WebflowConf 2022 Review

A few weeks ago, the tech world gathered for WebflowConf 2022, held at The Midway in San Francisco and streamed online. Among the attendees were members of the Outliant team, including founding partners Konrad Billetz, Austin Kueffner, Erwan Lent and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Marcus Jones. The event unveiled new updates and presented awards to notable companies, communities, and customers of Webflow. 

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This review was written by Fernando Comet, a Webflow Implementation Director at Outliant, who also attended the event, and whose expertise offers perspective on the newly-released features and what to expect from Webflow in the coming year.

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Features and Updates 

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From designers to developers, Webflow has something new for everyone. Here’s a breakdown of the updates announced at the conference: 

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Symbols are now Components

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Clearly oriented to frameworks like React and PWAs (Progressive Web Apps), these integrations will be really good for big projects, so you can now do a full atomic approach, just like on other web builders (Framer, for example).

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So, think bigger than just landing pages or small sites. Workflows are going to change for big projects. For instance, a company’s design team can build a design System, deploy it on Webflow for Designers/Developers to create components, and integrate them with React or other similar frameworks. 

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CMS Scaling

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This goes beyond 10,000 items, depending on your or your client’s plans. This update could potentially overtake other CMS limitations, like collections number on a page, number of items shown, and number of nested collections, which may go against performance. However, you can use Jetboost or Finsweet as a great alternative.

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Native multi-language support to come in 2023

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Many users wanted this, which made it number two on the Webflow Wishlist. This feature will have its cost, seeing as it was made with other features. It’s estimated that many international companies will take advantage of this update. For example, some Chinese sites are experiencing issues dealing with the big Firewall; this would be an excellent opportunity for this update to improve their web experience.

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Since brands like Linguana, Weglot, and Polyflow already run this feature, it seems there’s a market for all after all. A similar example is when Webflow introduced Memberships, while others including Wized, Memberstack, Outseta, etc. already existed.

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Ecommerce plans, Memberships, Logic

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There are new product limits on ecommerce plans. Memberships are now in open Beta, with increased limits, as is Logic Beta. While there is still no massive adaptation to these two features – since they are still in Beta – they are certainly here to stay. So there are high expectations to see and hear more about them next year.

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Variable Fonts

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This goes well with Code, adding an additional wow effect. 

Agency or Freelancer Guest roles

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As a new update coming later this month, this feature will be displayed on every page setting. This way, you can control who has access to different sites in your Workspace. 

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Page Branching

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 This is basically design in parallel with page branching. In simpler terms, Branching is a visual Github that solves problems regarding multitasking. For example, two developers can work on the same project simultaneously. 

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Webflow Marketplace

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There are five sections at Webflow Marketplace:

• Libraries
• Apps
• Experts with Matching feature 
• Templates
• Made in Webflow, which was already updated months ago
• New Creator Profiles.

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Webflow Developers

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As more developers come to Webflow, there will potentially be new profiles, like “Webflow App Developer.”

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There’s a new Webflow Developers Site with new documentation. In this update, you’ll find documentation, API info, Changelog, and resources like Tools, Forum, and Support.

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Webflow Awards

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To acknowledge the contributions of partners, communities, and individual customers, Webflow announced different categories of awardees, highlighting what makes them unique. 

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Partner Awards 

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Partner awards were given to Webflow partner companies that use Webflow to develop new products or optimize existing products for their clients. 

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• New Partner

Outliant won this year’s WebflowConf New Partner award for building excellent end-to-end services, ranging from simple business automation to full-scale software development and implementation. Our services are geared towards helping businesses reach their full potential, which is why we also revamped our own site on Webflow, to provide a seamless experience for our clients. 

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Other awardees of the partner award category include the following: 

• Agency of the Year: Edgar Allan 
• Enterprise Partner of the Year: Zabal Media 
• Professional Partner of the Year: Crafted Studios 
• Visual Aesthetic: Sequoia Arc by Edgar Allan
• Technical Achievement: Letter Run, also by Edgar Allan. 
• Template Designer of the Year: BRIX Templates

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Community Awards

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The community awards for this year’s WebflowConf focused on community contributions and influence at Webflow:

• Community Creator of the Year: The winner was Finsweet, and they were acknowledged for creating Attributes and Client-First for the Webflow community.
• Community MVP: Colleen Brady was acknowledged for her outstanding work in organizing CloneComp, the Global Open House, and State of Flow. 
• Rising Star: This was awarded to Josh Loh, the head of content and community at Relume.
• Community Educator of the Year: Timothy Ricks was recognized for his significant teachings on layout and interaction techniques.
• Community Leader of the Year: Melissa Mendez, a growth marketer, web developer, and founder of FlowParty is an inspiration to many.
• Cloneable — Visual Aesthetic: Ticketed (Tyler Hughey) won this category with his excellent cloneables.‍
• Cloneable — Technical Achievement: Refokus won this category for its advanced features for Rich Text at Webflow. 

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Customer Awards

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Some notable customers were acknowledged for their usage of Webflow:

• Microsite: Attentive Holiday Marketing Reboot 
• Rebrand: Yahoo Inc Corporate Site
• Business Impact: Headspace Health
• Meeting the Moment: TED Conferences
• Visual Aesthetic: Away F.A.R
• Technical Achievement: Wave

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It could be said that WebflowConf had better news for developers than for designers this year, but overall the conference was a great opportunity for the Webflow community to come together, recognize exciting achievements and talent, and get pumped for the future of Webflow. To learn even more about the conference, check out the WebflowConf Wrap-up.

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At Outliant, we’re passionate about taking your business to the next level. Our developers and designers, like Fernando Comet, are first-class Webflow experts who can integrate seamless process flows that make it easy for your customers to find you and improve your internal operations. Book a discovery call with our team today, and let’s start building!