The Road Home From Magento Imagine 2018

As we settle in after a week at Magento Imagine, many things cross our minds… the technology updates announced by Magento, the knowledge we gained from all of the educational sessions we attended, the honor of being a finalist in the Magento Imagine Excellence Awards for our work with Injinji, and memories of a great week of team bonding and exploring Las Vegas.

In an attempt to organize our thoughts and put all of this knowledge to good use, we've compiled our top insights and takeaways from Imagine, including:

• An overview of Magento’s new features and announcements
• The conference perspective (networking and top takeaways)
• Highlights from some of our favorite speakers and sessions
• Our overall perspective, learnings, and next steps

Our recap is based on insights from our team that attended, including our CEO, CTO, VP of Revenue, Director of Strategy, and our Senior Solutions Architect/Certified Magento Developer. So luckily, you’ll get a variety of perspectives. Enjoy!

The Magento Update

The first General Session was led by the 2018 Master of Ceremonies, Phillip Jackson of Something Digital. His talk was focused on “Leading the Charge,” and finding strength in the Magento Community as we strive to progress our own growth... what better place to start putting this concept to the test than at Imagine? “Imagine is the best of us; share your stories, set time aside to learn and experience, and try not to be in a hurry,” Jackson said.

Next, Mark Lavelle, Magento’s CEO, took the stage to give a sneak peek at the future of the Magento platform, review Magento’s recently released mission statement, and present a few key announcements on behalf of Magento. “It takes people with different styles and skills to make change happen, and when leaders come together in a community… they have a powerful impact,” said Lavelle.

His session included the following updates and announcements:

• Donating $10,000 to First Book (on stage!)
• Announcing 50 new Magento Solution Partners, making up 800 partners total
• Reaching 800 Magento employees
• Launching Magento Commerce 2 certifications
• Launching B2B Magento Commerce 2.2
• Announcing Magento Sales Channel
• Hitting more than 3,000 extensions

And perhaps most significantly, the announcement that Magento clients reached $124 billion in revenue in 2017, and are expected to reach $224 billion by 2020. Yeah, Magento community!!

The Conference Perspective

As a Gold Sponsor at Imagine, our team camped out at Booth #408, where growth takes flight. That’s right, our theme this year (and really, every year) is growth, playing off of our own mission statement - “Pursuing Growth Together.” As part of our booth experience, we hosted a paper airplane contest, which visitors could participate in for a chance to win a variety of prizes.

For example, check out our grand prize winner, Sabrina Godfrey of Monin, who walked away with an Amazon Echo:

Outside of the fun and games, we (shockingly) accomplished some actual work in our booth, including some great conversations with a number of different merchants and technology partners. This year’s conference had record attendance, attracting over 3,000 attendees across more than 60 countries, and it was great to meet so many people with different backgrounds and experiences.

As a company, one of the biggest highlights of the trip was being a finalist in the Magento Imagine Excellence Awards for our work with Injinji.

Injinji, the performance toe sock brand, partnered with Digital Operative to launch a new ecommerce experience for consumers that focuses on better product education, interactive merchandising, and social proof. The new Injinji site launched in the Summer of 2017, and won both a Davey Award and a Web Award, before becoming a finalist for Best Web Experience at the 2018 Imagine Excellence Awards.

Although we didn’t end up winning, we are happy to see a San Diego-based brand like Injinji sharing the spotlight. You can check out the full case study here!

Highlights from Speakers & Sessions

(From the perspective of our Senior Solutions Architect/Certified Magento Developer, Lonny!)

Since this was my first experience at Imagine, I had mixed feelings about the benefits I would take away from the conference and whether it would help me become a better Magento developer. I am happy to say, however, that I definitely walked away feeling like I improved my knowledge of Magento Cloud Commerce development, am more prepared to pass the Magento 2 certification, and have an overall better understanding of the many types of careers within the Magento community.

At Imagine I was able to meet other developers both inside and outside the sessions I attended, and during the cloud sessions, I was able to participate in a great Q&A session that provided me with invaluable information straight from the Magento Cloud team. I was even able to identify a bug in the Magento core that I fixed for one of our clients, Robbins Brothers, and will be submitting this to the Magento team shortly.

It was cool to meet so many people, but the highlight here was the Jamie Foxx keynote speech. I sat front-row and needed a good laugh after all the testing and studying. He delivered great vibes and even shook my hand when exiting the stage; it was a pretty epic experience for me.

In conclusion, I feel very fortunate for the experience to attend Magento Imagine, and I know that I walked away a stronger developer with more confidence in my abilities. I look forward to applying this new knowledge to helping our development team troubleshoot future issues during Magento development, and I am excited to take my Magento 2 certification test within the next few weeks. Wish me luck!

Our Overall Perspective, Learnings, & Next Steps

As we look ahead to the rest of 2018, we are excited to apply the momentum and knowledge we gained at Magento Imagine 2018 to improve and strengthen our day-to-day work. During one of the keynote sessions, Magento announced their new mission statement, which really resonated with our team:

“In the rapidly evolving digital world, Magento Commerce builds the software that allows people and businesses to achieve their dreams. Our open solutions inspire collaboration, contribution, and community which drives innovation and growth at unprecedented scale and speed. Together with our merchants, partners, and developers we create meaningful customer experiences and empower brands to realize their potential, and thrive - on the last platform they will ever need.”

As we focus on our own mission of “Pursuing Growth Together,” our alignment with Magento feels stronger than ever, and we can’t wait to continue to strengthen our partnership and help ecommerce merchants globally in their quest for growth and success.

Get in Touch

We are a Magento Professional Solutions Partner that has been helping ecommerce merchants succeed with the Magento platform for nearly ten years. We offer a variety of technology services focused around the Magento platform, including Magento 2 Enterprise Development, Managed Support and Continuous Improvement, and Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration. Contact us to learn more about our Magento Development services!