A new, merchant-first event is coming, and it is free
The Magento and Adobe Commerce ecosystem has no shortage of conferences, but most are built around vendor showcases, partner pitches, and developer deep-dives. Merchants, the people actually running stores, often come away with a stack of business cards and not much they can action on Monday morning.
Mage Camp is designed to fix that. It is a brand-new, one-day event on 14 October 2026 in Manchester, co-organised by five Adobe Commerce agencies, including us at On Tap, and operated not-for-profit through Mage Camp CIC. As the Mage Camp website states: "Every session is designed to help you build a better eCommerce business, not sell you another service." Merchant tickets are free. There are no product demos and no sales pitches. If you run a Magento or Adobe Commerce store, this is worth your attention.
What this means in plain English
Mage Camp is a single-day, two-track conference held at Sister, Renold Building, Manchester on 14 October 2026. It is co-organised by PushON, GENE, Foundation Commerce, Monsoon Consulting, and On Tap, all established Adobe Commerce agencies in the UK.
The event is structured around five practical themes:
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Growth and acquisition: driving more qualified traffic to your store.
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Conversion optimisation: turning browsers into buyers.
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Customer retention: increasing lifetime value and repeat purchase rates.
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AI and emerging technology: what is actually useful now versus what is hype.
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Real case studies and lived experience: merchants and specialists sharing what they have actually done, with real numbers.
The organisers are running an open call for speakers, so the agenda will be shaped by practitioners with hands-on experience, not by whoever paid for a speaking slot.
The key details:
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Date: 14 October 2026
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Location: Sister, Renold Building, Manchester (step-free access; add access needs to your profile when you register)
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Merchant tickets: free, register here
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Non-merchant tickets: £50 for agencies, vendors, and freelancers
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Format: one day, two tracks, practical talks, no sales pitches
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Organiser: Mage Camp CIC (not-for-profit)
The playbook
Here is exactly what to do to get maximum value from Mage Camp, whether you attend or not.
Secure your free ticket now (~5 minutes)
Go to mage.camp/tickets and register. Merchant tickets are free, but capacity at the Renold Building is finite. Do not wait for the full speaker line-up. Lock in your spot and adjust later if needed. If you need to bring a colleague from marketing, trading, or technology, register them too.
Get internal buy-in early (~30 minutes)
If you need sign-off from a manager or budget holder (even for travel and time out of the office), do it now while the event is months away and diaries are open. Mage Camp has a dedicated "Convince Your Boss" page that you can forward directly. It frames attendance around tangible outputs such as a better growth backlog, sharper platform decisions, and practical trading improvements. Use it.
Audit your current growth bottlenecks before you go (~2 to 3 hours)
Mage Camp's agenda covers acquisition, conversion, retention, and AI. Before the event, spend time identifying which of these is your biggest constraint right now. Pull your GA4 data, review your funnel drop-off points, check your repeat purchase rate, and note where you are stuck. Arriving with a clear "top three problems" list means you will know exactly which sessions to prioritise and which speakers to approach afterwards.
Prepare specific questions for each session theme (~1 hour)
Write down two or three concrete questions per topic area. For example:
Growth: "We are spending £X on PPC, but our ROAS has dropped 20%. What channel mix are other merchants seeing success with?"
Conversion: "Our add-to-cart rate is 8% but checkout completion is only 40%. What is a realistic target?"
Retention: "We have never run a post-purchase email flow. Where do we start?"
AI: "We want to use AI for product recommendations but do not know what is real and what is vapourware."
These questions turn passive listening into active problem-solving.
Consider submitting a talk (~1 to 2 hours)
The call for speakers is open. Suppose you have done something interesting on your store, a migration, a conversion uplift project, a retention strategy that worked, consider submitting. Merchant-led talks are the most valuable sessions at any conference, and preparing a talk forces you to crystallise what you have learned. You do not need to be a polished public speaker. You need a real story with real numbers.
Plan your travel and logistics (~30 minutes)
Manchester is well connected by rail and air. Sister, Renold Building is in the city centre, walkable from Manchester Piccadilly station. As the Mage Camp travel page confirms, hotel partner booking links will be added as they are confirmed. Book trains or hotels early. October is a busy conference month, and prices climb.
Set up a post-event action framework (~1 hour)
Before you go, create a simple template: for each session you attend, capture the one thing you will implement, who owns it, and by when. The organisers have designed the event, so you leave with ideas you can act on the next day, but only if you have built the habit of capturing them. A shared Google Doc or Notion page works fine.
Follow up within 48 hours of the event (~2 hours)
After the event, block two hours to consolidate your notes, share key takeaways with your team, and prioritise the actions you captured. Connect with speakers and fellow merchants on LinkedIn while the conversations are fresh. The value of any event decays fast if you do not act on it.
Common pitfalls
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Treating it as a day off: Free ticket, nice venue, Manchester. It is tempting to coast. Merchants who get the most from events like this arrive with specific problems to solve and leave with specific actions to take. Do the prep work outlined above.
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Only sending developers: Mage Camp is explicitly a growth event for merchants, not a dev conference. Send the people who own your P&L, your marketing, or your eCommerce trading. Developers are welcome, but they should not be your only representatives.
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Not booking early enough: The event is free for merchants, which means demand will be high and capacity is limited. Do not assume you can register the week before and get a spot.
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Failing to act on what you learn: The single biggest waste at any conference is coming home inspired and then doing nothing. Use the post-event action framework from Step 7 to convert insight into implementation.
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Ignoring the networking: The sessions are valuable, but the conversations between sessions, with other merchants facing similar challenges, are often where the real breakthroughs happen. Do not spend breaks checking your phone.
About On Tap
On Tap is a growth-focused eCommerce consultancy and proud co-organiser of Mage Camp alongside GENE, Foundation Commerce, Monsoon Consulting, and PushON. If you are attending and want to discuss your Adobe Commerce growth challenges before, during, or after the event, we would welcome the conversation.
Get in touch to build the action plan that turns a good day out into measurable results.
