JoyConf ²⁰²⁵

Dominik Angerer opens JoyConf with a clear look at what’s changed: the front door to the web has moved from search pages to AI answers, and content now has to work for humans and machines. For both B2B and B2C teams, he’ll show how headless content becomes contextual, compliant, and reusable across sites, apps, and assistants, closing the gap between creation and connection.

Then comes the reveal: Storyblok’s next chapter. New capabilities that redefine what a CMS is, turning it into a content system for the AI era, from creation to governance to delivery, plus fresh partnerships that expand what you can build. If you want to move faster, show up in the answers that matter, and ship with confidence, don’t miss this keynote. Create with Joy. Scale with Intelligence.

The future of brand will not be built for people, but with them. AI enables brands to open the door to co-creation where employees, customers, and technology collaborate to shape identity and value together.

What you'll learn:

• How co-creation transforms brand from a one-way narrative into a living ecosystem
• Ways to harness AI to empower participation without losing authenticity
• Methods to drive loyalty, belonging, and growth by giving people a stake in the brand’s success

As product teams race to integrate AI in their products, they often rely on conversational UIs and AI assistants. However, the experiences with them are often painfully slow, the responses are generic and users have to meticulously explain to AI just what exactly they need — over and over and over again.

What’s the state of AI in late 2025? What have we learned about user’s expectations and behaviour patterns? What have we learned about new AI capabilities, reasoning engines and agentic experiences? And what design patterns can we use to help users build trust and confidence to get to better results, faster?

In this session, we'll explore just that — based on actual findings from actual research with actual real-life examples. Roll up your sleeves and buckle up: you’ll leave the session with a toolbox of useful insights that you might need to consider the next time you’ll be working on an AI feature.

As awareness and tooling around site speed have been improving at a very exciting rate, has performance testing actually become any easier? Any more straightforward? As someone who spends every day auditing client projects, I think areas of confusion have actually increased in many places. Which tools should we be using? Can we trust them? How do we run tests that serve as realistic and actionable predictors? And how do we know when we’ve won?

In this talk, we’ll look at highly practical tools and workflows to ensure that every test we run has a purpose and gives us data we can truly leverage. By the end, we will all have a shared idea of what effective performance testing looks like, as well as customised and fine-tuned tooling to ensure replicable and predictable tests.

The next visitor to your site might not be human. It could be an autonomous agent that researches, writes copy, and even ships code at conversational speed. That shift rewrites the rules for everyone building digital experiences, from developers chasing lightning-fast front-ends to marketers crafting bold campaigns.

Netlify co-founder & CEO Matt Biilmann, originator of Agent Experience (AX), will show how to turn this disruption into an edge.

Structured context: See how Storyblok’s block-based content can act as a real-time context engine for agents.

Open standards: Learn how llms.txt, agents.json, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) are already shaping agent-friendly sites.

AX checklist: Leave with practical steps to keep experiences blazing for humans and intelligible for AI agents.

Whether you code, create, or campaign, you’ll walk away ready for the agent-driven web.

What do journalists know about content that devs and marketers should, too? This panel goes behind the scenes with the people who cover the content world for a living. You’ll hear what trends are gaining traction (and which ones are just noise), how tech and storytelling are converging, and what it really takes to create content that performs. Whether you’re building the stack or shaping the strategy, this is your insider briefing on where content’s headed next.

We carefully craft the design of current-day apps and websites tailored to a specific use case. Yet the needs of our users often don't fit neatly into the boxes we put them in when we imagine how they use our applications.

What if we could take it a step further and build interfaces that adapt on demand to the specific needs of our users? With the power of modern, state-of-the-art LLMs, we can dynamically generate and adapt the UI of our application to meet the exact needs of our users in real-time.

In this talk, we explore how to build a single AI-powered component that automatically responds to all UI requirements in a fast and reliable way.

Translations and localization have been crucial for TomTom’s business over the past decades. During this time, millions of people bought TomTom navigation devices, but these days millions of people still use TomTom without realizing it. We might be in your car or even your pocket. While we evolved, our website changed along. As we transitioned from a monolithic CMS to Storyblok, our goal was to embrace a modern and future-proof approach to localization. Get ready to spin the wheel as we navigate through the complexities of localization, sharing insights and lessons learned.
 
