It’s Sitecore Symposium this week and It’s going to be a bit different this year. I attend Symposium in the USA most years and I’d usually be boarding a plane about now, this year (if it wasn’t for COVID-19) I’d be heading to Chicago. Instead the entire conference is Digital.
This means unfortunately I won’t get to catch-up with others in the Sitecore Community in person or get to do a bit of travelling which is a shame.
However there are some benefits though (other than it being a whole lot cheaper) which is that there a a lot of on-demand and breakout sessions which (if you purchase an all-access pass like I have) I believe you can access after the event. So unlike in the real-world you can catch up on sessions you’ve missed, in-light of this I’ve sometimes selected more than one clashing session.
An additional benefit I guess you’ll probably not have a hangover for those early Morning sessions either :-).
Anyway I’m looking forward to Sym and thought I’d share the sessions I’m playing on attending and why. You can find the full agenda here.
Day 1 – Tue 27th
» 10:20 – 10:50am (CDT) – Sitecore business update with CEO Steve Tzikakis
Steve Tzikakis – Chief Executive Officer – Sitecore
– This is the first opportunity to listen to Sitecore’s now CEO. I’m looking forward to hearing what Steve has to say and his plans for the future.
» 11:45am – 12:45pm (CDT) – Influencer Roundtable with Microsoft: Integrating AI into your existing digital marketing strategy
Colin Wright – Director Strategy – Microsoft
Jonathan Weindel – Advanced Analytics Manager – Microsoft
Wina Wichienwidhtaya – MarTech Strategist – Microsoft Corporation
– I’m interested in seeing how other Sitecore customers are using AI and gaining further insights from Microsoft.
» 12:50 – 1:15pm (CDT) – Premium general session: The Road to Product Innovation
Desta Price – EVP Product Management – Sitecore
Tom De Ridder – Chief Technology Officer – Sitecore
– This is an all-access pass session and looks like it will give some insight into Sitecore’s plans for the future as well as the latest innovation’s in Sitecore 10.
» 1:45 – 2:15pm (CDT) – Serialize your way to success
Charlie Turano – Product Manager – Sitecore
– I’ve installed Sitecore 10 and experimented with the new Seralization features but I’m looking forward to learning more about it.
OR
» 1:45 – 2:15pm (CDT) – 2020 and beyond: Integrating Sitecore with emerging technologies to wow your customers
Brian Henderson – Sitecore Architect – XCentium
Julia Gavrilova – Technical Director – XCentium
– Using Sitecore to power and Personalise 3D and AR technology sounds pretty cool to me so I’m intrigued to find out more.
» 2:20—2:50pm (CDT) – Real-time personalization in a true omnichannel world using JSS and Azure
Bas Lijten – Principal Architect – Achmea
– This sounds like an interesting approach and use of some of Sitecore’s newer features to fulfil some complex requirements.
» 3:10 – 3:40pm (CDT) – Containers & AKS: Taking Sitecore 10 to the next level
Bart Plasmeijer – Senior Software Architect – Sitecore
Rob Earlam – Technical Evangelist – Sitecore
– I’ve played around with the Docker examples for Sitecore 10 and have been impressed how quick and easy it is to spin up a development instance with Docker. I’m looking forward to hearing more and seeing how AKS can be used with Sitecore.
OR
» 3:10 – 3:40pm (CDT) – Content as a Service: A preview
Alistair Deneys – System Architect – Sitecore
Andy Cohen – System Architect – Sitecore
– I’m always keen to learn more about new Sitecore features so this session regarding Content as a Service (CaaS) should be interesting.
OR
» 3:10 – 3:40pm (CDT) – Insufficient facts always invite danger, Captain!
Neil Killen – Technical Director – Valtech
– Monitoring and performance of Containerized environments is all new to me so I’m looking forward to learning more about this.
DAY 2 – Wed 28th
» 12:05 – 12:35pm (CDT) – Data privacy and Sitecore
Rob Habraken – CTO – We are you
– GDPR is tricky subject so I’m going to drop in on this session to make sure I understand all the touch-points to consider in Sitecore for the right to be forgotten.
» 12:40 – 1:10pm (CDT) – Sitecore AI: Auto Personalization Standard for Sitecore 10
Marcos Guimaraes – VP, Chief Data Scientist – Sitecore
Nancy Lee – Principal Product Manager – Sitecore
– I’ve not really seen the Auto Personalisation in Sitecore 10 in action so I’m interested in learning more about this.
OR
» 12:40—1:10pm (CDT) – How to develop with the new ASP.NET Core rendering SDK
Nick Wesselman – PM, Developer Experience – Sitecore
Oleg Jytnik – Technical Lead – Sitecore
– I’ve been experimenting with the new ASP.NET Core rending SDK using the examples on https://doc.sitecore.com, but I’ve got a lot to learn still so I’m really looking forward to this session.
~ At this juncture I might do some yoga…no your right I probably won’t. I’ll likely just go and see if we’ve got any more biscuits in the cupboard instead. I’m just checking you’re still awake :-). ~
» 1.30 – 2.00PM (CDT) – Content Orchestration: A symphony between Content HUB and Sitecore XP using Content Hub Connector
Akshay Sura – Lead Platform Architect – Konabos Consulting
Sumith Damodaran – Sr. Product Manager – Sitecore
– Fellow MVP Akshay has been doing a lot with Content Hub over the past few months so it will be great to learn more about Content Hub and Content Hub Connector.
OR
» 1:30—2:00pm (CDT) – Choosing the right option for building your Helix solutions
Shelley Benhoff – Lead Developer and Author – The Berndt Group
– Shelly has written some great Pluralsight courses so this session is bound to be informative.
» 2:45—3:45pm (CDT) – Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning / Closing remarks with Paige
Leslie Odom Jr – Tony and Grammy Award-Winning Performer
Paige O’Neill – CMO – Sitecore
– The closing session of Symposium should be interesting and entertaining too.
On Demand
On top of all the live content there is a heap of On-Demand content too, I’m planning on watching some additional sessions on SOLR, SXA, Kubernetes, Content Hub, JSS, Upgrades and there are loads more for you to watch besides these.
It’s just as well I’ve taken 3 days off work to learn all of this. If you haven’t got a ticket yet then I think you can still grab one here. You’ll be missing out on a lot of interesting stuff if you don’t.