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Incredible Time At Magento Imagine 2017

Karthik Chidambaram
April 6, 2017 |
EDI

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Magento Imagine 2017

has come to an end and what an amazing conference it was. It is for a good reason it is called the ‘Super Bowl of eCommerce’. The great thing about the Magento Imagine is that you get to meet a lot of people who are all doing different things with Magento –  agencies, store owners, developers, consultants, hosting companies, etc.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. In a similar sense, it takes a community to build an awesome software product. The energy invested by Magento and its community was palpable and we were excited to be a part of it.

We have been sponsoring Magento Imagine for three years in a row and this year we were Diamond Sponsors.

Sharing here some of our moments in Magento Imagine 2017…

Sunday (Apr 2) – Pre-Imagine

Our team flew in from across the world. A bunch of folks coming in from California and the rest of the team flying in from Chennai, India. We had a team of 7. Most of us landed early on Saturday (Apr 1) and the rest of the team joining us on Sunday (Apr 2).

The event started with the Partner Kick Off. It was good to meet with the Executive Team at Magento and commitment from CEO Mark Lavelle to the ecosystem’s success.

[clickandtweet handle=”@dckap” hashtag=”” related=”” layout=”” position=””]For Imagine this year, there were 2700+ Attendees from 50+ Countries.[/clickandtweet]

35% of the attendees were merchants and this is a 23% increase from last year.

Some of us, (though working in DCKAP) met for the first time. We decided to do a little team event on Sunday evening. Had a dinner @ Off the Strip.

We went on a ride – High Roller, The Linq to get a view of Las Vegas.

magento imagine 2017

High Roller is a 550-foot tall, 520-foot diameter giant Ferris wheel

Monday (Apr 3) – Day 1

The day started with great breakfast and it was nice to bump into new clients. We demoed our B2B solution using Magento for prospects.

Imagine is a great place to meet with existing customers. The marketplace opened up 3:30 PM. However, it was great to see merchants queuing up to enter the marketplace hall starting 3:15 PM. The flow of traffic in our booth was great. We had a lot of merchants and it is always interesting to meet with them and learn their pain points and recommend solutions from the ecosystem. The number of merchants attending Imagine this year was on the higher side. In chatting with fellow partners, they had great traffic in their booths as well.

We had a private dinner at the SinatraTim Diep from our team set this up and organized a great dinner. The food was a delight. We had invited our clients, prospects, and folks from Magento to the private dinner and it was nice to converse and have great food after a long day.

Tuesday (Apr 4) – Day 2

The second day was jam-packed with keynotes, breakout sessions, networking events and parties – there was a lot to see, learn and be excited about!

We were delighted to have Mark Lavelle at our booth.

This year MageTalk live streamed its video at Imagine 2017 featuring interviews, announcements, analysts etc. You can watch the intro video here. If you want to watch the series, it is available on youtube.We had a speaking opportunity at Imagine on ‘Translating B2C success into B2B’ by Mohan Natarajan. His B2B session was well attended. He talked about native B2B eCommerce features, extensions available for support and ended with a case study and success story from PDC Healthcare. It was engaging as the audience were asking lots of questions. We will share the recorded session when it is available.

Serena Williams was the invited speaker. Obstacles are there for us to overcome was her quote. It was about trying to stay ahead of the competition as good things always get copied. Community helping her was her family (mom, dad and the family of five sisters) similar to the Magento ecosystem / its community.

It is not possible to imagine ‘Imagine’ without the “Legendary Imagine Evening Event.” hosted on the second night of the conference. Each year this event is extravagantly themed, and executed with everything you would expect from a top notch Vegas party. Our usually reticient team loosened up and had great fun.

magento imagine 2017

Fun Unlimited at Legendary Imagine Evening Event

Wednesday (Apr 5) – Day 3

Day 3 started with Continental Breakfast followed by the General Session and Keynote 3. The session started with Jamie Clarke summarizing Day 2’s events.

The next event was an inspiring joint session by Mark Lavelle (CEO, Magento Commerce), Roy Rubin, Co-Founder (former CEO, Magento) and Jason Woosley (SVP Product & Technology) on the Magento journey. This was followed by a presentation by Jason Woosley describing Product Technology Vision. He appreciated the role played by the solution partners and technology partners in the development and improvement of the Magento eCommerce application.

A great presenter and audience attractor, Paul Boisvert, Head of Product Management, talked about the advanced features of Magento and its ecosystem.

DevExchange was the final event of the conference, and a chance for developers to come together to discuss key issues and learn how other developers are solving problems.

At times, it is the little things that can make an event go the extra mile: the special surprises that are throw in, the prizes handed out, the contests that take place. When event swag is really cool, it can really delight attendees at an event. This year we offered Amazon Echo and Parrot Drone as prizes on all the three days of the conference. Attendees & visitors to the booth loved it.

magento imagine 2017

Some of the lucky few to get Amazon Echo and Parrot Drone

On the whole, it was an incredible and an inspiring conference. Thanks to Magento, clients, partners and all the new connections.We hope to see you at Magento Imagine 2018!

Karthik Chidambaram

Karthik Chidambaram is the Founder & CEO of DCKAP. He bootstrapped the company from his small apartment in Chicago, Illinois. DCKAP simplifies commerce for distributors. DCKAP was started with 2 people, 2 computers and 2 desks and is now a global and distributed team. Karthik reckons industry setbacks and renders solid & practical solutions to organizations. He holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. You can read more about him on his personal blog here.

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