If you spend much time in WordPress circles, you’ll notice that the conversation tends to centre on the technical – new blocks, performance benchmarks, hosting infrastructure, plugin architecture. That’s all essential, of course.
But there’s another conversation that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: how do you actually grow a WordPress business? How do you find clients, position your agency, and build something sustainable?
The good news is that three upcoming events are putting growth front and centre, with sessions covering everything from AI-driven search to brand positioning to community-led expansion. If business development matters to you – and it should, as much as any technical skill – these are worth your time.
Web Agency Summit 2026
Online | April 30, 2026 | Free to Attend at atarim.io/summit
Atarim‘s Web Agency Summit is a focused, single-day online event built specifically for agency owners and freelancers. This year’s lineup leans hard into the themes that are keeping agency owners up at night: AI’s impact on search, client acquisition, and community as a growth channel.
April 29 | Time TBC (GMT) – What’s Next for Search and What Agencies Need to Do Now Eugene Levin, President, Semrush
April 29 | Time TBC (GMT) – Before They Find You: What Your Next Client Looks Like Right Now Krys Lambiase, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Bluehost
April 30 | 11:00 PM GMT – How Agencies Grow Through Communities Raitis Sevelia and Ivana Ćirković (WPBakery), Svilena Peneva (Nitropack) & Bogdan Radusinović (Melograno)
The panel on community-led growth is a particular standout. Four practitioners from across the WordPress ecosystem discussing how communities drive sustainable agency growth. That’s a conversation you don’t often hear structured this well.
For more information about the sessions above and the schedule visit the Web Agency Summit 2026 website.
WP Engine Decode 2026
Online | May 6, 2026 | Free to Attend – Register Here
WP Engine‘s Decode event runs across US and EU agendas, making it accessible across time zones. The sessions below fall within the Marketer Track and Agency Track – both squarely focused on what the AI era means for how you attract and convert clients. Worth noting: these aren’t abstract AI thought-pieces. They’re asking practical questions about brand readiness and content strategy in a world where AI intermediates more and more of the buyer journey.
May 6 | 10:20 AM GMT – The Marketer’s Playbook for the Intelligent Web
May 6 | 10:55 AM GMT – A New Agency Service Model: Is Your Client’s Brand AI-Ready?
May 6 | 10:55 AM GMT – Unlocking eCommerce Growth: Content as the AI Conversion Engine
The “AI-Ready Brand” session is the one to flag for agency owners. As AI tools reshape how potential clients research and shortlist agencies, the question of whether your clients’ brands are legible and compelling to AI systems is becoming genuinely strategic. It’s a new service line in the making.
For more information about the talks above visit their WP Engine Decode 2026.
WordCamp Europe 2026
Kraków, Poland | June 4-6, 2026 | Tickets at europe.wordcamp.org/2026
WordCamp Europe is the flagship event of the WordPress community calendar – hundreds of sessions, contributors, and attendees from across the globe gathering for three days in Basel this year. The schedule is broad, but two sessions on June 6 stand out for anyone focused on business growth, and not because they’re about SEO or lead generation tactics. They go deeper than that.
June 6 | 07:00-07:30 AM GMT – Stop Positioning Into Obscurity to Unlock Growth Liza Bogatyrev
June 6 | 07:45-08:15 AM GMT – Three Levels of Atomic Product-Market Fit Debbie Levitt
Both of these sessions deal with marketing fundamentals that the WordPress community rarely discusses openly: positioning and product-market fit. These aren’t trendy topics – they’re the foundations that determine whether a business grows or stagnates. The fact that they’re opening the main schedule on day one suggests the organisers know something important is missing from the usual conversation.
Why This Matters
It’s genuinely encouraging to see growth content getting serious treatment across these three events. For too long, the WordPress ecosystem has treated business development as a secondary concern – something you figure out after you’ve mastered the tech. But the reality is that the agencies and product builders who thrive long-term are the ones who treat growth with the same rigour as development.
AI is a dominant theme across all three events, and rightly so. The anxiety is real, but so is the opportunity. The agencies asking smart questions now – about brand readiness, about search evolution, about content strategy in an AI-mediated world – will be the ones best positioned when the dust settles.
For me, hat’s perhaps most exciting is those two WordCamp Europe sessions. Positioning and product-market fit aren’t flashy. They don’t trend on X. But they’re the reason some agencies win clients consistently and others scramble. Seeing them on the main stage inKraków, treated as worthy of serious attention, feels like a meaningful step forward for the WordPress business community.
Here’s hoping it’s a sign of more to come.