We will touch upon funny translation mismatches, “vibe translating”, and the fine line between ultra-cheap machine translations and thorough, hand-checked quality. We will show how we tackle requirements that appear unsolvable and expand the limits of the CMS with exceptions in the code, for example when working on centralized localized banners. Whether you’re a localization newbie, or a seasoned pro, join us for a session full of practical takeaways and a bit of fun!

Digging deeper into Storyblok's next chapter. Discover what we are currently working on and what new features are on the horizon. We’ll showcase our new capabilities that redefine what a CMS is. See how Storyblok is turning a CMS into a content system for the AI era, from creation to governance to delivery.

Join Ellis Brigham’s Mike Humphreys and Matt Higson as we share our journey to the summit: replatforming to a headless framework and adopting Storyblok to transform our digital experience.

We’ll share how we tackled branding and creative challenges, streamlined our workflows, and rebuilt our entire content bank at record speed - all while strengthening our brand's identity.

Discover the obstacles we faced, the tools that helped us climb past them, and how Storyblok continues to power our next big ambitions.

AI Search Engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are changing how people discover brands - and organic traffic is feeling the squeeze. In this session, OtterlyAI CEO and Co-Founder Thomas Peham breaks down what AI Search means for modern marketers and SEO pros. And more importantly, what to do about it.

We’ll unpack:

• How AI agents are reshaping the customer journey
• 4 persistent myths about SEO in the AI era
• The fundamentals of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
• How to optimize your brand’s and website visibility

A/B testing is one of the most powerful ways to optimize digital experiences and drive measurable results—but only if it’s done right. In this session, we’ll explore best practices for setting up and running effective A/B tests. You’ll learn how to maximize learnings, increase confidence in results, and turn insights into action. We’ll then bring it all to life with a live demo of VWO, showing you how to quickly design, launch, and analyze impactful A/B tests.

What do journalists know about content that devs and marketers should, too? This panel goes behind the scenes with the people who cover the content world for a living. You’ll hear what trends are gaining traction (and which ones are just noise), how tech and storytelling are converging, and what it really takes to create content that performs. Whether you’re building the stack or shaping the strategy, this is your insider briefing on where content’s headed next.

What do journalists know about content that devs and marketers should, too? This panel goes behind the scenes with the people who cover the content world for a living. You’ll hear what trends are gaining traction (and which ones are just noise), how tech and storytelling are converging, and what it really takes to create content that performs. Whether you’re building the stack or shaping the strategy, this is your insider briefing on where content’s headed next.

Virgin Media O2 is redefining what collaboration looks like in the digital era, by turning innovation into an open invitation. In this fireside chat, we’ll explore their journey with Storyblok, and what led to React Native Live, a groundbreaking initiative that’s transforming how teams build and deliver content-rich experiences. Hear firsthand about the challenges the team faced, what inspired them to make their work open source, and why contributing to the Storyblok ecosystem has become such a core part of their mission.
You’ll also gain insight into how open-source collaboration is shaping the future of technology communities—and where Virgin Media O2 sees the next wave of contributions and creativity coming from.

Open source plays a central role in how Storyblok is built, extended, and adopted by developers worldwide. In this session, you'll learn how we use open source to shape our SDKs, tools, and developer experience — and how it helps us move faster while staying flexible. You'll also get a look at our approach to contributing back, maintaining community-driven projects, and balancing product goals with the open-source spirit. Whether you're building your own tools or contributing to others, you'll walk away with practical lessons from our journey.

Adding AI features into an existing product seems like a relatively manageable task, but very quickly it becomes a tangled, complex project with a lot of unknowns and plenty of challenges. Not only do we need to design flows that are difficult to predict — we also need to carefully orchestrate interaction between AI tools, models, agents and the feedback loop.

Users must also be able to get insights and act upon them, while having trust and confidence in AI’s abilities. So how exactly would we run an AI project from start to finish, and what should we keep in mind from doing that? Well, let’s find out!

Participants will leave the workshop with a toolbox of practical techniques and design patterns to apply to their current or upcoming projects right away. Most importantly, they will learn how to use AI as a new material, its constraints and limitations, product challenges and how to apply design patterns to make the most out of AI-enhanced products.

