Can you give us a glimpse of your journey in the Sitecore ecosystem?

As a founder of Horizontal Digital, we began implementing Sitecore CMS for enterprise clients starting back in 2005. Today we’re a Global Sitecore Partner with hundreds of enterprise cross-departmental implementations. This work, alongside our deep knowledge & commitment to Sitecore, has earned us the 2022 Partner in Excellence Award as well as the Customer Value / Impact Award.

How do you define 1:1 personalized, connected experiences? How does this approach influence your work?

If you look at customer behavior today, they jump in and out of 7-8 channels before making a purchase. It’s absolutely critical for brands to understand the interaction in each of these channel touchpoints so that the following interaction is built on top of it. This continuous conversation with a customer in a consistent brand voice is the key to a truly connected experience.

When it comes to personalized customer experiences, what advantages do you provide clients with?

Omni-channel is key. And for us, we think of omni-channel differently than our competition. It’s not enough to focus on personalizing a digital conversation. Your customers expect to be known and served with tailored experiences – whether they’re walking into a store, shopping online, looking for service, or receiving your marketing messages. They also expect that customization to happen seamlessly without a disruption to their journey. Leveraging a CDP so data is passed from each channel and then combining that with an omni-channel personalization engine like Sitecore Personalize is what allows you to deliver truly connected experiences across the entire enterprise – with the speed it takes to make it personal in the moment.

What do you want the main takeaway of your session to be?

I'm hoping the audience learns how to enable a connected experience for their customers. We’ll look at the tools that are necessary to power a threaded journey across web, mobile, commerce, sales and service interactions along with all marketing touchpoints. The way in which the story is told really makes it feel personal and engaging, so I’m excited for the audience to walk away with a deeper understanding of how they can deliver this type of an experience to build better relationships with their customers.

How many Symposiums have you attended? What are you looking forward to this year?

I have attended every single Sitecore Symposium and beyond. Prior to it being called Sitecore Symposium, it was called Dreamcore and they were held in the basement of a hotel in Boston. Those were the early Sitecore days. I'm really looking forward to being in person and to be able to host all of our clients and friends in the Sitecore ecosystem at our Cocktails & Connections party on Tuesday night.