CMS Kickoff 26 conference program

Let’s make digital better

The conference is tailored for digital leaders and features 2 packed days with a carefully curated mixture of talks, workshops, activities and world class facilitators, thought-provokers, speakers and session leads.

Unlike many other conferences, this one is not about speakers talking endlessly about their own work. Rather than being talked at, this is your conference for active participation and connecting with your peers with the goal to move things forward.

The below is a work in progress. Changes will happen

Program

Tuesday, January 13

8:30 - 9:30: Breakfast and registration

Join us early, get the conversation started, make some new friends and enjoy some freshly brewed coffee and tea.

9:30 - 9:45: Welcome & Opening

by our host Janus Boye, Boye & Co

In 2025, CMS platforms shifted toward headless, AI-driven, and cloud-native architectures for omnichannel delivery. Traditional monoliths declined as composable and automation-focused systems dominated the market.

What lies ahead for 2026? Join this analyst update by Matt Garrepy and hear his take on what waits around the corner

Enterprise content teams face challenges keeping up with quality while managing several pages across disconnected tools and manual workflows. An ambient AI assistant that runs continuously in the background, connecting existing systems to provide real-time guidance without disrupting workflows, offers a practical solution.

This session explores how to implement ambient content intelligence in your workflows to move from reactive audits to continuous monitoring, providing guidance during content creation rather than after publication, and scaling quality.

The pace of change in the digital world has never been faster, and agencies are feeling it from every angle. From AI-driven efficiencies to shifting budgets and projects being sliced into smaller, faster engagements, the traditional agency model is evolving before our eyes.

But it’s not just agencies that are changing; customers are too. Clients are becoming more tech-savvy, data-aware, and expect faster results with greater transparency. They are rethinking how they work with creative and digital partners, seeking collaboration that is more flexible, strategic, and measurable. The agency–client relationship itself is being rewritten.

This session explores what these shifts really mean for agencies and the customers they serve. Drawing from real-world conversations with industry peers, it shares insights into how teams are adapting, where both sides are feeling the pressure, and what strategies are helping them stay relevant and resilient together.

You will get a candid, data-informed look at the realities of running and partnering with a modern agency in a constantly moving tech landscape, along with practical ideas to help you keep pace without losing your edge.

11.00 - 11:25 Coffee & networking

How AI reimagines the content supply chain from ideation to publication, with some real-life use cases of how we've been practically implementing AI-enabled workflows for marketers and content experts.

More details to follow

More details coming soon

AI is no longer a tool we use — it’s a collaborator woven into every layer of digital experience. From generating content to shaping personalized interactions, its presence is transforming how teams work and what “human creativity” really means.

In this session, Daria Kolchina explores what she calls New-Age Human Intelligence — the evolving blend of human intuition, empathy, and strategic thinking that turns AI from an assistant into a true creative partner. Drawing from the AI-First Journey Fast Track framework, she shows how teams can move from execution to orchestration, designing systems where people and AI co-create value.

You’ll discover how roles across content, design, and engineering are shifting — and how to build workflows where human and machine intelligence complement each other to deliver richer, more meaningful digital experiences.

12:30 - 1.30 Lunch

1:30 - 2.30 Roundtables

Come join 2 x 25 minutes of informal roundtable discussions to get answers on your specific questions or help others by sharing your expert knowledge.
Each table has no more than 10 attendees and is assigned a specific topic and moderator.
First come first served: you don’t get to see who’s at the table until you get there.

After the initial 25 minutes are up, you get to pick another table for the next 25 minutes of discussion.

Tables:

1. …coming soon

2:30 - 3:00 Coffee & networking

AI is reshaping how digital teams plan, build, and deliver. The real advantage isn’t just in adopting new tools — it’s in connecting them. When AI is embedded into a composable architecture, strategy and execution finally move at the same pace.

In this session, Chad Solomonsen explores how to design an AI-powered roadmap that accelerates value instead of adding complexity. He’ll show how to:

• Attach AI at the experience layer where it drives real outcomes

• Stream and govern data safely from core systems

• Reuse modular components across teams and channels

• Deliver measurable improvements in weeks, not years

Drawing on real implementations and lessons from leading enterprise teams, Chad reveals what it takes to turn composable vision into everyday execution — building smarter and shipping faster with AI at the center.

