February 6 & 7, 2019 — Châteauform’ City George V

The Akeneo PIM Summit is the annual not-to-miss gathering of Akeneo customers and partners. Attendees learn from each other and hear about Akeneo’s vision for PIM and its role in Product Experience Management (PXM).

The 2019 summit took place in Paris, France on February 6–7, 2019, with sessions exploring how Product Experience Management is reshaping the PIM market.

Access was restricted to Enterprise Customers & Partners only. The programme was built for C-Level decision makers, marketing teams, catalog managers, eCommerce teams and IT project managers working with Product Information Management.

The summit combined educational moments with networking: keynotes, breakout sessions across keynote, technical, business and sponsor tracks, and the Akeneo Project Awards ceremony.

• Hear Akeneo’s vision for PIM and its role in Product Experience Management.
• Learn from customers and partners sharing their projects.
• Meet peers from enterprise and partner organisations.
• Follow the Akeneo Project Awards, presented in B2B, B2C and Rising Star categories.

Wednesday, February 6 opened with registration and breakfast, followed by the opening keynote by Frédéric de Gombert, a keynote by Joe Pine, a customer panel and a platinum sponsor session. Thursday, February 7 continued with technical and business tracks.

Keynote speakers included Fred de Gombert (CEO of Akeneo), Joe Pine (Cofounder, Strategic Horizons LLP), Emilie Gieler (Head of Product at Akeneo), John Evans (Product Marketing Director), Virginie Blot (Professional Service Manager at Akeneo) and François Chaix (Channel Manager – Northern Europe, Master of Ceremony).

Breakout session speakers included Emile Bloemen, Emeka Nwosu, Boris Lokschin, Nicolas Metzke, Steven King, Josh Williams and David Wise.

The Akeneo PIM Summit exists as the annual gathering where customers and partners come together to exchange what they have learned about product information management. Rather than a conventional trade show, it is built around the idea that the people closest to the work should be the ones sharing it. Attendees arrive expecting practical insight into how catalogs are organized, enriched, and delivered across channels, and they leave with a clearer picture of where the discipline is heading. The event is deliberately scoped to enterprise customers and partners, which keeps the conversation focused and the questions sharp.

Product Experience Management sits at the center of the summit's narrative, framing PIM not as a back-office utility but as the foundation for how a brand presents itself everywhere a product appears. Sessions explore the relationship between structured catalog data, marketing content, and the channels that carry both to buyers. The goal is to help teams move from simply storing attributes to actively shaping the experience a customer has with a product. That shift asks organizations to think beyond internal processes and consider the many touchpoints where product information becomes a first impression.

A recurring theme is the value of learning from peers. The agenda is packed with educational moments in which customer organizations describe their own journeys, including the difficult parts, so that others can avoid repeating the same detours. Hearing how a similar team approached a migration, restructured a taxonomy, or aligned marketing and technical stakeholders often resonates more than any abstract presentation. These shared experiences form the practical core of the summit and give decision makers something concrete to bring back to their own projects and teams.

Partners play a visible and active role throughout the two days. Implementation specialists, technology providers, and agencies bring their own perspective on how projects succeed in the field, from scoping and integration to change management and adoption. Their presence makes it easier for attendees to understand the wider ecosystem around product information and to see how different pieces fit together. Conversations between customers and partners frequently continue between sessions, turning the event into a place where collaboration begins rather than a stage for one-directional announcements.

The program balances vision with hands-on learning. Keynotes address where the market is going and what that means for organizations reshaping their approach to product data, while engaging workshops give smaller groups room to dig into technical skills and everyday challenges. This mix suits a varied audience, from heads of marketing and chief marketing officers to catalog managers, project leads, and the engineers who build the integrations behind the scenes. Everyone is expected to find something that speaks to their level of involvement.

Networking is treated as a feature rather than an afterthought. The days are structured to leave room for informal conversation, whether over a shared table, in the corridors between talks, or during the evening moments that let people relax and talk openly. For many attendees, these exchanges are where the most useful ideas surface, because they can ask the questions that a formal session rarely allows. Meeting peers from other organizations facing similar constraints often reframes a problem as something shared and solvable rather than unique and isolating.

The setting reflects the tone of the event: a city venue in Paris that keeps things comfortable and close enough for conversation. Châteauform' City George V provides a compact backdrop for a gathering that values substance over spectacle, with spaces that support both focused sessions and spontaneous discussion. Being in Paris adds a certain energy to the occasion without distracting from the work at hand. Attendees can move easily between the formal program and the informal exchanges that make the summit feel less like a conference and more like a working community.

Underneath the agenda runs a larger idea the organizers return to often: an experience renaissance, in which product information becomes a creative and strategic asset rather than a compliance task. The summit invites customers and partners to be part of that shift, to contribute their own lessons, and to help shape what comes next for the community. Whether someone arrives to discover upcoming enhancements, to sharpen technical skills, or simply to hear how others are approaching the same problems, the intent is the same: to inspire teams to drive change within their own organizations and to leave with renewed momentum.

Google was listed as Platinum sponsor. Other sponsors included Productsup, Spryker, Magento, Inbetween, Oroinc, Tessa-Dam and Textmaster.

Finalists were recognised in three categories, and the jury announced the winners at the summit on Wednesday, February 6 at 5pm. Attendees also had the opportunity to vote in the People’s Choice Awards.

The venue was Châteauform’ City George V, 28 Avenue George V, 75008 Paris. Metro line 1 stops at George V and line 9 at Alma Marceau; RER A stops at Charles de Gaulle – Étoile and RER C at Pont de l’Alma. The venue is about 40 minutes from Roissy Charles De Gaulle airport and 30 minutes from Orly. AccorHotels offered attendees a 15% discount.

Registration was reserved for Enterprise Customers & Partners. New users first created an account to obtain their IDs; existing users signed in with their username and password.