Still unwinding from one of the best weeks I have spent in Nashville. It was the only week I ever spent there. I am sure the Sitecore Symposium made it better than any other week.In this blog I will break down some of the highlights and give you my final thoughts. The them for the Symposium was The Power to Build. That is something that rings true.

Food Tour

One of the best things I did in Nashville was the food tour. It was well organized by Chet. Learned some good history and had some great food.

MVP Summit

I can’t share much yet, but as always a great time. Learned a lot and got a lot of questions answered. I got to meet my mentee in person so that was really exciting. He is doing great things and I have no doubt he will be a future MVP.

Sitecore Stream

AI is the current and the future hottest technology. With Sitecore Stream AI will be part of the DNA in all of Sitecore products. We have probably heard a lot already about Sitecore Stream. Here are some of the things I believe it will offer. To find out more go here.

• AI Enhanced Workflows
• Consistent content and branding.
• Faster website page creation.
• Content remains the property of the customer.

XP

It not be the new shiny ring, but it sure has not lost its luster.

• Updates are released through various versions of Sitecore prior to XP, minimizing the potential for breaking changes.
• XP will also gain from Sitecore Stream and Copilot (AI features).
• XP will continue to get support.
• Copilot AI will be integrated into the Content Editor. It will help in generating textual content, like titles and descriptions. It will also correct grammar and spelling errors.
• There will be a choice to use Sitecore Search instead of SOLR.
• MVC to Headless Migration Tooling will be provided.

Content Hub

• More AI features added.
• Sharing of assets between DAM and CMP.
• Can use your own AI.
• AI Integration: The focus is on injecting AI into business processes, particularly in content creation and marketing functions. Discussions revolved around challenges with using off-the-shelf AI tools and the need for business-specific logic.
• Content Strategy: The aim is to enhance the quality of photography from various partners. It also aims to increase the quantity while addressing issues like licensing costs. Another focus is on ensuring brand alignment.
• Feedback Mechanism: A system for feedback on generated images was proposed. Users evaluate assets. They give feedback to improve the AI model’s accuracy and effectiveness.

Sitecore Search

• Modernize search experiences, ensuring consistency across diverse business units while focusing on user requirements and data governance.
• Highlighted the need for flexible search solutions that can adapt to various content types and user needs.
• They have merged Discover (Commerce based Search) and their non-commerce-based search into a single product now.
• Has OOTB development kit which supports React.

XM Cloud

• XM Cloud is now HIPPA compliant. That is huge news.
• Many more frontend stacks supported and starter kits.
• Retirement of Experience Editor and shift to Page Editor.
• XM Sites – Dashboard which helps manage a multi-site tenant.

Unified Tracking

Capable of keeping track across SaaS product like Connect, Personalize and CDP. Tracking and privacy will be much smoother.

Marketplace

Marketplace is coming back.
Will have starter installations that will help get things up and running the way customers want.
Open to Sitecore and Trusted Partners.

Katie Ledecky

What an amazing athlete. Great hearing what she had to say. I never knew the medals have a piece of the Eiffel tower.

Brendan Hunt

You heard me many times quote Ted Lasso. It was an honor to see Coach Beard in the flesh. Remember to “Be Curious Not Judgmental”.

Teammates

Working from home it was great to see people that I haven’t seen a while in person. Most of all my teammates.

Swag

Got some really great stuff from the store. My chocolate lab Murray is modeling his new Sitecore collar.

Final Thoughts

I feel like Sitecore that I fell in love with over ten years ago is back. They are posed to really overtake the market. There is so much to learn. I plan to stay with the products that I know best. I will expand my knowledge for sure and hopefully start looking into products I haven’t used much before.