Watch Ascend 2019 presentations and webinars

1. Episerver’s focus on customer centricity

With its Customer-Centric Digital Experience Platform, Episerver is focusing on helping companies easily create customer-centric experiences. Episerver partner Empired noted this theme in its Lessons from Episerver Ascend 2019:

“The prevailing message throughout the event was customer-centricity and how Episerver empowers organizations to intuitively build customer-centric digital experiences. Everything, from the platform to strategy to implementation, should focus on delivering value to the customer.”

Episerver partner Guidance also commented on this in their Ascend 2019 highlights: “While we all know and attempt to drive a customer-focused business, Episerver made it clear that their entire purpose, from strategy to implementation is entirely with a customer-first mentality.”

Watch the full Ascend Miami 2019 opening keynote. This includes an organization update, the focus on customer centricity, product updates and the product roadmap.

2. Deane Barker’s great keynote on content

Deane Barker’s keynote speech impressed everyone at multiple Ascend events. A long-time content expert and author, Deane recently joined Episerver as Senior Director of Content Management. In his summary of Ascend Miami, Paul Gruffydd, Technical Director at Episerver partner AmazeRealise, wrote:

“In his keynote, ‘The Godfather of Content Management’ Deane Barker described content as the currency of human connection. Deane cautioned against ignoring content as part of the web site production process, stating that: “We're so concerned with building the swimming pool that we often forget the water.”

3. Episerver’s innovative product roadmap

Justin Anovick, Chief Product Officer, presented Episerver’s achievements during the year: delivering over 40 production releases and over 160 features, with many more to come in 2020’s roadmap. In his Day 2 highlights from Ascend, Paul de Metter, Entrepreneur and EMVP Digital Strategist, wrote:

“Compared to previous Ascends, the format of this session has changed a lot. As we used to have 1 to 1.5-year roadmaps, we now are presented with things that have been or will be recently released. This gives credit to the pace of innovation that Episerver is bringing to the market at this moment. Next to that, focus has shifted from more functionalities to more customer value.”

4. The Women’s Panel and Lounge

Chaired by Episerver CMO Jessica Dannemann, the Women’s Panel at Ascend brought together leaders from across the technology sector. Episerver partner Niteco commented on this inspiring session in their Ascend Miami summary:

“Four female leaders in the technology sector spoke about their challenges in a largely male-dominated industry, how they achieved the things they have and what we can do to support diversity and help it to thrive. A very welcome addition to the dialogue and content of the event.”

In her Ascend 2019 recap, Allison Casey, Digital Marketing Director, at Episerver partner Diagram wrote, “This year, we were especially honored to sponsor the first Women's Lounge, which offered attendees a quiet place to recharge, catch up on work and meet other people in a more intimate space.”

5. Episerver’s DXP and Microsoft Azure

Episerver continues to demonstrate the benefits of its DXP in the cloud running on Microsoft Azure. In his Major themes from Ascend 2019, John Dymond at Episerver partner Perficient Digital commented:

“The benefits of cloud hosting from a security and scaling perspective have been well documented. So has Episerver’s relationship as a partner with Microsoft. What particularly stuck out to me in sessions during the conference was that this isn’t a one-way street in terms of partnership. Episerver is a major player in regards to Azure consumption, and Microsoft has been working to enable features within Azure that can greatly benefit Episerver’s platform.”

6. Amy Purdy’s inspirational keynote speech

Many were brought to tears by the powerful keynote speech of Amy Purdy, a Paralympic medalist in 2014 and 2018 who tragically lost both legs to a form of meningitis. In Episerver partner Niteco’s recap of What happened at Ascend 2019, they wrote:

“Amy asked the audience the question, ‘If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to be told?’ That’s the question that changed her life forever, she said, that gave her the determination and resilience to achieve the amazing things she has done and continues to do.”

7. The Episerver Web Awards

This year Episerver partners and customers competed in six categories in the Episerver Web Awards. Congratulations again to all the entrants and winners on your impressive work!

More highlights from Ascend 2019

Tony Kelly, Digital Marketing Specialist, Made to Engage, presents his highlights from Ascend London 2019. On keynote speaker Matthew Griffin: “If you could choose a keynote speaker to chew the fat with for an hour or two, Matthew would be high up on that list. An absolute whirlwind story of technology and trends of the future.”

Adage Technologies gives their Top 5 Takeaways from Episerver Ascend 2019, including the keynote by Lani Phillips, VP of Channel Sales at Microsoft, who emphasized “the importance of lifting others as you climb and being brave, not perfect.”

Jakob Jaber, Zooma, lists new Episerver features presented at Ascend Miami, including a remade UI and inline block editing, as well as Episerver’s acquisition of Idio and the new product names.