Live Blog: Opticon Keynote

Live blogging the Keynote presentation at Opticon, the premier optimization conference, April 17, 2014.

Optimizely unveiled many new exciting features today, including Optiverse, a developer platform, Audiences, native iOS app testing and many more…

8:30 am

The audience takes their seats. Cool customer video featuring heavy hitters such as Hadi Partovi of code.org who credits Optimizely with at least 12 million additional signups for An Hour of Code.

8:38 am

Jodie Ellis, Optimizely’s Head of Experimental Marketing, makes introductions. Jodie is the mastermind behind Optimizely’s guerilla-style blimp campaign at Dreamforce.

8:40 am

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWlsWVwKBHI&feature=youtu.be

8:42 am

Dan Siroker takes the stage to kick off the opening keynote.

Check out those shoes!

8:43 am

Dan Siroker: The conference: 500 attendees. In the fourth year of Optimizely’s journey, customers have run a half million experiments, 6.5 billion web experiences.

8:45 am

The Optimizely story begins at Google where Dan met co-founder Pete Koomen. At just 23 years old, he was an Associate Product Manager.

Siroker on Google’s data-driven culture: When I wanted to present a controversial new product idea, a mentor advised: “Tell them you want to ‘run an experiment.'”

8:46 am

Siroker left Google to become the Director of Analytics for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and was tasked with using data to make better decisions.

8:47 am

“That process was a pain in the neck – literally” – Dan on previous A/B testing methods.

8:48 am 

A look back at the history of Optimizely:

2010: Optimizely improves effectiveness of Clinton Bush Haiti Fund by 10% = $1 million in additional relief funds (http://optimize.ly/VqocHn).

2011: Optimizely has 1000 customers. ABC Family ran experiments that increased engagement by 600%.

2012: The company reaches 3,000 customers and provides A/B testing platform for both Romney and Obama campaigns. Romney uses geolocation to target states and had great success in personalizing messages.

2013: 5,000 customers. Code.org uses Optimizely to get millions of additonal signups for An Hour of Code.

8:53 am 

Dan introduces Optimizely.org – commitment to non-profit organizations

8:54 am

We have six announcements today: three around fostering our ecosystem, and three regarding core products.

8:55 am

Announcing Optiverse

8:57 am

Optiverse
Optimizely community:
Optimization peers, testing ideas, support, collaborate with product team.

Academy:
Lessons, videos, activities, and master the basics of testing. Individuals become expert across strategy, product and developer categories.

Knowledge Base:
Documentation and support

9:01 am 

Introducing Optimizely Solutions Partners

9:02 am 

Customer Certification allow individuals to showcase fluency and expertise of the Optimizely platform. Solutions Partners will accelerate customer benefits with a team of Certified employees.

9:03 am 

Optimizely co-founder and president Pete Koomen takes the stage.

9:05 am

Introducing: Optimizely Developer Platform

9:06 am

Koomen: “We are releasing a family of APIs that make it possible to interact with your Optimizely account using code rather than our web interface.”

9:09 am 

Pete demos WordPress for running A/B tests on headlines, inspired by Optimizely customer Upworthy. “Upworthy has run hundreds of tests on the headlines of their posts.”

9:11 am 

Kevin Eichelberger, CEO of  Blue Acorn, an Optimizely Solutions Partner, takes the stage to talk about an integration Blue Acorn built with Magento.

9:13 am 

Eichelberger: “Today, with the release of this new API, we can provide your content managers the ability to test their content, dynamically, from the single interface they’re already using – their CMS.”

9:18 am

Pete Koomen back on stage.

9:19 am

To get started, visit http://developers.optimizely.com or send an email to developers@optimizely.com.

9:21 am 

Introducing: Audiences

The ability to personalize and target content that you just created. Reusable sets of targeting conditions that let you target specific types of visitors based on what you know about them.

9:24 am 

BluDot demo shows how Audiences can target messages based on the search keywords each visitor used to get their site.

9:25 am

Import segments from other places where you keep your customer data.

BlueKai – Data Management Platform that tracks web browsers across the web for profiles and behavior.

Demo of BlueKai DMP for a new geolocation experiment.

9:29 am

Mark Yaggy, Product Manager, eCommerce, Crate&Barrel takes the stage.

“Through this partnership with BlueKai, we’ll be able to identify this person as being interested in kitchen or housewares.” – Mark Yaggy

9:35 am

Pete Koomen back on stage.

Open opt-in beta for Audiences – visit Optiverse with more info here. Production version out in the next few weeks.

9:40 am

Introducing: our new Results page. Available in Beta starting today, link at the top of your Experiments to access.

9:41 am

Koomen: Mobile is here to stay, the opportunity is massive.

“Mobile adoption now at 1.75 billion devices, with opportunity for mobile engagement.”

9:45 am

Customer video – importance of mobile

9:46 am

Introducing Optimizely for iOS – live demo
Fast, flexible, scalable

9:48 am

Hipmunk mobile experiment – splash screen. Live updates to mobile apps.

9:56 am

Koomen providing Happy Bird experiment: how a “Happy Bird” flaps across the screen can also be adjusted and pushed to gamers live, without having to resubmit to the App Store.

10:00 am

Koomen: In summary, we wanted to make our mobile product fast, flexible and scalable, to work seamlessly with Optimizely on the web.

Koomen: “Optimizely for iOS, is really just… Optimizely.”

10:01 am

Optimizely for iOS moves from developer preview to invite-only beta today; all Opticon attendees invited to beta.

10:02 am

Dan Siroker back on stage.

Recap: Announcing Optiverse, Solutions Partners, Developer Platform, Audiences, Results Page, Optimizely for iOS.

More highlights throughout the day on Twitter: https://twitter.com/optimizely