Velocity 2023 wrap-up: A day of innovation, insight, and connection
Velocity 2023 has officially left its mark as our first community event in four years!
Held on 20 September and organised by the team at Zengenti, Velocity was nothing short of a spectacular event. It was hosted at The Trampery Old Street in London and brought together a diverse audience eager to explore the latest developments in Contensis.
TL;DR [too long; didn't read] 🤯
Unleashing innovation after four years of anticipation
Our community gained valuable insights into content management best practices, including building composable landing pages and working with Information Architecture (IA). There was even a sprinkling of client success stories and accessibility expertise.
We hope you were able to join us at Velocity, but if you missed it, here's a recap of what we got up to:
- Breakfast
- Company update
- Contensis product update
- Session 1 - content track
- Session 2 - developer track
- Community success story - The University of Birmingham
- Building composable landing pages with Contensis
- Community success story - Revitive
- Q&A with the team
- Guest speaker Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC)
- Velocity 2023 conclusion
Breakfast
The day started with breakfast and networking - picture pastries the size of your head and plenty of tea and coffee.
Company update
Presented by Richard Chivers.
At 9:30 a.m., Velocity started with a company update from Zengenti CEO Richard Chivers. Rich set the tone for the day, sharing valuable insights into Zengenti's progress, achievements, and future direction.
Contensis product update
Presented by Richard Saunders.
Next up was Senior product and design manager Richard Saunders. Richard gave a feature-packed Contensis update, unveiling what is coming in the next release and a sneak peek into the 12-month roadmap.
Attendees had the opportunity to gain insights, ask questions, and stay ahead in the evolution of Contensis.
Following our product updates were two interactive sessions that split the attendees into their areas of interest: development and content editing. In these sessions, our community had the chance to dive deep into a subject with our experts.
Session 1: Content track
Playing with Information Architecture (IA).
Our Senior user experience designer, Margherita, led an interactive session highlighting the importance of Information Architecture (IA). The session offered valuable insights for content teams, marketers, and non-technical Contensis users about user experience, website structure and dark patterns to avoid.
Session 2: Developer track
Getting Started with Blocks.
Developers had the opportunity to participate in a hands-on workshop tailored just for them, exploring the full potential of Contensis' latest feature, Blocks. Our co-founders, Richard Chivers and Simon Horan, led the session.
A well-deserved break allowed attendees to network and recharge ahead of the content-packed afternoon sessions.
Community success story - The University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham's modern CMS migration.
We love seeing our community succeed! In this guest talk, Robert Fowles, Head of digital channel management, and Amy Commander, Digital channel manager, from the University of Birmingham demonstrated how they are seamlessly transitioning CMS from Classic to Modern Contensis, step by step.
Their presentation captivated the audience, providing insights into the challenges, strategies, and successes shaping their digital transformation process.
Building composable landing pages with Contensis
Presented by Martin Brady and Ryan Bromley.
Composable has been a hot topic for 2023, and for good reason. This session, led by our Senior experience designer, Martin, and Product owner and content strategist, Ryan, focused on enabling teams to efficiently launch landing pages without relying on developers, emphasising using design systems within Contensis.
Content teams rejoiced to learn how to launch unique pages without writing code.
Community success story - Revitive
Recommending a Headless CMS.
Another excellent example of the Contensis community thriving is the story about how a healthcare company, Revitive, chose Contensis for their new, global e-commerce operation.
Led by fractional CTO and digital transformation consultant Graham Roberts, this talk revealed the many different ways to use the power of Contensis. Graham summarised how they leveraged the headless capability of the CMS, digitised their operations, integrated with key business platforms and improved conversion rates.
Q&A with the team
A fireside chat with the team developing Contensis.
Attendees had the unique opportunity to engage directly with our expert team in an interactive Q&A session.
Guest speaker Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC)
Accessibility insights with the DAC.
We were pleased to be joined by guest speakers Gavin Evans, Director of Operations, and Michael Taylor, Senior accessibility analyst and communications and training manager from the DAC, who provided valuable insights into the real-world impact of accessibility in practice.
We have worked with the DAC for several years to improve the accessibility of Contensis and were pleased they could share their insights with our community.
That concluded our day of content, followed by drinks post-event for more networking and mingling for our community.
Velocity 2023 conclusion
A celebration of progress through the ever-evolving landscape of digital content management.
Velocity was a day filled with innovation, inspiration, and opportunities to connect.
We're proud that it provided value for everyone who uses Contensis, a vibrant mix of creators, developers, marketers, and visionaries – all united by a singular purpose: to explore the cutting edge of our content management system and the limitless possibilities it brings.
Zengenti Velocity continues to be an event worth waiting for, and we look forward to the next instalment of this incredible journey.
Thank you for being a part of it!