Season 2 · Episode 5
Checkout Summit in Sicily: Bringing the WooCommerce Community Back with Rodolfo Melogli
In this episode of Within WordPress, I sit down with Rodolfo Melogli to talk about his path from growing Business Bloomer into one of the best-known WooCommerce resources to now launching Checkout Summit, a dedicated in-person WooCommerce conference in Palermo, Sicily, on April 23–24, 2026 After years without a WooCommerce-focused event since WooConf 2017, Checkout Summit feels like a big moment. Rodolfo explains why now is the right time, how AI has changed content-led growth, and why he is betting on something far more human: personal brand, real relationships, and community. We dig into the thinking behind the event, from its intentionally small size of just 150 attendees to the 12 carefully selected WooCommerce talks, practical breakout sessions, and all-inclusive format designed to keep people together and conversations flowing. The goal is simple: less conference chaos, more meaningful connections, better conversations, and real business outcomes. If you care about WooCommerce, events, community, and where growth is heading next, this episode is for you. There are still some tickets left at checkoutsummit.com. 00:00 Podcast Welcome Guest00:54 WooCommerce Origins 201101:42 Choosing Ecommerce Platforms02:50 From Rome To Ireland04:05 Life In Sicily Food Heat06:12 Roman Identity Accents07:37 International Clients Only11:14 Italy Business Reality14:57 WooCommerce Fork Story15:55 Why WooCommerce Clicked18:24 Blog Snippets Take Off20:08 AI Changes Content Game22:50 Viral Tech Fix Post24:07 Why Sicily Summit25:28 WooCommerce Events Gap27:05 Small Conference Vibe32:35 Building In Public36:39 Unique Event Format43:00 Tickets And Timing45:01 Speaker Selection Strategy49:21 Wrap Up And Links
About this episode
In this episode of Within WordPress, I sit down with Rodolfo Melogli to talk about his path from growing Business Bloomer into one of the best-known WooCommerce resources to now launching Checkout Summit, a dedicated in-person WooCommerce conference in Palermo, Sicily, on April 23–24, 2026 After years without a WooCommerce-focused event since WooConf 2017, Checkout Summit feels like a big moment. Rodolfo explains why now is the right time, how AI has changed content-led growth, and why he is betting on something far more human: personal brand, real relationships, and community. We dig into the thinking behind the event, from its intentionally small size of just 150 attendees to the 12 carefully selected WooCommerce talks, practical breakout sessions, and all-inclusive format designed to keep people together and conversations flowing. The goal is simple: less conference chaos, more meaningful connections, better conversations, and real business outcomes. If you care about WooCommerce, events, community, and where growth is heading next, this episode is for you. There are still some tickets left at checkoutsummit.com. 00:00 Podcast Welcome Guest00:54 WooCommerce Origins 201101:42 Choosing Ecommerce Platforms02:50 From Rome To Ireland04:05 Life In Sicily Food Heat06:12 Roman Identity Accents07:37 International Clients Only11:14 Italy Business Reality14:57 WooCommerce Fork Story15:55 Why WooCommerce Clicked18:24 Blog Snippets Take Off20:08 AI Changes Content Game22:50 Viral Tech Fix Post24:07 Why Sicily Summit25:28 WooCommerce Events Gap27:05 Small Conference Vibe32:35 Building In Public36:39 Unique Event Format43:00 Tickets And Timing45:01 Speaker Selection Strategy49:21 Wrap Up And Links
Transcript
Speaker A Welcome to Within WordPress, the podcast about people, people inside of WordPress, people outside of WordPress, and in this particular case, I have a guest who is not only inside of WordPress, but also very much inside of WooCommerce. Welcome, Rodolfo.
Speaker B Hello, Remkust. Thanks very much. Yeah, definitely. I would say I'm more inside WooCommerce than WordPress. Actually. I'm pretty. I put all my eggs in, you know, in one basket. So that's me since 2011ish, basically working exclusively on, you know, WooCommerce website. So, yeah, that's, that's basically what I've been doing for the last, what is it, 14 years?
Speaker A Yeah, yeah, 15 years.
Speaker B Yes.
Speaker A When did WooCommerce start being a thing? The Fork Fungico shop was 2011.
Speaker B Eleven. Yes.
Speaker A Yeah.
Speaker B So I came just a few months after, thoroughly, randomly, like I was doing my first websites for clients. I'm a, I'm a civil engineer. Nothing to do with it, nothing to do with development, nothing to do with websites. I just switched careers on stage and as I was searching for some e commerce solutions, you know, the ones that were available in 2011, early 12, I just picked WooCommerce out of the, out of the hat. So it was, if you want, you know, a lucky, A lucky decision.
Speaker A Yeah. There was three, three main ones. You had Shop with Double P, you had Jiggle Shop and then you had the fork that is now known as Google Commerce. I think there's more.
Speaker B Edd.
Speaker A Was EDD there?
Speaker B No, I think probably later at that time it was Magento against more or less woocommerce and there was some other, like open cards and all that kind of stuff. Maybe.
