A day in the life of an Optimizely OMVP: Opti North Manchester - January 2026 Meetup Recap

There's something special about the Optimizely community in the North. On 22nd January, we gathered at the Everyman Cinema in Manchester for the latest Opti North meetup, and it didn't disappoint.

Five speakers. One evening. A room full of people who genuinely care about building better digital experiences. Big thanks to Optimizely, MSQ DX and Valtech for organising, and to Ibrar Hussain (MSQ DX) and Paul Gruffyd (Valtech) for hosting and keeping the evening running smoothly.

Here's what went down.

Graham Carr – Your Audience, On Demand: Opal's Virtual Focus Group

Yes, that's me. I had the pleasure of sharing the Virtual Focus Group concept that Netcel developed as part of the Optimizely Opal Innovation Challenge – which we were thrilled to win.

I started by walking through the vision: what if you could get instant, meaningful feedback on your content from AI agents that genuinely embody your customer personas? Not generic AI responses, but feedback shaped by real audience research and behavioural data.

I showed the 5-minute video we created for our Innovation Challenge submission, which brought the concept to life. Then I did a deep-dive into the technical side – how we built the specialised agents within Opal, how we structured the workflow, and the nuts and bolts of triggers, conditions, and outputs that make it all hang together.

It was great to share this with fellow practitioners and hear their thoughts on where it could go next. The questions afterwards showed there's real appetite for this kind of AI-assisted content validation.

Khurram Khan – Decoupling Behaviour with the Strategy Pattern

Khurram delivered an inspiring session that really grilled into you the importance of design patterns when writing clean, maintainable code.

The strategy pattern isn't new – it's been around for decades – but Khurram made a compelling case for why it still matters, particularly when you're building complex Optimizely implementations. Decoupling behaviour from the classes that use it makes your code more testable, more flexible, and far easier to extend down the line.

A good reminder that solid fundamentals never go out of fashion, no matter how shiny the new tools get.

Anil Patel – Playwright Testing Integration with Optimizely CMS

Automated testing often gets pushed down the priority list when deadlines loom, but Anil made a strong case for why it shouldn't.

He gave a solid grounding in Playwright itself – what it is, how it works, and why it's become such a popular choice for end-to-end testing. But the real value was in seeing how it can be applied to Optimizely-specific scenarios: testing Content Graph queries, validating content block rendering, and ensuring your CMS behaves as expected across different contexts.

Practical, no-nonsense, and immediately applicable. The kind of session that makes you want to go back to your codebase and start writing tests.

Mark Everard – Hype, Hesitation or Happening?

Mark took a different approach with an "unpanel" discussion on the state of AI-enabled development for Optimizely.

Rather than slides and speeches, this was interactive, audience-led, and refreshingly candid. Mark posed a simple question: where do you sit on the AI adoption spectrum? Are you in the hype camp (excited but not yet doing much), the hesitation camp (sceptical or cautious), or the happening camp (actively using AI in your day-to-day work)?

What followed was an honest conversation about the realities of AI adoption. We talked about the consequences of each stance – what you gain, what you risk, and what you might be missing. No hard sell, no evangelism, just practitioners sharing where they're actually at.

It was one of those sessions that stays with you afterwards.

Simon Chapman – What's New in Optimizely

Simon rounded off the evening with an inspiring tour of what's new and what's coming from Optimizely.

As always, Simon's enthusiasm for the platform is infectious. He covered the latest developments with particular emphasis on the upcoming CMS 13 release – plenty to look forward to there – and gave us a look at Commerce Connect 15 and what it means for commerce implementations.

Essential viewing for anyone working with the platform day-to-day.

The Vibe

Beyond the talks, it's the conversations in between that make these events worthwhile. Catching up with familiar faces, meeting new ones, and comparing notes on the challenges we're all navigating.

The Everyman Cinema was a great venue – comfortable, relaxed, and a nice change from the usual conference room setup.

Thanks to everyone who came along, to Ibrar and Paul for hosting, and to Optimizely, MSQ DX and Valtech for putting it together. If you've not been to an Opti North event yet, keep an eye out for the next one.

See you at the next one.