The Optimizely Podcast—episode 24: what to expect at Opticon22
Transcript:
Laura Dolan:
Hey everyone! Before we jump into today’s episode, I want to remind you that registration for Opticon 2022, Optimizely’s annual flagship conference, is still available. The event will be back in-person this year in San Diego, CA from October 3-5. So please go to optimizely.com/opticon to save your seat! Again, Opticon 2022 registration is still open, so if you haven’t already, be sure to get your tickets now at optimizely.com/opticon and hope to see you there!
Laura Dolan:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Optimizely podcast. I am your host, Laura Dolan. Today we are joined by our own Lindsay Stuebe. She's the director of global events here at Optimizely and she'll be talking about our exciting upcoming event in San Diego this October, Opticon! Welcome Lindsay, how's it going?
Lindsay Stuebe:
I'm great. Laura, how are you? It's great to be here.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you so much for coming on. Where are you joining us from today?
Lindsay Stuebe:
I am in Houston, Texas.
Laura Dolan:
Nice. How's the weather right now? Is it hot?
Lindsay Stuebe:
Hot? Yes. So hot.
Laura Dolan:
Goodness, and of course you got that humidity to balance it out. That's just great.
Lindsay Stuebe:
I mean, great hair days every day.
Laura Dolan:
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. I'm really excited to talk about Opticon. I just want to say first the location of the event is near and dear to my heart because I grew up in San Diego. I lived there for 28 years of my life. I know the city backwards and forwards. I know exactly where the event is taking place downtown. It's going to be right on the water, right by the Gaslamp District. And October is a great time of year to be there as well. It's normally very warm because of the Indian summer. Sometimes you get those breezy winds due to the Santa Ana winds. I'm excited for our attendees. You guys are going to have a ball this year, so amazing selection for the location. I just want to say whoever did that, bravo.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Awesome. Awesome. We're excited to go.
Laura Dolan:
Cool. Well, let's start out by telling our audience what Opticon is, how long it's been going on and just giving a general overview of the event and what attendees can expect.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Absolutely. Opticon is going to bring together marketing and digital leaders from across all of our industries. And in hopes of a compelling three days of conversations on the evolutions and innovations shaping the industry. This is the first in-person event for the new Optimizely. We've just brought together a multitude of point solution brands over the last two years. We see this really as our coming out party. We are excited to be back in person and showcase who we are as an organization.
Laura Dolan:
That's awesome. Yes. We have been virtual the last two years, so be nice to be out and about and meet people in person. It just, it makes all the difference when you're trying to network. What audience is the event for? Who can actually benefit the most from attending this event?
Lindsay Stuebe:
The content is targeted really for anyone in marketing and digital organizations. Whether you're a practitioner or leader, developers alike, we really have tracks for everyone. You'll see tracks focused on content specifically to Optimizely product roadmaps and the latest features and functions. You'll see the latest in digital business experiences for decision makers, really looking to fast track their revenue growth, as well as for developers who want to roll up their sleeves and become really in depth with Optimizely products. As I said, there's really something for everyone.
Lindsay Stuebe:
We also have some training and certifications taking place on Monday, October 3, for those looking to really level up their skills. First we're offering a developer focused full stack experimentation training with hands on exercises. Let's go ahead and say that three times fast. We really want our attendees from this one will be leaving with a badge of completion.
Laura Dolan:
Nice.
Lindsay Stuebe:
The next training we have offering is an all new experimentation strategist certification. We're going to offer some training in the morning, followed by the opportunity to actually sit for the certification exam.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Then lastly, there is a content developer certification exam that upgrades you to your current certification to the CMS 12. Again, lots of opportunities to really expand your knowledge, not only of our products, but the landscape and really level up your knowledge during Opticon.
Laura Dolan:
Amazing. If that's not motivation to go, I don't know what is. You can walk away from this with more certifications than you arrived with. That's pretty cool.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Always a value add to showcase to your leadership, why it's important to be here.
Laura Dolan:
Exactly. I want to circle back. I forgot to mention the dates of the event will be October 3-5. I just want to make sure I get that in there. Lindsay, tell us about the theme for this year. What is the overall message that Opticon is hoping to convey?
Lindsay Stuebe:
Sure. The world as we all know it is just moving faster and faster. We want to ensure that how you measure your work today is going to change over time. It's absolutely evolving. Our goal and our hope is that we are taking you on a journey of continuous possibilities that help equip you to set up and for how you want to optimize your growth, how you want to reduce customer churn and really deliver a world class digital experience. We really, again, we hope you leave equipped to handle the growth and evolution facing our industry. If I had to pick a theme, that would be it.
Laura Dolan:
It's more imperative than ever to be able to pivot and evolve with how fast the digital industry's going right now, especially since COVID because so many companies are having to make those changes and they've been leveraging them and implementing them going forward.
Laura Dolan:
Speaking of COVID, I mean, I know the event went virtual the last two years and I hate to keep bringing it up. But even though it was virtual, it was a huge success. Now that it's in person this year, what is the company doing to ensure the safety of everybody attending in person? Are attendees required to be vaccinated and bring their vaccination cards? What implementations do we have in place for that?
Lindsay Stuebe:
Sure, it is the number one question of a managers have gotten over the last two years, Laura. I'm not surprised at all by the question. But as always, we want to ensure the health and safety of our attendees is always front of mind and a top priority. Optimizely is monitoring the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control guidelines to create a safe environment for all attendees.
