Web Agency Summit 5 Thoughts

I just Wrapped up an incredible week with the Atarim crew (and many amazing brands and people) for the 5th edition of the Web Agency Summit!

One attendee said it was “the closest thing to an online WordCamp I’ve ever been to.” Which made me smile.

As someone who's not a web designer (I always mention that in meetups 😄), I still got so much out of the summit. I live-tweeted every session from the Atarim accounts and soaked in every moment. My notepad is almost filled up!

Even from the perspective of a social media manager, the value was massive. This event truly is for anyone working in the digital space.

A few personal highlights:

🧠 Cami MacNamara's session was packed with practical tips for dealing with burnout. She shared six things that helped her grow her agency instead of her to-do list. My favorites were:

Time blocking (something I really need to get better at)

Focus Weeks where you set aside time to catch up without meetings. She doesn’t tell clients she’s in a focus week, she just says she’s booked. Love that.

She was the last session of the summit and it was definitely worth the wait.  She was really incredible and I am glad she was at our summit.

🤝 Rachael Silvano from Zapier was another standout. Her talk on building and leading communities was super helpful (we’re currently building a Discord community at Atarim). She just has a very good perspective on community.

Two quotes that stuck with me:

“I take email and messaging members very seriously. I ask them, ‘Do you want more from us, less from us, or is it just right?’ Being curious and letting them tell you — that’s a powerful lesson to carry with you.”

“The second piece of magic I really wanted to embed into this talk was the art of letting members lead your community.”

💬 Karl Sakas had a great tip for handling awkward client money convos, especially around scope creep: “Would you like an estimate for that?”

Simple, effective, and non-confrontational.

💡 And Atarim’s own Vito Peleg added another gem about scope creep in his session: “Don’t say no, say not now.”

Build a backlog you can revisit later. It helps the client feel heard and gives you a roadmap for future work (and revenue).

There were so many other talks full of golden nuggets I couldn’t tweet fast enough. If it wasn't for the linkedIn character limit id list more.

A few more shoutouts:

Disha Pegu and Kris Vyas-Myall: the backbone of this entire event. They both worked really hard behind the scenes putting together this whole thing.

And of course, a shoutout to my friend and colleague Stephanie Hudson, who was a phenomenal host all week: keeping the energy high and the dad jokes flowing. (Also, I loved seeing her cat make surprise cameo appearances in the background!)

She’s not only a fantastic designer but also a brilliant marketer, and she brought so many great perspectives to the talks she hosted.

Already looking forward to the next one! 💙