With Imagine 2018 just a week away, the team share their #RoadToImagine stories and thoughts.

Neil Boughton – Technical Director

My Imagine journey first started in 2014, at the Hard Rock Hotel – just off the Las Vegas strip.

Magento Imagine 2014

I had originally gone over to try and see if we could get iWeb on the official Magento Partner program. However, as the UK has such a strong network of Magento agencies this was never going to be easy.

So we didn’t come away as a partner, but I did come away completely inspired by the whole community, and full of insights that I could pass on to our clients. I was hooked!

I returned in 2015, where the venue had changed to the Wynn. The whole conference felt much lighter and brighter, and I can see why Magento keeps returning – it’s such a stunning hotel.

Whilst there I decided to secretly take my Magento Solution Specialist exam, so my first few evenings were spent revising. On the day I took (and passed!) the exam I went back to my room in the evening for a quick rest, and managed to completely sleep through the legendary Magento party. A mixture of relief and jet lag I think!

Neil & Hedds working hard at Magento Imagine 2016

2016 saw me attending the event with Hedds, our Creative Director, and one of our clients, Karl from MyMemory.co.uk. It was great being able to share the event with others. I obviously knew how amazing it was – so it was satisfying to see the energy that Hedds brought back with him too.

iWeb & MyMemory at Magento Imagine 2017

In 2017 myself and our MD, Nick attended the event, along with Karl and Ben from MyMemory. Again, I saw how the event gave Nick a buzz – and it made us want to take even more people in 2018. You really do come back fired up!

Shortly after last years event we became an official Magento Solution Partner. It’s been a long journey, but I’m so proud of the whole team that we’ve finally made it. We have also recently moved up from Business to Professional partners too. It’s been great to demonstrate to Magento what we’re capable of, and we’re excited for the future.

I’m particularly looking forward to this years event. I’m taking part in the #BigDamRun for the first time, and we have a client up for a Magento Excellence award. If they do win you’ll be sure to hear me whooping, it’s been a dream for many years to even get nominated – so a win would just be amazing.

This year there will be five of us attending from iWeb, along with three different clients. If you see me walking around, please do stop and say hi.

My top tips for surviving Imagine: drink plenty of water, eat some fruit, take a trip away from the strip, and remember to get some sleep!

You can follow Neil’s Imagine 2018 escapades @NeilBoughton

Nick Pinson – Managing Director

Nick Pinson | Managing Director | iWeb

This will be my second year at Imagine and I really can’t wait. I was really impressed with the energy the whole event carried and I found it infectious. Imagine last year made me realise that we needed to be Magento Partner as there was a big shift in the features available in the licensed version of Magento, Magento Commerce. Particularly attending the launch of the B2B Suite of functionality. I felt that being a partner was going put us in the best possible position to educate current and future customers on the benefits of Magento Commerce.

So my road to Imagine this year started in June when we started as a Magento Business Solution Partner and I am really proud to be attending this year as a Magento Professional Solution Partner which we officially became on the 1st April. This means we get to attend the partner only event on the Sunday afternoon. All the partner only events I have attended this year have been very informative and useful for recommending the right solution to customers and understanding the road map of the product.

Sunday morning also brings the BigDamRun which I’m running the 10K event. We did a day trip cycle tour to the Hoover Dam last year and it was great to get out of the city and visit such an iconic monument. So I am looking forward (sort of) to running around it this year.

Being nominated for an Excellence award in the Best Overall B2B Implementation category this year is also very exciting for us. It would be fantastic for our team if we won so fingers crossed we make it on stage.

Imagine has many great talks from both Magento and Technology Partners in the wider Magento ecosystem. I always like the big general session talks for any big announcements from the senior Magento team.

This year we are also attending Imagine with some of our merchants which will be a good time for us to catch up with them and also visit the Sponsors Marketplace to pinpoint any key services that will help them reach their digital strategy targets.

Finally I really enjoy the networking events and parties after a long day. Over the years and this year in particular we have made many new partnerships and friendships with other Systems Integrators, Magento Technology partners and just people we’ve bumped into at events. These poolside events are a great place to catch up with folks and have a few beers.

You can follow Nick’s Imagine 2018 experience @nickpinson.

Pembo – Development Director

Expectations

This year is the first time I have been fortunate enough to attend Imagine. This, however, isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to Magento events – I’ve attended the past four Magento Live UKs and several Mage Titan Events. When I’ve tried to envisage what ‘Imagine’ would be like I always think of it as Magento Live – but on a much grander scale. Let’s say “Magento Live on Steroids” – I’ll let you know if it lives up to these expectations.

Community

The thing I love most about Magento events is that you get to meet the wider community outside of your normal day-to-day bubble. At Imagine I’m hoping I’ll get to meet lots of people that don’t usually make it to the European events.

Excellence Award

One of the best things about working at iWeb has to be the people, there is some great minds here and the team make me proud in some way pretty much every day. That’s why it has been very rewarding to be nominated for a Magento Excellence award in the ‘Best Overall B2B Implementation category this year – I just hope we can bring it home for everyone – I’ve got butterflies just thinking about it!

Schedule

In terms of whose talks I’m looking forward to most – there’s that many great speakers its hard to pick out one, it’s actually hard to pick out half a dozen but from when I first saw him talk at Mage Titans late last year; I can tell you that Phil Jackson will absolutely slay it as the “Master of Ceremonies” and the DevExchange sessions are always pretty good too.

Big Dam Run

Lastly, for some crazy reason I decided to sign up for the #BigDamRun which iWeb are also sponsoring. I’ll be doing a 5k run in the blazing desert heat, for someone who hasn’t ran since his school days and probably makes a sloth look active – this is a big thing for me. I’ve been training for several weeks now and I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I’ll see you all at the finish line!

You can follow Pembo’s Imagine 2018 adventures @p3mbo.