Zipline Summer Camp 2023 is a wrap… and if we had to pick a word to describe it, it would be ✨ magical ✨

Summer Camp is our biggest annual customer event centered on community building, conversation, and connection within the Zipline family. This year, we invited our Zipline champions IRL for two jam-packed days full of Zipline product updates, best practices, customer-led presentations and panels, and more. 

In total, 80+ communicators and operations leaders from 50+ best-in-class brands came together in sunny San Diego to celebrate wins, share knowledge, and support each other this week to connect, swap ideas, and learn from one another.

Here are a few highlights from this incredible few days in (literal) paradise! 

☀️ Sunbelievable speaker lineup

Attendees upskilled their organization’s Zipline use and got inspired by expert product guidance, best practices sessions, roundtable discussions, and our most popular customer-to-customer Zip Tip presentations.

Here are a few of the amazing experts who presented:

Eric Wardian, Store Communications Manager, PacSun

Caitlin Papageorge, Director of Communications, J. Crew

Eric Buff, Retail Operations Innovations Manager, Visionworks

Ross Wiener, Director of Labor and Retail Operations, Visionworks

Erica Mudra, Sr. Manager, Field Communications, Bath & Body Works

Seth Plaza, Director of Operations Support, Festival Foods

Cody Wurtz, Senior Administrator, Store Communications, Rite Aid

Chris Tompkins, Communications & Engagement Manager, O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. 

🔥 The s’more, the merrier

We made so many treasured memories at Summer Camp this year! An extra special thanks to our partners who made it possible- Medallia, RetailNext & Legion!

Thanks to these sponsors, we co-hosted a special s’mores-making, whiskey-tasting, cocktails-and-networking with us, and it was so lovely. We go together like graham crackers and marshmallows!

🤖 Getting real with artificial intelligence

Campers got an exclusive first glimpse at upcoming Zipline releases from Meagan Sobol, Zipline Director of Product. 

Meagan unveiled an intelligent platform that instantly responds to store associates’ questions, saving them time and enabling more efficient work. With AI, we empower retail employees, streamline information retrieval, and enhance customer experiences.

Read more about how we’re transforming retail with AI!

🏆Shell-ebrating excellence

A month ago, we announced our Summer Camp Awards Finalists. And at Summer Camp this week, we shared the final shortlist of winners! 

Take a look at the winners👇

Best Operational Health

Family Farm & Home

Torrid

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

Best Execution

PacSun

L.L. Bean

O’Reilly’s Auto Parts

Best Engagement

Parachute Home

LL Flooring

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

Best Readership

Binny’s

PacSun

Huge congratulations to these exceptional members of the Zipline family. A great tool is exceptional when leveraged by superstar users like these. We love the way you leverage Zipline to engage frontlines, align store teams, and streamline operations! 

📚 Your summer is all booked!

This week at Summer Camp, we also shared another super exciting project that we’ve been working on here at Zipline! We’re publishing a book! 

Told in stories all retailers can relate to, Stores Don’t Suck dives into the nitty gritty realities of store operations, of communication and “disconnects,” of the big promotion and a bigger purpose – creating a great customer experience. 

With actionable takeaways in every chapter, co-authors Melissa Wong and Jeremy Baker walk through simple best practices that will unite your field teams and bring your brand’s strategies to life with consistent precision.

We shared early copies of our book with Summer Campers, but the book will be published on June 20th! Don’t wait – Pre-order your copy today! (And snag a ebook version for less than a buck!)

⛵Unparralleled pier learning

This was an amazing event for the Zipline community to make connections and grow networks with peers in the retail industry. At Summer Camp, retail professionals of all experience levels were able to connect with other power users on how they’re using Zipline to solve retail’s toughest problems.

The retail industry might be feeling challenges right now, but after spending time with this incredible group of people, we think the future is looking very bright. ☀️

Customer events are an important way that we can tap into the insights shared by our extraordinary community of customers. Zipline Summer Camp is an incredible customer conference that we host annually. Thank you so much to everyone who joined! We’re still glowing ✨
If you’re not a part of this incredible community yet… what are you waiting for?