Hosted by WP Engine, the annual event provides a valuable day of sharing, learning and connecting for top WordPress agencies across the UK, and the 2022 gathering did not disappoint. After opening remarks from Fabio Torlini, WP Engine’s SVP & International MD, we dived straight into some great content, which included the following sessions:
WordPress in the Enterprise: Trends and Opportunities
The first presentation of the day was delivered by Monica Cravotta, Vice President of Marketing at WP Engine, who outlined how agencies are utilising component-based development trends in WordPress to deliver enterprise-grade solutions. As Big Bite was the first agency in the world to launch an enterprise project using Gutenberg, this session fully supported our view that blocks are the way forward for large-scale organisations, and highlighted how reusable components are speeding up enterprise development.
WP Engine Customer Innovation Showcase
Ezinne Udezue, WP Engine’s SVP & Chief Product Officer, guided us through the organisation’s key roadmaps which highlight how it will remain to be a leading partner for agencies and brands. As well as outlining how WP Engine hopes to improve the headless editorial experience, the session also covered future plans for its builder tools, agency management, and eCommerce solutions.
Changing Privacy Standards and the Impact to Your Sites
Experts from Google walked us through a series of upcoming changes that will happen in 2023 as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, which will phase out third-party cookies. This is a key concern for many digital brands and publishers who rely on cookies to generate ad revenue, so the session outlined how organisations can pivot to still gain the data they need while also protecting user privacy.
When to Choose Headless
Bringing together a panel of speakers from Drewl, Big Issue, Candyspace, and WP Engine, this presentation highlighted the pros and cons of headless WordPress versus traditional WordPress. As well as encouraging agencies to carefully consider the benefits and tradeoffs of both options, it also shared views from its contributors on which path may be best for different scenarios.
Age of Enterprise Acceleration: The Benefits of Standardising on WordPress
Jointly delivered by contributors from WP Engine, Clarity, Americaneagle.com, 10Up, and WONDR.io, this talk emphasised the importance of standardisation in terms of how enterprises create and publish content. This is another topic that we’re very passionate about at Big Bite, so it was great to see some real world examples of how a unified approach can offer huge benefits to big brands and businesses.
As with most great events, the day finished up with a networking happy hour, giving us a chance to catch up in person with other WordPress agencies, reflect on some of the key learnings, and look to the future of the platform and our partnerships.
