If Optimization is Your Job, Opticon is Your Conference

On a sunny day in April 2014, the world of A/B testing and optimization changed dramatically. We hosted our first Opticon — the conference that gave optimizers all around the world a place to meet in real life to learn, network, and be inspired.

The day was electric. We heard feedback like:

• “Every person involved in A/B testing on his or her website must attend Opticon! It’s the Super Bowl of website optimization!”
• “Looking back at the different conferences we attended last year, I found Opticon was the one I gained the most from.”

2015 is here and so is the 2nd annual Opticon.

We are thrilled that Opticon 2015 will take place for two full days at the scenic waterfront of Pier 27 on June 17 & 18 in downtown San Francisco. In 2015, it’s all about the experience: the physical experience you have at the conference and the experience you’re creating to deliver to your customers. Opticon 2015 will be a gathering of some of the most incredibly unique, yet like-minded individuals who are all pioneering the optimal customer experience by exploring the intersection of creativity and data intelligence.

While we have over 60 people speaking this year, with more still to be announced, we want to highlight a handful who represent the breadth of content and perspectives we’re excited about for Opticon. (Subscribe to the growing Twitter list of Opticon speakers.)

This year, we are shaping the conference around 4 tracks:

Platform	How to integrate Optimizely with the products you already use and find new ways to enhance your current workflow.
Culture	How to create a culture that values and practices experience optimization every day.
Strategy	Tips and best practices for incorporating experience optimization into your business strategy.
Action	How to use Optimizely to create the best experiences for your users and customers.

We’ve selected speakers who will speak directly to Marketers, Product Managers, Developers, and Executives. Filter the agenda online to see exactly which sessions fit your role best.

A glimpse at 11 Opticon 2015 speakers

Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz

We are thrilled that Marc Andreessen share the stage with our co-founder, Dan Siroker, for a fireside chat. We can think of no better brain to pick about the future of optimization than Marc’s. Marc co-created the highly influential Mosaic Internet browser, co-founded Netscape and Loudcloud, and is now a co-founder and partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture, and growth-stage funding to technology companies. He has an up-close-and-personal understanding of how businesses are using emerging technologies to create amazing experiences for their customers.

Heidi Bullock, Marketo

Optimization and growth in the world of SaaS is a unique kind of beast. High traffic volume is not always a given, and your product offering may be very narrowly targeted. Customers visit with a wide variety of budgets, needs, and expectations. We are excited that Heidi Bullock, the VP of Demand Generation at Marketo, will weigh in with her thoughts on how her team tackles these challenges at Marketo, an Inc 500 software company. Heidi has over 10 years of B2B marketing experience in high tech companies, with expertise including product positioning, brand strategy, product marketing, and demand generation.

• Heidi will speak with KISSmetrics about Building the SaaS Growth Engine.

Jose Uzcategui, ASICS

For a wider perspective on running optimization programs globally, we are excited to have Jose Uzcategui, Ecommerce Conversion Optimization Lead at Asics. Jose’s background covers over 7 years of brand and agency experience in Canada and Japan working with small and enterprise clients including Papa Johns, Intel and Uggs. In his current role, Jose leads digital analytics and optimization efforts for ASICS Global. During the last year, he has pioneered a conversion optimization and new analytics structure across the ASICS organization, which pulls together 5 teams in 4 continents working on over 100 non-e-commerce and e-commerce sites across the ASICS, Onitsuka Tiger, ASICS Tiger and Haglofs brands.

• Jose will join a panel with Motorola about Testing Your Boundaries: Lessons Learned from Testing in International Markets.

Cameron Deatsch. Atlassian

Organizational readiness and internal adoption are two of the largest barriers to running a successful optimization program. One of the companies who has addressed this challenge head on—and succeeded—is Atlassian, a world leader in developing collaboration software tools like JIRA and Confluence. Over the years, they have shifted their company culture from one driven by product teams, narrowly focused on implementing their next feature, to one driven by experimentation, measurement, and iterative optimization. Cameron Deatsch, the Head of Growth at Atlassian, will cover some of the strategies Atlassian has used to encourage their cultural change. Cameron comes from a versatile background at Jive Software where he was Product Marketing Manager, Director of Sales Enablement, and Sr. Director of Demand Generation and Enablement.

• Cameron will speak alongside Rue La La about Collaborating to Scale: How to Spread Optimization Across Your Org and Keep Things from Getting Messy.

Deepa Subramaniam, charity: water

If you’re running A/B tests consistently, you’re already on the right track. But how can you take the next step and turn your testing efforts into a well-oiled growth engine that scales? One example of an organization that has achieved tremendous success within their optimization programs and have figured out how to effectively run hundreds of experiments a year is charity: water. Deepa Subramaniam, the Director of Product at charity: water, will share insight on how the non-profit reached such scale. Deepa joined charity: water after a highly successful 10-year career at Adobe.

• Deepa is part of a session with Moz and The Next Web about Scaling your Testing Program for Maximum Impact.

Patrick McGrath, Netflix

Patrick McGrath, Senior Product Manager of Ad Technology at Netflix, will dive deep into best practices in programmatic ad buying and conversion funnel optimization. Patrick is a lifelong student of advertising wizardry, behavioral economics, and social psychology. Prior to joining Netflix, Patrick managed affiliate marketing product development and the public API program at Walmart Labs, and before that worked on building every imaginable permutation of online dating app while at OkCupid Labs. He will draw on these years of experience to advise companies seeking to grow their programmatic efforts in a controlled manner, while still maintaining A/B and conversion funnel optimization rigor.

• Patrick is giving a talk on Best Practices in Programmatic Ad Buying and Conversion Funnel Optimization.

Peter Isaacson, DemandBase

Pam Webber, 99designs

Jessie Becker, Optimizely

We know that today’s most savvy and effective marketing campaigns utilize many different technologies. A marketing automation platform, a data service provider, an optimization platform, site analytics—just to name a few. How are marketing leaders evaluating these technologies and building their technology stack? What are the most important pieces to have in place? Which teams are indispensable and what data needs to be collected? We’re excited to have Jessie Becker, CMO at Optimizely; Peter Isaacson, CMO at DemandBase; and Pam Webber, CMO at 99designs weigh in on these difficult questions.

• Jessie, Peter, and Pam are part of a panel about The 21st Century Marketing Stack.

Dave King, Tilt

Modern web architecture is shifting into the world of the single-page applications built with AngularJS, Backbone, and React. Dave King, Frontend Developer Lead at Tilt, will speak about what to look for in JS frameworks so you can run powerful A/B tests on your single-page app with Optimizely and how to integrate testing into your current single-page app architecture. Dave worked on the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel as a senior developer and team lead from 2011 to 2014.

• Dave is part of a session on Experience Optimization in Modern Web Architecture.

Joel Constable, Pinterest

A successful optimization program doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It takes bold ideas, a nimble approach, a talented team, and an overwhelming desire to experiment and learn. Internal company culture is the core of a flourishing optimization program.  Joel Constable, the Head of People Development at Pinterest will share examples on how his team is fostering a data-driven culture to thrive at Pinterest. Prior to Pinterest, Joel worked at Google in a variety of leadership development roles.

• Joel is part of a panel with leaders at Eventbrite, Blue Bottle Coffe, and Optimizely about How to Build a Culture of Optimization from Within.

Why should you attend Opticon 2015? If optimization is your job, mark your calendar; Opticon is a can’t miss event.