Meeting Every Moment: Highlights from EMEA Sitecore Sessions

Sitecore and our partners hosted a series of Sitecore Insights events in London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Antwerp, as well as a virtual session in Germany.

There were discussions of XM Cloud, the metaverse, and Commerce Cloud, insights from Symposium 2022, and deep dives into future-proofing a martech stack and the composable future of experience platforms.

Life in the Cloud

XM Cloud was a hot topic across the region, with presentations in Copenhagen and London. Long-time Sitecore customer GE Healthcare presented about making the move from XP to XM Cloud. GE Healthcare was looking to create a cohesive customer experience and 18 months ago decided to focus on a headless, composable architecture. Sitecore and GE Healthcare decided to embark on the XM Cloud journey together and moved the first site from XP 9.3 to XM Cloud in 6 weeks.

What I found so welcome and interesting was Enterprise Architect Jon Fairchild sharing early learnings from the project, including the ease of content migration from XP 9.3 to XM Cloud, a simplified CI/CD developer workflow, and savings in Azure cost. Richard Seal 's demo of the improved Google Lighthouse score was fascinating; seeing the scores jump so substantially was very impactful, especially given what an image-heavy site GE Healthcare has.

Peter Fellows focused on the Commerce Cloud during his London presentation, speaking directly to the technology and the business benefits of the best-in-class capabilities that help customers achieve their business goals and reach the outcomes critical to commerce investments.

Welcome to the metaverse

The metaverse was a major topic in October; audiences are interested in new platforms and the new experiences and exclusive content that those new platforms can provide. I find the metaverse to be such an interesting idea because while they can provide a faster ramp to decisions and purchases as well as greater efficiency and chances for creativity and connection that might not exist elsewhere, the conversation is so clouded by demos, futurism, and branding that it can be difficult to separate what is achievable now from what might be achievable at some point and, perhaps most critically, what may never be possible if technological investments and audience interests spin in a different direction.

Mike Tidmarsh , CTO of Ogilvy and Principal Ogilvy Reality, made the excellent point that we’ve seen a decade of technological progress compressed into two years. He highlighted the five metaverse technologies that he thinks will be most impactful soon, including generative personalization, synthetic brand personalities, and the “augmented everywhere,” all of which are already in use and have seen success across commercial platforms and brands. His presentation brought the metaverse, which can feel speculative and impossible, into real-world contexts complete with use cases, costs, and ROI while pointing out that brands have unique opportunities to engage with and support our audiences using metaverse technologies.

Inclusive design and authenticity

Sitecore’s first in-person conference since 2019 was packed with excellent takeaways, with a strong focus on composable approaches, inclusive design, and authenticity. Across the region, several Sitecore employees (including myself) presented their learnings from the conference.

Jenn J. Chadwick, a Sr. Accessibility Consultant with Siteimprove, gave an excellent presentation focused on the undeniable business case for inclusive design. Simply put, inclusive design is the approach that takes the preferences, needs, and abilities of all users as part of the original design; everything from screen readers to using Siri to fill in a form falls under the umbrella of inclusive design.

She pointed out that “social responsibility and inclusive design should not be an afterthought – they should be top of mind when designing experiences.” As the world moves swiftly from a medical model of disability to a social model, any digital properties that are inaccessible to assistive technologies are causing a barrier that has social and financial implications for the brands in question. 83% of users with access needs limit their shopping to sites they know are barrier-free and 86% of users with access needs would spend more if there were fewer barriers – brands can be much more innovative, creative, helpful, and welcoming while also reaching a new market of approximately 1.85 billion people.

It's also a great opportunity to build authentic connections with the audience. Authenticity involves empathy, understanding, and representation - many consumers equate authenticity with being sincere and understanding.

In Paige O'Neill ’s keynote, she showed that more than eight out of 10 consumers polled say brands can build stronger relationships with customers through actions that exemplify these traits, such as demonstrating empathy for a customer’s in-the-moment needs, providing insightful recommendations, and remembering actions already taken. The goal should be helping, not selling.

The composable future

It’s important to separate the buzzwords from the business benefits when it comes to headless and composable. Una Verhoeven , VP Global Technology at Valtech, discussed hurdles to be aware of when making the switch; it’s important to manage business and marketing expectations, to keep in mind that the switch will require transparency and communication, and to acknowledge there are business, governance, and budget considerations to keep in mind. In Copenhagen, LB Insurance discussed how they orchestrate and evolve business value with composable architecture.?

United Airlines was highlighted as part of the learnings from Chicago; specifically, the approach they and their partner American Eagle have taken in moving from XP to XM with CDP & Personalize. This kind of transparency is wonderful, as was their willingness to share their timelines and the results and quick wins United has seen along the way.

Getting by with a little help from friends

The best part of events like these is always hearing from partners and customers.

It was lovely to hear from EPAM, AKQA, and Pentia in Copenhagen, from UNRVLD in London, and from medmix during the virtual event. I’m always interested to hear their takes on big events, new trends, digital platforms, and customer experience and they never disappoint.

Did you attend one of the events in EMEA? I'd love to hear your takeaways in the comments!