Foreign. Please welcome to the stage Helene Simon, Maximilian Fleitmann, Martyn Lee, Adam Halawi and Tim Janes. Well hello and welcome, thank you for joining.

My name is Helene, I run the Europe, Middle East and Africa team at Webflow, apologies if you've been in my earlier session, this might sound repetitive but I'm passionate about the European market, exciting because you work with 30 plus countries, 24 plus languages, cultural nuances everywhere, sometimes as big between Italy and Germany, close on the map, as between the US and Brazil. Easy to take the typical European stance, oh this is just difficult, complicated, that's not the interesting thing, I want to talk about what this difficult setup makes you learn and work differently. With me, four European agencies, masters of the European market, talking about what it's really like running an agency in Europe. To start, what's something you think about every day in European reality that a single-market agency doesn't deal with, and how do you tackle it? Give your name and agency first.

Hey everyone, I'm Max, co-founder of Magier, design and Webflow work based in Berlin, Germany, over 200 clients worldwide, mostly ambitious tech companies moving fast, which is why they use Webflow. We see these challenges daily because most clients work in different markets, a German company expanding to Netherlands, France, Spain creates complexity for the website. Might sound easy, just do a Spanish translation, but in reality more complex, projects launched then three weeks in the Italian team calls wanting a different CTA and form embeds and routing, we realized these weren't content edits but full rebuilds, slowing us down significantly when companies want to move fast. Plus GDPR and law differences per country. The point: as a Europe-based agency we always think two or three steps ahead, planning what the setup looks like in one, two, three years, building a foundation that lets clients scale their revenue engine and website easily, that's our strength as a European agency.

Hi, I'm Adam Halawi, managing director at Gain, a global full service agency. Interesting point about GDPR and data, companies struggle with regulations and cross-border data handling, and differing needs per country as Max says. We're also looking closely at data sovereignty, in the UK we've dealt with concerns about other countries wanting our data, a new Chinese embassy placed near important data pipes and MI5, but also US wanting to control data, no real data safe harbor anymore, European governments looking at keeping data onshore. Also localizations and how markets operate, we use a hub and spoke model, centralized team working closely with markets to get what they need.

Hello everyone, good to see familiar faces, I'm Martyn, principal consultant client partner at Parallax, a UK tech consultancy. Similarly aware of regional differences between country groups, not clear cut building for one site, many unique situations. Not every market difference is real, might have evolved as consent mechanisms or tracking systems evolved differently per region, fragmented architecture between locations, central management wants ownership over regions but unique regional requirements exist, consent and tracking, but also content, how do you publish and share content across locations while allowing regional decisions on quality and consistency while empowering local autonomy, a balancing process, goal is standardizing where possible while keeping stakeholder requirements in mind. I'm Tim, creative director at MakeBuild, an agency in London, office in London's oldest palace, come see us, we work with B2B brands mostly transitioning from mid market to enterprise. Different take as creative director looking after design and strategy, good design is keeping it simple and minimal, guiding principle is simplify, a lot of GDPR and data residency stuff is often solved by platforms already so we don't let it worry us. Challenge for us is when clients come with complexity, customers in 7-15 locales, different pricing rules, dispersed marketing teams, our approach is simplify, strip back, start with one locale, get it right, over-invest in information architecture and basics, then introduce complexity if required, take a step back, simplify. I liked what Martyn said about not every difference being real, and Tim's point too, but also having an operating model in mind rather than letting expansion happen ad hoc and rebuilding from scratch. From a Webflow perspective, does it help build that operating model? Super important for our clients, I call it operating system for scale, thinking about the foundation, CMS, components, structure, makes life easier. Two interesting parts: expanding to new countries got way cheaper with Webflow, previously needed a whole new website and local team per market, now one client started in Germany and scaled to over six countries in two years from the German head office, spun up a new locale, translated partly with MCP and AI features, tested markets using Optimize and Analyze to see what worked, then plugged in a local team where markets worked, roles and permissions made handoff easy with no cutoff point. But gaps exist, an HR tool integration in Germany might need a different one in Spain, need to set that up beforehand, AI translation might not be good enough, and the layer below Webflow, form submissions routing to the right person in the Italian team, but overall expanding to multiple markets got way easier using Webflow as an operating model. Martyn, similar experience? Yes, similar, creating consistency with a global