Magento Imagine 2018 Preview

Magento Imagine is the biggest event in the calendar for Magento partners, developers, merchants and tech providers. The conference (between April 23rd – 25th this year) never fails to cause a buzz within the Magento community and across the wider world of retail and ecommerce. We’ll be there, of course, and we’ve put together a handy preview of Magento Imagine 2018.

As we’re counting down the days until the event in Las Vegas, our Marketing & Events Manager, Natasha Wright, previews this year’s Imagine conference and gives you a taste of what’s in store. 

Intro to Imagine

Magento Imagine began in 2011, in Los Angeles, and has the event has grown in reputation ever since. The vision of the conference was to bring together the global Magento community and connect the ecommerce industry innovators, to push the boundaries and to inspire and educate people to create better experiences for consumers.

Today, over 3,000 ecommerce experts from over 50 different countries will converge on Wynn, Las Vegas to learn from each other and share an immersive experience that sums up the progressive and collaborative nature of the Magento community.

What to expect from Magento Imagine 2018

At last year’s event, a select group of people were awarded the title of “Magento Master”, including our Technical Director, Tony Brown, whilst our Ecommerce Evangelist, Tom Robertshaw, will receive the honour this year. We’re proud to have two of the elite Magento Masters in our ranks. Here’s Tony grinning with his award at Magento Imagine 2017!

There’s lots to get excited about at this year’s event. As always, there’s a host of great speakers, from Magento and from a range of big-name brands and organisations, such as PayPal and Forrester, whilst there’s lot of different sessions to suit everyone.

Also, get the klaxon out…the multi-talented Jamie Foxx has just been announced as the “Marquee Keynote Speaker” at Imagine  – everyone is very excited!

Take a look some of the highlights, opportunities and benefits on offer for Imagine attendees:

Highlights

We’ve already mentioned the news about Jamie Foxx – an Oscar and Grammy winner no less –  speaking at the event. Other keynote speakers include CEO at Magento Commerce, Mark Lavelle and Magento CMO Andrea Ward, Forrester’s Sucharita Kodali and Jason Silva from Brain Games. The one and only Phillip Jackson (host of MageTalk and Future Commerce podcasts) is Master of Ceremonies for the conference!

With more than 150 speakers, there’s a wide range of talks to explore. Check out full details of the speakers at the Magento Imagine 2018 speaker page. 

Opportunities

Beyond the keynote talks, there are lots of group sessions, breakout sessions and networking opportunities, offering the chance to learn and discuss different Magento themes and ecommerce topics, whilst meeting talented people from the industry. 

There are also several Magento U certification exam sessions, which you can book yourself on in advance of the conference.

Benefits

Here are some of other key benefits Magento Imagine offers attendees:

• Get the latest news and updates for the Magento platform and Magento community
• Connect and build relationships with leading ecommerce figures and businesses
• Get expert insights and inspiration from thought leaders and as well as Magento specialists
• Share thoughts and experiences with top brands and individuals
• Meet with Magento development agencies and partners in an informal environment
• Enjoy the “Legendary Imagine Evening Event” – well, it is Vegas…
• And, of course, there will be a ton of free swag from the event sponsors!

April Ask the Masters: Live from Vegas!

We recently launched a new monthly series of webinars featuring Magento Masters. Space 48 and Wagento combine to bring you insights, updates and news about the Magento platform, plus we do a Q&A at the end to answer questions posed pre-webinar and also live during the event.

Why are we mentioning it here? Well, because April’s Ask the Masters webinar comes live from Magento Imagine! Brent Peterson from Wagento and our own Ecommerce Evangelist Tom Robertshaw are the co-hosts in Vegas.

We’ve been nominated for an award

Here at Space 48 HQ, we’ve got more than one reason to be excited about Magento Imagine! We’ve been nominated for an award in the category of “Best Magento Upgrade”. The nomination is for our project with UK homeware business Cox & Cox, migrating their website from Magento 1 to Magento 2 to increase performance and to help maintain momentum in the brand’s growth. 

Our ecommerce development expertise combined with Cox & Cox’s knowledge of the industry helped deliver an innovative and transformative website. The migration to Magento 2 and our support with the process saw some great results:

• 27% increase in overall revenue
• 21% increase in mobile sales
• 18% increase in mobile conversion rate

Our fingers will be firmly crossed come the awards ceremony! Check out the Imagine 2018 nominees and awards categories.

Top talks we’re looking forward to at Space 48

Our Ecommerce Evangelist, Tom Robertshaw, and Head of Insight, Oliver Lees, outline the sessions they’re most excited about at Magento Imagine.

Oliver’s picks:

Day 1 – April 23rd

• Marketing at the Speed of eCommerce
• That’s the Beauty of It: How to Use Personalization to Drive Engagement
• Mapping the User’s Journey

Day 2 – April 24th

• Pioneering eCommerce: Exploring New Technologies
• Building eCommerce Marketing Excellence: The Four Stages of Marketing Maturity for SMB Merchants
• Introducing Magento Page Builder: Powering Your Website Content, Themes and Extensions
• Driving More Revenue Through Content Marketing & SEO

Day 3 – April 25th

• Getting Ahead with the Progressive Web

Tom’s picks:

The big one for me is “Multi-Source Inventory: The Largest Community-Developed Feature in Magento” (April 23rd, 2pm – 2:45pm), which is a session with Mark Brinton and Igor Miniallo from Magento Commerce. This should be a really interesting talk, plus they’ll be letting people know how you can personally contribute to the MSI and other community development projects. This is a great example of how the Magento community is all about helping everyone improve the platform together, something we promote in our regular Mage Titans event.

Also, we’re all really looking forward to seeing Cox & Cox’s Ecommerce Manager, Aynsley Peet, speak at lmagine. His talk, “Dissection of an Upgrade: A Merchant’s Journey from Magento Commerce 1 to Magento Commerce 2” (April 23rd, 1pm – 1:45pm), will discuss the business strategies, decision-making processes and project planning involved with their Magento platform upgrade. 

Check out the full Magento Imagine session agenda here.

Want to meet us at Imagine?

The Space 48 team will be at the conference and we’re excited to speak with the talented people in attendance during our time in Vegas. If you’d like to connect, why not arrange a meeting with us in advance? Click on the button below to book in a meet up at Magento Imagine!

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Space 48 is a leading UK ecommerce consultancy and Magento website development agency.