Meet Magento UK is back on 14th July 2021: Here’s what you can expect
Last week we announced Meet Magento UK is back for 2021!
One of the biggest eCommerce events on the UK calendar, now in its 10th year (and 4th year of being hosted by JH), will be happening on 14th July 2021 – and ahead of upcoming announcements about the sponsors, speakers and more, we thought we’d clue you in on some of the details.
MM21UK will be online
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with all in-person events cancelled, we took Meet Magento UK online – because we believed the eCommerce community needed the event more than ever. And we were right – with over 1000 attendees from all over the world, and over £83,000 raised for our chosen charities, the community made it our biggest, and best, event so far.
Over a year later, and with online conferences now the norm, we did consider hosting an in-person event, possibly later in 2021 – but after a lot of thinking, we’ve opted for online again, for a number of reasons.
First – so many of us are more comfortable with virtual events than in-person ones right now. We don’t think it should be a trade-off between feeling at ease and accessing knowledge – so we’re hosting it in a way we think the majority of people will be more comfortable with.
Secondly – and on a more positive note – we believe an online event makes Meet Magento UK infinitely more accessible. In 2020 we had attendees from all over the country, and all over the world, who would not have been able to attend an in-person event. Taking the event back offline, and effectively cutting off a portion of the community, feels backwards. So we’re not doing that.
We’re aiming for a live streamed event, to emulate as much of that in-person buzz as we can – but with all content available on-demand post-event. We know with so much to take in, many of you will want to re-watch or catch up on sessions you missed, and making them all available online as soon as possible is a huge part of our plan.
All the best eCommerce knowledge, in one place
Each year MMUK draws a wide audience from all areas of digital commerce – simply because of the breadth of knowledge covered – and we hope this year will be no different. We’ve already opened the call for speakers and had many fantastic submissions; but we’re also hand-picking some of the best merchant and partner talent in the industry, to ensure the learnings on offer are as forward-thinking and actionable as possible.
With multiple specialist tracks on offer, and a selection of the best learnings within eCommerce, there will be a world of knowledge at your fingertips – whether you’re a developer, marketer, eCommerce merchant, strategist, designer, consultant, or anything else within digital commerce.
A conference you’ll find value in
Something that’s really been at the heart of Meet Magento to us is bringing value to the community. We don’t allow sales pitches at Meet Magento UK – all sessions are chosen with the stipulation that they’ll bring valuable learning to the audience. We know attending events like this can mean taking important time away from work or play, and so making it worth your time is at the top of our priority list.
As with every year, you can expect to find explorations of the latest innovations in technology, ideas, and strategy across digital commerce. Meet Magento UK attracts fantastic speakers in it’s own right, but we also hand-pick up-and-coming experts – in fact we have a history of giving some industry greats their first public platform. That’s a legacy we’ll continue to embody, in MM21UK and beyond.
We’re making it accessible to all
Last year we trialled a ‘pay what you want’ model for tickets, with all donations going to charity – and this year we’ll be doing the same. We don’t believe in barriers to knowledge within the community, and we don’t think anyone should miss out on expanding their skillset because they couldn’t afford the ticket price to Meet Magento UK. So we’re removing that barrier.
We hope you’ll choose to donate what you’d otherwise have spent on your ticket to one of our chosen charities instead – they need your help more than ever.
The community spirit you know and love
We’re taking the event online – but we don’t want to lose the community spirit. We’re aiming for a live-streamed conference for that exact reason – so we can all experience it together, even though we’re apart – and you’ll have access to networking and live chat on our events platform, to ask questions and connect with your peers in real-time. There’s plenty more we can do to foster that community spirit, and we’ll be announcing more of the details closer to the time – follow the Meet Magento UK Twitter to keep up with announcements.
A few surprises… to celebrate 10 years of Meet Magento!
This year sees the 10th year anniversary of Meet Magento events globally – and the 4th year that JH have hosted Meet Magento UK. We think that’s cause for celebration! We’ve got lots of exciting ideas in the bag – but unfortunately you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what they are. We promise it’ll be worth it.
We hope you’re as excited as we are!
To stay up to date with the latest on Meet Magento UK, sign up to the JH mailing list or follow the official Meet Magento UK Twitter account. If you’d like to apply for a speaking slot, you can submit your application to our Call for Speakers here. We hope to see you there in July!