CX Summit
North America

Journey-centric organizations align their structure, people, culture, processes, technology, and metrics to the customer’s path and perceptions as they pursue a goal. This approach effectively supports customers in achieving their goals and creates value for both the customer and the company. In this panel, you will learn:

• Why journey centricity is good for business.

• What it takes to become a journey-centric company.

• Best practices and potential pitfalls learned from journey-centric transformations.

Speakers:
Senem Guler Biyikli, Analyst, Forrester
Todd Keith, Head of Experience Design (XD), Regions Bank
Nancy Flowers, Vice President of Customer Experience, Voya Financial

CX leaders are responsible and accountable for the technology that the CX team uses to do its job. Effective CX leaders also align their tech purchases with business goals and connect with the broader tech ecosystem in their organization. In this session, we’ll:

• Debunk the idea of a CX Tech stack.
• Understand the changing ecosystem of technology that enables CX.
• Learn how to think about key functions and use cases to enable CX.

Speakers:
Colleen Fazio, Senior Analyst, Forrester

You don’t just manage, you lead. Managing the details of CX — execution, measurement, strategy — is crucial, but for you to truly succeed, you must lead your people to become customer-obsessed, empowered workers who understand and care about your customers’ outcomes. Join this introductory session to the leadership track to:

• Understand how your leadership accelerates your team’s CX efforts.
• Learn the leadership models and tools that can help you be more effective.
• Get your CX leadership map for evaluating where your CX leadership priorities should focus next.

Speakers:
James L. McQuivey, PhD, VP, Research Director, Forrester
Josh Heitsenrether, Senior Managing Director, Marketing & Digital Strategy, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

In financial services, a thread of trust weaves its way through every customer interaction. Strong trust helps firms expand customer relationships and earn the coveted status of a customer’s primary brand. In this session, you will:

• Explore the concept of the trust thread.
• Understand how trust and primacy are earned and when primacy matters.
• Learn how trust, loyalty, and primacy are interconnected and what matters to foster customer growth and retention.

Speakers:
Alyson Clarke, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Humans have a lot more going on in their lives than just buying your brand’s products. To understand how to incorporate all the right consumer insights when designing your brand plan, companies need to develop a “human picture” based on business goals. This ensures you take an efficient but comprehensive look at driving growth through brand experience. In this session, you will learn:

• A framework to build a comprehensive consumer view.
• Predictive and reflective insight types that surface opportunities.
• Key insight resources to use that best inform your brand plan.

Speakers:
Audrey Chee-Read, Principal Analyst, Forrester

• How advanced AI can impact customer experiences and customer service.
• Approaches to AI that delivers immediate value.
• How to ensure that your AI investments drive your CX strategy.

Speakers:
Max Ball, Principal Analyst, Forrester

When billing and payments go right, no one cares. When it goes wrong, it’s the end of the world. If this rings true for you, join this session to understand:

• Why billing and payments are (much!) more than back-office initiatives.
• How to make sense of — and find focus amidst — the confusing billing and payments technology landscape.
• Opportunities to make near- and longer-term improvements.

Speakers:
Lily Varon, Principal Analyst, Forrester

The long-term goal of your EX-to-CX strategy is to make it easy for employees to continually improve customer outcomes with diminishing effort. We have identified enablement practices that help firms successfully do this, each contributing to an environment that will improve both EX and CX in a virtual cycle. But you don’t get to this level of coordination without deliberate, committed leadership. Attendees will learn how to:

• Take listening to the next level and foster dialogue and cocreation at scale.
• Articulate a clear vision of how EX leads to CX in your org.
• Support employee-led innovation with resources.

Speakers:
Angelina Gennis, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are making significant tech investments to enhance CX. But this alone won’t optimize clinical workflows for CX excellence. The missing piece? Clinical intelligence. In this session, you’ll explore how to:

• Use clinical intelligence to become an intelligent healthcare organization.
• Mitigate challenges that hold HCOs back.
• Plan to transform clinical workflows for CX excellence.

Speakers:
Shannon Germain Farraher, Senior Analyst, Forrester

Creativity is making a comeback after years of being overshadowed by systems integration, data implementation, performance marketing, and tech-focused CX. But this isn’t a return to the TV ads of yesteryear. Prepare for the next creative revolution with a full-funnel creative strategy, including multilayered messaging, full-funnel tactics, and an optimization mindset. In this session, you will learn:

• The “what” and “why” of a full-funnel creative strategy.
• How to brief marketing teams for full-funnel orientation.
• Full-funnel best practices from different industry sectors.