Speaker A Yeah. External stuff.
Speaker B Yeah, I was in between the two, maybe. Don't remember if even Joomla could handle E commerce, to be honest, but it could.
Speaker A It could.
Speaker B Yeah. Yeah. So I was trying to decide in between these three or four and then I said, oh, this looks cool. It's open source and you can customize. Comes with template. So of course I was buying templates on ThemeForest or whatever it was. Yeah, yeah, for the very beginning and, and the, you know, the, the websites were ready in a week. Just I had to wait for six months for the content. So that was the thing that I definitely didn't like about.
Speaker A Yeah, you, you have a. First of all, tell us a bit more where you're from, what you do day to day. Because we really jumped into WooCommerce really fast. But tell us a bit more about yourself.
Speaker B Yeah, so I am Italian, born in Rome, which everyone says it's a beautiful place, it's a beautiful city, which it is, but only if you don't live there. So as soon as I could, I escaped. So that was my after degree. I just found my first job in Ireland, so moved there in 2012, six or seven, and spent 11 years in Ireland as an engineer. And then in Ireland because there was loads happening from local entrepreneurs and chambers of commerce and stuff like that, I could really see the potential of working for yourself. And that's when I became a web developer. Well, with no development skills anyway. Let's say a web designer.
Speaker A Yeah, a web person.
Speaker B Mar. Exactly. So, yeah, that's the thing. Now I'm back to Italy, but moved back south because my wife is from Sicily, from Palermo. So of course, in between, you know, 0 degrees Ireland and 45 degrees Sicily, we picked Sicily. And then, you know, I had to, to make a choice. But, you know, it's not bad. Nice food, nice people.
Speaker A Yeah, you got that going for yourself. Nice food.
Speaker B Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, the, the, the, you know, Italians, they always chase good food. So I, I can say that the level is quite decent in here anyway. Wherever you go, it's, it's going to be good.
Speaker A Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've been going to Italy on vacation for. 26 years. 27 years.
Speaker B No very high standards then.
Speaker A Yes, yes, quite enjoy it to the point that I can see myself living there part time at some point.
Speaker B There you go. You're very welcome to join me.
Speaker A Well, 45 degrees, I can handle it. I've done it before. And for those who are living in freedom units, that's 110. If I have a choice, I'm not going to make that choice. So Abruzzo, that's from Abruzzo to let's say the Chianti region. Anywhere in that layer, still warm.
Speaker B Central.
Speaker A Yeah, a little more central. Yeah. I like Rome. Been there quite a few times. One time in an idiotic heat of 42, 43, never doing that again.
Speaker B Yeah, no, Rome is like. You see the difference between Sicily and the big city, like Rome is like, you know, in here we have the, the sea. Yep. The wind very close by. So the, the air is so different and there is like cold concrete and, you know, asphalt and you know, Rome.
Speaker A Side question. You say you're Italian and you are from Rome. Yes, I know a few people from Rome and they say they're Roman first, then Italian.
Speaker B Yeah, I, I kind of know that kind of people. Anyway. I wouldn't identify myself as a Roman, you know, we go and conquer the, the world, you know. But yeah, there are some funny people who are there. You know, I, I even, I don't have a strong Roman accent. So whenever I, I meet someone from Rome, like, I laugh because the, the accent is so familiar and so strong and I can't, like, I feel like I, I don't want to use it, you know, it's just, just too funny. But if you're familiar with maybe, you know, Scottish people like you, you, you know, it's fun just listening to them. But I feel like, you know, a Scott that doesn't want to use the Scottish accent because I feel I don't, it doesn't feel like me. So that, that's, that's a fair enough.
Speaker A That's what I, my, my friend Karim Maruki will, will make it very clear always, all the time that he is indeed Roman first, Italian second, third.
Speaker B Yes, fantastically.
Speaker A But yeah. So you live in Sicily. Does that mean your clientele is based
Speaker B in Sicily or 0% 00% Sicily and 0.5% Italy anyhow, anyway, so. Yeah, it's always been like that since the very beginning. Like my clientele was international and in Italy, you know, that like there's not a lot of, a lot of money effect going and going around. We put them in the, in the wrong places and we, we buy the wrong, the, you know, the wrong things. Definitely business. Not doing business locally is really, really hard, especially in Sicily where, you know, 80% of the regional income comes from tourism.
Speaker A Yeah.
Speaker B So, you know, these would be the perfect place. I mean, if, if I were, you know, a local counselor, like I would do like structures and buildings and investments for digital nomads. Like, this is the perfect place.
Speaker A Yeah.
Speaker B Like, you had the food, the, the sea, you can ski on the volcano, you can, you know, kite surf on, you know, on a very nice place by the sea. You can, you have the hills, you have the lakes, you have to, I mean everything, the cities, the history, the islands and like for digital, nobody would be perfect. You know, every day you can change plates and you can enjoy different things. And if only we had super fast Internet then, you know, if only we had, you know, some investments and loads of co. Working spaces and you know, stuff like that. It would really work. So why not maybe in the next 30 years.