Sugcon 2022

SUGCON 2022 - Budapest 

Three years after the last in-person SUGCON (London 2019) we were finally able to meet the Sitecore Community again in real life. On stage, off stage, on a boat or in a lounge chair, with a beer or a wodka (or two).  It was great an great events deserve a blog post. I'm not going to write about all the sessions I saw - they were recorded and you will be able to see all of them on the Youtube channel of Sugcon. There was a lot of good content, so I would suggest to watch once they are available.  If you can't wait there is already a nice summary in the blog of Adam which is definitely worth reading. 

The journey

Travel arrangements were not always that easy this year. Lots of people had issues with covid regulations, flight plans, airport strikes and so on but at least we got there. Some of us didn't -we all know why- and that is a real pity.  I really hope you can all make it next time - as that would also mean the world has turned into a better place again. 

But back to the conference. Or the journey, because I had almost forgotten a Sitecore conference starts with the travel pictures and a whatsapp group going crazy with people seeking fellow travelers, transportation, or just beer 😀 Due to circumstances my flight schedule brought me in Munich. Fate, I guess, as this made me meet and greet an ex-colleague and other attendants even before the final flight. A good way to start a conference - as meeting people is at least as important as the sessions. 

As a speaker on the conference I had the privilege to be invited to the speaker event - a great initiative, thank you organizing team. You've probably seen the beautiful pictures on social media of Budapest by night. And we spend the rest of our first day as it should on such an event.. having drinks with the wonderful and enthusiastic group of SUG-DE, having drinks with community dinosaurs (no names mentioned) and other members of our amazing Sitecore community - special thanks to our Polish friends for the bottles 😋.    

The city

People who got the chance to visit the city of Budapest were not disappointed. The weather was very nice so lots of attendants were attracted to at least get a glimpse of Budapest center. Getting some fresh air is always a good idea and it helps to keep focused during the conference (or get the wodka out of your system).

And even Kevin was there...

The event

But of course we were no tourists - we were there for the first in-person SUGCON in years. So once more thanks to the organizers for making it happen and thank to the sponsors to support this. I think  a gigantic weight fell of Tamas' shoulders when he finally was able to start this hometown event. 

As I mentioned I'm not going to share lots of pictures of slides here - you can find those on social media or you can watch the full recordings on Youtube anytime soon. 

However, if you start the event with the CEO and CPO of Sitecore the tone is set and you know this is going to be good.

This is a community events of course. So a special mention maybe for a few more real community efforts. First of all the Sitecore StackExchange. A great place to ask questions in order to create a place that stores a great amount of Q&A based Sitecore knowledge. And it can't happen without you. And you. And all of you.

Another initiative that is definitely worth mentioning is the Sitecore Lunch. You might have seen this passing by on Twitter or on Slack and for those who can't join the American version (on Friday evening for European folks so that is not so easy to manage) there is an alternative on its way - check the European Sitecore Lunch...

There were lots more sessions.. I also liked the "lightning sessions" - a shorter format but in my opinion a great way to get some topics on the agenda that might not fill a full 45' slot. Really enjoyed giving one of those myself (on Sitecore Send). 

It was fun to be able to present in-person again. I've done some presentations virtually (on Sugcon and smaller usergroups) but the smaller the distance between speaker and audience the easier it is to get feedback and discuss your topic with other people. And that is what matters.. a good session should inform, trigger the audience and get a conversation started.

Best for last

Saving the best for last is a commonly used strategy on any event. The last slots in the agenda on this Sugcon were for a very interesting introduction into the possibilities of Sitecore Discover - one of the last acquisitions and probably not yet very known - and an even more interesting overview of what lies ahead: the roadmap. What is Sitecore working on? What can be we expect in the near future? No need to explain that a tag cloud would scream the words composable and headless but to make sure we all realize what Sitecore means by that Roger Connolly (VP of product management) showed us this slide: 

For me this is one of the most important slides of the conference - and I'm not alone with that thought. 

So we heard (and saw) a lot about XM cloud - and OrderCloud, Content Hub, CDP ... - but it's when you see editing environments that will be composable as well you can imagine Sitecore is really going this way and yes, that looks promising and it makes me hopeful for Symposium. (all under the assumption that it will actually work and this is not just another Horizon - oh yes, I said it).

Yes, promising. Let's continue this conversation end of October in Chicago!