It has been well over a week since the 2023 MVP Summit/DX/SUGCONNA has wrapped up and now it is time to give my take on it. First though I want to thank everyone involved organizing the events. What an amazing job they did.

MVP Summit

The MVP Summit started out awesome as usual. I can only share what is public now, but excited about what is to come. Some of the highlights below.

XM Cloud+ was announced. This will give clients an all in one solutions with the most popular composable products. Will also get developers up and running fast so they can get coding. You can find more information about them here.

Tracking visitors will now be much improved. All the different products will now be able to identify and track the same visitors across each platform.

Integration of Sitecore Search and OrderCloud are now much easier to implement in XM Cloud.

More configurable Sitemaps? Sign me up. It has been a struggle to get the sitemap the way we require it in XP. Looks like that has been addressed in XM Cloud.

Sitecore has not forgotten about their classic systems. New tools were introduced to help make the jump from a legacy system to a new system.

I shared what I can for now from the MVP Summit. I am really excited about what is to come though. Can’t wait to share it with others when the time comes.

SUGCONNA (Sitecore User Group Conference North America)

Still processing how great SUGCON was. The organizers did an excellent job. I was so honored to be able to speak. This was an experience I won’t forgot. Here are the highlights.

This was one of my favorite presentations. Raiders of the New Tech Stack of course had an Indiana Jones theme. Their journey of transforming a legacy Sitecore installation and upgrading it to the latest and greatest was adventurous to say the least. Like their migration tool idea to move xDB data over. Sitecore I believe has a tool now for it.

Love this slide that was part of the presentation. Looks like everything old to new is represented.

Thought this was some great advice of anyone just starting any adventure.

Saw a lot of hexagons during the week. The really gives a menu of offerings and brings the whole ecosystem together.

Perficient’s strategist did a great presentation on how they have been able to leverage the Content Hub. Lots of whys answered. I recommend watching the presentation.

Fun Times

Have to start with my co-workers. It was great seeing them. Last year they flew to Chicago so only fitting I fly to Minneapolis/Bloomington.

Had my first Juicy Lucy at the 5/8s Club.

Spent the whole week inside the Mall of America. I may have to come out here to watch Bears game. So far their only win was the Thursday of that week. I thought I would get a lot of trash talk from Vikings and Bears fans, but nothing. However a Lions fan gave me a hard time. Wasn’t expecting that.

Was honored to get my MVP award and got some cool swag for being a speaker.

Getting ready to present. A moment I won’t forget.

Final Thoughts

I like the direction that Sitecore is heading. They have really improved their products from a year ago. I also like how they are strengthening their connections with their partners. There is a lot for me to learn, but the future is bright. Can’t wait for Nashville next year. So with those thoughts.