The Checkout Summit

James Kemp:
Hello, welcome to Do the Woo, the podcast where we talk about all things WooCommerce. I’m James Kemp, the core product manager at WooCommerce.

Katie Keith:
And I’m Katie Keith, founder and CEO at Barn2. And today we’re going to be talking about WooCommerce. Commerce events since we’re seeing lots of those popping up at the moment.

James Kemp:
Yeah. And I would also like to welcome our special guest, Rodolfo. Rodolfo, please introduce yourself. Hello.

Rodolfo Melogli:
I’m the only Rodolfo in the WordPress space, I think. I haven’t met anyone yet with my same name, so I’ll just stick to Rodolfo. Been working as a WooCommerce independent freelancer since ever, let’s say 2012 and onwards. I am behind Business Bloomer, which is apparently a very popular blog for WooCommerce DIYers who like to do customization stuff, and recently I’m behind Checkout Summit as well, which is my way of trying to fight against AI.

Katie Keith:
Interesting perspective.

James Kemp:
Yeah, that’s not how I envisioned it.

Katie Keith:
No.

James Kemp:
Before we dive in, can you touch on, maybe we can come back to it, but I’m interested to know how you feel it’s fighting against AI.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yeah, I mean, I come from a different background, so I’ve had this very popular, successful blog, all about WooCommerce customization for years. It was my only, basically, revenue stream. I was just posting content, getting clients out of it, and You know, closing sales, super easy. Um, then AI arrived and apparently it does the same things that I do from Business Bloomer. Not as well as I do it, but it more or less, it gives you something useful that you can play with. And if you’re familiar with code, you can basically, you know, get it done in, you know, 5 minutes-ish. And it’s not, you know, that simple. It’s not that linear, but you get the picture. So, you know, I, I come from a perspective where all my business was working in a certain way and now it’s not working any longer. So I had to basically almost like rebrand, restart, and rethink about my strategy and Also, remember that we are in this, or we are in WordPress, in WooCommerce, because of the people. And I keep forgetting about that. You know, over the years I’ve forgotten about it because I didn’t need to, you know, interact in person. I didn’t need to, you know, really push on relationships and, you know, partnerships. It was all working on its own, like an automatic engine. And now I had to change all over again, which is probably a good thing. I love working with people. I love running courses. I love talking in person. I wouldn’t be the most extroverted person, but I enjoy going to the odd WordCamp Europe and, you know, who knows, maybe it’ll be US someday or Asia, but You know, I enjoy these things. I actually tend to go there every year if I can, because I want to get out of my, my room. And this brings me to finding some, you know, different angle that could, you know, guarantee me, first of all, the same revenue, but also, you know, long-term success. And I think that focusing on people and community, it’s, you know, a great thing to do, especially now where AI is kind of erasing and hiding the people. And I just want to bring them back. So a conference is one of the examples where I think it’s going to work out because we need to talk in person. We need to understand things in person and we need to know each other and, you know, talking to a random chat window is not enough any longer.

Katie Keith:
That’s really interesting. So on the one hand, AI has damaged your business because your thing was like code snippets and things that people can get from AIs now. So you needed additional revenue streams, but you’re absolutely right. As much as we may be developing digital versions of ourselves, we can’t yet sell Send them to Checkout Summit. So we— there is still that need to get together in person and have that authenticity that a lot of online communication is now missing. So that’s really interesting. So before we get fully into the topic, anybody watching live, feel free to add your comments and questions about anything to do with events and WooCommerce in the chat wherever you’re watching this. And yeah, just anything you want to talk about, then just let us know.

James Kemp:
Yeah. And before we get a bit deeper into the discussions with Rodolfo, we would love it if you could head over to any of our channels, social channels, YouTube channels, and subscribe and like and all that kind of stuff. We are Do the Woo Podcast on YouTube and we are Do the Woo on X. Our website is dothewoo.com where we have a few links out to these places as well.

Katie Keith:
Yeah. Now let’s start on the event side of things by looking at the wider landscape. So Rodolfo, you’ve identified that we need an additional conference and yeah, I’ve seen very few in the past events related to WooCommerce and yet they are kind of starting to pop up more. So what’s your kind of perspective over what’s been there in the past, what any gaps might be and so on?

