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Friday, 07 December 2007
Sitecore on CM Innovation 2007
This year, - for the first time, Sitecore was participating on the CMS-Channel managed event, CM Innovation , held in Brussels, Belgium. We signed up as Gold sponsor along with Microsoft and local CMS vendor Smartsite.
A long range of Sitecore partners was also present, either as exhibitors or visitors during the event (alphabetic): Caesar Optimit, Delaware, Lectric and The Reference (forgive me, and please drop a comment if I have forgotten any).
With a number of keynotes speakers with an intermezzo of workshops from 8:30 to 18:30, the event was quite hectic, but well organized. It’s always good to see vendors not just “hang out” in boredom, but also having time to talk to each other and even participate in several workshops. Well, I know I did.
As gold sponsor we were allowed to assign a keynote speaker, - just as Microsoft and Smartsite, - but unlike them, we chose not to use Sitecore staff as keynote speaker. Instead, we asked a partner if they would present a solution they had built, with focus on the solution and the challenges they faced (and how they solved it). I think Marc, Sitecore responsible of Benelux figured that most other would do sales presentations, and selected another approach.
This showed to be a good strategy because the presentation by Peter Oysermann from Sitecore partner Delaware was really interesting.
Peter did a walkthrough of an eCommerce platform Delaware had helped Thomas Cook subsidiary, Neckermann (neckermann.nl) build. This solution as built on top of Sitecore, but as Sitecore is “only the tool that supports the solution” it was the solution that was interesting:
- Multi-lingual, localized, SEO optimized URL’s.
- 100% AJAX based web site.
- Framework that allows editors to design sites, sub sites with strict limitations within corporate guidelines.
- Campaign management.
- Sub site product selection and profile managing.
- Sales funnels and effect measuring.
- Full integration to Fredhopper, product database.
- And much more…
I believe this is one of the most well designed solutions I have seen so far. Thomas Cook/Neckermann can be particular proud of this solution, - so can Peter Oysermann and Delaware.
On top of the keynote, Sitecore had a 30 minutes session, and again, we did not speak about our product but rather chose to deliver value to the audience.
I held a short “7 Habits of Highly Effective Web 2.0 websites” presentation with focus on usual pit-falls and other challenges we often find our partners and customers face. This presentation was a cooked-down slightly modified edition of a web cast Sitecore held November 2007. You can see it here (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/362992618).
Links:
- eCom platform solution: http://www.neckermann.nl/
- “7 Habits of Highly Effective Web 2.0 websites”: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/362992618
10:43 Posted in CM Innovation 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this