GoDaddy Pro Will Kick off 2-Day Expand Event on April 27

GoDaddy Pro is launching its first virtual Expand event on April 27. The free-to-attend conference will focus on web professionals and will last until April 28.

In February, GoDaddy re-launched GoDaddy Pro as a formal sub-brand of the company. The “Pro” branding was not a new outing. However, it was a fresh take on an old idea. As part of this launch, they introduced a re-engineered interface named the Hub. The experience was geared toward website designers and developers, providing them with a central location to manage their client projects. More than simply a new set of tools, the company created a dedicated branding experience for GoDaddy Pro.

“We are committed to, passionate about, and truly in awe of web designers and developers,” said Adam Warner, the Global Field Marketing Sr. Manager at GoDaddy. “It has been a pleasure supporting this audience, but it’s now our mission to up the ante and deepen our commitment. Our goal with GoDaddy Pro is to empower web pros with a unified tool that helps them create outsize efficiency for their operation, deliver incredible results for their clients, grow their skills and operation, and connect and inspire by fostering community.”

The Expand 2021 event is a continuation of that goal. The target audience is described as “web designers and developers who identify as eager side hustlers or website freelancers.” The conference’s sessions are meant to provide instructions, resources, and connections to help developers grow their businesses.

The event will begin with an opening keynote from GoDaddy’s Aman Bhutani, the CEO; Tara Wellington, the Senior Director of Product Management; and Warner. It will feature eight sessions, split evenly between each day. The event’s schedule will fit into a small window between 10 am and 12:30 pm Pacific Time on both days.

By some conference standards, even virtual ones, this may seem like a small event. However, the tighter focus could be a welcome one for people suffering from online event fatigue. Each session is scheduled to last around 30 minutes.

The sessions will focus on a wide span of topics like client management, eCommerce, creating a project starter stack, website security, and scaling a freelance business with care plans.

The History Behind GoDaddy Pro Expand

Spearheading the first Expand conference, Warner avoided talking about target audiences, performance indicators, or budgetary concerns in an internal memo sent throughout GoDaddy. The effort is about creating a series of GoDaddy Pro Expand events globally in the coming months and years that help the community.

The idea for a conference had been in the making since 2018. Warner described the purpose of GoDaddy Pro, Expand 2021, and meetups as empowering and inspiring the next generation of web designers and developers to deliver for their clients and create self-sustaining freelance businesses.

Expand 2021 is, in some way, my Opus for giving back to the community that raised me and giving the new generation a head start in following their own passions. It’s the culmination of my years exploring and creating on the internet. My first time on the internet was in 1993. I was in my third year of college, working at Hungry Howie’s Pizza in small-town Michigan. A co-worker had some of us to her house, and her boyfriend logged us on to a Bulletin Board System (BBS). We chatted in a dull, orange text late into the night to people around the world.

I was amazed then, and that sense of wonder and possibility stayed with me as I started to learn HTML and build simple websites a few years later. Then came my discovery of WordPress in early 2005 and the incredible global community of users willing to lift each other up for collective success.

It was at that moment, I knew I had to find a way to make websites and WordPress my career.

Now, 28 years later, Warner is taking the next step in organizing his first event from scratch along with over 40 others. He wanted to build a conference that was devoid of “talking heads touting theoretical advice.” Instead, to offer an experience with actionable knowledge that web professionals can use immediately.

“The real purpose of Expand 2021 is to ‘pay it forward’ by advising and inspiring the next generation of web designers and developers, enabling them to take the next steps in their paths,” said Warner.