Optimizely Developer Meet-up (for Non-Techies)

I’ve been part of the Optimizely community for over seven years. Back when Episerver was still just “Epi”, Optimizely was the best A/B testing platform on the market, and Justin Anovick was beginning to rock those legendary branded suits. What’s always drawn me in is the strength of the community. Customers, partners, and “Optimizers” (my collective noun for anyone on the Optimizely payroll) make up a network that’s as welcoming as it is knowledgeable.

Nothing captures that spirit better than the local developer meetups organised around the world by passionate volunteers, backed by Optimizely itself.

Last Thursday, I attended my fifth developer meet-up in London. “But hang on,” I hear you say. “You’re not a developer!” And you'd be right. I’m not. But whilst I might not be able to debug a stack trace, I know when someone’s about to deploy a strong opinion in a stand-up! And I do love attending these meet-ups. Here’s why…

In a word: community.

It’s a room full of people far more knowledgeable than me. People who are knee deep in the weeds of the Optimizely stack every day. People solving real customer challenges and pushing the limits of the platform. But more than that, people who want to share what they’ve learned and are incredibly generous with their time doing it. It’s infectious, being in a space like that, surrounded by smart, normal people who just want to help each other, is a special thing. You can’t manufacture it. You can only enable it, and hope that it grows organically through genuine passion. In my career, I've seen similar communities, particularly at larger organisations, but this one, this Optimizely one, really stands out.

This particular evening ran for over two hours and featured seven speakers. Now, I won’t pretend I followed everything, but even a simpleton like me walked away with new insights. It was fascinating to see how different people and partners are using the Optimizely One suite to create real value for their customers, across CMS, Commerce, and beyond.

If you’ve never been to one of these meet-ups, I genuinely recommend giving it a go. They’re free to attend, they’re informal and they’re packed with knowledge. Sure, if you’re a developer, tech lead, or solution architect, you’ll be right in the thick of it—but even if you’re not, you’ll get plenty out of it too and you’ll meet some brilliant people along the way.

This one was co-sponsored by Niteco , UNRVLD , Netcel , and Optimizely. No big deal, but together they helped secure a great venue (with food and drink!) and kept the event free for everyone to enjoy. If you’re part of this community, come along. Listen. Speak. Share. They’re a friendly bunch (especially once they're fed).

A final note of kudos to Scott Reed, who’s been helping organise the London meet-up since 2017. Thanks also to Patrick Lam, Satata Satez, and everyone who helped make it happen. And of course, huge respect to the speakers:

• Minesh Shah (Netcel): Frontend Hosting with Optimizely
• Tom Bramley (Optimizely): Content Manager, AI Translations, Opal and CMS 13
• Scott Reed (Niteco): Application Insights, Refining Data and View Logs
• Andrew Markham (UNRVLD): Intro to the New Opti Connect Platform
• Jacob Pretorius (Niteco): Visualising Cloudflare Edge Logs with Grafana
• Daniel Halse (Netcel): CMS 12 / Graph Integration with Configured Commerce
• Jeremy Brown (UNRVLD): PaaS CMS Foundation for Greenfield Projects

And a final thank you to Jacob Pretorius, not just for speaking, but for filming the whole evening so that you can watch it all back from the comfort of your own home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqtleljncDg

I don’t refactor code. I refactor pitch decks: same mental energy, just fewer curly braces.

Hope to see you at the next one!