Primo Water’s 15 brand sites had become a drag—slow to update, inconsistent to manage, and dependent on developers for even simple changes. Partnering with Elevate Digital, Primo rebuilt Water.com on Storyblok, unifying every brand in one flexible, component-based hub.

The impact was immediate: content updates now run 35% faster, marketers gained true no-code control through a custom block library, and with our help, SEO strength carried seamlessly across the consolidation. Most importantly, the streamlined, personalized experience ignited a 5× surge in online orders and set new revenue records.

This session unpacks the strategy-first engagement—from governance and enablement to measurable outcomes—showing how a human-first approach with Storyblok transforms operational efficiency into enterprise-scale growth.

Ever wondered how to push Storyblok beyond its core functionality? In this session, you’ll learn how to connect Storyblok with third-party platforms or data by using its powerful plugin system. We’ll explore both Field-type and Space-level plugins with real-world examples and live demos. You’ll walk away with a solid understanding of plugin basics, how to build and use them effectively, and which resources to turn to when you’re ready to extend Storyblok to fit your needs.

In recent years, modern eCommerce has been shaped by buzzwords like Headless, Composable, and MACH – promising more agility and lower costs. But for many retailers, these trends brought increased complexity, fragmented customer experiences, and hard-to-scale tech stacks.

In this masterclass, Merkle experts present a pragmatic Unified Commerce playbook, illustrated through the recent relaunch of Bucherer's online store – the Swiss luxury watch and jewellery retailer.

Drawing from hundreds of projects, we’ll share how brands can simplify system architecture without compromising customer experience. From design systems and frontend frameworks to integration layers and governance models, you’ll get actionable strategies to reduce coordination costs, accelerate time-to-market, and deliver consistent, high-quality digital experiences.

Whether you're navigating multi-market complexities, legacy systems, or seeking greater agility – this session will show you how to take your eCommerce strategy to the next level.

Open source plays a central role in how Storyblok is built, extended, and adopted by developers worldwide. In this session, you'll learn how we use open source to shape our SDKs, tools, and developer experience — and how it helps us move faster while staying flexible. You'll also get a look at our approach to contributing back, maintaining community-driven projects, and balancing product goals with the open-source spirit. Whether you're building your own tools or contributing to others, you'll walk away with practical lessons from our journey.

This talk shares how Michele's team faced a brittle web infrastructure that blocked go-to-market progress and demanded constant manual fixes. Learn how she was able to secure leadership alignment to rebuild Guild.com's web infrastructure from the ground up and how a strategic tech-stack resiliency assessment paved the way for a scalable future.

Walk away with that very checklist, a summary of hard-won lessons on building a best-in-class Web tech stack, and practical tips for leading complex migrations without losing your mind or your team's momentum.

This session discusses the challenges of being a Digital Marketer and a Product Owner inside a robotics company full of Engineers, and how to evangelize the need for a powerful CMS as the primary sales channel. It will also showcase how to approach challenges with a team of UX, developers, and how we are succeeding with multiple companies in Storyblok to operate the website in 15+ languages.

When do we perceive software as joyful? What characteristics do frameworks, libraries, and software products possess that bring a smile to users' faces? And how can these characteristics help us with interface design?

We get an answer — surprisingly — from narratology! In Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and even Bluey! The Monomyth, or Hero's Journey, provides a template for structuring stories. And our own story is not far from it. How? You'll find out in this presentation.

Octopus was founded  to re-invent the energy system. Today, it’s the UK’s biggest energy retailer, with millions more customers around the world, and no intention of slowing down. Join two engineering leaders on a journey that starts in Japan, with a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild a tech stack, then quickly unfolds around the world, stopping at mobile apps, accessibility and chatbots along the way.

At Enterprise Nation, content isn’t just communication - it’s how we create value, build community and deliver impact at scale. In this session, COO Polly Dhaliwal and CMO Lorna Bladen share how content became the engine behind a 1-million-strong small business network - driving programmes, user acquisition and platform growth.

You’ll hear how a cross-functional setup using Storyblok connects developers, designers, marketers and programme leads. Through this collaborative model, the team has unlocked:
- 145,000+ members engaging through personalised, scalable content
- Faster and collaborative delivery across a hybrid team
- Operational agility for campaigns, partnerships and platform updates

This is a real-world case study of how people, process and technology align to power meaningful growth. If you’re curious about what content-led scale really looks like, this session is for you.