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yeah, good question. So there used to be an actual specific dedicated conference, uh, for WooCommerce developers by WooCommerce called, uh, WooConf. Uh, there were 3 editions of this WooConf. Actually, I have it here. So it was 2014 in San Francisco. 2016 in Austin and ’17 in Seattle. So yes, always in the USA. After that, I think they kind of put it on hold, then COVID hit, and then, you know, afterwards when everything opened up again, maybe they were thinking about it. I have no idea. But I really felt like there was, if you want, a gap in the market, but I wouldn’t call it like that. I will mostly say a space where WooCommerce people could actually talk in person. At the same time, the coverage and the amount of WooCommerce people at local and flagship WordCamps went down. I don’t know if by design or because lack of interest or because, you know, we didn’t feel represented. I have no idea what was the actual reason. So, you know, less people attending WordCamps from the WooCommerce space, no dedicated conference by WooCommerce. And also, if you take a look outside, you know, let’s, you know, think about Shopify. Like, they have so many conferences out there. You probably attended already a few and you’ve been only one year working within it. So I guess there’s loads happening out there, you know, whether it’s Shopify or general e-commerce, tech, AI, and yet there is no WooCommerce conference. So, you know, I really, really asked WooCommerce to get back into it. I spoke to them, I, you know, we had so many conversations about this and my, you know, second motivation for Checkout Summit is also that if it goes well, WooCommerce can also see whether there is value in it or not and maybe bring WooCommerce back, WooConf back, sorry. So it was also a way to motivate them to get back into, you know, a dedicated conference because it’s badly needed. Like, let’s not forget that a WooCommerce conference could actually be targeted at, you know, merchants or developers or agencies or freelancers, or— I mean, there are so many different audiences out there. So no one is stopping us from saying we will have 5 different WooCommerce conferences every year. I don’t know, but I wanted just to, you know, get back into this, into creating something, into bringing, you know, the best WooCommerce minds in a single place. And you never know what would come out of it. I’m really positive that something will happen. So the more in-person events we have about WooCommerce, the better ideas we have about the future of it. And, you know, the more partnerships and, you know, relationships we can build and, you know, grow together. So that’s the whole point of in-person conferences in general.

James Kemp:
Yeah, it’s, um, it’s a very good point. I mean, I’ve been in the WooCommerce space since 2011, I think, which is like very near the beginning of when WooCommerce existed. Um, and I, I hadn’t actually heard of WooCommerce, I think primarily because it’s a US thing, or it was a US thing. Um, and I, I wasn’t necessarily, uh, all in on WooCommerce at that point in time. I was, you know, building websites and working a lot with Magento actually as well, still in that period. And it was really 2017 where I started working a lot more in WooCommerce. And by that point, you know, the last WooConf happened. So I never got to experience it. I think it sounds like a very cool event and something that You know, I know internally there’s definitely a strong desire to have something like that again. Um, I think what we have to remember is we have a very different sized business to Shopify, uh, like a lot less resources for things like events. Um, though we do have events teams that, you know, we utilize for, for things like WordCamp. Um, so yeah, I, I will say there’s definitely a desire to do something like that again. And I do think that Checkout Summit is going to be a good example of why we should do that. The main event that I was aware of and that I have attended was WooSesh, which was an online event by Brian Richards. And I think someone else at the time, was it Patrick, was quite heavily involved, Patrick Rowland. Yeah, yeah, um, that was very cool. I’m not sure what the numbers were like on that, uh, but it seemed well attended, like it had good speakers, um, and it was nice to have, I think it was 2 days in the end of like pretty much full-on, uh, you know, talks and discussions about WooCommerce specifically. That was really nice.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yeah, and there still is. I mean, you know, Brian Richards, you know, holds WooSesh once a year. I don’t know what’s the exact date for this year, but I mean, that’s amazing and that’s great and that’s always been, you know, a great thing about WooCommerce. I just wanted to get back into in-person conferences. I mean, that’s the unique selling proposition, if we want to talk in business language. I mean, I think that, you know, since we, you know, a group of us spoke at the last WordCamp Europe, I think Katie was there as well. And we said, we so badly need like to actually meet properly for 48 hours in a single place, listen to speakers and talk to each other. And, you know, trying to build something together or even understanding, you know, what’s the new WooCommerce direction and who’s behind WooCommerce as well. I mean, this is so helpful as well whenever you meet in person. It’s equivalent to when, you know, WooCommerce gets a booth at a WordCamp and sponsors it. I mean, it’s so nice to just meet the actual WooCommerce staff. And I mean, you will be there, but You know, it’s the exact same thing for the others because, I mean, we almost forgot who’s behind WooCommerce. We love the WooCommerce brand, but we don’t know the people of WooCommerce. So that’s also another, you know, key reason why I want to do this, you know, on top of, you know, spending quality time together. And that, that’s why I came up with check out Summit and, you know, I hope it’s gonna work and I hope it’s gonna, as I said earlier, to, you know, remind WooCommerce itself that it’s actually not that difficult and not that expensive to run events. If I’ve been organizing these on my own, definitely WooCommerce can do that too.

