, with that being said, email is going to go strong – a strategy we should all do our best to implement, asap. As for trend takeaways, Greg summed it up to:

• Email & SMS increasing performance
• Fewer orders, including BFCM
• Automation powers
• Retention is critical

Plan accordingly!

Robert Windisch, CIO of Syde, made his session about WordPress multisite – the myths and use cases of WP for enterprises. Robert shared the benefits of using WordPress multisite, mainly having an easy life thanks to it 😊

His talk was based around it in a way to help more people and businesses understand the difference between multiple WordPress site and WordPress multisite and the value in having this feature. And no matter if you’re an agency, developer or business with several or many sites, WordPress multisite benefit lies in one installation that enables you have an easy life managing all these things, meaning having a:

• central place for plugins and themes updates,
• global repository of content for all sites,
• central management of user access.

Day 4 had more amazing talks as well. From the use of AI to revolutionize product development, syber security in 2025 and how to stay one step ahead, to outsourcing as a way of scalability and growth (that one was a masterclass if you will!); organic marketing tips for scaling without pay ads; to website policies made right, accessibility and why it’s an evergoing crucial topic for us all, to how to scale your business that doesn’t come just from selling to your clients.

Web Agency Summit day 5

The final day was packed with a mix of community, compliance and proficiency advice, all underlined with AI trend. For us at WPBakery, AI is more than a trend, we have this feature deeply integrated into our plugin, as a full-on website-building assistant at your disposal. Just sayin..

We had a talk about the power of events and building community in business by Francisco Opazo from Led by Community. The main takeaway from his talk was a fact many of us undermine, which is: community isn’t a tactic, one thing – it’s a whole motion for your business. Community generates warm leads, boosts visibility, attracts talend and builds partnerships and we couldn’t agree more!

Then we had technical yet very easily understandable session on technical web compliance and how to have your and your clients’ sites compliant for GDPR, ePrivacy and all other global standards beyond just cookies. It was pretty much like a compliance masterclass that we couldn’t possibly retell – but we have notes to learn from! To sum it up,

Ronni Kim Gothard Christiansen from AesirX.io talked about how to conduct a technical compliance audit, identify non-compliant tracking mechanisms and broke down a framework to future-proof your website’s compliance without sacrificing performance.

Pascal Birchler from Google and Joost de Valk from Emilia Capital talked about the future of AI in WordPress since this is no longer just a buzzword rather a reality we all live in. AI changes not just parts of what we do but everything, WordPress ecosystem included and both Pascal and Joost shared their thoughts, inputs and industry insights: from how sites are developed and optimized, to how agencies collaborate, create and scale.

We couldn’t finish recapping the final day and this article without mentioning the Behind-the-scenes session, where Atarim’s Vito Peleg, David Nesbitt and Jehrome Griffiths shared how they’ve built the Web Agency Summit platform that served us so well for 5 full days, with live streaming sessions, lounge networking, exhibit booths, replays and so much more! The amount of work, knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking these men and the whole team put in place to make all of this happen made us speechless and much appreciated of all of their hard work.

And yet, that wasn’t all the organizers have prepared for us the final day. There was a panel from Pressable where they talked about streamlining digital agency workflows with custom CLI tools, enabling developers to execute essential WordPress management tasks quickly and efficiently. Then, there was a session on application development tools not only for your deliverables but in your overall business and usability for users. Finally, we had a great presentation on what Atarim is and how it works, Rachael Silvano from Zapier shared her tips on community growth, ending with Cami MacNamara’s productivity tips on growing your agency and not to-do list. Later on, we’ve even covered their new release – AI powered creative team, if interested to learn more (do give it a go!).

In conclusion

This year’s Web Agency Summit proved once again why it’s one of the must-attend events for digital agencies, businesses and freelancers worldwide. Completely free and streamed live online, the event delivered five full days of real-time insights, practical strategies and fresh perspectives from over 40 top industry leaders. This wasn’t just another online conference but a real-time pulse checks on the future of running and growing a web agency. Hopefully, this recap gives you a bit more insights, useful information and tools to successfully do so – share in the comments section how you’ll use it and if you’ve attended – what are your thoughts on it.