Adobe Summit 2020 – Top Personalization Sessions to Attend

It is Summit season again which means it’s time to figure out what sessions and labs to schedule before the really good ones fill up. I’ll cut straight to the chase with a few guidelines:

• If you are very new to Adobe Experience Cloud products – Prioritize product-specific sessions and labs to learn the basics. You need a good foundation to use these tools effectively.
• If you are a developer or an “in the weeds” type of person – Take the most technical sessions and labs you can handle. You will likely get the most from them and find the discussions and Q & A more engaging.
• For everyone else – Challenge yourself. Don’t choose sessions where you already feel like an expert on the topic. Strive to learn something new to help your team and your organization be a better competitor.

That being said, if you’ve looked through the session catalog you probably noticed there are literally hundreds of sessions to choose from spanning across multiple products, session types, and industries. It can be tricky to choose what to attend, especially when interesting sessions overlap and are held at the same time. Continual UX improvement is becoming more ingrained into organizational cultures, so it’s no surprise that this year’s catalog is loaded with sessions focused on personalization with Adobe Target.

Here are the personalization sessions I recommend for everyone:

S413 – Adobe Target & Adobe Experience Platform: The Future of Personalization

Why should you attend?
To put it simply, this is the next big thing. Seriously. Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) changes personalization and Next Best Offer (NBO) orchestration, in a very good way. If you think Target’s built-in profile is powerful, then you are in for a treat. Also, if you have ever met with the Target product team 1-on-1, chances are you have met Ram. Be sure to ask tough questions. Q & A from sessions like this have a big impact on product enhancements.

S412 – Adobe Target Hacks: Tips & Tricks to Take Full Advantage of the Solution

Why should you attend?
These are my favorite types of sessions. No extra licensing, no “it’s on the roadmap” theoretical enhancements, just actionable tricks you can implement today to improve ROI. If you are even reading this post, then chances are your organization has a license for Target, in which case it’s up to you to get the most out of it. These sessions are generally the perfect balance between technical and business-focused and this one is worthy of a spot on your schedule.

L779 – Adobe Analytics Reporting for Adobe Target

Why should you attend?
The integration between Adobe Analytics and Target (A4T) is extremely useful, but it’s important to know how it works and how to use the metrics. I’ve covered this topic in other blog posts because it’s so commonly misunderstood. For that reason, I recommend anyone who uses Adobe Analytics to attend this session if they don’t consider themselves an A4T expert.

Here are my recommended personalization labs for the technical crowd:

L776 – Server- and Client-side Hybrid Personalization for Performance and Scale

Why should you attend?
Like it or not, server-side implementations of Adobe Target are rapidly gaining adoption. There is no one-size-fits-all implementation and there are pros and cons of both server-side and client-side approaches. However, a hybrid implementation could be the best of both worlds. This will likely be one of the most technical labs at Summit, but it may be the most valuable if your organization is considering server-side personalization.

L778 – API-Powered Personalization with Adobe Target

Why should you attend?
Because APIs are cool. The Adobe Target APIs are powerful but under-utilized by most organizations. If you feel like your optimization program has matured and plateaued, then you may want to see what else is possible using the APIs. Once you learn what building blocks are available and their intended uses, your imagination is the limit of what you can do with them. Don’t think that the Target web UI is all there is to Target, there’s a lot more going on under the hood you could use to your advantage. I encourage all IT leadership to attend at least one session or lab related to Adobe I/O, and this should be a good one.

L743 – Build, Configure, Integrate Adobe Experience Manager and Target in One Day

Why should you attend?
If your company uses both Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and Adobe Target but does NOT use Experience Fragments in Target then this session is for you. The AEM to Target integration is one of the most powerful in the Experience Cloud and can lead to incredible operational efficiencies. Why modify a site’s custom HTML, CSS, and JS when you can author testable variations in AEM and use them directly in Target?

But what about sessions related to success stories, building a personalization practice, and process improvements?

Frankly, there are a lot of those to choose from, and they are all valuable. If you are new to personalization, struggling to get organizational buy-in, or are looking to speak with others in the same position – then be sure to attend one of these sessions. There is a wide variety of industry-specific sessions that are perfect for networking and gathering ideas on how to clear your next hurdle.

You may have noticed I recommended quite a few labs and sessions around how to get the most value out of Adobe Target. I’ve been attending Summit for the past five years, and I’ve personally found these types of sessions to be the most valuable with the most engaging discussions. Summit only lasts a few days, so make the most of it. See you there!