Katie Keith:
Yeah, I feel like they’re listening because, There is already talk of it, as James said, and when we had Beau on the show, the, what’s he, creative director or something of Woo.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Artistic director.

Katie Keith:
He seemed, artistic director. I just wanna say CEO, but Mullenweg likes different sorts of titles to that. Anyway, he would seem very open to the idea and was talking about some of the practicalities and different ways they could do it. So assuming Checkout Summit is a success, which it definitely looks like it will be, then hopefully we’ll start to see that. Got a couple of comments. We’ve got one from Zach. Why doesn’t it show there? People also pay significantly more to attend WooConf than they do WordCamps. I didn’t know that. I guess, is it more about like it’s more professionalized? I mean, yeah, Woo is open source, but it’s also more commercial because people are selling things in e-commerce. That’s interesting because yeah, WordCamps don’t cost a normal amount for tech conferences, as we all know, like $40 is not normal, and $150 to $1,000+ is normal, I would say. So I didn’t know that about WooCommerce.

James Kemp:
No, maybe there’s some level of, um, you know, sponsorship and, uh, WordCamps being, you know, run by the foundation, and, and they have, you know, this, this budget to work with. So I guess if, if WooCommerce were doing WooCommerce, there’s kind of all on them. There’s no— there’s none of this, like, foundation Yeah, I’m not sure what the ticket cost was, but that’s interesting.

Rodolfo Melogli:
I think it was around $500 or $600 if I’m not wrong. You see, at the time, so we’re talking about, you know, 2000 and what was it, ’16, ’17, you know, I was also early in my business, like I wasn’t really making, you know, enough money to pay for a US trip, you know, for the visa, for the accommodation, for, you know, maybe the expensive ticket as well. So, you know, these 3 WooConf events back in the USA, I mean, they were pretty much US business events or developer events. So it also justifies, I think, the higher costs because of cost of living, because it’s expensive to, you know, get venues out there. Maybe they had less sponsors flagship WordCamp. So it’s understandable. But I think they were great events and that’s why, you know, I kept, you know, pinging at them saying, we need WooCommerce back. And I think I wrote it about 3 or 4 times on my blog, about, you know, 20 times on Twitter or LinkedIn, whatever it was. I was really pushing, you know, WooCommerce to get back into this, because it’s, as I said, badly needed.

Katie Keith:
Yeah. Marcus Burnett has a question as well. A lot of people are reinvigorated by AI to build things again. Do you all think this will spill over into wanting to meet up in person to share about these things? So will we be discussing AI at the event?

James Kemp:
I have some thoughts on this actually, because Obviously OpenClaw is something that came out, created a load of buzz, massive buzz, more than we’ve seen for any other sort of AI product. But something that also came out of that is tons of independent meetups around OpenClaw. Tons, so many that they’ve got a page listing them all now on, uh, on Luma.

Sponsor Announcer:
Already?

