Doron Reuveni, CEO of Applause will present the DigitalXChange opening keynote.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Applause, Doron Reuveni is the driving force behind one of the fastest growing tech companies in New England. With clarity of vision about the future of web and mobile applications, Doron has grown the company exponentially– in terms of funding, revenue, customers and employees—in just a few short years.

Gerd Leonhard, Futurist, Humanist, Author of ‘Technology vs. Humanity,’ and CEO of The Futures Agency, will discuss how technology and people will interact in the near and far future.

Born in Bonn / Germany, resident in Zurich as well as a frequent visitor in Silicon Valley, Gerd is a global citizen of the future who spends his life travelling through worldwide meetings, workshops and conferences on transformational change. A star speaker on topics of major strategic importance – from digital disruption to business remodeling to specific vertical scenarios across public and private sectors, Gerd is a rare hybrid of artist and scientist, with a pioneering background in digital music ecosystems and a head start in the disruption game. For the last fifteen years he has been the first choice in business leaders’ minds for inspirational and paradigm-shifting advice.

Julie Ask, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester, will present a mainstage session on the best practices and practical tips for improving the digital experience for your customers.

Julie serves eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals. Her nearly 30 years of work experience is balanced between the engineering and management consulting work she did in the first half of her career and her work as an analyst for the past 17 years. The combination of technical and business expertise positions prepared her well to work with business leaders to identify new opportunities offered by mobile technology and to develop strategies to engage with consumers on mobile devices. She has worked with hundreds of clients across retail, travel, banking, insurance, CPG, healthcare, and more to advise and guide the development of their mobile strategies.

Julie’s research and analysis have been widely cited in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and The Onion, as well as on Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, and PBS.

Customer experiences are now digital experiences. New devices, platforms, and technologies all bring opportunities and challenges for companies. Leading brands like Google, Uber, and CNN are connecting with customers across all modes of digital experiences, and interacting with their audiences at larger scales than ever before.

How did these brands become leaders in digital innovation?

Forrester’s Julie Ask will lead a discussion with Google’s Asim Husain, CNN’s John Hashimoto, and Uber’s Akash Garg on how their brands transformed into digital powerhouses.

No matter where your company sits on the waterfall, continuous deployment and market expectations demand you release faster and faster. Maintaining an optimal balance between speed, quality, and risk is a constant challenge for nearly every team. Many methodologies and tools aim to address this challenge, but what are the most successful teams doing?

In this session, leaders from PopSugar, Symphony Commerce, and Vista Consulting Group will discuss how they preserve a focus on quality while simultaneously challenging the limits of velocity. They’ll also share their thoughts on how Agile methodologies and testing will need to evolve as technology continues to advance at a rapid pace.

Dignity Health will discuss how they are using testing and QA to innovate within their organization. The customer will explain how their testing processes have changed since utilizing Applause. With an up close and personal perspective, the customer is perfectly positioned to present on the challenges, insights, and results they have discovered during testing.

In three, 15-minute TedTalks, enterprise leaders in digital will discuss how user feedback can, and should, influence product decisions. This session will explain how these companies gathered user feedback, what the feedback was, and where they used it to inform their roadmaps and strategies.

Two technology leaders within Dow Jones will discuss how they are using testing and QA to innovate within their organization. They will explain how their testing processes have changed since utilizing Applause. With an up close and personal perspective, they are perfectly positioned to present on the challenges, insights, and results they have discovered during testing.

Labs can only do so much for testing. A QA team may think they’ve thought of every possible scenario, accounted for every location, language, and device configuration, but when they launch a product they often discover the real world is unpredictable. Testers in a static in-lab location simply can’t account for every situation.

Speakers from Ford, Move INC, and FOX will share how they overcame the challenges real-world scenarios bring. These brands will discuss what unpredictable testing really means, how to differentiate what to test in-lab vs. in the real world, and how they have adjusted to changes in technology to keep their digital experiences seamless and their customers happy.

An Applause customer will discuss how they are using testing and QA to innovate within their organization. The customer will explain how their testing processes have changed since utilizing Applause. With an up close and personal perspective, the customer is perfectly positioned to present on the challenges, insights, and results they have discovered during testing.

Innovation is all about what comes next. What are some of the world’s most creative companies working on? And how will these digital initiatives impact how consumers interact with their brands? This session will look to answer these questions with back-to-back presentations from three leading companies that are defining the future of digital experiences.

Applause will present alongside Sauce Labs on the future of test automation. The presentation will be complete with actionable insights and the latest tips and tricks on automation and testing that attendees can bring back to their company.