This was the first opportunity for many to get introduced to Sitecore’s new CEO. Steve’s appointment was the most recent of a few changes for North America.

Steve Tzikakis, based in London, was named Sitecore’s new CEO just 2 months ago. Steve joined following almost 13 years in EMEA regional leadership roles for SAP and 7 years with Info prior to SAP. You can read the Press Release about Steve’s transition into Sitecore here.

Steve’s appointment came shortly after announcing a new SVP, Americas, Mike Fenn. Mike joined Sitecore following Monte Wilson’s promotion to Chief Revenue Officer.

Hearing Steve’s keynote provided good insights into his strategic leadership direction for Sitecore.

He shared these priorities:
International Growth- Localized geographic focus and hiring, in key regions around the world

Vertical Focus– The North American sales team has developed some key vertical focus; look for more verticals to be added

Partner Enablement– Steve was very clear that Partners are a strategic pillar to Sitecore’s growth and scale and Sitecore will be investing to ensure that Partners are enabled and supported to ensure Client success.

Diversity and Inclusion– As a Woman working in Tech, I’m always glad to hear this stated.

Giving Back– Every year, Symposium selects a Charity recipient. This year’s recipient was World Central Kitchen. Sitecore donated $5 for every paid registrant and $5 for each attendee that collected enough points from event participation.

Steve finished his keynote with an exciting announcement —

“Sitecore AI will be included at no additional cost with Sitecore Experience Platform 10.” HUGE!

Sitecore also made bold statements regarding the continued push toward a SaaS model. Sitecore Content as a Service, built on Content Hub to be available early next year (2021) and will serve as a key pillar in Sitecore’s direction of pure SaaS.

Sitecore’s other key area of development is helping customers take advantage of AI within the platform. Sitecore AI Auto Personalization Standard will be available early 2021. It will be applicable to more organizations due to no traffic minimums required. ROI will be focused around automated personalization of images and CTAs, with improved performance.

Ending the event on an inspiring note, Leslie Odom Jr (Tony and Grammy Winner) spoke with Sitecore CMO, Paige O’Neill, about his experience as part of the cast of Hamilton.

“It comes from the top down and Hamilton was a great example of that,” Odom Jr. said. “Lin-Manuel (Miranda) and (Director) Tommy (Kail) really set up an environment where we felt safe to risk, we felt safe to fall on our faces. And when we finished, they would help us dust our knees off, and say ‘Well, that kind of crashed and burned. Let’s try something else.’ But there was no danger in that because our hearts were in it and we all knew what the mission was. And the mission was to do something daring that had never been done before.”

Are you looking to do something daring? Something that has never been done before? If you are looking for a partner to help you be daring with Sitecore, please reach out! We’ve delivered outsized returns for our Sitecore clients over the last decade. Learn more about our customer successes here.

It’s not too late to get access to all of the on-demand sessions at symposium.sitecore.com