Rodolfo Melogli:
Wow.

James Kemp:
Already, yeah. And there’s, there’s so many of them that people just meet up and they want to talk about, you know, their, their open clause and what they’re doing and that kind of stuff. Um, and I think maybe that sort of independent meetup— it’s not an event, but it’s a meetup, you know, a local meetup— um, is something that maybe we could encourage more and assist with in some way. I’m not sure what that looks like, but I’ve definitely seen an uplift in people wanting to do these sort of local meetups, and that can be quite good for, you know, if we assume that WooConf or something equivalent might have a higher ticket price, these local meetups don’t have that issue, and usually, you know, they’re free and you just turn up at the place and and chat. Um, so I think that is something that I would love to see more of. Um, because I, I haven’t seen any actually WooCommerce meetups.

Katie Keith:
No, even in places where loads of people live, like I wouldn’t expect one in Mallorca or Sicily perhaps, other than Checkout Summit. Um, yeah, even in the US you don’t hear about other people meeting up, do you, about WooCommerce?

James Kemp:
No, not like you do with WordPress. Yeah. So that’s interesting. Um, we’ve talked a lot about Checkout Summit. We haven’t said when it is or where it is. I think that would be a, a good point to cover from you, Rodolfo, cuz, um, you are very familiar with the area.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yes. Um, Checkout Summit is my baby, so I cannot get it, you know, I cannot get it wrong. But, uh, yeah, it’s, um, On the 23rd and 24th of April this year, so 2026, in Sicily. So that’s in Palermo, exactly where I live. I just figured, you know, because it’s the very first episode, the very first event, that it was easier if I organized it, you know, 15 minutes drive from my house. So that was the initial plan. Also, Sicily is like an unusual place to do conferences. You would think about it for going on holiday, but not necessarily to come here and do business. So I want a bit of both. In fact, we are in a venue on the beachfront and it’s going to be nice if the weather is kind to us, uh, as well. Uh, so it’s not just business, it’s not just WooCommerce, it’s also relax, fun, and maybe a walk on the beach if people enjoy that. But, um, yeah, so I mean, I’ve, you know, decided to start from here and see how it is, see how it goes, see if it’s financially feasible given the I’ve been organizing it all on my own. And then I will decide about possible event number 2, year number 2, you know, the day after. So I’ve decided that I’m not going to stress out, you know, stress myself out on this. I just want to put all my energy into this very first conference and do my best, do the best that I can. And, you know, we’ve got incredible, like, people coming from, I mean, we’re in Sicily and we’ve got people coming from Australia, California, South Africa, and Norway. Like, we have like the, you know, all the longest distances we could do, you know, some sort of ranking about you know, miles on a plane, but, you know, incredibly enough, this small event of WooCommerce developers and founders and makers in Sicily is attracting a lot of people from really far away. And that makes me super proud. And of course, you know, it’s on 2 days. There’s going to be speakers as usual, but also a lot of networking. And as you mentioned earlier, there’s going to be enough time for people to talk to everyone if they wish to. It’s not like 10,000 people that you’re probably going to get a little bit overwhelmed and you still tend to, you know, talk to those 10 and that’s it. In this case, we’re going to be, you know, a smaller conference than a flagship WordCamp, time to talk, time to network, time to maybe partner, time to maybe, you know, find someone for an acquisition, whatever it is. So there’s going to be loads of chatting out there, lots of opportunities, and a lot of people bring in their laptops. Showing what they’re doing, what they’re working on, or how they’ve automated things or how they’ve optimized their processes. And this is gonna be, you know, an amazing thing actually looking at how people are embracing AI, how people are embracing automation, how people are remarketing because of AI. So a lot of changed in the last 2 years. I mean, if I had to change a, a bet that those multi-million and other companies out there have to do something as well. So lots of talks and, you know, we can together find out at what stage is WooCommerce and at what stage WooCommerce will be in 5 or 10 years.

James Kemp:
Yeah, it sounds awesome.

