Turned up!–2012 Magento Imagine Ecommerce a Blazing Success
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Themed, “What’s your story,” the 2012 Magento Imagine Ecommerce Conference was nothing short of legendary. With high energy and authentic enthusiasm, Magento merchants, developers and partners from all over the world rocked the house at the M Resort Spa & Casino Las Vegas, taking 3 days to toast the world’s fastest growing ecommerce platform—a platform that literally and metaphorically brings them all together.
The conference had everything a person could imagine (see what I did there?). Keynotes about going global, and climbing “Everest,” and building world-class company cultures, left attendees with scratchpads full of useful tidbits to take into next year’s endeavors. At the same time, good ol’ Vegas revelry mixed with Magento humor ensured so much fun that attendees’ reports of the week would be dismissed as nothing more than tall tales. Some notable moments included the General Session pelting of Angry Birds plushies, Roy Rubin’s parody of “The Artist,” the pool-side, Rat Pack tribute party, and The Four Seasons’ 7-nights-in-Bora Bora giveaway—all of which were intertwined with Vegas’ iconic showgirls donning fire and feathers.
Magento itself had a great story to tell this year. Not only have its revenues doubled since the last Imagine conference, it’s also doubled its Enterprise Edition merchant base, has increased its available extensions by 73%, and has expanded to almost a million community members. As Roy Rubin, General Manager Magento, mentioned early on, Solution Partners have been critically important to the success of Magento. Not surprisingly, the Partners have also had amazing outcomes this year.
With Michael Harvey, COO Corra, leading the Biz Track’s breakout session, representatives from Ten Thousand Villages and SmileyCookie.com shared incredible testimonies of how Magento and its Solutions Partners Listrak, PredictiveIntent, and Corra fast-tracked their businesses to success. The panel discussion entitled, “Double Your Revenues In 6 Months,” was so anticipated, the room filled to capacity even before Harvey took the stage. Imagineers crammed into standing-room-only space, spilling out the door and even opting to sit on the floor, to hear the 20 techniques Harvey had to offer.
And who could blame them? With Corra earning one of this year’s “Magento Partner Excellence” Awards, it certainly knows the storyline to success.
After 3 days of networking, collaboration, learning and inspiration, with the world’s ecommerce leaders, it’s safe to say this remarkable experience is virtually impossible to summarize. However, the primary take away from Imagine was this: ecommerce is hot.
There is no end in sight to the explosive growth in ecommerce or, as it is increasingly being called by industry insiders, Commerce. The innovation in business models and technologies is staggering, and Magento is at the center of it. With over 700 staff members now devoted to Magento/X.Commerce, eBay is and will continue to invest heavily in Magento, viewing it as the central component of its x.Commerce “fabric” technology strategy. All of this, however, does not detract from the attention retailers must place on Utility and making sure that the site is on and performing optimally.
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