Speakers:
Jay Pattisall, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Join fellow government leaders for a lively conversation driven by topics that you get to choose! Potential topics include: 

• The business case for CX improvement. 

• Activating the CX ecosystem. 

• Leveraging AI to improve CX. 

Speakers:
Colleen Fazio, Senior Analyst, Forrester
Judy Weader, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Join leaders from banking, wealth management, and financial services to discuss the most urgent forces affecting our industries. We’ll break into groups and talk about key topics including: 

• Creating amazing (or at least useful) digital experiences. 

• Attracting and retaining deposits beyond rate. 

• Driving business growth in a new rate and regulatory landscape. 

• Identifying new opportunities to drive engagement and earn trust. 

• Differentiating with product innovation. 

Speakers:
Peter Wannemacher, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Alyson Clarke, Principal Analyst, Forrester

B2C marketing operations have long been a stopgap to mask poor planning, resource misalignment, and inefficient processes — but no longer. It’s time for marketing operations to evolve from tactical troubleshooters to strategic problem-solvers. To get there, marketing teams must proactively identify stakeholders, define process interlocks, formalize responsibilities, and measure success across six distinct disciplines. In this session, you will learn:

• Why marketing operations is critical.
• How to define marketing operations’ range of responsibilities.
• How to draft your marketing operations charter.

Speakers:
Jessica Liu, Principal Analyst, Forrester

AI agents are a rapidly developing technology, and “agentic” is already part of many business conversations. But what exactly are AI agents, and what sets them apart from other AI? In this session, you will learn:

• What AI agents are and what use cases they support.
• The state of AI agent development today.
• How to prepare for an AI agent future.

Speakers:
Stephanie Liu, Senior Analyst, Forrester

Success with AI depends on human capabilities. Two companies could acquire the same AI technology, leverage similar data, and still generate radically different business results. The difference? The understanding, skills, and ethical awareness of their leaders and employees. Join this session to learn:

• How AIQ, the artificial intelligence quotient, measures your employees’ readiness.
• How AIQ can drive business success with AI.
• What you can do as a leader to guide your specific team.

Speakers:
James L. McQuivey, PhD, VP, Research Director, Forrester

Stores, branches, airports, hotels, and other physical venues will be a key part of consumer experiences well into the future. The bar for great customer experiences in physical venues is high and there are no shortage of ways to deliver success. This panel features Forrester analysts who have research omnichannel excellence for years and an industry practitioner with expertise from the T-Mobile stores.  You will learn: 

• What customers expect. 

• What in-venue best practices look like today. 

• How to avoid shiny object syndrome. 

Speakers:
Sucharita Kodali, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Brendan Witcher, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
James Russo, Strategy & Insight Lead T-Mobile Advertising Solutions , T-Mobile

As commerce channels continue to distribute and AI compute accelerates, digital leaders need to retain control of their content and data but relinquish control of their digital experiences to meet customers where they are – in channel. The use cases for dynamic commerce, powered by GenAI capabilities, are impacting the total experience. During this session you will learn:

• The future of digital experiences and the anatomy of dynamic commerce.
• Dynamic commerce impacts on customer acquisition, loyalty and customer service.
• How dynamic commerce drives total experience.

Speakers:
Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst, Forrester

B2C business leaders are hungry to grow their businesses at double digits again. Yet, today’s consumer purchase decisions are influenced by more factors than ever. The future of commerce requires a more dynamic, distributed, and intelligent approach. In this session, you will learn:

• The factors and dynamics impacting B2C purchase behaviors.
• Common challenges that B2C business leaders face in creating commerce moments that drive business growth.
• How the future of commerce is distributed, dynamic, and intelligent.

Speakers:
Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Companies have options galore to invest in customer service today: You can move your contact center to omnichannel — or to the cloud — and you can change the customer service game with LLMs and generative AI. What are the right moves for your company? This panel will discuss:

• How companies have used technology to change customer service.
• How to prioritize investments.
• How to approach deployment.
• What has worked, what has fallen short, and lessons learned along the way.

