Q&A: Vito Peleg talks Web Agency Summit 2021 and new name

From March 23-26, Atarim (formerly WP Feedback) hosts its second Web Agency Summit. The summit features many Live Sessions, a Networking Lounge, and Virtual Sponsor Booths.

The summit is free to attend, but you need to register. Think of this as a virtual WordCamp.

The Web Agency Summit is designed to help agency owners build and grow a thriving web agency.

Some of the presenters include Donata Stroink-Skillrud of Termageddon, Sam Mulaim, the CEO of FixRunner, Elementor creator Ben Pines, Chris Badgett of LifterLMS, Beth L Livingston of The WP Project Manager’s Academy, Davinder Singh Kainth of The WP Weekly, Adrian Tobey of Groundhogg, Colleen Gratzer of Gratzer Graphics, Michelle Frechette of GiveWP, myself and many more.

This past week I asked Vito some questions about the summit and how to pronounce the new name Atarim.

First, can you tell us how do you pronounce Atarim?

Haha, Atarim is pronounced Ata-rim – Which is not something that exists in the English language, but if you want to be proper about it, this is how it’s pronounced.

Really, as long as people are saying the name for the right reasons, you can pronounce it however you like 🙂

Can you tell us what Atarim means?

My native language is Hebrew, so we thought it would be awesome to have a name that means something. Atarim is the Hebrew word for websites. As I started off as a web designer/agency owner, and our platform is an agency management platform, the team and I felt like the name was right as soon as it was suggested.

If any, what will be different this year?

As last year was our first Summit, we were learning on the job, so to speak. We still managed to pull off the biggest online event in the space, but we could have definitely done some things better.

This year, we are taking what we learned and making the Atarim Web Agency Summit even bigger for 2021.

1. We’ve improved massively on the platform that we are using. Everything has been built from the ground up, creating a unique online event experience for everyone: attendees, sponsors, speakers & media partners.
2. This year, the speaker roster is even more diverse than it was in 2020. We have sessions from nearly every single industry in the space, making it the go-to summit to learn all about growing your agency.
3. Every session will be done live this time around. Last year they were pre-recorded. This way, attendees can ask questions and be a lot more involved in the talks.

Also, I am hosting this year. I’ll be introducing the speakers and asking the questions inside the chat to them, which I am super pumped for!

Want went into deciding the presenters?

When organizing an event that is focused around building an agency (as opposed to being focused on a more specific topic), the main aspect to consider when thinking about speakers is choosing the categories first.

That’s why this year, we have defined each talk by a particular category:

• Build – Focusing on the actual building of website projects. These talks are intended to teach attendees how to build top-quality websites at speed.
• Expand – This category is focused on expanding your agency, with sessions that aim to show attendees how to increase monthly revenue, increasing profitability.
• Scale – Once you’ve got the process down, it’s time to automate so you can scale them up and bring it more revenue.
• Thrive – After scaling, it can be a make or break for an agency. The thrive talks are based around creating a sustainable business that always moves forwards.

Once the topics were decided, we reached out to some of the best in the WordPress space who could provide the highest of value for each of these categories!

I know you are excited about all of the presentations, but which ones really stand out?

The ones that really stand out to me are:

• The CEO of Yoast, Marieke, her session about SEO. I think it’s awesome that we have one of the experts in SEO giving tips on how agencies can utilize SEO in their agencies and for their clients.
• Jimmy’s presentation about what he learned building a 50+ employee agency. That is where every agency owner wants to be, and his insights could really push some attendees to achieve this in 2021.
• Last but not least, Kristina’s session about valuing your web agency. This is something I did not consider while building my agency, and I think it will put a lot of things into perspective for many attendees and get them thinking about their business in the best way.

How much coffee will you consume to manage the summit?

Well, I’m going to be hosting most, if not all, of the sessions with the speakers…So that will be 4 full 9 hours days. I’m expecting, between my team and myself, to consume at least 586 cups of coffee next week.

What do you want everyone to know about the Web Agency Summit that maybe they don’t from looking on the landing page?

We are always straightforward in our messaging, so not much, honestly.

One thing I would like to add, though, is that the summit is, first and foremost, a celebration of the community and the industry we all love. With COVID keeping us on inside, it sucks not being able to go to live events anymore and learn together.

We want to give the feeling of community while teaching everyone along the way how to build their agency to where they want it to be in 2021.

Wrapping it up

I decided to submit a topic for the summit. Davinder suggested I do that, but after preparing for a recent webinar and a minor surgery, I wasn’t sure about doing so.

I thought about it for a day. I thought, “What is something I can talk for hours about?”

I decided I would submit a topic about storytelling. Wouldn’t you know that Vito and the team accepted my topic! I’m still not sure they knew what they were doing when they did that.

My presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, March 23rd, at 11 am CST (12 PM EST). I’m pretty excited. You can see a full schedule after you have registered.

Are you going to the Web Agency Summit? What presentations are you going to watch? Let us know in the MainWP Users Facebook Group.