Despite the jetlag and haziness from a 25-hour flight, I was hugely excited to be able to attend Sitecore Symposium 2018, hosted in Orlando, Florida (especially after the high standards set by last year’s Symposium in Vegas). This year marked my seventh Sitecore Symposium (previously known as Dreamcore, pre-2014), which I suppose officially makes me a Symposium veteran!
So, what’s new in 2018? Here’s my Symposium 2018 diary…
It’s all about the CEO keynote and Mark Frost doesn’t disappoint, with a series of announcements about the vision of the company, partnerships with Salesforce, advances in headless and a universal tracking feature called Sitecore Omni. Finally, comes the announcement about the acquisition we’ve all been waiting for: a Digital Asset Management System. Stylelabs a SaaS-based product offering DAM and a slick interface for content planning, regardless of whether you’re working agile or waterfall. We hear some great case studies from Volvo and Cannondale and then move into more specialised breakouts sessions. A big first day!
Inspiration overload – but can you ever be too inspired? We see some amazing examples of people changing the world. From a campaign raising money or children with serious illnesses, which is on track to raise more money than any other campaign before in the health industry, to a Los Angeles-based philanthropist, Mick Ebeling, who created an organisation called Not Impossible and is changing the world one individual at a time. Food for thought!
Switch wins the award for fastest time to market for Dexus. What an honour to be presented with this award and what a great way to finish off the day’s presentations and kick off the evening’s activities in Disney World (and what a treat to have Universal Studios closed off for Symposium delegates only!). Thank you Sitecore!
More great speakers and inspiring talks. The breakouts were excellent and thank you for those partners and customers who shared their stories and experiences with the community - hugely valuable! I hope to be on stage next year sharing some amazing stories from our team with the launch of Ricoh, Yamaha and more to come!
The next day and a half were all about getting under the hood of the latest and greatest minds in the Sitecore community while bonding with friends and fellow MVPs. I’ll admit, this is my favourite part of Symposium as it gives us MVPs a priceless opportunity to spend time with the product team and ask them the hard questions. The product team members are true sports and, despite being understandably exhausted by day three, push on through regardless, on top form. Thank you Sitecore for supporting the MVP community and keeping it growing!
Another 25 hour flight back to Sydney to install 9.1!
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