What We Learned And Shared At Acquia Engage 2025

Introduction

This spring, Axelerant had the privilege of sponsoring and contributing to Acquia Engage Boston and Acquia Engage London, two cornerstone events shaping the future of the Acquia partner ecosystem.

Spanning two cities, two continents, and dozens of partner and customer conversations, these back-to-back events underscored a shared industry focus: Composable architectures, real-time personalization, and AI-ready platforms are the future of digital experience.

Here’s how Axelerant showed up as one of the recognized partners, innovators, and co-creators of what comes next.

Highlights From Engage Boston

Engage Boston spotlighted meaningful recognition, showcased real-world DAM use cases, and celebrated a major global growth milestone.

Global Recognition For A Global Journey

At Engage Boston, Axelerant received a public shout-out from Acquia leadership as a Global Most Valuable Partner, recognizing our evolution from a regional delivery partner to a globally strategic force.

While we received our engraved award in London, the Boston stage amplified what it meant: Axelerant isn’t just growing, it’s helping shape Acquia’s future.

During the Partner Summit, Axelerant teams gained early access to upcoming product innovations across the Acquia platform. The roadmap reveals a clear focus on streamlined integration, AI-powered enhancements, and modular delivery capabilities.

The Growing Demand For DAM

At Engage Boston, our booth wasn’t just busy, it was revealing. Over the course of two days, Prateek Jain, Director of Digital Experience Platforms, and Sachin KS, Head of Sales and Partnerships, engaged in 50+ deep-dive conversations with organizations from various industries. One common thread ran through nearly all of them:

Content is abundant, but control, governance, and speed are in short supply.

As teams scale digital efforts, they’re hitting a wall. Content is being created faster than it can be curated. Assets are scattered across platforms. Creative teams are overwhelmed. And marketers are often left waiting for what they need. That’s where Acquia DAM is gaining real traction, not as a niche tool, but as a strategic enabler.

We spoke with digital leads who were trying to centralize brand assets across multiple geographies, with higher ed institutions struggling to maintain consistency across dozens of department sites, and with retailers looking to cut production cycles by weeks, not hours.

In each case, the ask was the same:

• We need a single source of truth for all our content.
• We need to empower non-designers to move faster without breaking the brand.
• We need workflows that remove friction, not create more of it.

Acquia DAM’s appeal isn’t just in its storage or metadata tagging. It’s in its ability to embed asset intelligence into the entire digital supply chain.

That means:

• Approved assets are available right inside the CMS editors
• Real-time access to campaign visuals across global teams
• Easier compliance through permission controls and audit trails

Highlights From Engage London

At Engage London, conversations centered around higher ed engagement, evolving personalization strategies, and the emerging role of AI.

A Community-Led Higher Education Dialogue

Day two of Engage London brought together 9–10 UK universities for a Higher Education Customer Meetup, co-moderated by Axelerant and Acquia. Structured as a BOF-style discussion, attendees explored shared challenges and solutions across two key themes:

• Search and discoverability in sprawling academic ecosystems
• Personalization strategy, powered by CDPs and AI

To close the session, Swarad Mokal, Technical Program Manager, presented a live demo of Acquia Convert (powered by VWO), showcasing how real-time personalization can enhance the student journey, from awareness to enrollment.

Partner-Led Innovation On The Main Stage

Beyond the main Engage Day, we also sponsored the Partner Day, which brought together Acquia partner agencies, including some of our clients, alongside Acquia’s sales and account leadership. As part of the spotlight partner session, Piyush Poddar, VP of Partnerships, shared Axelerant’s story: “How We Became a Drupal and Acquia Maker.”

This was more than visibility; it was validation. Our maker-first approach to building composable, future-ready platforms was right at home alongside Acquia’s own innovations.

AI Conversations And Forward-Thinking Strategy

We also joined sessions from the Marketing AI Institute, whose survey findings revealed how quickly expectations around AI are evolving, shifting from experimentation to expectation in just a matter of months.

It was a timely reminder that AI is no longer an emerging trend; it’s becoming a strategic necessity across digital experience platforms, content workflows, and personalization efforts.

Key Takeaways Across Both Events

From London to Boston, these takeaways reflect what truly resonated with us at both Engage events.

1. Recognition Reinforces Responsibility

We were honoured to be called out multiple times onstage by Acquia leaders and to receive the Product Most Valuable Partner award as Acquia Maker Partner of the Year, as well as one of the new Individual Awards.

2. Personalization Is Becoming Foundational

Across industries, teams want the ability to deliver relevant, real-time experiences—not someday, but now.

3. Composable Is The New Competitive

Whether in retail or higher education, organizations are moving away from rigid platforms toward modular, scalable DXPs.

4. AI is Maturing, But Confidence Varies.

There’s growing belief in AI’s potential, but still a need for trusted, applied guidance. This is a role Axelerant is ready to lead.

The Composable, Personal, And Scalable Future

From Boston to London, Engage 2025 made one thing clear: The future of digital experience isn’t monolithic. It’s composable. It’s personal. And it’s built collaboratively.

At Axelerant, we’re continuing to lead with:

• New integrations
• Personalization playbooks
• AI-ready frameworks

If your organization is navigating digital complexity or aiming to personalize at scale,  we’d love to explore how we can help.