We’re heading to Onederland!

Optimizely’s Opticon 2024 is just around the corner. The three-day annual event is a can’t-miss for anyone in the Optimizely community. With countless breakout sessions, ample networking opportunities, hands-on workshops, inspiring keynotes, and an iconic closing celebration, Opticon promises to deliver something for everyone.

This year’s event will take place November 18 – 20 in San Antonio, Texas. Let’s dive into what you can expect from this year’s conference.

What is Opticon?

Opticon is Optimizely’s biggest event of the year. Hundreds of brands, marketers, technologists, and visionaries come together for networking, innovation-driven sessions, and exciting new announcements about the future of Optimizely. This year, Opticon is hitting the road, stopping in Stockholm, London, and finally San Antonio.

There are two ways to attend Opticon: in-person or online. Both are free of charge for attendees, including customers.

Opticon 2024 Agenda Highlights

Welcome Reception

Monday, November 18 | 4:00 – 6:00 PM

Opticon Opening Keynote

Tuesday, November 19 | 9:00 – 10:30 AM

Closing Celebration

Wednesday, November 20 | 5:30 – 10:00 PM

This year’s closing celebration will take place at Knibbe Ranch.

Meet Our Team at Opticon

Our team of Optimizely experts is excited to be on-site at Opticon 2024.

John Dymond, Portfolio Specialist, is no stranger to attending Opticon. “I can’t wait for Opticon this year. I feel that the Optimizely One story is really starting to come together in a way that clients can envision it solving more of their challenges,” John said. “I’m most looking forward to seeing the evolution of their SaaS products and how that is shaping the future of the Optimizely platform as a whole.”

Learn more about our team and get connected!

• Art Quinn, General Manager | Connect with Art
• David Lewis, Director and Optimizely MVP | Connect with David
• Jon Bisbing, Portfolio Specialist | Connect with Jon
• John Dymond, Portfolio Specialist and Optimizely MVP | Connect with John
• Kathryn Bogen, DXP Sr. Manager | Connect with Kathryn

Our Expertise

Perficient is an award-winning Optimizely Premier Platinum Partner with specializations in Content Cloud, Commerce, and Intelligence Cloud. With years of experience and hundreds of successful projects under our belt, we’re ready to help you take control of the customer experience using one robust, modular, powerful intelligence platform.

Stop by and see us at booth #11! See you in San Antonio!

Welcome to my recap of Sitecore Symposium 2024! The week continued with numerous insightful sessions, informative workshops, and exciting new announcements. Here are my session notes and takeaways from the final day at Symposium, day three.

Opening Keynote

Opening keynote with Brendan Hunt

The morning kicked off on a high note with a special guest appearance by Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on Ted Lasso. Though I haven’t watched the show myself—there are simply too many good ones to keep up with —I still found his insights engaging and relevant. He shared valuable lessons that resonate in both work and life, without needing to be star-struck to appreciate them.

• How to make work not suck
  • Connect with co-workers.
  • Surprise your co-workers.
  • Make today different than yesterday.
    • Don’t fall into the trap of the mundane.
  • Be curious, not judgmental.
    • People have lots of things going on that might not be apparent or shared with you.
  • Don’t let the wisdom of age be wasted on you.
    • Use the knowledge that you have gained.
    • This is the opposite of youth is wasted on the young.

CDP and Personalize at Scale

CDP and Personalize at Scale session

Personalization at scale holds immense potential for boosting revenue, and companies that successfully tackle the challenges of scaling personalization will gain a competitive edge. In today’s market, can your business afford not to invest in personalization? While personalization can drive growth, it comes with its own set of challenges—overcoming these will set industry leaders apart from the rest.

• Challenges faced by marketers
  • Creating the right content.
  • Creating enough content.
  • Creating quality content.
  • Technical skills to create content.
  • Understanding what the customer wants/needs.
• Data
  • Ensuring you have the data you need to personalize.
    • Data is often trapped in multiple disconnected systems.
  • Distribution
    • Coordination between channels to ensure a consistent customer experience and messaging.
  • Scaling
    • Content reuse
      • Integrate Sitecore Search to surface existing content.
    • Generative AI
      • Content creation and revision.

XM Cloud Roadmap

The benefit of a SaaS-based product like XM Cloud is that it is being continuously updated. Best of all you get the updates without having to upgrade. XM Cloud has numerous new features coming to the platform.

