Shopify Unite 2017: Announcing Track Sessions

This year’s Unite conference will be bigger and better than our inaugural event last year. This two-day event will be rich with Shopify announcements, product updates, and insights into how to grow your business and do your best work alongside Shopify. Without further ado, here are track and session details for Unite 2017.Read further to find: The topics each track will cover. Suggestions for which tracks may be best for you. Details on what each session has in store.

Curious about what’s in store for this year’s Shopify Unite?

Wonder no more. Today, we’re happy to announce the sessions and panels for Shopify’s partner and developer conference, happening in San Francisco, April 20-21.

This year’s Unite conference will be bigger and better than our inaugural event last year. Not only have we added extra tickets, but we’re also expanding into two full days of programming rich with Shopify announcements, product updates, and insights into how to grow your business and do your best work alongside Shopify.

Each of our three tracks will be packed with content sessions, all of which are listed below. We’ve organized the content by day and track, so be sure to browse through all of it to get a feel for what you won’t want to miss. Stay tuned for speaker announcements and timeslots to catch these talks.

Haven't purchased your ticket yet? It's never too late to take part in Unite 2017 and plan the future of commerce with us — secure your spot today.

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Shopify Unite: Day 1

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Main Stage

Keynote Talks
A series of sessions to set the stage for the many announcements and talks to come at Unite 2017.

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Track 1: Extending the Merchant Experience with Apps

Best track for: App developers, app business owners, and app sales/support employees.

Tools for Better App UX
Discover improvements and new tools available to help build apps that look and feel more like Shopify, and allow you to easily onboard merchants and retain customers.

Opportunities in the App Store
A data-focused session discussing the types of apps that Shopify Merchants need most. With the help of case studies on successful apps, and disclosure of the top searches in the Shopify App Store, you’ll take away data-driven ideas for your next big app.

Building Integrated & Flexible Sales Channel Apps
Discover the monetary and network growth Shopify Partners have gained from building channels with our Channels SDK, and learn how to take advantage of this emerging market opportunity.

Redefining Discounts
Hear about forthcoming changes to our Discounts API, and about the potential applications to build custom discount experiences to suit unique merchant needs.

Building Powerful Marketing Apps
Learn how Shopify is building a platform for marketing. Get a first look at how to improve the visibility, ranking and utility of your marketing app with new APIs and opportunities for promotion.

Mobile-First Apps
Learn how to capitalize on the increasing number of merchants using the Shopify mobile app to run their businesses.

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Track 2: Designing and Enabling Merchant Success

Best track for: Agency owners, front end developers, designers, theme builders, and client-service providers.

Reducing Complexity for Merchants
A look at recent launches that further enable merchant success. This talk will help partners confidently explain all Shopify services and offerings to better package Shopify to potential clients.

Bringing Shopify to Any Website
Learn new ways to enable ecommerce on third-party sites using Shopify. Improvements to existing SDKs and new tools announced in this talk will make ecommerce possible anywhere.

UX Thinking: Understanding Your Customers
The world is bigger than a device screen. When designing a storefront, what are we enabling? How can you use that knowledge to help clients drive sales? Learn innovative and persuasive design techniques for future client projects.

Theme Development: New Tools, Better Liquid
A technical discussion on both new and upcoming theme-building features. This talk will cover topics from granular changes in Liquid, the evolution of the theme editor, and tools built specifically for the Shopify Partner community.

Effectively Scoping Projects: Partner Panel
Hear project management tips from industry peers. Explore how to set pricing rates, bill clients, and estimate projects in order to align with industry standards, and better understand client needs.

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Track 3: Shopify Plus for High-Volume Merchants

Best track for: Plus Partners, business development teams, front-end developers, designers, and app developers.

Shopify Plus: A Year in Review
Shopify Plus has witnessed explosive growth since its inception. Learn about upcoming enterprise plans, and how to build the future of enterprise commerce alongside Shopify Plus.

Examining Shopify Plus Merchant Personas
Understand the personas of merchants that are ideal candidates for Shopify Plus and learn common goals and challenges faced by current Plus merchants. Attendees will learn unique Shopify Plus use-cases for large brands, and how to best serve enterprise clients.

Working Together to Win Plus Deals
An inside look at the Shopify Plus sales cycle, a technical overview of Shopify’s enterprise-level capabilities, and how to work more closely with Shopify on every enterprise contract.