component library and design system centrally managed but with unique regional differences, allows bolting onto the next market since the framework's in place, but takes management and preparation, a lot of discovery time determining what's shared, centrally owned, variable architecture needed between components. Webflow's comfortable with this, shared library mechanism, conditional logic in variables, configuring each region with unique tools, spinning out a new market means finding what's unique within existing foundation as long as it aligns with go-to-market strategy. But a challenge: who owns it, who has the keys, governance challenge, Webflow has the tools but human involvement is needed to understand divergence, prevent 15 versions of the same component, give the right keys to the right people, manage ongoing, if a new region wants to diverge further keep it aligned with go-to-market and business goals, technology delivers consistency but training and governance still needed from the agency. Webflow sets up the operating system but you still need skill to know when to standardize versus localize. Turning to Adam and Tim, if an agency in a single market is thinking about expanding into Europe, what one piece of advice? Take time to listen to each market's actual problems, during discovery you inventory assets and content but sometimes miss talking to people about day to day issues, we rush to solutionize problems that don't actually exist, stepping back and sitting with people working out what they do brings great ideas, do we need to change the process or amalgamate things, or set up architecture without a process overhaul, listen carefully then work out from there. Two different challenges: an agency breaking into Europe addressing already dispersed organizations, comes down to good discovery, being collaborative across markets. Or working with a client expanding into Europe from a single market elsewhere, interesting challenge, how good is the existing presence, do they know what's performing before entertaining local differences, how will you measure success or are you just pleasing different teams with different opinions, get the basics and measurement right at the starting point then build a localization plan, measurement, get the basics right, you're good to go. Now the exciting question: with recent announcements, Campaigns, but particularly Source has been a hot topic, this is genuinely new to me too, what's your view on Source, how might it change how you think about working as an agency? I'm super hyped about Source, checked Slack this morning, our devs already posting from yesterday's keynote. What catches me most is collaboration and views, collaborating with clients and clients collaborating themselves was always core, we optimized through project management and check-ins, now agents join the show too and you need to tell them what to do or not, Source brings it all together in one platform, easier collaboration and different views for different team members, devs love the source code view, marketers love checking conversions, content people have a different view, I was always a believer in opinionated software, leaving stuff out that's irrelevant, we'll do the same sharing views in Source. Building on the view mechanism, thinking multi-region and multi-language, aggregating data from multiple sites and languages into the same view, analyzing in one location, plugging in different agents, central management views of everything across regions plus individual regional data analysis, a comprehensive view in one location, feels very powerful, customizability feels great. Will it change how you're working? Bringing opportunities definitely, clients with budgetary problems and timing pressures, it'll democratize delivery, cut out or rationalize design steps, we have low code designers working with systems already, but wild opportunities to take beautiful design translated into a build delivered much more quickly, especially for smaller clients to achieve what bigger clients do more easily with bigger budgets, exciting things happening over the next couple years. Agree with all that. I'm super excited, took a while to process after the announcement but buoyed up about shifting studio strategy, all the Source features look great, answers to a lot of questions we're hearing, people agree it's doing the right things. For us as an agency, Webflow as a platform, as much as we love it, being Webflow exclusive dictates our process a bit, certain ways to build within platform parameters, but Source opens that up wider, you can still build in Webflow but do other stuff, adjust process for individual clients or projects, maybe work differently sometimes, exciting time running a Webflow agency, opened up more possibilities, excited to figure out that strategy. Other thoughts on strategy shape? Still need to wrap my head around where we'll be in the process with a client, on one side it opens opportunities, but we were well positioned being Webflow exclusive for a long time, that's why people came to us, now more agencies can enter the Webflow ecosystem with prior experience, and we're enabling clients and team members to do more themselves, which parts can agencies still take care of and where can we earn money. Interesting point, marketers can go build their own sections and views, but there's an important part for agency strategists, designers, developers to work closely with clients keeping abreast of site changes, we've all experienced spaghetti code and sites turning into monsters from clients whacking components wherever, potential danger