Why CloudFest Matters to WP Cloud

Adam Weeks:
Hi, Elise. It is so nice to run into you here at Cloud Fest. Could you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you’re doing here?

Elise Prather:
Yeah, it’s great to see you too. So my name’s Elise Prather. I am the VP of Partnerships and Growth for Automattic’s WP Cloud. I’m here just to experience CloudFest. I think I’ve heard so many crazy stories throughout the years about it, and it’s great to be here finally to experience it, but also I’m looking forward to just continuing to meet so many different people from different companies, different verticals, pretty much everything that you would hope it would be.

Adam:
So awesome. Great. So first impressions at Cloud Fest is actually. This is the first full day of Cloud Fest. What are your impressions so far?

Elise Prather:
It is so big.

Adam:
Yeah.

Elise Prather:
I think when I looked online, I didn’t anticipate that it would literally be a theme park. Conceptually, you understand that is what it is. But when you actually get here, there’s a monorail, and the monorail takes you around the park and. And it is very submersive, and it’s great. But that aside, the amount of vendors alone that are here to speak with is way bigger than I thought as well. So there’s. It’s just way, way more massive than I ever anticipated.

Adam:
Very cool. How does this compare to some of the other conferences you’ve been to in the past?

Elise Prather:
I think in terms of what makes CloudFest so different, I think it’s way more submersive because you are on a entire campus.

Adam:
Yeah.

Elise Prather:
You’re eating here, you are having, you know, activities here, you’re staying here the entire time, versus any other conference where when you go to do activities, you might actually be leaving to go somewhere else. So it’s very, very submersive.

Adam:
Nice. So you came a long way to get here. It’s a big deal. This wasn’t just an easy thing like, oh, just run over to Cloud Festival. There’s an investment here for you and for WP Cloud. Tell us about that investment. Why would you do that?

Elise Prather:
Yeah, I think the investment for this is making sure that I get to have the conversations with people where I get to strategize with them about what it is that they want to do and figure out the roadmap and where could we fit in that we may have not otherwise been able to strategize over. Over Zoom.

Adam:
Okay. Yeah. That’s one of the things I always think about is how are you not a cold call? Like you met them in person, like you actually. And there’s something that you just can’t get on a Zoom that you can get in a place like this. And riding roller coasters is a good way to break down some barriers. Are you going to be riding any roller coasters at Cloud Fest?

Elise Prather:
Yes. I heard that there are the best roller coasters ever from the Germans that I spoke with here. They said they are the best.

Adam:
Yes.

Elise Prather:
And I believe it’s open for about an hour.

Adam:
Yeah. Yeah. So they’ll be open. Yeah, for. Yeah, a little time each day. There’s one called Voltron. I did it. Absolutely incredible. I don’t recommend eating a large breakfast before you go because. Whoa. Like, yeah, I would love to hear how that goes for you. But yeah, like you said, this is just bigger, just a giant event. Absolutely incredible. WP Cloud is unique. What are some of the conversations you are hoping to have here at CloudFest as you describe what WP Cloud is all about?

Elise Prather:
Yeah. So in short, WP Cloud is your infrastructure base if you want to be the host. And I think what makes that different than the experiences that most people are having when they’re looking to be a host is that previously, in order to be a host, you were either building everything yourself on a server box or on the cloud.

Adam:
Okay.

Elise Prather:
Which takes incredible time with engineers and a lot of staff and, you know, just a lot of brain power to do so.

Adam:
Yep.

Elise Prather:
Or you were paying another provider to give that to you, but you were also paying them to be doing the support. There’s a panel and so the experience that you get through that is just not as customizable. Right. So where WP Cloud fits in is it offers the ability for anyone that wants to build on top of a pre existing infrastructure to be able to provide exactly the customer experience that they want. What is it going to look like when they log in that panel, that user experience? They get to pick what that is and what it looks like, any integrations and anything that they build on top of it. You know, what’s the site going to be when it spins up? Do you want there to already be plugins existing and what do you want those plugins to be? So that’s really what WP Cloud offers. It offers almost a much further along starting point for people that might not want to have to create the infrastructure themselves, but they don’t want to go buy it completely done up from another provider where they’re not needing to choose the other options.

Adam:
Interesting. So I love how you’re explaining that. I’m going to lean into that a little bit more. Elise, if you could share a little bit more about who do you think WP Cloud is best for? Like what type of person, what type of company who needs this thing?

Elise Prather:
Yeah, I think every company and every agency, even any freelancer that has offered hosting services before has experienced what it’s like when you don’t have control over your customer’s experience completely. Right. So WP Cloud is for anyone that wants to make sure that their customers experience from the time that they spin up a site to when they need a little bit of help on their site and when they’re ready to grow with you. That is who WP Cloud is for. We are offering you the ability to be able to make it really feel like you and your brand throughout the entire experience. It’s completely white labeled and it’s going to be completely your brand. And that’s exactly who it’s for.

Adam:
I love that it’s your brand consistency. WP Cloud kind of gets out of the way and lets you be you on the Internet.

Elise Prather:
Absolutely. You know, there’s this thing that I’ve seen in tech the last, I think maybe several years and it’s so cheesy. I’ve seen we’re democratizing whatever their software is. Right. But you know, if I want to use that word, which I don’t, but I’m going to, but it’s democratizing hosting. It’s giving people the ability to not have to start completely from scratch. But they’re still getting to use the skill sets that they do have to build on top of something that’s pre existing so that they can be right up there with everyone else that they’re competing with and everyone else that already has maybe been in the market for.

Adam:
Decades even got it. Ah, that’s very cool. I love that. That’s great. I’m glad. I’ve heard about WP Cloud for a while. I love how you kind of wrap that up with a nice bow. And I’m excited that yeah, you’re here at CloudFest investing in this ecosystem. There’s more WordPress companies that are here and so Elise, who should come to CloudFest, you’ve kind of sold them on the roller coasters, or maybe not. But you recognize that this conference is a huge deal and maybe they’re Thinking about coming to CloudFest USA or to CloudFest here in Europe next year. Who would you say that needs to come to CloudFest?

Elise Prather:
I think CloudFest is probably the most important place to be if what you want to do is build partnerships within the WordPress ecosystem, if you are a provider of some kind.

Adam:
All right. Yeah, sounds good. There’s going to be server throwing.

Elise Prather:
Yes.

Adam:
How do you want to get involved in server throwing, Elise?

Elise Prather:
I don’t think anyone wants to be involved in server throwing. I know this is a podcast, so you can’t see me, but I face plan fairly regularly and no one wants me holding something heavy and then throwing it.

Adam:
Shocking, but maybe cheering them on.

Elise Prather:
Yes. I will be on the sidelines, far away from hurting people potentially. So I will be a viewer.

Adam:
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for sharing about your experience of CloudFest. It is kind of still getting going, so there’s a lot more CloudFest. I hope you have an incredible time here. Thank you for sharing with us about WP Cloud and who it might be for. And yeah, we’re really glad that we could do the woo with you.

Elise Prather:
Yes, thank you for talking.

Adam:
If someone wanted to find you on the Internet or find out more about WP Cloud, how would they do that?

Elise Prather:
Yeah, they can go to WP Cloud.

Adam:
There you go.

Elise Prather:
If they want to find me, I am on LinkedIn. Elise Prather. Otherwise you can find me at CloudFest.

Adam:
There you go. Come to CloudFest. Those are great. All right, thank you very much. Hope you have a wonderful day. And yeah, come to Cloud Festival.