With Sitecore Symposium 2017 about to kick off, the excitement is building. Everyone and anyone that has ever touched Sitecore knows about the Symposium. If you haven’t then you are probably only starting out or have recently been introduced to Sitecore.
So whats the big deal? You might ask!!
Well, it’s a probably a bit like what the Oscars are to the Film industry except instead of red carpet we have a red logo that’s instantaneously recognizable. You won’t see any of Hollywood’s celebrities here either… Erm, actually that’s not entirely true!! This year we will be joined by Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker who will be sharing an insight on playing his famous Star Wars character, and more recently the Joker, also his career as a voice actor and how he managed to establish a whopping 2 million followers on social media. Okay, so Mark may be the exception if that are other celebs I don’t think you’ll be that interested!! That’s because the Symposium attracts people in a completely different league. These are some of the greatest minds and thinkers in business, marketing, and the technology industry today.
People from some of the worlds leading companies, who are utilizing Sitecore Experience Platform to help promote and build an online presence.
It attracts Sitecore Partners from across the globe, the implementation and technology specialists who help the Sitecore customer’s dreams become a reality.
So why are we gathering?
We share a similar Passion whether it’s for the Sitecore Experience platform itself or the end goal of what it can achieve. The Symposium offers a great opportunity to learn about the upcoming release and exciting new features it has to offer.
We’ll hear about and share our experiences of how it’s been used and any tools, tips, and tricks that when put into practice help ensure we get the most from the platform.
It’s about connecting with people
Sitecore has such a rich community of professional people who do so much to help cultivate an online environment where experiences and insights are shared. When I first started out as a Sitecore developer this really set it apart from other CMS platforms I had used. I’m excited to be able to put some faces to twitter handles @adc_sitecore, @AgileStCyr, @Alexshyba, @briancaos, @DanSolovay, @jammykam, @Kamsar, @KayeeNL, @markstiles, @MichaelWest101, @mikeedward82, @Seanholmesby, @tbraga01. This is just a handful of the contributors and there are many more who have helped me along the Sitecore path of discovery.
Spending time with customers, sharing in their excitement of what the future of Sitecore means for their business and how we can help them implement those new features.
Meeting the technology partners that help deliver solutions for our customers. Technology partners like Coveo, Digizuite and uCommerce.
Catching up with friends and colleagues you’ve not seen in a while over a cold beer!!!
You might even see some well known Sitecore legends or rockstars you might feel the urge to try and snap a quick #SitecoreSelfie:
- Mark Frost – Sitecore CEO & Opening Keynote speaker.
- Scott Anderson, Sitecore CMO & Opening Keynote speaker.
- Michael Siefort, Sitecore Board Member.
- Lars Fløe Nielsen – Co-founder Sitecore & board member.
- Marissa Dresnek – Sitecore Senior Manager Strategic Events.
- Stephen Pope – Senior Software Architect on the Sitecore Product Team.
- Martina Welander – Programmer Writer and developer evangelist at Sitecore.
- Thomas Eldblom – Technical Product Marketing Manager at Sitecore and principal Helix and Habitat architect.
- Andy Uzick one of the very first Sitecore MVPs.
- Mike Reynolds – circumventing the globe one #SitecoreScrum at a time sharing his Sitecore knowledge.
- Akshay Sura – because everybody would like to be his friend.
- Jakob Christensen aka the @TheRocksGuy for making our Visual Studio & Sitecore more productive.
- The forgetting the long list of Community Friend Award applicants.
- @Sitecorepillow – at some point you need to lay your head down and rest.
What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas!!
The excitement will be hard to contain. Everyone will want to share it with their colleagues and friends that couldn’t make it. Throughout the Symposium and afterwards there will be a plethora of Sitecore feature updates hitting the social media channels from tweets, blogs, Sitecore Stack Exchange and Sitecore Slack. Stay tuned.
When the lights are turned off and the door closes on that last presentation and we all go home, we will take that excitement with us and a renewed sense of what the future holds for our Sitecore implementations.
We will leave with some new friends and strengthened working relationships.
Let’s do this!!
Neil Killen 