Sitecore Meetup

Chicago #Sitecore User Group Meetup Fall 2023

/ sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb) / Leave a comment

I attended the Chicago Sitecore user group last week at AmericanEagle.com and it did not disappoint. Here is the summary in pictures and captions.

First presentation was “Sitecore XM Cloud – Experiences and Learnings” (Jared Arnofsky – Americaneagle.com)”

Enjoyed this one a lot because it really helped me understand what is involved going to XM Cloud. Learned about static site pages. Looking forward to all the things I will encounter when moving to XM Cloud and this was a great heads up. Or should I say headless up?

Overview
I liked their approach on how the front-end and back-end were split up. In this image above you see how the Front-end was done.
I liked their approach on how the front-end and back-end were split up. In this image above you see how the Front-end was done.
The multi site plugin created by Sitecore was a welcomed addition to their project.

Next up was “Content Hub: Seamless Connection to your CMS” (Maggie Burke & Casey Stanutz – Americaneagle.com)

I am already familiar with Content Hub, but this was a great insight into what others have been doing with it. I came away with some new ideas.

Based on what they encountered with their client it looks these are common issues with a lot of clients.
Sitecore connector I have found to be one of the easiest things you can integrate with Content Hub.
Did not know about Renditions. Can see using them in the future.

Last but not least. “Vercel: Your Gateway to Headless Framework” (James Gregory – Americaneagle.com, Alex Hawley – Vercel)

Great insight on how we are going to be deploying all the pieces in XM Cloud. With Vercel’s help it sounds like a smooth process.

I found SSG (Static Site Regeneration) vs ISR (Incremental Site regeneration) very informative. Find more about them here.
Great tips.

Well that is a wrap. Had a lot of fun with a great group of people. Can’t wait for the next one. You can find the meetup info here.

Milwaukee #Sitecore Meetup Recap. @ParagonDev @layeronemedia #mkesug

/ sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb) / Leave a comment

This meetup was a big honor for me. I got to present for the first time ever at a public Sitecore meetup. I was nervous going into it for several weeks, but I did my best to prepare. Special thanks go to Joe Ouimet and Derek Dysart for giving me the opportunity to present and putting the meetup together. Also for Paragon Consulting for the awesome food and drinks and Layer One Media for hosting.

I did my presentation on the Sitecore Data Exchange Framework. My goal was to show the demo of my Reddit feed process and get others thinking about how they could use the DEF. I believe I accomplished that and hopefully I wasn’t too confusing. My code and marketplace module are out there so they can be used as a starting point. Also I will probably do an updated DEF blog series for the latest version.

So here we are in tweets and pictures for presentation 1:

Hey my favorite Paragon local sales person from Paragon joined me.

Presentation 2 had me excited. Anything that involves Alexa and Sitecore I am interested in. The topic was “Expanding the reach of your Sitecore Content with Voice-Activated Assistants”. It was presented by Benjamin Adamski and Jeroen de Groot. They did a fantastic job explaining all the benefits and where things are headed.

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Well Milwaukee it has been great. I hope to make the next one.

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Second Annual Chicago Meets Milwaukee #Sitecore Meetup Recap. @ParagonDev @GeekHive @_Americaneagle @jouimet @DDysart #SitecoreSym

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After attending the first combined Sitecore meetup last year I was hoping the combined meetup would happen again. Well my hopes were answered. Joe from Geekhive invited me to speak on the Sitecore Symposium panel. I couldn’t wait to share my experience.

When I got there the usual food and goodies were there. The pizza was very good even though it was from Wisconsin.

The first presentation was on Coveo Hive. I am always impressed with Coveo and they continue to improve their product making them a vital search framework in the Sitecore world.

Looks like Hive introduces many new and exciting things.

Next was the Sitecore Symposium Panel. Joe from Geekhive did a great job hosting. It was great reliving the Symposium experience and sharing with others what we learned.

This meetup reminded me of one my favorite crossovers. I can’t wait for the next one.