More details coming soon

4:30 - 5:00 Coffee & networking

5:00 - 6:00 CMS Idol 2026

Help crown the next (and first) “2026 CMS Idol”! In this fast-paced, entertaining competition, contestants will have 6 minutes to showcase their system and try to win your vote.

If you like short demos, pithy commentary, and expert analyses, then look no further. This is the session for you. You'll hear thoughts from an expert panel of judges, but it's up to you to decide the winner.

Host: Matt Garrepy, CMS Critic

Judges:

• coming soon

Confirmed contestants:

• Crew CMS

• Kontent.ai

• Umbraco

• more coming soon

6:30 - 10:00 Social event

Join us for an informal networking dinner.

We’ll also announce the CMS Idol winner and even do a CMS Experts Quiz!

Venue: Voodoo Brewing Co, 220 4th St N, St. Pete

Wednesday, January 14

7:00 Morning Run

We meet in front of the James for a relaxed 25 minute run. We’ll run to the famous Pier and perhaps catch the sunrise!

8:30 - 9:30 Breakfast and networking

Join us early, get the conversation started, reflect on what you’ve already learned and enjoy some freshly brewed coffee and tea.

9:30 - 9:45: Morning welcome

A brief welcome by Janus Boye and perhaps a bonus lightning talk

Your website isn’t dead, but it’s no longer enough. As AI reshapes customer expectations, brands must evolve their static digital experiences into real-time interactions.

Site visitors no longer have time to browse through endless webpages to try to find what they’re looking for. This is where AI agents come into play. They act as digital concierges that answer visitors’ questions and help them complete tasks, moving them further along their customer journey.

But what about the webpage itself? How will the actual website transform with AI? In this session, we’ll dive into AI agents built for the customer experience, and how webpages can dynamically transform through AI.

People are changing how they seek and engage with information. Today’s users expect interactions that feel relevant, conversational, and deeply contextual.

Static, menu-driven websites are being replaced by systems that deliver direct, dialogue-based responses, meeting users where they are rather than asking them to search. And search itself has become a conversation, one that demands natural, context-rich answers instead of rigid keyword matches.

This begs the question: Can a traditional CMS still deliver the experiences customers expect, or is it time for something more?

In this talk, Sara will explore what’s possible with a Generative CMS and how it can be used to deliver context-aware and compliant experiences that meet user expectations while maintaining trust and governance in the age of intelligent, conversational systems. soon

10:45 - 11:00 Coffee & networking

Generative AI has rewritten the landscape. Search engines once ranked pages. Answer engines now rank people. Visibility is no longer won through keywords alone but through Earnfluencing, the accumulated impact of real voices, trusted communities, and publicly demonstrated expertise.

In this session, Matt McQueeny explores why thought leadership, community engagement, and the pillars of credibility — experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness — are becoming the true currency of the generative era. He shows how communities like Boye and Co. play an outsized role in shaping the credibility that answer engines depend on. These rooms are where ideas are tested, authority is earned, and the signals of genuine expertise begin.

Matt will also connect this human-driven power to the digital experience stack. Modern CMS and DXP platforms, when configured for Generative Experience Optimization, can amplify Earnfluencing at scale, surfacing structured expertise, strengthening trust signals, and ensuring your organization becomes visible inside AI assistants and answer models.

You will leave with a clear understanding of how to pair authentic human authority with optimized digital experience in order to rise in generative results and stay ahead in the age of answer engines.

More details coming gsoon

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch

AI isn’t magic, but it has made it easy to turn the ‘lots of content, fast’ knob to infinity. Volume can’t move the needle anymore.

This means all organization, including vendors need to focus more carefully on the planning, quality management, and knowledge curation systems that make it possible to target and deliver higher quality, higher consistency content to the places where it has the most impact.

A brief interactive wrap-up of the two days. Join us for key lessons learned, big questions for 2026, perhaps a few answers and what happens next.

2.45 - 3:00 Goodbyes and see you next year!

Thanks for joining us. Continue the conversation over a cup of coffee or tea before leaving St Pete