Starting with what inspired us the most,
This year’s mantra of the Magento Imagine was: “Lead the charge”. The theme, that also spells Magento‘s overall purpose to envision a world of commerce without limits. A world where technology is open to everyone, available everywhere, and powered by human ingenuity.
“It takes people with different styles and skills to make change happen, and when leaders come together in a community… they have a powerful impact,” said Mark Lavelle.
The 8th edition of Magento Imagine was the largest ever, attracting over 3000 attendees from 60+ countries and featuring the technology & eCommerce industry experts. The 3-day conference covered around 65 sessions to inspire us with 4 key topics: Magento Commerce Cloud, Magento BI, GDPR and Magento PWA Studio.
During the 3 days Imagine event, we had a chance to listen to insightful keynotes, attend interesting breakout sessions, community engagement and celebrations, enjoy the legendary Imagine evening event and network with our clients, merchants, and partners who had congregated in Las Vegas for Imagine 2018.
Key Highlights of Imagine 2018:
We are delighted to share that Magento has published two customer success stories from our clients who were the finalists at this year’s Excellence Awards: Visione Boutique and XFactory. Read about our clients who are finalists at this year’s awards here.
Let’s head to Vegas!
Partner Summit
Our first scheduled special session was the Partner Summit in Latour 2 where all the Magento solution and technology partners gathered to celebrate their partnership with Magento.
PreImagine 2018 Party
The first party was the #PreImagine2018. A party and networking event like no other, it’s simply an event you can’t afford to miss. Everyone was blown away by the amazing performers and the live singers and dancers at the event.
Magento Merchants sharing the stage
There were a few standout merchants invited to the stage to share how they’ve grown on the power of the Magento ecosystem and are providing great customer experiences. These included:
– Peter Sinclair of Universal Music Group shared 3 lessons
1. Slow down to speed up
2. Find your true worth
3. Do the job today while setting up for tomorrow
– Melissa Ben-Ishay, President & Chief Product Officer at Baked by Melissa, shared her inspiring story on overcoming challenges and seizing new opportunities.
– Louis Pietragallo Jr., Director of Digital, and Gina Faiola, Digital Merchandiser & Marketer, at the Pittsburgh Steelers shared how personalization is redefining engagement with fans, both online and offline.
– Alex Melvin, President & CEO of Rural King, explored how the farm supply company is delivering on their customer service ethos with omnichannel commerce
Celebrating Community Members – The Magento Masters 2018
It’s being 3 years, Magento recognizes the top contributors in Magento ecosystem who actively engage with others in the Magento Community, sharing ideas, insights, and constructive feedback. We are very excited to see our friend Rakesh Jesadiya awarded as Magento Master 2018 – Maker! Big Congrats!
Congrats to our Top 5 Core Contributors for 2017!@lewisvoncken of @Experius@dverkade of @creaminternet
Adrián Martinez Guantes of @interactiv4@RakeshJesadiya of @krishtechnolab@OSrecio of @interactiv4 pic.twitter.com/OgM0ezDNEX— Magento (@magento) April 25, 2018
Rakesh was selected as a Magento Masters for 2018 based on his 2017 contributions through consistently moderating and helping others on the Magento Forums and on Magento StackExchange as well as extensive contributions to Magento DevDocs.
For @Rakeshjesadiya, it was the first ever Imagine. Let’s see what he has to say about his Imagine experience. A few words from Rakesh Jesadiya:
There’s no doubt, Imagine is the most awaited and largest event of Magento. I love contributing to the Magento community and it is with all the smart people out there that the Magento ecosystem thrives and becomes an awesome place to learn and grow.
I feel grateful to be recognized as Magento Master and this has impacted my professional as well as personal life enormously. At Imagine, I got an opportunity to meet and greet Masters and have a breakfast with them. It was an unforgettable moment, sharing the stage with Mark Lavelle, Sherrie Rhode and all the other Magento Masters.
I couldn't possibly be more thankful for this crew and what they contribute to help us all move forward together with @magento. ? #MagentoMasters #MagentoImagine pic.twitter.com/CC5grRbIXy
— Sherrie Rohde (@sherrierohde) April 25, 2018
Rakesh said: As this was my first ever Imagine, rather the first ever international trip, I was excited to explore Vegas and visit some of the most happening places out there. And it was real fun with Krish team to visit Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, The High Roller Coaster, and Eiffel Tower replica at Las Vegas.
Keynote from Jamie Foxx
Among the highlights of Magento Imagine was the Keynote from Jamie Foxx – Leading the Charge at Imagine. He shared how he juggles the many facets of his phenomenal career. Read more.
Beyond the keynote talks, there were a lot of group sessions, breakout sessions and networking opportunities, which offered the chance to learn and discuss different Magento themes and ecommerce topics, whilst meeting talented people from the industry.
Golden Tips from Industry Players
At Imagine 2018, Mark emphasized that Magento is leading the charge by continuing to invest and support an open and collaborative Magento community. This year, Imagine featured some of the eCommerce and technology players who shared their perspectives on the future of Commerce. Here’s a small break down:
Jason Silva, Futurist and Host of Brain Games: Embrace new opportunities in the changing times.
“The tools to change the world are now in everybody’s hands.” @JasonSilva #MagentoImagine #LeadTheCharge pic.twitter.com/SqrXJmFlX7
— Magento (@magento) April 24, 2018
Eric Broussard, VP of International Marketplaces and Retail at Amazon, shared how brands and retailers can tap Amazon infrastructure and innovations to fuel business growth.
Eric Broussard, VP of International Marketplaces and Retail at Amazon: Know your customers if you want to drive business.#MagentoImagine #LeadTheCharge pic.twitter.com/FTuwSmKDrS
— Adobe Commerce (@AdobeCommerce) April 24, 2018
Magento Updates… What’s coming next?
Key features of #Magento 2.3:
– PWA (Progressive Web App)
– GraphQL – new Web API – flexible and fast – to help facilitate PWA (some features not till 2.4)
– Declarative DB schema (facilitates rollbacks + more), old way deprecated in future (2.4+)
More news?
– The Meet Magento Association becomes the Magento Association
– There will be a Magento PWA Studio for developers.
– There were several Magento U certification exam sessions, which can be booked in advance of the conference.
– There will be a new Community Insider Program. A chance for smaller agencies or freelancers to have access to Commerce code, marketing assistance, and training.
One thing we can’t forget about Imagine?
The comfy beds in the Wynn, especially after an entire day on your feet and miles of walking.
And finally…
The Krish team had a very successful trip! We want to extend a warm thank you to the organizers, speakers, and fellow industry leaders at the legendary show for making it another successful year at Magento Imagine! We hope to see you again next year at Imagine 2019 from May 13-15 at the Wynn Las Vegas.
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Shivi Rao is a content marketer with Krish. She has worked in various industries spanning technology, science, rural marketing, startups & unicorns, eCommerce business, and digital marketing, believing that content is the foundation to facilitate the visibility of any organization and ensuring her words do the same. In her free time, you can either find her lifting weights in the gym or feeding the strays.
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