• Present
  • A/B Testing
  • Marketer’s Dashboard
  • Sitecore Stream content optimization
• Next
  • Updates to Pages
  • Component level personalization
  • Component Library
  • Sitecore Stream brand assistant
• Future
  • Generative AI component builder
  • Embedded Search

Sitecore Lunch

Lunch with friends in the Sitecore community

What a great way to end a great week! An in-person Sitecore lunch started as two tables and then grew to four, six, and eight tables with almost 40 people. This shows the real power of the Sitecore community because although we might work for different companies and be considered “competition”, we can still be friends and discuss Sitecore without boundaries. With my Perficient colleagues, it’s so nice to sit around a physical table with everyone that I normally see every week in little boxes on a Zoom call.

That’s a wrap!

Sitecore Symposium 2024 is over, but there is so much to look forward to in the world of Sitecore over the next year. I’m thrilled about the upcoming changes in CDP, Personalize, and Search with unified tracking, as well as the potential of Sitecore Stream for AI-driven insights, content creation, and brand-aware marketing support. I’m also looking forward to the Sitecore Marketplace, where we can build apps and expand the capabilities of XM Cloud. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d love to chat and hear more about what Sitecore news you are most excited about.

Nashville here we come!

Sitecore Symposium is just around the corner and it promises to be one of the most impactful events of the year. Whether you’re a Symposium pro or a first-timer, this conference offers unparalleled opportunities to learn, connect, and grow. Here’s everything you need to know about Sitecore Symposium 2024 and what to expect from team Perficient.

What is Sitecore Symposium?

Sitecore Symposium is Sitecore’s biggest event of the year. This year, the conference will take place October 15-18 at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Thousands of brands, marketers, technologists, and digital visionaries come together for three days of top-notch networking, inspiring success stories, innovation-driven sessions, and more.

Perficient’s Presence at Symposium 2024  

Perficient is thrilled to be a sponsor at Sitecore Symposium 2024. Our team is ecstatic to meet you and discuss your Sitecore needs.

While at Symposium, we invite you to stop by our booth and donate to the American Cancer Society to fund cancer research, education, advocacy, and patient and family services. For every chip deposited into the box, Perficient will donate $5 to the American Cancer Society. Help us pay it forward to build a better world.

After stopping by our booth, we encourage you to join our sessions and spend part of your day hearing from our experts.

Wednesday, October 16 | 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Is AI Bias the New Elephant in the Room?

Description: Join Perficient’s Megan Jensen, portfolio specialist, and other leading women of Sitecore as they explore strategies for fostering equitable AI. From tackling biases ingrained in data and algorithms to shaping ethical frameworks, our panel delves into actionable approaches for creating AI that reflects and serves diverse global communities. Discover insights on team diversity, ethical integration, and the importance of addressing biases to empower marginalized groups. Let’s ensure AI benefits society ethically and inclusively!

Wednesday, October 16 | 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM

SEO, GEO, SGE, and Beyond the Horizon: Using AI to Boost Page Rank, Site Performance, and Conversions

Description: In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, one goal remains consistent for every website: to reach and maintain the highest position possible in search engine results. But how can you ensure your site is set up to beat the algorithm game when the rules are constantly changing? Perficient’s Tiffany Laster, senior digital strategist, and Megan Jensen, portfolio specialist, will cover how AI is changing everything we thought we knew about SEO, what you need to change about your SEO right now, and how to prepare for what’s on the horizon.

Thursday, October 17 | 2:15 PM – 2:45 PM

Revolutionizing the Digital Healthcare Experience: A Panel on DXP Modernization

Description: Join Perficient’s Stephen Tynes, national Sitecore sales advisor and Mark Ursino, director, Sitecore, and marketing leaders from Emory Healthcare and Encompass Health as they share their experiences with modernizing their MarTech stacks from on-premises to PaaS and SaaS solutions. From building a roadmap with pragmatic project sequencing to connecting patient-focused platforms while ensuring HIPAA compliance, they’ll share how Sitecore and Perficient helped modernize their approach to digital experience and go beyond the concept of a “digital front door” to meet their patients’ increasing demands.

Getting Registered

If you haven’t yet made the decision to attend Sitecore Symposium, here are some compelling reasons to help you justify your trip. Symposium is the largest gathering of the global Sitecore community. This is the perfect opportunity to network and build relationships with like-minded individuals.

To register, visit the official conference registration page. General conference passes start at $1,849 and will be raised to $2,049 starting October 1.

Your pass includes:

• Mainstage keynotes and product roadmap
• Celebrity and guest keynotes
• Breakout sessions
• Customer showcases
• Access to the Solutions Pavilion
• Product demos with experts
• Theater sessions
• Welcome reception and happy hour
• Symposium’s exclusive party
• Lunch and refreshments
• And more!

