Celebrating Innovation and Connection: Highlights from adidas Tech Summit 2023

Another year, another celebration of technology as the Tech Summit 2023 takes centre stage at adidas. This initiative, born in 2018, aimed to elevate the adidas Tech community by sharing technical innovations, success stories, and implementations across various products through the Tech organization. It's not just an event; it's an opportunity to connect, learn, and celebrate together.

This year's edition boasted an impressive 360 participants and featured 60 talks from speakers around the globe. A special collaboration with Patrick Debois, founding partner of DevOps, added a unique perspective to the summit and left us a lot of insights:

“Adidas engineering now has a special place in my heart. I got the privilege of speaking on GenAi, Llms and Devops during their internal adidas Tech summit. It was great to see the eyes light up of engineers on this exciting new journey and have conversations over beer at a lovely place in Zaragoza

Furthermore, in the spirit of learning and sharing, the teams showed off their learning and explorations. Great stuff ahead there. Their moto of “Impossible is nothing” is really inspiring”.

Each year brings a different theme, accommodating various technological proposals. The format and duration are also flexible, with each Hub deciding independently this year. For Zaragoza HUB the main themes selected were Innovation, Tech Communities, Cloud, Data & Enterprise Platforms. Talks that we could listen to during the entire week with a big closing event on Thursday 28th.

The process is straightforward—following the agreed-upon theme, a "call for papers" kicks off, and individuals register as speakers. After a careful selection process, the event's content takes shape, ensuring representation from all job families to foster connection and learning opportunities between teams.

This format not only provides visibility for teams and individuals but also facilitates learning from implementations in other areas, often inaccessible in day-to-day work. It inspires colleagues within and beyond the team, promoting exposure.

With this concept in mind, the summit seeks a multidisciplinary space with the necessary facilities for talks and a relaxed environment to celebrate the brand. This year's chosen location was Viñedos Rhey, an exceptional setting in the heart of nature—a perfect escape from the office, offering fresh air, shared meals, dancing, and casual conversations. It aims to create the ideal setting for sharing and enjoyment.

Edition after edition, the proposal evolves, incorporating new formats such as the hybrid model and paying attention to details like attendees' birthdays. With 360 participants, creating the best experience for everyone is undoubtedly a challenging task, and it’s thanks to the work from Carmen Regacho Aldovera and Elena Ferrando who saw possibilities where others saw barriers, that the event come to reality #ImpossibleIsNothing

Undoubtedly, the Tech Summit is a unique moment each year that truly reflects the spirit of the brand. We take pride in witnessing the high level of presentation and thematic quality demonstrated by our speakers every year. Cheers to another successful Tech Summit, embodying the essence of innovation and connection!

🚀 #TechSummit2023 #adidoescode