Opticon 2017 Preview – 9 Can’t Miss Sessions

The 2017 edition of the world’s leading experimentation conference Opticon kicks off in just a few days, and the excitement here at Optimizely HQ is off the charts! This year’s event takes place at The Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas from October 17-19 and will bring together over 1000+ changemakers who are transforming their businesses with an experimentation-led approach.

We have a jam-packed agenda featuring over 20 sessions delivered by 30 visionary speakers from a range of leading companies, split into 3 main tracks: Creating a Culture of Experimentation, Bold Ideas for Growth and Data, Developers & Product Management. See the full list of sessions here. Whilst you can’t really go wrong attending any of the sessions on the line-up, we’ve handpicked our favorites across the two days for you below.

Without further ado, here’s our round-up of the can’t miss sessions at the event:

Opening Keynote: Dan Siroker & Jay Larson, Optimizely

Optimizely’s Executive Chairman & Co-Founder Dan Siroker & CEO Jay Larson will kick off the event and share their thoughts on the future of experimentation, and share exciting platform announcements. This session will be live streamed at optimizely.com/opticon from 9am PST on 10/18.

Advanced Program Management: What Does a Successful Experimentation Program Look Like? 

Earlier this year Optimizely welcomed Experiment Engine to the Optimizely platform. Experiment Engine enables brands and agencies to easily manage experimentation programs, scale, and measure ROI – all on a single platform. It’s an essential part of advanced program management. In this session, you’ll learn how Experiment Engine can help scale your program. Claire Vo, VP of Product at Optimizely will be joined by Beth Foster, the Group Manager of Experimentation at Microsoft, who will share her formula for measuring the success of an experimentation program.

You’re an Artist, You’re a Scientist

Engaged customers, innovative projects, happy coworkers, productive teams, lively culture. That’s what happens when you encourage your company and teams to think like artists and behave like scientists. Through fun stories of real brand and product experiments, Mig Reyes, Design Lead at Trunk Club, will take you through bold ideas and lessons learned from the experimental culture of leading brands including Trunk Club, Basecamp, and Threadless.

Building a Culture of Experimentation at IBM

IBM had a vision to unlock innovation at the edges of their organization by enabling thousands of employees to experiment with ideas. In an organization of nearly 400,000 employees and 5000 marketers, driving meaningful change is a formidable challenge. Learn from Ari Sheinkin, VP of Marketing Analytics, Marketing & Comms at IBM on how they have built a culture of experimentation and overcame challenges in driving change and adoption along the journey. Getting leadership buy-in and sponsorship is only the start. You have to get to each individual and give them a taste of how powerful they can be once they become experimental.

Creating Digital Transformation at The New York Times

The New York Times is pursuing an ambitious business goal: to double their digital revenue within the next 5 years. How did an organization like the Times take on a mindset shift toward digital? Learn from Matt Donovan, Managing Director of Experience Optimization, NYT on how they implemented a strategic optimization framework and enabled their organization to implement bold, new ideas. As a result, they’ve been able to evolve from small-scale A/B testing to dynamically serving personalized subscription messaging, promotions, and paywalls to drive digital subscriptions, and ultimately, company growth.

Experiment, Roll Out, & Launch with Full Stack

Experimentation is at the core of today’s most successful software products, from Amazon to Google to Facebook to Netflix. In this session, you’ll learn how product development teams can apply experimentation to their development process with Optimizely X Full Stack, and hear about new tools available for creating better user experiences.

Running Experiments with Stats Engine

Our mission with Optimizely Stats Engine is to make data-driven decision-making approachable regardless of your level of experience. In this session, Optimizely CTO & Co-Founder Pete Koomen will review statistics fundamentals like p-values and false positives, learn how Stats Engine works, and get tips and best practices for running experiments to get actionable results.

How Creativity Can Supplement Your Work and Enliven Your Personal Life

An internationally recognized authority in creativity and innovation on education and business, Sir Ken Robinson is also one of the world’s leading speakers. Videos of his famous talks to the prestigious TED Conference are the most viewed in the history of the organization and have been seen by an estimated 300 million people in over 150 countries. In this keynote session he will share how creativity can positively influence both your work and personal life.

From Experiment to National Movement: How Science is Closing the Gender Gap in Technology

Our closing keynote will be delivered by Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Through its Summer Immersion Programs and Clubs, Girls Who Code is leading the movement to inspire, educate, and equip young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st Century opportunities.

For those who can’t make it to the event in person we will also be sharing live updates and top takeaways from the sessions right here on the Optimizely blog and also on Twitter. See you next week!