James Kemp:
Um, I mean, from the outside, it seems like You’ve been doing pretty well with getting sponsors and people, you know, buying tickets. Um, are you happy to speak to the number of attendees that are, that are coming and the sponsors that you’ve got? It’s a good opportunity to kind of promote them, I guess. Um, because I imagine without sponsors it’s gonna— it would have been very hard to put this on.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yeah, yeah, indeed. Um, I have to Honestly say that it hasn’t been super easy. Thankfully, I started working on this back in June 2025, so that, you know, gave me enough time to get to this stage where, you know, we are about 102 people at the moment. Uh, so 48 tickets left and we have 4 good sponsors. I would love to have 6, to be honest. There’s still time, of course, but the 4 that we have, and I mean, WooCommerce is one of them, of course. I’m super happy about them, and I’m sure they can get enough visibility and conversations and value for money and return on the investment, if that’s the new keyword for sponsors. But yeah, so we’ve got about 48 tickets left. A little less than 2 months to go. I’m not trying to stress out on numbers, and I think that’s something very important. Excuse me. Um, I don’t want to, you know, be there like sweating until the last sticker is sold. I don’t think that’s sane. I don’t think that makes sense. As long as I have the right people in there, even if they were only 20, I would have been super happy. So it’s not about the number of people, it’s about the quality of the people out there. So I’m not gonna, you know, cry in the morning because I didn’t sell out. I don’t know. I mean, we, we could be here in 2 months’ time talking about how I sold out everything in the last minute, but I’m not worried about that. What I’m worried about is trying to make the best possible experience. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s the first time. It’s all under my direction and my umbrella. So it’s not going to be, you know, perfect for sure. I’ve been doing everything on my own, but I can do it and I could do it and I will do it. So it doesn’t worry me Uh, too much. Uh, I’m just spending this last couple of months trying to, you know, also organize some fun activities, some networking, some games, and some, you know, walks, whatever it is that can add up to the experience, then I’m happy with it. Um, because it’s not only about WooCommerce, and we all know that the best business is done in the hallway tracks. Work camps or, you know, outside when, you know, out in a pub or drinking or whatever it is. So it’s not just speakers, it’s also other things. And, you know, that’s something that I really wanted to focus on. I mean, the speakers are amazing, but I also wanted to, you know, curate the experience. So I hope it’s going to be ‘You know, I’m gonna be 60% happy with it,’ then I’ll call that a success.

James Kemp:
Yeah, I think it’s a really nice way to do it, um, because you’re doing it for the, the passion of WooCommerce and, you know, the desire for people to connect and learn from each other versus, um, you know, trying to make profit and as much money as you can, which I think in turn means it’s going to be a good event, like like you say, regardless of how many people attend, just the people that do attend are sharing that same, you know, passion for WooCommerce and connecting. So yeah, I think you’ve done a fantastic job so far, and I don’t have any concerns that it’s going to be a success.

Katie Keith:
Yeah, and I’ve been particularly impressed by the people who you have got to attend already, and as you say, coming from all over the world. To compare to this, we all went to eCommerce Day in Porto in, was it November? I think it was the middle of November. And that was a really good event. There weren’t as many international people as you are getting to Checkout Summit, and I think that is testament to how hard you’ve worked on it and the marketing and everything you’ve put into it. You are getting people from, as you say, all over the world, and basically kind of the key players from WooCommerce globally, which is pretty impressive for one new event that you’re organizing on your own. So that will make all the difference, having all of those people in the room together.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s been tough, but, you know, so far I’m super happy with the quality and like even the distance people are flying from or The fact that, you know, most of them are actually gonna stay in Sicily for extra days or, you know, enjoy the sunshine, hopefully. I mean, it’s been raining for 2 months, so if it’s gonna rain, you know, at the end of April, I’m really gonna be super unlucky. But, you know, that’s exactly what I wanted. It’s definitely, you know, I would put 99% passion and 1% financial, because at the moment it’s not looking great. But, you know, as long as, you know, I can wake up every morning and, you know, keep that same passion, that same motivation, then I’m super happy with it. You know, the day I will wake up and say, oh, this disaster, or it wasn’t really good, or, you know, it didn’t go as planned, then I will think about it. But for now, it’s like You know, it’s been almost 10 months of, you know, super motivation and trying to get this done and be happy about it.

