Sitecore Symposium 2024: Embracing the power to build

In a packed auditorium at Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, Sitecore CEO Dave O’Flanagan kicked off Sitecore Symposium 2024 by drawing a parallel between Nashville’s musical heritage and digital innovation. Commenting that well-crafted digital experiences have the power to captivate audiences in the same way as a memorable guitar riff, O’ Flanagan said the event’s theme ‘power to build’ reflected Sitecore’s pride in the experiences built by customers. Underlining his commitment to Sitecore’s customers, he outlined his three core priorities as CEO:

1. Customers: Sitecore aims to be a trusted partner, providing the technology, people, and ecosystem needed to modernize websites and transform marketing functions.
2. Choice: Customers have the flexibility to stay on-premise or move to the cloud, invest in the XP platform, or upgrade to the next-gen CMS, XM Cloud.
3. Innovation: Committed to market-leading products and services, Sitecore focuses on delivering standout experiences through continuous innovation.

Announcing that Sitecore has crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue, underscoring the company’s growth and success, O’ Flanagan emphasized Sitecore’s aim to be the number one choice for content and experience management, empowering marketers and technologists to deliver exceptional results using a best-of-breed approach and Sitecore’s composable capabilities.

O’ Flanagan shared success stories from AAA Club Alliance which upgraded to XM Cloud and introduced a headless, composable architecture, dramatically improving member engagement and conversion rates and L’Oréal who has revolutionized its digital presence with an AI-powered platform, reducing content publishing time by 80% and enhancing website performance.

The much-anticipated launch of Sitecore Stream drove great excitement from attendees. Developed through collaboration with CMOs and marketers from both B2B and B2C sectors, it leverages generative AI to simplify marketing workflows, integrating various Sitecore technologies, including CMS, XM Cloud, Content Hub, CDP, Personalize, Search, and Connect.

Sitecore Stream capabilities include:

• Brand-aware AI
• AI-enhanced workflows
• Generative copilots

In another major announcement, Sitecore shared the game-changing news that its content and experience solutions, including XM Cloud, Content Hub, CDP, and Personalize, are now HIPAA ready, following attestation by an independent auditor. This compliance ensures the delivery of fully compliant, personalized digital experiences for healthcare providers.

Kathie Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at Sitecore highlighted three major challenges faced by modern marketers and highlighted how the capabilities available with Sitecore Stream will help marketers address these challenges:

1. Do more with less: Marketers are under pressure to achieve greater impact with reduced budgets and demonstrate return on investment (ROI) for all activities.
2. Manage complexity: Ensuring brand consistency across various channels, teams, and agencies is a complex task, regardless of the organization’s size.
3. Balance strategic and tactical goals: The complexity of marketing operations often leaves little time for strategic planning, which is crucial for long-term growth.

Sitecore Stream was developed in partnership with Microsoft and customers, including Nestlé. Johnson announced this collaboration, showcasing how Sitecore Stream is helping Nestlé manage complex campaigns, maintain brand consistency, and align efforts across teams and agencies. Joining via video, the brand’s global CMO, Aude Gandon, endorsed Sitecore Stream as the future of content operations.

Next, Sitecore’s Chief Product Officer, Roger Connolly unveiled Sitecore’s vision for the intelligent digital experience platform (DXP), going into the details of Sitecore Stream and the impact it will have across all Sitecore products. This ground-breaking innovation, developed in collaboration with industry leaders including Nestlé and Microsoft, is designed to transform the marketing landscape with an AI-augmented marketer workflow that comprehends brands, campaigns, content, and data, heralding a new way of working for marketers. Sitecore Stream ensures enterprise-ready guardrails and robust capabilities, boosting marketer productivity.

Sitecore Stream’s core strengths

• Smarter: Utilizes cutting-edge AI to understand brands and customers.
• Strategic: Aligns technology with business goals.
• Secure: Ensures data and content protection, with no sharing or use for training shared models.

Taking to the stage to emphasize the critical role of trust in digital transformation, Sitecore’s Global Chief Operating Officer, Eric Stine reiterated Sitecore’s commitment to never using customer data to train large language models (LLMs), aligning with ethical AI standards.

Emphasizing the importance of privacy in the digital age, he quoted Bill McDermott: “Trust – it’s earned in drops, but it can be lost in buckets” and underscored Sitecore’s dedication to privacy, security, and trust, which remains a key differentiator.

A panel discussion followed, featuring leaders from various industries, discussing the integration of digital experiences into physical products and experiences. Angela Ross, Head of Digital at Cracker Barrel shared how Cracker Barrel reimagines guest experiences by integrating technology that enhances human connection, maintaining their mission of “pleasing people.” Azhar Kholwadia, Global Head of Digital and Growth, Aston Martin discussed managing an omnichannel experience for Aston Martin’s exclusive customer base, while Miles Tedder, Chief Marketing Officer, Pet Supplies Plus highlighted how the brand is successfully maintaining brand consistency across 750 stores while delivering localized experiences and engaging communities.

