Skip to main content
Blog General

DCKAP eSummit B2B Edition | Highlights & What We Learned

Catherine Sulskis
November 20, 2020 |

The DCKAP eSummit is a community where our partners and peers join us to share their experiences and insights into digital commerce. The journey to digital commerce has become one of necessity in order to prosper in the rapidly shifting climate, and B2B has been one of the most affected by the changes happening. With the difficulties and hardships the year has brought, many in eCommerce have rallied to the call, supporting those in need of assistance with digital transformation. From platform, design and customer experience, to marketing and customer service, agencies and technology companies have continuously lent their experience to those in need of making the transition.

In eCommerce, the community is wide and varied, and since the start of the pandemic each has offered a way to help those needing to create or grow their online business. Whether providing free trials and services, assisting those in need of more information in order to make a decision on direction, or to support them along the journey with step by step guides, forecasts and projections, and so much more, many in the industry have continued to lend their support.

One way so many of us have been offering our voices and community support is through virtual connection, since our in person options to connect are limited. Just as we had done with our first ever digital conference in April, we strived to carry on and bring together the community despite our limitations. Since we were unable to host the DCKAP Summit event in Los Angeles this year as we had hoped, we decided that we would do everything we could to create a more expansive and fun, virtual experience for our ultimate event. We wanted it to be filled with the kind of experiences and voices that could offer a unique and supportive perspective to the B2B industry.

DCKAP eSummit is a community initiative, bringing together masters of the industry and a panel of eCommerce experts to discuss the best ways to elevate business. Along with our partners and sponsors, BigCommerce, Gorgias, Avalara, APS Payments, dotdigital, PunchOut2Go, ShipStation and Metacake, DCKAP hosted the eSummit B2B Edition on November 10, 2020. We’re happy to say that it was very well received, and thanks to our audience who registered and joined us for a day filled with amazing speakers, interactive experiences and prizes along the way!


Welcome to DCKAP eSummit 2020 B2B Edition!

Tim Diep, Customer Success Manager from DCKAP, took on the role of being our esteemed host and organizer of a packed full schedule for the day. Things started out with an enthusiastic welcome address and opening note from Karthik Chidambaram, Founder and CEO of DCKAP.

Karthik then started the event rolling by welcoming our special guest, Erin Meyer, and bringing her to the virtual stage. Erin is the author of The Culture Map, and she recently co-wrote the book No Rules Rules with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings.

We’re very excited that she agreed to speak at our event and share her insights on workplace culture and how the tools of what she has learned along the way can help those in the B2B industry, even when the business model is more industrial than creative like Netflix. Erin created an engaging and interactive session, and the discussion taught us how talent density and candid feedback can work to breed innovation in any organization, no matter the industry.

After her presentation, Erin sat down with Karthik for a ‘Fireside Chat’ to go more in depth on the book, how to improve workplace culture and performance and get some of her further thoughts on how to prioritize innovation over technology, as well as answering some audience questions.

After the great discussion with Erin and we thanked her for her invaluable time and engagement with our audience, Tim went on to run a couple of our event raffles for any merchants, manufacturers, or distributors attending, for prizes like Amazon gift cards and copies of Erin’s latest book, No Rules Rules.

And congratulations to all our winners throughout the entire event!

Next, Tim introduced Praveen Venugopal to the stage. Praveen is a Solution Consultant at DCKAP, and he spoke on Data Automation & Smart Integrations. His presentation showed how it’s important to the future of B2B Commerce, with direct demonstrations using our product, Cloras, and how it can help support many complex integration needs.

Next up was a dual presentation from APS Payments, with Hillary Heath and Kim Lombard. Kim, Regional Sales Manager at APS Payments, first went over some important things to know about business to business transactions. Then, as Channel Account Manager, Hillary came onboard to offer some great insights and provided tips on how to handle different payment challenges with the shifts and transformations that have occurred.

Following this presentation, Tim brought on Dave Bent, President of ES Tech Group, our partner who offers a unique perspective to B2B clients with their platform, EvolutionX, enabling personalized B2B experiences for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. Dave’s insights provide us with a great perspective on B2B eCommerce and a roadmap on how to succeed. Make sure to watch to the end for all the wisdom and learnings he shares!

