 Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. It looks like they're letting the general session out. We're here at the Professional Business Women at California Conference. 6,000 women, about 5% men, really talking about, it's amazing, the 28th year I've never been to the show about how women can get more inclusive and diversity and taking and executing on steps to actually make it happen. As somebody said in the keynote, it's not a strategy problem, it's an execution problem. So we've got a great story here and we're really excited to have theCUBE alumni Andrea Ward. She's now the CMO of Magento Covers. Welcome back Andrea. Thank you so much, it's great to be here and great to be at this conference. It's, the buzz is amazing and I was here two years ago and it's grown so much just in the two years. How many people were there? They say it's 6,000 now. I mean, it looks like it's about doubled. I don't know what the numbers were two years ago but the participation is amazing and it's such a great opportunity for local businesses to bring employees from their companies, have them have a chance just to talk and learn from such powerful women. So it's been a really great conference. And it's also, it crosses so many kind of verticals if you will, because you know, we go to a lot of tech conferences, this is more kind of a cross industry with banking and insurance and United Airlines we talked to earlier and so it's a much more diverse kind of set. Absolutely, I mean, the women on the panels this morning spanned legal professions, government, entertainment, business. Really a diverse issue and it's fantastic that women are coming together to support each other to help make a difference. So last we saw you, I think we were on the street on Howard Street a couple years back which is pretty exciting as well but now you're at your new company, Magento Commerce. So for people who aren't familiar with the company give them kind of the 411. Yeah, great. Well, Magento Commerce is the leading commerce technology platform for mid-sized businesses. We have recently separated from eBay about 15 months ago and are now a privately held company and we power about a third of the world's commerce, believe it or not. That is amazing. Yeah. A third of the world's e-commerce. That's right, that's right, that's right. So it's a fantastic company. We're growing and a part of that growth is absolutely growing a more diverse workforce and we've been putting into place some initiatives since last year. Yeah, part of the keynote conversations were obviously you need to put goals down on paper and you need to measure them and I think it was Bev Creer from Intel talked about doing it across all the pay grades. It's not just an engineering or just on the board or just the executive ranks but really all the way across and it sounds like you guys are executing that to really help you just grow the company generically. We're in a very lucky position in that we're experiencing growth and so that gives us room to really go out and look for amazing talent across the board and so we put a focus on diversity and inclusion and by doing that we've increased the percentage of women in all roles across the company by 50% and that's since last June. So I think really just what you said earlier about execution and putting some numbers and goals against that can really make a difference. And if you hadn't had those, that execution detail you probably couldn't have grown that fast because let's face it it's hard to get good talent. If you're not including a broader base of talent you're not going to be able to achieve your goals. Well that's right and I think that some of that is I don't know if you want to call it unconscious bias or unintentional we're used to hiring people that look like us, have experience like us. And so by encouraging that diversity it really has made us expand the pool of applicants make sure that we're not going for the easiest choice or the simplest choice but really considering a wide range of candidates to fill those positions. Yeah I don't think the birds of a feather conversation comes up a nut. It's just easy to go with what you're familiar with. So whether it's unconscious or not it's just easy people are busy you want to check the box and get off to your next task. So you have to take a step back and consciously do the extra work to take the extra effort. Well in the industry we support the industries we support are going through digital transformation. Commerce is key and central to digital transformation and transformation and change means that you have to consider other perspectives. You need to learn from new ideas. And I think diversity plays a big part in that as well. So I think bringing that into our own company because we're supporting that broader industry has been very important. So I want to take that opportunity to pivot on what you just said about in terms of the changing role of commerce. You know I often think of like banks because in a bank you know your relationship was with your local branch maybe you knew the banker maybe you knew a couple of the tellers or whatever but you had a personal connection. Now most people's engagement with the brands they interact with is electronic and via their phone and it's interesting that you say and it's the commerce around this engagement that the commerce is becoming the central point of gravity if you will and the relationship is spawning all from that. Well I mean personal connections are still very important and commerce I feel is like the moment where a conversation really turns into a relationship. So it's important that those digital experiences the customer experiences really make the right connection with the brand. And so that seamless interaction between what happens at the branch for example in the financial example and what you can do at home that needs to be very cohesive. It needs to be trustworthy. It needs to be authentic. And that means businesses need to create individual