This is a second part of my key takeaways from the recently concluded SUGCON Europe 2025. In my previous blog, I covered the keynotes from Sitecore leadership including the key announcements. In this blog post, I will cover the rest of my key takeaways from the conference.
Key highlight sessions continued
Session: Building the Future: Extending XM Cloud with Marketplace Apps
- Spyros Misichronis (Marketplace Architect, Sitecore)
- Liz Nelson (Product Lead of XM Cloud)
Summary: Liz and Spyros gave a high level overview of the Sitecore XM Cloud Marketplace Apps, headlining it as “Extensibility Umbrella” comprising of a Public Portal and Developer Marketplace.
Session key takeaways:
- Developers can now leverage the CLI, SDK on GitHub to build extensions to integrate with XM Cloud APIs.
- Developers can embed features into Pages directly or creating standalone tools.
- Developers can build applications that enhances functionality and streamline workflows
- Spyros’s live demo of building a sample Marketplace App showcased that we can start leveraging existing the developer tooling right now to build the apps.
Session: Leading in the new era of AI
- Hans Verbeeck (Technology Manager @ Microsoft)
Summary: Hans session covered the journey of AI to date, highlighting how things have changed from the early days of Scaling Laws that pretty much limited computing capacity. With computing capacity and storage readily available with cloud and data centres, Microsoft has made rapid progress with Copilots, AI platform and Agent Frameworks. He amplified the need to make a choice between Buy or Build in this new era of AI and he was leaning towards “better of Buying” or “consider Buying before Building”.
Session key takeaways
- When it comes to AI, better of Buying” or “consider Buying before Building”
- Think of what you can Buy first
- Copilot is the UX for AI, Copilot is for Humans
- Agents are for Processes
- Sitecore Stream is AI-enabled capabilities with Sitecore products, that is underpinned by Brand-aware AI, Copilots & Agents and Agentic Workflows.
- Sitecore Stream leverage Azure’s scalability, reliability, security, advanced analytics, AI and machine learning
- Call to action: Read more about Sitecore Stream from official docs
Session: Lessons learned – 2 years after building our first XM Cloud platform
- Derk Hudepol (Avanade CX Solution lead & Architect and Technology MVP)
Summary: In this session Derk took us through his journey with XM Cloud over the past two years at BDR Thermea. They had started small—with just one site—after building a solid core platform. From there, things really took off as they expanded to support five brands and over ten sites, adding features like eCommerce and search along the way. Derk also shared the lessons learnt and some tips and tricks working with XM cloud.
Session key takeaways
- Have a solid basis for your CM Cloud solution
- It is challenging to keep up with a continuously updating platform (XM Cloud)
- Less is more, XM Cloud provided a lot better adoption compared to XP platform
- Implement workflows from Day 1 for XM Cloud projects
- Experience Edge comes with a lot of benefits, but also has challenges around rate limiting, stale content /cache issues and lack of Admin UI
- You can read more insights on his blog: https://blog.derkhudepol.nl/
Session: Building advanced RAG systems with Sitecore products. Putting AI assistants in Production
- Sergey Baranov (Technology MVP)
Summary: Sergey’s session was a classic of how to get value from your data leveraging AI. In his well researched and presented session, he demonstrated how to unlock the potential of your data by transforming it into meaningful interactions with advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.
Sergey explored how to design advanced virtual agents using RAG, connecting LLMs with Sitecore tools like CDP, Personalize, and OrderCloud to create personalized, data-driven customer interactions, while also covering optimization, cost-efficiency, and quality monitoring
Session key takeaways
- Know differences between traditional Virtual Assistants and Naive RAG systems
- Understand Large Language Models (LLM) limitations when building RAGs, such as limited knowledge, hallucinations, no personalisation
- Naive RAG versus Advanced RAG: the former improves responses of LLM responses, the latter improves the quality of RAG
- GPT-40 mini is recommended for RAGs (actually always leverage mini versions in RAGs)
Session: The Future of Design Library for Multi-Site, Multi-Channel Content
- Liz Nelson (Product Lead of XM Cloud)
- Eirini Kalampogia (Product Director, Sitecore)
Summary: Liz doesn’t need introduction, but Eirini this was her first presentation. During the session Liz and Eirini shared how a centralized Design Library helps manage components and design across complex multi-site, multi-channel ecosystems. It improves consistency, streamlines workflows, and boosts developer efficiency through integration with client codebases, unified templates, and usage metrics—creating a one-stop hub for scalable, high-quality digital experiences. The session had a live demo that showcased identifying “duplicate” components with new Design Library – a common pain point marketers face today.