Our Expertise

As a Sitecore partner, we have designed, implemented, and delivered many enterprise-level sites powered by Sitecore Experience Platform. We know how to get the most out of this versatile digital experience platform and create highly effective and personalized experiences for your customers. Perficient has the right solution for you and we can’t wait to talk more at Symposium.

The Power Platform Community Conference 2024 in Las Vegas is fast approaching, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most impactful events of the year for anyone involved in digital transformation. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started with Microsoft’s Power Platform, this conference offers unparalleled opportunities to learn, connect, and grow. At Perficient, we’re excited to share our expertise, showcase our success stories, and connect with you to explore how we can help you maximize your Power Platform investment. Here’s everything you need to know to make the most of this conference, from what to expect to why you should engage with Perficient.

What is the Power Platform Community Conference?

The Power Platform Community Conference (PPCC) is the premier event for professionals who use or are interested in Microsoft’s Power Platform. This annual gathering brings together thousands of developers, business leaders, and technology enthusiasts from around the world to explore the latest trends, tools, and best practices in Power Platform. PPCC 2024 is set to showcase cutting-edge AI innovations, building on the success of previous years. It offers more than 150 sessions and keynotes, along with 20 hands-on workshops, and opportunities to connect with and gain insights from Microsoft thought leaders, product experts and developers, MVPs, and peers.

Key Takeaways from Last Year’s Conference

The 2nd annual Power Platform Community Conference in 2023 was a major success, highlighting the growing momentum behind low-code development. Some key takeaways include:

• Low-Code Momentum: The 2023 conference underscored the rapid expansion of the low-code market, with Power Platform playing a central role in enabling organizations to innovate quickly and efficiently.
• AI-Powered Solutions: There was a significant focus on integrating AI with Power Platform, particularly through tools like AI Builder and Power Automate. These advancements are helping organizations automate more complex tasks, driving efficiency, and reducing manual work.
• Community and Collaboration: The strength of the Power Platform community was a key theme, with thousands of professionals collaborating to share insights, solutions, and best practices.

What’s New for the 2024 Conference?

The 2024 conference will build on these themes, with an even stronger focus on AI-driven innovation. Microsoft plans to unveil several new AI features designed to help users automate more complex tasks and gain deeper insights from their data. The conference will highlight how generative AI advancements can be integrated seamlessly with existing Power Platform solutions to enhance productivity and efficiency.

This year, you can expect:

• Showcasing AI Innovations: New AI capabilities in Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Power BI, and AI Builder that simplify the implementation of intelligent automation and analytics solutions.
• Hands-On Labs and Networking: Continued opportunities to engage directly with the technology through hands-on labs and to connect with other professionals and experts in the field.
• Expert-Led Sessions: Sessions led by industry experts focused on how AI is transforming the approach to digital transformation.

For more details on what to expect from this year’s conference, check out Microsoft’s announcement here.

Getting Registered

To register for the Power Platform Community Conference, visit the official conference registration page. Full conference passes start at $1,849 and will be raised to $1,899 after August 27^th. You can add on one, two, or three full-day workshops for additional costs.

Once registered, take some time to plan your conference experience by reviewing the agenda and identifying which sessions align with your current projects or areas of interest.

Why Perficient Leads in Power Platform Solutions

At Perficient, our passion for Power Platform stems from its transformative impact across various industries. We’ve developed a proven track record, backed by 30+ certified experts and over 50 successful enterprise projects, delivering tangible results for our clients. Whether it’s implementing a Center of Excellence (COE) for a global auto manufacturer or building an automation program for a healthcare provider, our diverse industry experience allows us to craft tailored solutions that address unique business challenges.

We understand that every organization is at a different stage of its Power Platform journey. Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize, our solutions and workshops are designed to align with your organization’s maturity level, ensuring you maximize your Power Platform investment.

Why Talk to Us at PPCC24

1. Custom Solutions for Unique Challenges: We tailor our Power Platform solutions to meet your specific business needs, from app development to automation and data analytics.
2. Deep Industry Insights: Our extensive experience across industries equips us with the insights needed to leverage Power Platform for addressing sector-specific challenges.
3. Commitment to Long-Term Success: Beyond implementation, we offer ongoing support, maintenance, and optimization to ensure your Power Platform environment continues to deliver value as your business grows.

By connecting with Perficient at PPCC24, you’re not just getting a solution; you’re gaining a partner committed to your success.

We’re looking forward to the Power Platform Community Conference and hope to see you there. Be sure to visit us at booth #134, where you can learn more about our success stories, discuss your specific challenges, and discover how Perficient can help you harness the full potential of Power Platform. Let’s work together to turn your vision into reality.

For more information about our Power Platform capabilities, visit Perficient’s Power Platform page.