At this point, after a long first half of amazing presentations and discussions, we took the time to offer our attendees a well-deserved stretch break and some relaxing and meditative yoga, led by Cali Chwa from Cali Collective.

Getting right back into things afterwards, we then brought on our featured presenter, Joel Pearson, from our platinum sponsor, BigCommerce, to start out the second half of the agenda. As the VP of Sales and a returning speaker, we really looked forward to Joel’s engaging presentation on Making Your Website Your Best Salesperson and how to implement that strategy for the future. We think he offers viewers a great outline of how to make your website the best platform for selling your brand, so make sure you take some time to watch below!

Following Joel, we welcomed onboard Maria Tringali, Exempt Sales Specialist from Avalara. Maria spoke about the importance of managing compliance when B2B businesses migrate online. She offers helpful insights and important information about mitigating risk, exemption, nexus and more to the audience, reminding us that making sure your tax compliance is in order and you have the right support is important. And they offer a free nexus assessment online!

Next up to present was Christine Crandell, President of New Business Strategies, to speak on “The New Normal” and specifically how it will affect manufacturers in the near future. Her insightful presentation covered the expanse of the industry from history to future, from industrial revolution to the latest advancements in technology, and ultimately she asks us ‘What Will You Do On Monday?”

After learning so much from Christine and how important it is to seize the moment in B2B, we welcomed onboard Mark Tomalonis from WarehouseTwo for even more important B2B insights. He took us directly through the buyer journey and gave us insight into what their expectations are when it comes to available inventory on your website. What we ultimately gain from his insights is that stock is the most important determining factor of the purchase! It’s a great time to learn more about inventory sharing.

Following Mark’s amazing presentation, we welcomed our final presenter to the virtual stage, Billy McClennan from our help desk partner, Gorgias. Billy walked us through how the customer journey is pivotal in creating customer loyalty. A great way to bookend the entire event, and a great reminder that exceptional customer support is one of the most important factors to long standing success.

Our Silver Sponsors also contributed additional insights and offer helpful B2B solutions for our audience.

PunchOut2Go is a global B2B integration company specializing in connecting commerce business platforms, like Magento, with eProcurement spend management and enterprise resource planning applications.

Hear it from Brady Behrman, CEO and Co-Founder of PunchOut2Go:

The dotdigital platform is an omnichannel marketing solution that works for B2B marketers to increase ROI, boost sales revenue, drive more qualified leads, and support growth.

Hear it from Jonny Dixon, Head of Partnerships (Americas) at dotdigital:

ShipStation is a multi-channel and multi-carrier platform offering partnerships with leading shopping carts, automatically bringing in orders from all sales channels, and giving you more time to spend growing your B2B business. ShipStation makes you exceptionally efficient at syncing, managing, and shipping your orders.

Metacake provides leading Website Design & Development, Brand Development, Digital Marketing, Product Development, eCommerce Solutions, and Digital Strategy to help B2B companies optimize their businesses online.

Thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors and presenters for their amazing contributions to the event! They were what made this an amazing experience for everyone who joined, and they provide invaluable support to the community. And thanks to all who registered and attended, for making this a great interactive experience! And if you didn’t get to attend, you can easily watch any session back right here in this blog, on our event website, or directly on our DCKAP Youtube channel.

We look forward to the next time we can host an in-person Summit event and meet behind a dinner table rather than a screen. Until then, I hope you enjoy the recap of our eSummit event and gain something valuable from all the insightful videos and content. Stay safe everyone!

 

Catherine Sulskis

Catherine works with the marketing team at DCKAP writing compelling content, strategizing and leading various marketing projects, helping to broaden the brand and the company mission, and producing the Driven by DCKAP podcast. With an educational background in creative writing and sociology, and having worked in partnership building and being focused in the tech industry for most of her career, she has a special affinity for the power of connection, compelling storytelling and the future of technology.

More posts by Catherine Sulskis