Session key takeaways
- Design system is needed so that we can have consistency across channels, have visibility of components, with faster delivery cycles (and reduced tech debt).
- Design library gives marketers autonomy they much so need
- Design at scale is a smarter way to manage components
- Avoiding fragmentations of components (marketer vs developer), code & no-code means better together
- Look out for future announcements on Design Library and capabilities available within Sitecore products. Especially leveraging AI component generation, whereby a marketer starts component creation (no-code) and developer later takes AI-generated code and improves it. And marketer plays with it iteratively
- The vision being “A single platform where devs build structure, marketers bring stories to life and AI scales the creative output across audiences and channels”
Session: Sitecore Stream in Platform DXP
- Vignesh Vishwanath (Product Manager, Sitecore)
Summary: This was a session by Vignesh where he provided a full overview of the Sitecore Stream module within Sitecore Platform DX. He showcased the available features today as well what is in the roadmap.
Session key takeaways
- Demonstrated Language translation with Stream Translate (which adds new item version)
- You can use Stream with Content Structure, Content Auditing (review and suggest improvements)
- You can use Stream for Image to Alt Text
- You can use Stream for Component Generation (leveraging prompts)
- Highly recommend further reading from official Sitecore docs
Session: The joys and challenges of managing thousands of websites in a single Sitecore instance
- Adam Najmanowicz (Developer)
Summary: Adam need no introduction. His session theme was basically lessons learnt, tips and tricks from the joys and challenges of managing a large number of websites in a single Sitecore instance.
Session key takeaways
- Don’t run in integrated mode for XM Cloud
- Servers are “cattle not pets”
- Go headless node from the very start of XM Cloud projects
- Reusability of content and settings is super important
Session: Better XM/XP deployments with Kubernetes
- Peter Procházka (Sitecore Solutions Architect @ Accenture and Technology MVP)
Summary: Pete’s session was mostly lesson learnt and his insights using Kubernetes with Sitecore XM/XP workloads. He showcased Kubernetes and how it enables cloud orchestration and self-healing among other features. This session was more valuable for anyone transitioning from IaaS or PaaS, as Pete shared useful reference architectures.
Session key takeaways
- Nice recap of what Traditional vs Cloud-based services workloads look like, IaaS vs CaaS
- Local developer workflows and process to follow
- Docker architecture, Image registry, Docker compose and override files
- Why Kubernetes (with declarative vs imperative use cases) and pros/cons for either approach
- DevOps /GitOps and tooling (Flux/Helm)
- Reach out to Pete or visit his blog for more details: https://tothecore.sk/
Session: Synchronizing Sitecore XM Cloud Content with Azure DevOps
- Robbert Hock (Technology MVP)
Summary: This was a fast-paced 15-minute lightning talk in which Robbert Hock(who needs no introduction) shared how his team addressed a common challenge with Sitecore XM Cloud: keeping lower Sitecore XM Cloud environments synchronized with production. I will point you to read more about it on Robbert follow up blog post. Robbert actually demonstrated his solution as well as the Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines his team had built.
Session: Sitecore’s Marketplace roadmap review & Developer program
- Krassi Eneva (Senior Product Manager, Sitecore)
- Justin Vogt (Principle Product Manager, Sitecore)
Summary: Already covered this as part of the Key Product Roadmaps announcements in part one post.
Other sessions attended
Below is a high level summary of other sessions I managed to attend
Session: Our Conversational AI future – Predicting the new web by looking to the past
- Presented by Rob Coyle (Director of Product Design, Sitecore)
Summary: Rob session was on “a speculative future of Web and CMS” where he demonstrated concepts such as: “Show recommendations based on time to go home”. He explored futuristic use cases such as Content remixes and Agent rules.