Speakers:
Max Ball, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Luis Angel-Lalanne, Vice President, Complaints Transformation, American Express
Dan Gamber, Director of Experiences, Bridgestone

Leaders are navigating continuous change as they respond to dynamic customers, leading to new tools, processes, and strategic objectives that they must guide their teams to embrace. Many leaders have experience with old change management models and tools, but those tools are not enough when even the changes are changing. In this session, you’ll learn:

• The six core activities that change leaders must practice to keep change moving forward.
• The three types of metrics that change leaders use to understand the progress of continuous transformation.

Speakers:
Katy Tynan, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

A differentiated CX helps technology firms win market and wallet share. But random acts of CX don’t cut it. Learn how to align CX capabilities with corporate goals to win new business, expand relationships, and launch successful products. Join this session to learn how technology firms:

• Use CX to improve buying journeys, support sellers, and create new market opportunities.
• Accelerate current programs for short-term wins.
• Attract investment by articulating shared value.

Speakers:
Su Doyle, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Companies continue to invest in personalization strategies, especially for marketing use cases. But consumers are finicky and aren’t sold on all personalized interactions; they just need personalized moments that are relevant and valuable to them. Companies that assess customer needs first will be in a better position. During this panel, you will learn:

• The four dimensions of consumer value in personalized interactions.
• How our panelists research their consumers’ needs.
• How our panelists approach their consumer personalization strategies.

Speakers:
Jessica Liu, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Jeanne Jones, VP, Member Marketing, BECU
Holly Moreland, Sr Director, Customer Engagement Strategy and Technology, Hilton
Julia Binder, Senior Director of Customer Experience Strategy & Analytics, Toast
Chris Conner, Senior Director of Digital Management and Strategy of Consumer Energy, NRG Energy

• The power of cause and effect in elevating CX programs.
• How to develop these superpowers for actionable CX insights.
• Strategies for leveraging CX insights to elevate business performance.

Speakers:
Rich Saunders, Senior Analyst, Forrester

The customer data platform (CDP) has ascended into the go-to-marketing technology investment as modern customer engagement, insights, and AI hinge on the availability of accurate, timely, complete data. This practical session prepares companies to leverage a CDP for marketing and beyond. Session attendees will learn:

• The state of the CDP market and how it will evolve.
• How to define and plan CDP use cases.
• How to buy, build a business case for, and implement a CDP.

Speakers:
Joe Stanhope, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Do you struggle to connect training to outcomes? Learn how you can finally connect your development and training initiatives to real customer experience outcomes. Hear real organizational examples of how leaders in customer experience design and deliver their upskilling and learning initiatives so you can:

• Design upskilling and learning programs that improve EX in support of CX.
• Justify investments in your people.
• Measure and improve your approach.

Speakers:
Betsy Summers, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Rebecca Biestman, CMO, Guild
Dr. KimArie Yowell, Chief Talent and DEI Officer, Rocket

A dearth of brand differentiation in financial services is inhibiting the industry’s growth. Leaders must challenge their firms’ age-old assumptions to achieve breakthroughs by aligning CX, brand, and digital strategies to drive growth.

Join this session to explore:

• The future of digital brand experiences, with examples from within and beyond financial services.
• The role of personalization in creating differentiation.
• How genAI is changing consumer sentiment and loyalty.

Speakers:
Peter Wannemacher, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Rohit Makhijani, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Sports have never been so much in vogue when it comes to brands’ marketing plans. Why? With emergent sports like cricket and pickleball, the meteoric rise of women’s sports, and the proliferation of streaming sports, there’s more choices and ways for brands to reach targeted audiences. Using Forrester’s new “maximize your sports sponsorship” research and a deep dive into AARP’s partnership with the APP (Pickleball) Tour, this panel will explore:

• A framework to use when selecting your sports sponsorship(s).
• Best practices to activate a “total experience” for your consumers.
• Ways to maximize ROI and avoid common pitfalls from the start.

Speakers:
Mike Proulx, VP, Research Director, Forrester
Sara Bonds, SVP of Strategic Partnerships, APP (Association of Pickleball Players)
Gregg Molander, Senior Director of Brand Experience, AARP

Healthcare is at a critical turning point. Join your fellow healthcare industry peers to explore the profound interconnectedness of EX and CX, operational challenges, and creating a more unified approach to supporting the customer. Come ready to share stories of success and learning. 