Marketers need agility, while CIOs must ensure scalability and governance. This session explores how AI-powered composable architecture is enabling both.

Drawing on insights from NRF’s CIO, we’ll share how composable stacks are driving speed to AI innovation while reducing technical debt, accelerating personalization, and unlocking new efficiencies. With Storyblok’s headless CMS at the core, marketing teams gain self-service agility while IT leaders retain control and future-proof their digital ecosystems. We will discuss how leading brands are transforming content operations into intelligent, modular systems that deliver measurable business impact and enable IT to align technology with business speed.

Discover how a smarter content structure, iterative improvements and A/B testing helped us turn an outdated legacy site into a high-converting lead-gen machine. This session breaks down the real-world steps we took to align marketing and dev teams, speed up content delivery, and lift conversion rates through SEO- and CRO-optimised content. This talk will provide real-life insights on what actually moved the needle (and what didn’t) when it came to using CMS as a growth lever, not just a content box.

Marketers need agility, while CIOs must ensure scalability and governance. This session explores how AI-powered composable architecture is enabling both.

Drawing on insights from NRF’s CIO, we’ll share how composable stacks are driving speed to AI innovation while reducing technical debt, accelerating personalization, and unlocking new efficiencies. With Storyblok’s headless CMS at the core, marketing teams gain self-service agility while IT leaders retain control and future-proof their digital ecosystems. We will discuss how leading brands are transforming content operations into intelligent, modular systems that deliver measurable business impact and enable IT to align technology with business speed.

This session will take everyone back to the start of time. Not quite, this session will give a little bit of history around baud rates, modems, AOL (remember them?) and discuss the importance of latency for a website and why going headless with Storyblok and, in our case, AWS is so important to reach your global audience. This talk will discuss Gen Z demands for immediate information and explain why Storyblok gives the UEA a market advantage.

Every migration has its highs and lows — and ours was no exception. In this session, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our move from a custom-built monolith to a modular, headless architecture with Storyblok at its core. You’ll hear about the decisions that led us here, the wins we celebrated, and the surprises we didn’t see coming. Most importantly, we’ll share candid insights into what worked brilliantly and what we’d approach differently, and how the change transformed the way our developers and content teams collaborate.

Former developer and Devops-Engineer turned Product owner shares his insights into how Storyblok has proven to be the perfect companion in Systemair’s continuous journey toward digitalization and being a front-runner in modernizing a very otherwise traditional line of business. Can you really be a large de-centralized worldwide organisation but keep the User Experience recognizable across markets, countries and brands?

Even if we elevate our content to “stories,” there’s another level above that: continuing narratives.

How do we connect content in such a way that we construct larger threads of narrative, separated by time and visits? How do we tie our stories together in such a way that users understand one or more overarching frameworks and purposes to it?

Building on thoughts and experiences from trying to tag every episode of the “Friends” TV show, Deane will discuss thoughts, ideas, and possibilities to build master threads of content that speak to people over time.

In a world flooded with content, connection has become a rare commodity. This session explores how we can reclaim humanity in digital experiences by designing for emotion—not just efficiency. Inspired by Marvin’s human-centered design philosophy, we’ll unpack why empathy, inclusion, and joy are the new pillars of impactful content.

You’ll learn a practical framework for creating emotionally intelligent experiences that resonate deeply, build trust, and spark delight. From playful microcopy to inclusive design choices, discover how leading brands are turning content into connection—and how you can too. If you’re ready to move beyond metrics and make people feel something, this session is for you.

MACH-advanced organizations achieve 77% AI adoption rates versus 36% for traditional architectures—but this isn't about technology implementation. It's about market agility.

This session explores how composable business strategies enable teams to stay agile and build strategies around market opportunities, while competitors with rigid systems find themselves building their strategies around technology limitations. Discover why the five MACH principles (Composable, Connected, Open, Incremental, Autonomous) determine whether your organization leads market transformation or reacts to it. Learn how composable approaches turn AI breakthroughs into immediate customer value, while traditional organizations spend months planning vendor selection and system overhauls.

Perfect for marketers, brand leaders, and strategists navigating customer expectations in the AI era.