Session: Unlocking Inclusivity – Alt-Text So Good, Even Robots Can’t Resist
- Presented by Anna Pokorna (Ambassador MVP)
Summary: In this session, Anna shared how they leveraged AI to automate the generation of Image alt-text and metadata for their client. Thereby enhancing accessibility, SEO, and maintaining brand tone of voice. The solution was implemented over a year ago, well before Sitecore Stream was announced, highlighting Anna’s company forward-thinking approach as the industry now moves toward similar capabilities.
Session: Full Circle – The Architect of XM Cloud builds an XM Cloud Site (as a partner for the first time)
- Presented Andy Cohen (Honorary MVP)
Summary: Andy Cohen doesn’t need further introduction — the founding architect of XM Cloud, was sharing his own story and experiences as he built his first project on XM Cloud—this time from a partner perspective. It was an interesting session that was well attended.
Session: Diversity in the Age of AI – Why It Matters More Than Ever?
- Presented by Daniela Militaru (Senior Sales Engineer, Sitecore)
Summary: Daniela’s session was a group discussion in the format of a fire-side chat where the audience explored the vital role that diverse perspectives play in developing ethical, innovative, and effective AI solutions. Very engaging and great to see so many contributions from the engaged audience in this important AI topic.
Session: A walk-through of XM Cloud Content
- Presented by Alistair Deneys (System Architect, Sitecore). I already covered this as part of the Key Product Roadmaps announcements in part one post.
Round up from Sitecore community
Below is a summary of related blog posts from our Sitecore community, whereby Sitecore MVPs, marketers and developers alike are sharing their key takeaways as well. Please note this list has not been presented in any particular ordering.
- SUGCON EU Excitement! The most interesting announcements from the Sitecore team, by Jeremy Davis: https://blog.jermdavis.dev/posts/2025/sugcon-excitement (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- 10 Highlights from SUGCON Europe 2025 in Antwerp, Belgium – by Rob McGovern: https://remarkable.global/insights/sugcon-europe-2025/ (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- LinkedIn post by Anna Pokorna summarizing her key takeaways (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- Key takeaways by Nick Allen summarized in 3x blog posts: https://www.thinkfreshfreelance.co.uk/blog/post/sugcon-europe-2025-keynote-insights (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- SUGCON Europe 2025: One Platform, Bold Future, by Nikhil Kulkarni: https://techienikhil.wordpress.com/2025/04/10/sugcon-europe-2025/ (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- Recap: SUGCON Europe 2025 – Synchronizing Sitecore XM Cloud with Azure DevOps, by Robbert Hock: https://www.kayee.nl/2025/04/11/recap-sugcon-europe-2025-synchronizing-sitecore-xm-cloud-with-azure-devops/ (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- My SUGCON Europe 2025 highlights, Jeroen Breuer: https://www.jeroenbreuer.nl/blog/my-sugcon-europe-2025-highlights/ (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- SPExAI Report Builder: A Winning Sitecore Hackathon submission (announced during SUGNCON Europe 2025): https://www.sitecoregabe.com/2025/04/spexai-report-builder-hackathon.html (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- SUGCON Europe 2025 – Recap, by Simon Hauck: https://sitecore.merkle.com/sugcon-recap/ (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- Unlocking the Sitecore Marketplace: A Deep Dive from SUGCON Europe 2025, by Akshay Sura: https://konabos.com/blog/unlocking-the-sitecore-marketplace-a-deep-dive-from-sugcon-europe-2025 (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- SUGCON Europe 2025 Takeaways, by Martin Miles: https://blog.martinmiles.net/post/sugcon-europe-2025-takeaways (accessed on 8th May 2025)
- SUGCON YouTube Channel with SUGCON Europe 2025 sessions, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvwdDTmlDsRy5DRArU-nmWNlWED0vHuJS
Conclusion and next steps
Overall, I observed a positive sentiment during this conference. There was positive energy and buzz throughout the event, and this was echoed in various social media posts as well. I have also provided a round up from Sitecore community for your convenience – I hope you get time to read through the blog posts to corroborate my key takeaways and feedback from other attendees. SUGCON Europe is a key event in Sitecore calendar and there is already talk about next year! We are also looking forward to SUGCON ANZ later in the year and Sitecore Symposium is back again in Orlando during November 2025. In the meantime, stay tuned.
