Most ecommerce events follow the same formula. A big stage, bigger sponsors, and sessions that slowly turn into sales pitches. After attending hundreds of these over the years, I started asking myself: where are the merchants? Where are the people actually running stores, fulfilling orders, and making real decisions every day?
That question is what led me to build Ecommerce Camp — and it is why I believe the industry desperately needs more merchant speakers on stage.
The Problem with Most Ecommerce Events
Walk into almost any ecommerce conference and you will notice the same pattern. The speaker lineup is dominated by agency owners, software vendors, and consultants. The sessions are polished, the slides are branded, and somewhere around minute fifteen, the talk shifts into a product demo.
There is nothing wrong with agencies or tools — I run one myself at MageCloud. But when every session is led by someone selling something, the event stops being educational and starts feeling like a trade show with a microphone.
The people who actually run ecommerce businesses — the brand owners, the operators, the founders — are usually sitting in the audience, not on the stage. And that is a problem because they are the ones with the stories worth hearing.
Why Merchant Speakers Matter
When a merchant shares their experience, you get something different. You get the unfiltered version: the campaign that almost bankrupted them, the supplier who disappeared before peak season, the checkout redesign that doubled conversions when nothing else worked.
These are not theoretical frameworks. They are lessons paid for with real money and real stress. That kind of honesty is rare at most conferences, and it is exactly what the ecommerce community needs more of.
At Ecommerce Camp, we have seen firsthand how powerful it is when a founder stands up and says what actually happened — not a sanitised case study, but the real story with all the messy details included. The room changes. People lean in. The questions get better. The conversations afterwards go deeper.
Smaller Events, Better Conversations
I have noticed something else over the years. The best return on my time does not come from the big, shiny expos in London with huge stages and endless agency booths. It comes from the smaller, industry-specific events where real businesses gather to talk about real problems.
Less noise. Fewer agencies. Better conversations.
I do not attend events expecting to sign clients on the spot. I go to listen, get feedback, and understand how people are actually running their ecommerce operations day to day. And the relationships built in those rooms tend to last. I have seen companies come back to us years later — and when they do, they stay for years. Trust takes time, especially when you are choosing a platform or an agency that becomes part of your business.
That is why we are doing more of these targeted, practitioner-led events through Ecommerce Camp in 2026. Less hype. More substance. Better relationships.
We Need Your Story
For our 2026 event calendar at Ecommerce Camp UK, we are actively looking for new speakers. If you are a brand owner or ecommerce manager and want to share your story or case study with a community of ecommerce business owners, we would love to welcome you to the stage.
You do not have to be a professional speaker. You do not need a polished deck or a rehearsed talk track. What matters is that you have a real experience worth sharing — something that worked, something that failed, or something you learned the hard way that could help someone else avoid the same mistake.
Our events in Chester, Manchester, London, and Birmingham bring together practitioners who share what actually works. No corporate jargon, no hidden agendas — just real experience from people who build and run ecommerce businesses every day.
How to Get Involved
If you have a story worth telling, apply to speak at Ecommerce Camp or connect with me on LinkedIn so we can talk about your story.
If you have ever left a conference feeling like you learned nothing actionable, Ecommerce Camp is the alternative you have been looking for. Together, we can build a community of practitioners who share openly, learn from each other, and push ecommerce forward.