Optimizely's MVP summit 2022
Following on from #Opticon 2022, I attended Optimizely’s Most Valuable Professional (#OMVP) summit. It invites all OMVP’s to celebrate our community, contribution and receive privileged access and discussion about the Optimizely roadmap.
It’s fun and relaxed but with a serious purpose. Interested in learning how you can become an OMVP?
I’ll give you a flavour of what went on. I can’t share too many details though, as it’s incredibly top secret…
We feedback
The summit began with ‘Ask me Anything’ sessions with Chief Product Officer Justin Anovick and Chief Technical Officer Aniel Sud , where we robustly interrogated everything we’d heard, or not heard at #Opticon. Good news this time. Both Justin and Aniel left in one piece.
I may joke, but I appreciate all of the Optimizely team who attended to hear our thoughts. As Magic said “You gotta listen to your customer”. I hope our feedback was useful.
We share
Unsurprising for a community built on contribution, many sessions in the summit were led by OMVP’s split across technology and strategy tracks.
My colleague Johnny Mullaney spoke about his experience bringing together a feature led experimentation program with B2C Commerce Cloud. A sweet spot combination that generated much interest.
For me in the strategy sessions, I gained most through the candid conversations without the barriers of partner competition. Particular thanks to Lori McDonald for a spot-on session.
We have fun
Finally there is the party / event / activity. This time we were taken to Belmont Park, a historic beachfront amusement park, and gifted a wristband for #unlimited access to rides and then dinner.
For me, watching those faces I normally only see in blog posts and webinars shooting down a rickety wooden roller coaster at 56 mph an hour is a great bond. I know others escaped from an escape room together, and some got trapped in the bar, which was apparently incredibly difficult to escape from :)
What do I enjoy about it?
I enjoy the opportunity to be in a room of likeminded experts who recognise or have solved many of the challenges I see also.
I enjoy the growth of the community, now near 90 people. I enjoy the proud parent feeling of watching two of my exceptional colleagues Johnny Mullaney and Andrew Markham be welcomed as leading Platinum members into that community. This counts for you also Surjit Bharath
Mostly, I enjoy the friendship and camaraderie. I’ve known a lot of this group for over 10 years. We’re family.
Special thanks to Hannah Drabin , Patrick Lam and Joey Moore for helping to organise and steer a fantastic summit. Did I mention the swag? A warm jacket was a blessing when landing back in the UK.
This post was first published on LinkedIn Pulse on 9th October 2022 Optimizely’s MVP summit 2022