Adobe Summit 2021 is free, virtual, and global

Registration is now open for Adobe Summit 2021, a free virtual event. Register now for access to 200-plus sessions at summit.adobe.com

From a digital experience perspective, we are coming off of quite a year. Digital transformation accelerated “two years in two months,” ecommerce experienced double-digit growth, and customer demands shifted as more and more brands went digital first and digital only.

“2020 happened to us,” says Wendy Steinle, senior director, digital experience global marketing at Adobe. “But we are going to make 2021 happen. We have the know-how, energy and tools.”

Those elements will all come together at Adobe Summit. “It’s more critical now than ever to get inspired by what the best innovators are doing, and to get the actionable steps and support to get it done,” Steinle adds. “Adobe Summit 2021 is truly the event to fuel your next opportunity, both in business and your career.”

Delivering modern content for modern Experience Makers

Adobe Summit 2021 will include more than 200 sessions, training workshops, and virtual learning opportunities, plus keynotes and networking experiences, all designed to speak to today’s modern Experience Maker.

“In the case of digital commerce, 2020 was an incredible year for growth. So much has moved online,” says Shannon Hane, senior product marketing manager, Magento commerce cloud. “On the B2B side, the only way many businesses could transact with their customers was online. So digital has become absolutely critical to their business and that led to massive growth.” Summit 2021, she says, is a great opportunity to learn more about how individuals and organizations are managing that growth while adapting their commerce capabilities to this new environment.

Other tracks are accounting for similar experiences and growth trajectories. The Summit team, says Alexandra Quick, product marketing manager overseeing the B2B Marketing track sessions, will support marketers, creatives, developers, and others involved in creating dynamic customer journeys and experiences — experiences that have shifted and continue to shift as consumers spend more time engaging digitally.

“Driving demand during COVID-19 is top of mind for many people, and we’re attacking it head-on with a dedicated session,” says Quick. “We’ll also have sessions about Marketo Engage being part of Adobe Experience Cloud, and why they’re better together — and better for customers. That’s something we’re really excited to talk about.”

“Marketers and developers are stretched thin to provide amazing experiences through the customer journey. They need a foundation that allows them to better collaborate and scale,” adds Haresh Kumar, director of product marketing and strategy for Adobe Experience Manager. “The Content Creation track will share best practices and upcoming innovations launching in 2021 that give brands the ability to author, manage, and deliver exceptional experiences that are personalized across all channel touchpoints. We will hear from customers, experts, and practitioners on their use of Adobe Experience Manager to help with digital transformation.”

Much of that, Kumar says, is tied to new innovations and cutting-edge customer use cases.

“One major focus will be our newly-enhanced headless experiences. Marketers and developers will get deep dives on the technology in training workshops, and opportunity to connect with product teams. We’ll also focus on new ways that creatives and marketers can interact and leverage Adobe Sensei to understand what content is most relevant and automate manual tasks like tagging or searching. This technology helps marketers and creatives achieve their goals of delivering experiences faster, that are highly performant and native in the cloud.”

In the Commerce track, trend-focused content will include diverse use cases centered on these changes and accelerated growth.

“A good example — the home fitness market, which exploded over this last year,” says Patrick Toothaker, senior product marketing manager for Adobe. “Companies have had to deal with scaling and keeping up with demand. There was also the boom in ecommerce, including many people who didn’t shop online before who now had to — or people having to expand their online shopping to include things like groceries that were formerly more common in-store purchases.”

These changes and heightened consumer demands led to new niche industries, new types of businesses, and new expectations for commerce as a whole.

“Businesses are trying to figure out what digital commerce means for them,” says Toothaker “all while making changes to adapt and take advantage of what’s happening in the market right now. For commerce leaders and practitioners Summit is an incredible opportunity to hear what other people in the industry — including people who are very experienced in the digital commerce space — are doing to work through and make the most of these changes.”

Transforming for a global, virtual audience

Beyond just developing and producing relevant, timely content, opening Adobe Summit up as a free, virtual event meant reimagining content, tracks, and audiences, and ensuring any Experience Maker would gain meaningful, actionable takeaways. This meant considering diverse global industries and functions and understanding how lines blurred during this past year, due to workplace consolidation and the need for everyone to step up to meet constantly changing customer demands.

“For the B2B Marketing track that meant getting different people from different industries,” says Quick “We’ll still have strong representation from high tech, but we wanted to go beyond and push into education, sports, entertainment, financial services. And, at the same time, we wanted our sessions to speak to multiple audiences and job functions — we acknowledge there’s a lot of overlap right now.”

Josh van Tonder, product marketing group manager for Adobe Experience Manager sites, agrees. “We’re seeing more interest in decision-making and planning from more technical roles than in the past,” he says. “Front-end and backend developers are strongly influential in deciding what tech is implemented, since it helps them achieve their goals. The tools we’re building are developer-centric, but also need to be marketer-friendly — non-technical, no-code so people can deploy experiences faster. That’s becoming more and more important as well.”

Defining this year’s sessions also means considering how content will be consumed during Summit.

“Summit being this accessible makes us all think more broadly,” Quick adds. “How do we not just service people in the room, but how do we service global marketers who are choosing to spend their time with us, consuming content in 30-minute chunks? We want to broaden the appeal to all of those different personas, practitioners, and decision-makers — and we need to appeal to so many different maturity levels. Whether it’s your first day in marketing or you’ve been doing this for a long time, you’ll find content and insights that resonate.”

Opportunities to network with peers and industry leaders

Also happening at Summit 2021 — interactive networking opportunities. With the integration of Braindate and other chances to virtually mix and mingle, participants can expect to grow their professional circle between sessions and training workshops.

“Networking is so central to Summit,” Kumar says. “The content is so important but so is the ability to network and interact with Adobe experts and your peers. That’s why people come to Summit. This year, there are many ways to do that virtually and we’re excited to bring these experiences to attendees.”

To participate, though, you need to register — and that opportunity starts today. By securing your spot at Adobe Summit 2021, you will have full access to the Session Catalog and Session Scheduler, helping you plan your experience hour by hour. You will also receive exclusive updates as new programming hits the schedule — including live, in-session chats and targeted networking opportunities.

“This is an event for you to come and gain incredible takeaways,” says Quick. “And even if you’re not a customer, come. We want to support your digital transformation. This is such a critical time for digital marketing, and we want to be that beacon of light and thought leadership, and show brands and Experience Makers around the globe how to continue pushing forward.”

Adobe Summit 2021 is free and virtual. Register now and start planning your Summit experience with our interactive Session Scheduler.