Speakers:
Arielle Trzcinski, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Shannon Germain Farraher, Senior Analyst, Forrester

Speakers:
Kim Herrington, Senior Analyst, Forrester
Erica Luxenburg, Director of Product Research, Lowe's

Moving beyond cost savings and risk reduction, companies now can tap emerging technologies to create the seamless and intuitive customer experiences we’ve imagined for years — but only if they’ve developed customer trust. In this session, you will learn how:

• Emerging technology can help deliver personalized, proactive, and adaptive customer experiences.
• AI is accelerating other emerging technologies, opening opportunities.
• CX, marketing, and digital leaders must collaborate with technology and security colleagues to align emerging tech innovation with creating customer trust.

Speakers:
Brian Hopkins, VP, Emerging Tech Portfolio, Forrester

Automation and AI augmentation will either disrupt your company’s ability to execute or empower it to create better experiences for its customers. The network effects of AI allow companies to redistribute tasks, skills, and roles to deliver seamless, impactful experiences. During this session, you will:

• Learn about the network effects and how they forge a connection between CX, marketing, and digital business.
• Understand how to set a strategy to progress from cost efficiency to productivity to effective experiences.
• Identify how the network effects impacts talent and workflow.

Speakers:
Jay Pattisall, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Customer experience matters for governments and the people they serve. But government CX leaders often struggle to show the value of CX. Building a CX business case in the public sector requires a broader approach. Join this session to learn about:

• New research on outcome metrics for government organizations.
• Proof points for other government organizations.
• How to connect outcomes to CX actions.

Speakers:
Colleen Fazio, Senior Analyst, Forrester
Judy Weader, Principal Analyst, Forrester

be spent on creating a customer experience that delivers on the brand promise of value and trust to create a “Total Experience”. A loyalty program can provide the platform to help make that happen, however, to maximize value for the customer and brand, it’s critical to take an “modern” approach to loyalty. This session will explore:

• Why loyalty has become table stakes for brands wanting deeper customer relationships.
• How loyalty progresses along a spectrum.
• How to approach loyalty beyond transactional incentives.

Speakers:
John Pedini, Principal Analyst, Forrester

There’s no one place where the CX function must sit in every org. This is an equation with multiple variables and many possible answers. In this session, you will:

• Learn about the variables that determine where the CX function should sit.
• Be introduced to a decision support tool that will help you choose or validate a location for your org’s CX function.
• Interact with a panel of CX leaders.

Speakers:
Judy Weader, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Lana Pruett, Director of Customer and Digital Experience, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Amy Cheng, Senior Director Experience Insights, Shipt

Two-thirds of contact centers have a live chatbot to help their customers, but few US consumers regularly use chatbots. In this session, we’ll explore:

• Where current chatbot deployments fall short and ideas to address these areas.
• The implications – and opportunities – of new AI Agents technology for customer self-service.
• How to identify and assess internal resources such as funding, development, and data.
• A practical group exercise to understand the best approaches to deliver quality customer self-service applications at your organization.

Speakers:
Max Ball, Principal Analyst, Forrester
William McKeon-White, Senior Analyst, Forrester

Have you ever suspected that your team could be more efficient and effective? Come to this workshop to learn and discuss the hidden drivers of team and organizational effectiveness, beyond the KPIs and dashboards. It’s time to interrogate the “what,” “why,” and “how” of your team’s work. Come prepared to:

• Identify organizational barriers to effectiveness.
• Aim for radical alignment between the macro and the micro levels.
• Incorporate a bottom-up, experience-centric model.

Speakers:
Betsy Summers, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Healthcare providers and insurers are exhausted from point-solution fatigue. Narrow focus on the digital front door in healthcare has led to some successes in customer acquisition but has fallen short in building trust. To earn trust, HCOs must create value with customers. Join this session to:

• Learn more about curating personalized experiences and orchestrating journeys that drive sustained engagement
• Understand how HCOs can build trusted relationships with customers.

Speakers:
Arielle Trzcinski, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Greg Barber, Director of Experience & Market Research, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield
Al Krueger, Senior Director, Experience Strategy, Research, and Design Practice, Highmark Health