Katie Keith:
It’s not easy. Yeah, definitely. Well, let’s talk about things from the attendees’ perspective now, because not everybody sees value in attending events, and I think some people attend events and maybe don’t get that much value out. So, let’s all share a bit about our experiences of events we’ve attended and what made them work, what didn’t at work and how to approach them really. What would be your advice, Rodolfo?

Rodolfo Melogli:
I come from a different motivation for me, which would be getting out of the house. So that’s why I tend to go to WordCamp Europe every year, just to, you know, be out there talking to people, you know, new conversations, new relationships, business relationships, and so on. So this is my point of view for WordCamps, but in this case, because it’s super focused around WooCommerce and it’s all about the makers and the founders and the developers and the people that make the WooCommerce ecosystem happen, you know, I would actually suggest people to define an objective before coming here. So whether it’s, you know, someone looking to sell their plugin or to acquire some other plugins or to find, you know, a new project to work on or to find a business partner or really to, you know, talk some of the sponsors and see what they’re doing and what they’re working on within the WooCommerce ecosystem. I think if someone defines a goal before coming here, then they come here, literally 10 minutes from my house, I could actually almost invite you all in my place just for dinner or something, but they come here with a goal in mind and they try to work on that. I mean, it’s guaranteed. That you’re gonna get something out of it. The other day I was talking to some big agency owner and he was kind of reluctant to come and, you know, needs to take some days off and he’s got job to get done and so on. And I said, you know what, I’m almost gonna guarantee you that if you come here, you’re gonna make your money back. If it goes bad, if it goes well, you’re gonna 10x that just because the quality of the people in the room is exceptional. So we don’t have, you know, time wasters. We don’t have, you know, people who are not working with WooCommerce. We don’t have people from other, you know, plugins or from other places or from, you know, other niches. And it’s guaranteed that one good conversation can bring you a new project, you know, a new partnership, a new long-term relationship, whatever it is, it’s definitely gonna work in that, in that way. So I always suggest people to, you know, come up with a goal and try to see if they can reach that objective. Within the 2.5 days we’re gonna spend together?

James Kemp:
Yeah, I think, um, that’s a good aim to have. I’ve been quite fortunate in my approach to events in that I’ve been on like both sides of being an attendee. So, um, you know, prior to this I had my plugin company and my goal was to not necessarily, you know, sell more plugins, but just to make people aware of me and that company and business and the types of things that we can do and the plugins that we offer. And now I’m on this other side where typically at these events we’re a sponsor and I’m talking to people in this kind of product mindset where I want to understand how people use the products, like how we can make it better. So it’s similar, but I’m I feel like I’m on the other side of the conversation now, and I do feel like both sides can have tremendous value from, from these events. I know that if I had never attended a WordCamp, it’s very unlikely I would have had the connections at the time to even consider selling and, you know, having my previous business acquired. I very much doubt that anyone would even know what Iconic was at that time without having made these connections. So yeah, even if the rewards from attending something like this aren’t immediately apparent, I think just having a larger network in this specific space is immensely valuable, like going into the future even, like a few years down the line, a connection that you made may, you know, approach you for a specific project or just, you know, have something else in mind and it’s just very valuable.

