CMS-C Talks Innovation with Acquia Partners for Engage 2021 Virtual Conference
COVID-19 completely reshaped the global economy and dramatically accelerated the pace of organizations looking to transform or advance their digital agendas. Brands and consumers had to adapt to a digital-first reality in weeks rather than years and necessitated marketers and IT professionals to significantly modify how they planned to continue delivering exceptional customer experiences in the new era and beyond.
As businesses grapple with the challenges of pivoting to meet new and increased demands, the lessons learned are helping to forge more effective customer experience strategies for the years ahead. On October 26, 2021, Acquia will be bringing those thought-leaders with insights gained together with the online community to share and learn about some of the brightest ideas and biggest advancements in today’s digital world at its annual Engage 2021virtual conference.
Acquia’s virtual conference will be two full days of jam-packed keynote presentations and track sessions. Engage has always been a well-attended event, providing tech tips, deployment stories, and opportunities to connect with top-tier partners from around the world.
“This year’s Engage online event is all about community and a shared commitment to bringing radically innovative ideas to life.”
Patrick Goulet, Senior Director Partner Marketing at Acquia.
It’s also worth noting that one of Acquia Engage’s featured guest speakers will be Mick Ebeling, Founder, and CEO at Not Impossible Labs, and Bento — Solutions to End Food Insecurity. Mick was recently named by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top 50 World’s Greatest Leaders, is a recipient of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award, and is listed as one of the world’s most influential creative people by The Creativity 50. You definitely don’t want to miss this guest speaker!
During Acquia’s Engage 2020 event, CMS-Connected’s tech reporters had several fascinating conversations with Acquia customers and partners, discussing their digital experiences and success stories. This year, we sat down with a few of Acquia’s top-performing digital agencies — Bounteous, EPAM Systems, and Wunderman Thompson Agency — to chat about their most recent customer experience challenges and success stories. Brands need a solid digital partner committed to supporting them as they strive to do what’s best for their customers, and the three featured Acquia partners are excellent examples showcasing its adeptness with customer experience deployment.
Seth Dobbs, Chief Technology Officer at Bounteous
"As the world went online in 2020, digital resiliency became more important than ever, which is why we’ve embraced a collaborative partnership with Acquia with a focus on continuous innovation.”
Watch Video Interview [06:20]
Dustin Collis, Senior Director Technology Solutions at EPAM
“Acquia is a key part of our large open-source culture, offering speed to market with platforms such as Drupal Cloud and Marketing Cloud.”
Watch Video Interview [04:46]
Niel Mouton, Managing Director at Wunderman Thompson
“Digital experiences are driving brands across all channels, and partners like Drupal and Acquia are allowing us to deliver those services.”
Watch Video Interview [06:35]
Final Thoughts
Since the pandemic’s start, the frequency with which consumers purchase goods and services online has risen steeply. A recent Acquia survey of 8,000 consumers and 800 marketers worldwide found that 70% of executives expect their marketing and IT teams to allocate significant budget towards the technologies that will enable them to successfully adapt by delivering digital experiences that can quickly scale while providing a competitive advantage edge.
- 74% of consumers report their digital experience with brands has changed
- 84% of consumers used digital channels more in 2020
- 48% of organizations have created more content for customer engagement
The survey also pointed out that most brands implemented new marketing or customer experience tools over the past twelve months, and 82% of respondents report that their organization’s ROI on marketing technology improved in 2020.
Despite economic uncertainty, organizations continue to prioritize finding and deploying the right technology foundation for their digital customer experiences. Judging by the insightful interviews with Seth Dobbs, Dustin Collis, and Niel Mouton, I would conclude that Acquia and their agency partners are meeting, if not exceeding, the demand.
Gary Eisenstein
Gary has been working in the IT industry since 1993 and is the Principal Analyst at CMS-Connected, and the Founder and President of Falcon-Software. If you would like advice on how to evaluate a "best-fit" digital experience solution for your organization, Gary can be reached at gary.eisenstein@cms-connected.com.