Lindsay Stuebe:
At the current time, we are not requiring any additional vaccinations or that attendees be vaccinated. We do want all attendees, though, to feel safe. It's still voluntary in person. However, we do ask all attendees to monitor their own health and stay home if they aren't feeling well. But again, we want to follow the current guidelines so that's how we have approached the event.
Laura Dolan:
Great. It sounds like it's up to everybody's discretion and basically you're on the honor system. If you're not feeling well, don't go and take some COVID tests with you on the plane, have them in your hotel room because you just never know when these things are going to pop up. For those who are on the fence about going, what would be your advice to them to convince them to confirm their registrations and click that purchase button?
Lindsay Stuebe:
I don't think you can place a value on in-person connections and conversations. The opportunity to bring everyone back together after two years is a really top of mind for us. We're really excited about that. To be back in networking with your peers and hopefully leave with a clear vision of the future of our industry is going to be a great value add for those who opt to come in an attendance. Being back together, I've just seen it across the industry, it just brings a whole new level of experience that we haven't been able to achieve over the past two years. I would say really those connections and conversations.
Laura Dolan:
And the fact that it's in San Diego, it's in paradise. You can't lose.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Absolutely.
Laura Dolan:
Jumping over to one of my favorite things about conferences is the swag. Are we going to expect any kind of cool products to be given out at the event?
Lindsay Stuebe:
I mean, Laura, have I even hosted an event if I haven't given away swag?
Laura Dolan:
Right. It kind of goes hand in hand, right?
Lindsay Stuebe:
Exactly. No, we love swag just as everyone else does. We have some great items in store for our attendees. I don't like though to give away every single surprise ahead of time and save a little bit of secrecy for those who get to join us in person. To find out what that swag is, you'll just have to join us in San Diego.
Laura Dolan:
I love it. I love the mystery behind this. Great tease, Lindsay. I love it. Cool. Well then who can we expect to show up there? Who's actually speaking this year? I heard some rumors about who we can expect to show up. Please tell us who's going to be making an appearance this year.
Lindsay Stuebe:
I love talking about speakers. Let's start with first, your first part of your question, Laura, is kind of who you can expect in the audience. As we've talked about, we're going to have decision makers, marketing managers, analysts, influencers, Optimizely partners, developers, just the great networking and one on one you're going to get with Optimizely team members themselves. We just really want you to be able to maximize your investment in this event and really discover the benefits of how Optimizely can assist your organization achieve their goals.
Lindsay Stuebe:
But in terms of speakers, you obviously can expect to see some of Optimizely's top executives. They're going to talk about the digital landscape and some of those pressures facing today's leaders.
Lindsay Stuebe:
But in addition, we are so excited to welcome Earvin Magic Johnson as our closing keynote speaker. Let me just say, win five NBA titles without learning how to optimize and adapt along the way. Magic is going to share how as a professional sports player and now an owner of a highly successful entrepreneur, he's going to talk about how competition drives innovation really in both basketball and business. I tell you that is one piece of the agenda I am super excited and I truly think it's going to be magical.
Laura Dolan:
100%. I tell you, I mean, if you don't have any other reason to go, make this your reason to go. Magic Johnson is one of the best orators in the world. He is just a positive just force in any room he walks into. I could not believe when I heard that we were able to pin him down for this event. What an honor it is just going to be in the same room with him. I'm so excited for this and for attendees to get to hear him speak. I can't wait to hear what he's going to speak about. That's going to be an amazing, just an amazing event. What a selling point for this. I mean, does it get better?
Lindsay Stuebe:
I don't think so.
Laura Dolan:
No, I don't think so either. When does registration end, Lindsay?
Lindsay Stuebe:
September 26th.
Laura Dolan:
September 26th, mark your calendars people. It's not too late to get your tickets so head on over to optimizely.com/opticon, click on that register now button, and then you can just look forward to spending three glorious, amazing days in sunny San Diego. Is there anything else that we haven't covered, Lindsay, before we wrap up?
Lindsay Stuebe:
No. We are just really excited for this new Optimizely event and welcoming everyone to San Diego. Can't wait to see you in October.
Laura Dolan:
Can't wait to see you either. Hopefully we get to meet in person.
Lindsay Stuebe:
That would be amazing.
Laura Dolan:
Well, thank you so much, Lindsay, for taking the time to come on. You are doing a fabulous job with planning this event. I'm in all these meetings with you and you're just killing it. I also want to add that Lindsay is new to the company and was thrown into this event and it's coming together just beautifully and magically, I want to add.
Lindsay Stuebe:
Thank you, Laura. I really appreciate it. It's wonderful to be part of Optimizely and it's an exciting time in the organization and I'm just so grateful to be here and I appreciate it so much.
Laura Dolan:
Absolutely. Thank you for all the work you're doing and thank you all so much for tuning into this episode of the Optimizely podcast. I am Laura Dolan and I will see you next time.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you for listening to this edition of the Optimizely Podcast. If you'd like to check out more episodes or learn more about how we can take your business to the next level by using our marketing, content, or experimentation tools, please visit our website at optimizely.com, or you can contact us directly using the link at the bottom of this podcast blog to hear more about how our products will help you unlock your digital potential.