Katie Keith:
Yeah, that’s true. My attitude to events has kind of evolved over the years. When I was newer to it all, I would set a goal and try and be specific, and I go with the flow a bit more now. But it’s interesting what different things you can get out of an event. For example, for me, one of them is seeing my team. I never see my team in person except for at events. We’ve never had the budget for a dedicated Barn2 meetup, largely because we’re a global company, so to bring all 18 of us together from all the continents would just be ridiculous. So instead, we go to our local WordCamp or other event. There’ll be, what is it, Rudolph? There’s like 5 of us or something at Checkout Summit, I think. And that’s a team meetup, isn’t it? And, but they also get the benefit of being part of the event and meeting other people, not just their colleagues. So, I think that kills two birds with one stone. I shouldn’t say this, because me and James are both speakers, but I never really go to talks. I prefer to spend the time actually talking to people. That’s what I get the most value of. And one thing I do to make that more valuable is to make my calendar available. I’ve only started doing that the last year or to. And at first I saw people do it and I thought, why would anybody book an event on my calendar? But they actually do. And so that makes it really easy to network with relevant people. You just have to put a note on it. If you’re trying to sell me something, I’m not going to accept this appointment. But actually really good people book, people from major companies that want to do partnerships or something like that. So I would recommend that. And if you’re not somebody that has enough following to get people to book, then follow, say, the Checkout Summit hashtag and see other people announcing their calendars, and then you can book appointments with them. So I would recommend trying to get some pre-booked appointments, although it’s not essential as a smaller event because you can run into people that much more easily. And finally, I— because whenever I go to an event, I have to leave my husband doing all the childcare, which isn’t easy, and it’s a lot of money, I do feel like I have to to justify it. So he doesn’t ask for this, but I always send him an email afterwards of a list of everything I got out of it business-wise. So I’ll be in my Apple Notes while I’m at the event writing down, I had a really valuable conversation, potential partnership, whatever, and then I put it all together. And it always surprises me when you actually write it down how much you get out of it. And as James said, a lot of that is small things that might bear fruit in the future, like getting to know somebody from a major company that maybe they’ll want to acquire you if you ever want to do that down the road in the future. All of those connections do add up over time and it just makes you a real person within the industry.

James Kemp:
Yeah, I think one example actually on the WooCommerce side from WordCamp 24, I think Europe, the big push that we had in WooCommerce to make it, to make the front end fully accessible came from me opening my calendar and speaking to quite a few accessibility agencies that were all asking for the same thing. Um, you know, for us to lead by example and, and make the front end of WooCommerce accessible just out the box. Um, and those conversations really helped push that project forward and, you know, make that happen., and I think, you know, the fact that a few of us from WooCommerce are going to actually be at this event, Checkout Summit, as well, just gives you the opportunity to kind of bear your needs and desires for WooCommerce and for us to actually be there and listen. Like, I really enjoy listening to what people say and actioning the things that they want to see, um, as, as much as possible. So, uh, yeah, I probably will put my calendar out for, for this event. So if you do want to book some time, follow me on X and get, get a slot booked in.

Katie Keith:
Yep. And Zach supports that idea. An open meeting calendar for an event is an excellent way to find that elusive ROI. Yeah, it just makes it all a bit more intentional.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Yeah.

James Kemp:
Katie, did you want to touch on the next point about what makes it a good or a bad event, or do you feel like we’ve covered that?

Katie Keith:
Yeah, we’ve kind of covered it. I suppose, no, we’ve covered what you can do as an attendee, not about how to evaluate what makes a good and a bad event, I guess. For me, I know I don’t go to talks, but it still annoys me that a lot of events, particularly WordCamps, the talks are not not really about much sometimes, then particularly not about business and marketing and really tangible things that you can put into action in your own work. So, like, I like events where they really focus on actions in the talks and things people can take away personally, and that will make me much more likely to actually attend a talk.

James Kemp:
Yeah, it depends on the audience as well, right? Typically, um, at WordCamps, a lot of the talks are like developer-focused, I would, I would say. And I do feel like there’s been a shift a bit in that, um, in recent years. I know, Katie, you’ve done some product-focused talks, um, but there’s still a lack of like WooCommerce-specific talks. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a talk focused at WooCommerce merchants. Maybe that has happened and I just haven’t. I haven’t paid enough attention, but I did want to check out events.

Katie Keith:
What’s it called?

James Kemp:
E-commerce Day, didn’t I? You did, yes.

Katie Keith:
Yeah, yeah.

James Kemp:
I think it really depends on the event. Um, you know, at WordCamps it’s very much WordPress focused and not necessarily, uh, WooCommerce or e-commerce in general focused. Um, so I think, uh, at Checkout Summit it’s going to be a great opportunity to actually see some of these talks for different types of audience members, and to really be able to do that and network. Like you say, I, I tend to network a lot more than actually look at or go to the talks at WordCamps, and because that’s what I find to be most valuable, um, for me. And I think it depends on, on the person.