The Sitecore Experience Awards ceremony, hosted by Eric Stine and Kathie Johnson, celebrated the innovative efforts of organizations and visionaries who are pushing boundaries to create seamless, personalized customer experiences.

The ceremony honored three ultimate winners:

1. Bayer: Recognized for empowering 90,000 colleagues in 80 countries with personalized content through a unified digital experience platform.
2. Foodstuffs New Zealand: Honored for its achievements in modernizing content management and integrating AI-powered tools to enhance digital engagement and operational efficiency.
3. Pet Supplies Plus: Commended for modernizing 750 locations and integrating a powerful tech stack to boost sales and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, a new award, the MVP Red Jacket Award, was introduced to honor outstanding community contributions. The first recipient was Klaus Petersen, recognized for his long-standing commitment to the MVP program.

In a fireside chat with Sitecore CMO Kathie Johnson, fourteen-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky discussed the importance of dedication, resilience, and a strong work ethic in achieving her goals. Best-selling author Erik Qualman’s keynote revealed five habits that drive success and happiness for employees, partners, and customers. Meanwhile, during a conversation with Sitecore SVP Corporate Marketing Hannah Grap, award-winning actor and screenwriter Brendan Hunt shared strategies for making quick connections with audiences, as well as lessons from his series Ted Lasso and how the show’s positive and supportive message can be applied in real life.

The true superstars of Symposium–our customers, shared their incredible Sitecore-powered success stories over the course of Symposium in their mainstage “Power Builder” sessions. Standout customer showcases included Australian Retirement Trust (ART) and Avanade who have achieved over 500 new or refreshed educational pages on their websites, a 131% increase in prominence across category search engine results, and a 20% increase in website usage year-on-year.

Partnering with Altudo, The Tile Shop dramatically improved site speed and conversions, while Racing Victoria and Deloitte Digital Australia is empowering their marketers and content creators to create personalized experiences.

Iron Mountain and Rightpoint discussed how they have transformed site performance and increased marketing-generated leads and bookings.

Americaneagle.com and United Airlines shared how they have seen an increase in operational efficiencies and positive feedback, with 82% of travelers saying the new features and signage are easing their traveler experience.

Partnering with Horizontal, Shure discussed how they now offer enhanced search capabilities and have recently launched five redesigned English sites, with 15 global language sites set to roll out in January 2015.

Meanwhile, Johnson Controls and Accenture are empowering marketers with a shared design pattern library across over 100 websites and providing a consistent, SEO-optimized web experience across all of their brands.

Ashley Hufft, CEO and President of Unbound – charity partner for Sitecore Symposium 2024 spoke about Unbound’s mission and impact, discussing the charity’s “Agents of Change” initiative. The “Agents of Change” matching game at Symposium saw Sitecore donate $5 to Unbound for every correct match – $15,000 in total was raised at Symposium to support families living in poverty in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

During the final mainstage session of Sitecore Symposium 2024, four Sitecore product leaders, Ezgi Göçücü, Liz Nelson, Steve Davis, and Ru Barry, took to the stage to provide a sneak peek at what’s next and new for Sitecore.

Ezgi Göçücü Director, Product Management, introduced AI-assisted search in Content Hub, available through Sitecore Stream and designed to revolutionize the digital asset management search process for marketers. Another game-changer, Content Exploration in Content Hub will allow marketers to search not just assets, but also content, projects, campaigns, and brand guidelines to deliver true relevance.

Senior Director of Product Management and Head of product for XM Cloud, Liz Nelson demonstrated how XM Cloud can help optimize page builds, measure effectiveness, and add personalization and A/B testing all within a no-code interface powered by generative AI and advanced analytics. With Sitecore Stream, it will be possible to gain generative insights and actionable recommendations to optimize experiences based on set goals. Using Sitecore Stream as a strategy copilot, she demonstrated how it was possible to leverage brand intelligence, site goals, audience data, and visual and coded elements from the page to improve and optimize a campaign.

Steve Davis, Vice President of Commerce at Sitecore discussed the innovative concept of circular commerce and its benefits. He provided an overview of Sitecore OrderCloud’s Circular Marketplace Functionality which is set to be released by the end of the year.

Ru Barry, Senior Director of Product Management and Head of CDP and Personalize at Sitecore talked through the upcoming features in CDP, Search, and Personalize including Generative Insights, a feature designed to help marketers unlock hidden trends in their data. In addition, Generative AI for Q&A is a new feature within Sitecore’s Search product and leverages Search’s indexing capabilities to provide hyper-relevant answers. Generative attributes – a new feature of Sitecore Stream will automatically generate additional attributes for images with limited metadata, while Sitecore is also developing solutions within Sitecore Personalize to support multi-stage campaigns .

Request a demo to find out more about Sitecore’s latest product innovations or join us at our next event.