experiences that really reflect their brand. And our company specifically has really helped businesses create those experiences. Seamless experiences and translated them from digital to in store or in the branch. I think the biggest change now is how that's starting to impact business to business relationships. I think in the consumer world we're used to that now. We're all doing that in our everyday experiences. Now we're starting to see that also come into a business to business relationship. So just like those seamless conveniences that you have online in your day to day life people want to see that in the workplace too. And so we're seeing the biggest change now in those types of business models. They're rocking in the background if you can't hear them. We are here. But it's funny I just saw something come across the feed talking about that annoying business to business ad in Instagram. And then, but then aren't you glad you saw it. So it's interesting how the B2C norms continue to help define what's going on in the B2B space and we've seen it in enterprise software applications and cloud and the flexibility and speed of innovation. It just continues to really drive the business to business relationship. Yeah, and I think just like in the business to consumer world it has started with content in business to business. But now people want to move from just learning and knowledge to actually transacting, which means that companies need to enable specialized price list, account management, things like that. And that's starting to surface in commerce in the commerce world as well. So we're really excited about that. And we're going to be sharing some of that at our conference next week, Imagine in Las Vegas. Okay, yeah, it's amazing how fast. It was not that long ago we were just trying to get the 360 view. We were just trying to pull from all the various disparate systems to know who that customer was from different systems. Now it's a segmentation to one, a very different challenge. Right, I mean it's that change from thinking about trying to attract your customer to come to your business to really bringing the business to the customer. I mean I think that's what some of this digital technology is allowing us to do. We're going to them rather than trying to draw them in to come to us, if that makes sense. Right, right. Of commerce coming to you, right. And it's got to come to you with something that's relevant, that's topical, that's timely. That's easy to execute, that can mirror a real experience. I mean you hear a lot of things about things like virtual reality, artificial intelligence. I mean all of that's just gimmicks unless you can actually think about how you make that real for your brand. So for example, we have a customer in Mexico City who is selling eyewear, right. And so everybody when they buy glasses they want to try them on. So we need to help them give their customers that virtual experience. If they can't come into the store and try them on we want to be able to let them try them on at home. So that's a natural extension of the brand and a way to use virtual reality. And I think businesses are still trying to figure that out. But if those customers didn't have that experience it would be less likely that they actually would buy or make a commerce transaction. But if I'm hearing you, instead of it really kind of being in a marketing effort that then is completed with a transaction you're kind of coming at that which you just described from the transaction first and this is really a supporting or an enabling activity. That's right, it all starts with the customer understanding what is going to help them make their decisions, giving them experiences that feel seamless, giving them options. So if they want to come in store but see what's maybe available at another store for pickup or they want to come in store and order online or if they want to order from home and then go into the store and pick it up it's really about giving the customer they right options for them. Another great story we had is, I mean how many of us travel? I know you travel a lot, I travel a ton. Especially to Vegas. And it is absolutely to Vegas. And my kids are always expecting something when I come home but who has time? So one of our partners worked with the Frankfurt Airport and created an application where on the way to the airport you can go shopping at all of their stores in the airport and have your package waiting for you at the gate on the way to the plane. So now they figured out what their customers want to do first by creating this great shopping experience at the airport. Now they know, people are running through the airport how can we extend that shopping experience for them while they're sitting in the taxi on the way have it waiting for them at the gate. And so for me personally, working for a company that's helping customers to do those kinds of things it's really been fun. Because they always had the liquor for you ready to go at the gate. But never the kids, you know t-shirts or a little Chotsky or I can remember running through Heathrow time and time again trying to find something quickly. Yeah and now with two kids and a husband that all want something different it makes it much easier for them. All right Andrea well you've been doing this marketing thing for a long time. I'll give you the last word both on the conference and kind of as a marketer to see where we're going with AI and really the ability to actually segment to one. Yeah. How exciting is that for you? Yeah I mean it's fantastic. I think marketers want to create relationships with their brand. And all of these tools are giving us better access, better chance to create that fantastic experience. So it's a great time to be a marketer. And it's a great time to be at this conference too. All right. Thanks very much. Thanks for stopping by. Andrea Ward I'm Jeff Rick you're watching theCUBE from the Professional Business Women's Conference in San Francisco. Thanks for watching.