Rodolfo Melogli:
It does. Also, like, because I come from the same background where I enjoy chatting to people, I don’t particularly enjoy talks and stuff like that, even though I must say that in the last couple of years they’ve been doing a much better job in regards to content. I wanted like one single track so not to get everyone confused. Where should I go? Oh my gosh, like, ‘Where’s the next room? I’m gonna get lost whenever I switch to another room,’ and so on. And also I wanted to have just 12 speakers across 2 days, so making sure that those 6 per day are doing the best job they can and crafting their story as, you know, better as they can and sharing all the content Even though it’s a short talk, so it’s going to be 25, 30 minutes, I actually told them, will tell them, and will keep reminding them that the value is in the chats that you will have afterwards. So the talk has to have a specific objective, which is share the important content, but then come and talk to me afterwards because this is how we do. In WordPress, we love talking to speakers. Each one has got a different question, each one has got a different case study, each one, you know, uses things in a different way. As you said, you know, if you take a look at WooCommerce, you’ve got merchants and developers and freelancers and designers and DIYs and so on. So it’s really hard to find, you know, something that appeals to everyone. But I must say that I asked speakers, like, the only, you know, the number one rule was that WooCommerce keyword had to be in the title. I mean, if we start from there, we already know that the talks are going to be super targeted. There’s no fuss, no distractions. It’s all going to be about WooCommerce. It’s going to be about business. And development and AI and whatever it is right now. And people are going to get great value. So I wanted Checkout Summit to be a content-first conference as well as people-first. But, you know, content is something that I do, you know, I’ve been doing it for, you know, ever. And I really value content and I think people should come, you know, should go there Learn something new.

Katie Keith:
That’s the whole point. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Now, before we finish, we’ve got two comments to feature. Zach says, I’ve done quite a few beginner-focused WooTalks at WordCamps. Nice. And Dave Lou says, going to be great. Went to a similar event where hotel plus conference is one. Well, it wasn’t on an island too, so no escape.

Rodolfo Melogli:
Possible.

Katie Keith:
I hadn’t thought about the escape factor, but I do really like events where it’s all in one venue, where the venue is a hotel and the majority of attendees stay at that hotel. To me, that makes a huge difference and not all WordCamps do that. And I really like the ones that do. Another one that gets that right is PressConf is right before Checkout Summit. And that is a small conference in a hotel. Everybody’s there and it’s just creates a really friendly atmosphere. Atmosphere because you see the same people over and over and you build much stronger connections than if people are spread out all over town.

James Kemp:
It is true. And I think Rodolfo touched on this earlier, but in terms of escape, you know, Sicily’s a very nice place to just leave the hotel and walk somewhere. That’ll do. So I think it’ll be awesome. Thank you so much, Rodolfo, for coming on. I’m very excited to come to check out Summit. To meet with you again and to meet with everyone that comes. Thank you to everyone that submitted questions while we were talking to Rodolfo. There’s definitely a buzz, you know, from people that this is happening. So I think it’s really good what you’ve been doing.

Katie Keith:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, our next episode will be after Checkout Summit, and we’ve got two in short succession at the end of April. On the 21st of April, James and I will be back for an episode about scaling WooCommerce operations with automation and how to create real workflows with things like AI and other automation tools. And we’re going to have James Collins from the WooCommerce Zapier plugin. And then a few days after that, we’re going to be back again with a special panel featuring Rodolfo and several of the other guests from Checkout Summit. And we’re going to be doing a wrap-up of the event, whether our hopes and dreams came true, particularly Rodolfo’s.

Rodolfo Melogli:
I hope to be alive.

James Kemp:
Yeah, very much looking forward to both of them. Um, hopefully Rodolfo will be very happy after the event. I expect you will be. Uh, but be sure to subscribe, like I said at the beginning, uh, on YouTube we’re Do The Woo Podcast, uh, on X we are Do The Woo, and you can also find us on dothewoo.com.