always exists when you let someone play with Lego, making sure we work closely to keep brands aligned across touch points, utilizing design system views coming with Source. Agree, wider opportunity for more comprehensive discovery looking at all business areas, if we have access to source code and comprehensive structure, what else can we do, what other channels push out to, can this become the source of truth for developing apps and systems beyond what was possible from the API previously, new avenues to explore. From a migration perspective, if opening up other platforms as an entry point to Webflow, someone wanting to test the water can plug in alternate database and infrastructure, understand advantage and value, then gain confidence moving into Webflow, an entry point that didn't exist before. Will it change the ICP you go after? Good question, our ICP shifts constantly, we predominantly work with marketing teams, heads of web, web ops, but their role is changing, not the individual changing but the role they do, therefore different demands. With the AI shift over recent months, agencies have gone from having all the answers, being the point of authority, how do I improve rankings, you do this, to don't really know, should we figure it out together, more collaboration especially if clients are in Source tweaking themselves, being a collaboration partner is maybe more important than being the knowledge partner. Using staging capabilities to make sure everyone's aligned, the route to production shown in the keynote was really interesting, getting collaboration together before pushing to production is vital. I had a good chat with JJ yesterday about using AI tools internally, changed his expectations, when he has an idea now he needs to test and prove it much quicker, can't wait 24 hours for an agency answer, he wants to get in and do it, as an agency when you plug Source in and clients experiment, we have to find a way to be part of that conversation. Curious about company profile too, not just individual, Source opens use cases we didn't talk about before, might change strategies for approaching different customer sets. It's about breaking up silos in companies, in the past our main buying persona was someone doing website topics wanting a nice website that's always up, maybe someone from performance requesting landing pages, now with collaboration we need to serve way more people inside the company, but also serve a more diverse set of companies, agents, humans, marketers doing creative, web ops, all bringing it together. Delivering a new CMS meant training teams on adding content, assets, using the DAM, now with Source we're changing training toward using views, testing, analyzing effectively for the right changes, not just here's a website off you go, need to think about training customers and working alongside them effectively. Opportunity to be more consultative than ever, if you create efficiencies within Source running agents to handle day to day elements that took long before, what's the next opportunity, having an ear to the ground for that industry, directing them right, more thought leadership influencing business direction, time saving plus opportunity for more consultative engagement. It's in our hands too to be part of the destiny of change inside companies, clients are very different groups, some super techie already connecting things themselves, some very early in their AI journey, for those we can be the partner setting things up together, they trust us already from long relationships, maybe they follow our process and we sell new services. Last question, and I hope you're not making me regret this since you've all been civilized, we've had spicier car park conversations, what challenges do you expect working with Source, not technical, more about where you're moving? Touched on this, with great power comes great responsibility, careful that clients and agencies use the product and agents effectively, one client pumping through AI output immediately without much thought, need to train clients and collaborators on using AI effectively, it's a junior team member needing direction, conversation, guidance, shouldn't just pull the first thing we see, but it helps speed up work, using it effectively matters for us and clients. Two things from me: first the product itself needs to be very good, right now a lot of marketing messaging, want to see if it's really good, second we need to talk about price and how these two things go together. What's the risk of a CEO going in and making changes to the .com site? There will be governance, but realistically that's a real risk, we've been on projects where a CEO redesigns something over the weekend on a napkin, stay away, best seagull management ever, but maybe that's a benefit, the world we're moving toward where everyone can jump in, websites are systems, we talked about localization and GDPR, big complex systems, Source makes it easier to access those systems, sometimes that could be a massive risk. On risk, a comprehensive system with huge new features and ways of operating, every agency will need considerable time understanding how elements work, a bit of fear of change, but perhaps a release model where it's limited so you can understand and learn aspects first before needing everything, a cleaner more comfortable way past that. Interesting takes, thank you for that, thank you for being civilized, wrapping up our session, thank you for genuine thoughts and insights into the European market as an agency and our latest releases, thank you for being here and listening. That's it from us, thanks.