The Anatomy of a Flash Sale
Following the success of Frenzy, Shopify will preview a new tool that further enables successful flash sales on Shopify Plus. Learn how Shopify’s infrastructure effortlessly handles traffic surges, and how to add flash sales as a service for high-traffic and buzzworthy clients.

Wholesale as a Channel for Growth
Wholesale is a key growth strategy for many high-volume merchants. Learn about what Shopify is doing to enable merchants to sell their goods to retailers and streamline the entire order management process.

Native Mobile Apps
Last year, Shopify announced the iOS and Android Buy SDKs. This year, we’re making our SDKs even better and introducing a new set of tools to make apps easier to build. Learn the benefits of native apps, and how to get started.

Building Custom Commerce Experiences
Customized commerce experiences are critical to a merchant’s success. Hear about exclusive features that create memorable experiences for Shopify Plus clients, and see examples of powerful and effective customizations.

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Shopify Unite: Day 2

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Main Stage

Keynote Talks
An introduction to the themes of Day 2, a recap of launches from Day 1, and special guest speakers. Stay tuned...

AMA with Tobi
In what has become a Unite tradition, the conference will close with an Ask Me Anything session featuring Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke. This is your opportunity to ask Tobi anything; from his vision for the future of commerce, to where he buys his eccentric socks.

Note: Day 2 will wrap up at 4 PM PST.

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Track 1: Extending the Merchant Experience with Apps

Best track for: App developers, app business owners, and app sales/support employees.

Product Management From Ideation to Launch: Partner Panel
How does a brilliant idea turn into a successful app? Discover how to determine app marketability, how to test and validate a concept with beta users, and how to launch and market a money-making app.

Marketing Your App on the App Store
Learn best practices for optimizing an app description, how to successfully market to merchants, and Shopify’s plans to improve the App Store.

App Support & Building Merchant Loyalty: Partner Panel
Providing quality support to merchants is a common practice among Shopify's most successful apps. This panel will cover best in class strategies for providing app support, as well as how to effectively work with merchants to grow a loyal base of app users and advocates.

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Track 2: Designing and Enabling Merchant Success

Best track for: Agency owners, front end developers, designers, theme builders, and client-service providers.

How to Maximize Your Marketing With Any Budget: Partner Panel
To make the most of every marketing dollar, this panel will teach tips for finding leads and effectively tracking them, as well as effective and unconventional marketing tactics.

Building and Growing an Engaged Community: Partner Panel
Community building serves many purposes, including lead generation, talent acquisition, and job sharing. Learn from Shopify Partners who have grown their businesses by building communities around the world, and take away strategies for building a community of your own.

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Track 3: Shopify Plus for High-Volume Merchants

Best track for: Plus Partners, business development teams, front-end developers, designers, and app developers.

Welcome Back
This introductory session will recap the most important news and highlights from Day 1, and give a taste of what’s to come during Day 2’s full schedule of Shopify Plus programming.

App Compatibility for Shopify Plus
Gain insight into the opportunity to build apps for Shopify Plus merchants. An insider’s perspective on the technical needs of enterprise-sized businesses including load, support, testing, and more.

Building Your Backend for High Volumes
Shopify Plus merchants often require unique features and functionality for their store — and that includes apps that can handle massive amounts of traffic. Learn best practices for building sturdy apps that can support high-volume merchants.

Shopify Plus Merchant Panel
Hear firsthand from Shopify Plus merchants about why they became entrepreneurs, what attracted them to the platform, the complex challenges they face, and their retail plans for the future.

Powered by Shopify: Popups and Point of Sale
Learn how Shopify Plus merchants are using offline experiences, including popup shops, as a unique selling and marketing tool. Discover how new Shopify POS features enable these experiences for Plus merchants.

Working with Shopify Plus Clients: Advice from Shopify Plus Partners
This is a unique opportunity to learn from other Shopify Partners working closely with Shopify Plus merchants. Find out everything from how to negotiate an enterprise contract, to unique challenges they have solved for their larger clients.

Updates to the Plus Partner Program
A peek behind the curtain at the changes in store for the Shopify Plus Partner Program in 2017. This session will contain announcements that every existing or aspiring Shopify Plus Partner needs to know.

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Plan the future of commerce with us

Unite is not only a chance to come together with the Shopify Partner Ecosystem, it’s an opportunity to change the course of your business, and achieve entirely new levels of success.

Want to stay in the know about keynote talks and surprise speakers? Keep an eye on our blog, Twitter, Facebook, and the Unite website.

Don’t forget that pre-Unite meetups will be happening the evening of April 19, and the epic After Party is set for the evening of April 20. Hope to see you there!