Scheduling a business event for December? Usually not a good idea. This year’s Christmage however proved quite the opposite. Learning from last year, we steered away from Black Friday as an event date. Instead, we had the impression that everyone was already quite close or about to start their Christmas vacations and brought along a very cheerful and relaxed atmosphere to our office in Aachen. What a beautiful way to celebrate our community and to ring out the old year!
Setting up
When you want to transform the work space of six colleagues into an event space for approx. 35 people, it takes some effort to achieve this quickly and with some Christmas cheer on top. A big thank you to all the elves at integer_net who helped decorate the office and tidy everything up before and after the event!
Regulars of Christmage might have noticed that this year we tried something new in our setup: Instead of using our TV screen, we turned the seating plan around and used the big white wall and our projector. The result was a more relaxed setup with more space and better visibility of slides. Also, as anyone in the audience could easily slip out to the back, there was no need to worry about disturbing anyone when going out for a quick break. We’ll keep this setup for next year’s edition.
Cookies, music and cookies
What is Christmas without cookies and clichéd Christmas music? Ok, it’s still Christmas, but only half the spirit. As every year, we made sure no one had to sit through the talks on an empty stomach. There were plenty of snacks (especially cookies), non-alcoholic punch and soft drinks to keep everyone going.
Tuning in
This year’s agenda was a mix of looking back, e.g. Black Friday numbers at maxcluster, and looking at our possible future, e.g. agentic commerce. Our speakers, Jan Ahlers of maxcluster, Wassim Abid, and Fabian Schmengler of integer_net, did a fantastic job of combining facts with storytelling and sharing their insights with the audience. Who would have guessed that Santa Clause runs an agentic commerce business? Our heartfelt thank you to our sponsors for their willingness to provide us with this opportunity to learn!
Getting up
After the educational aspects of Christmage, it was time to head over to Aachen Christmas market and very likely what many would consider the heart of Christmage: Hanging out with the ecom community in a cozy atmosphere, enjoying a mulled wine or two, surrounded by innumerable fairy lights. Bild vom Weihnachtsmarkt
Wrapping up
As the last part of our agenda, we gathered everyone for dinner at Hexenhof, a restaurant in Aachen’s city center. Here, locals and visitors had the opportunity to enjoy the traditional “Aachener Sauerbraten”, but also a range of other dishes, and to counteract the effects of too much sugar from mulled wine with some salty fries, if needed.
Thanks to our fantastic sponsors and partners Hyvä and maxcluster and joint efforts with Hyvä’s Andreas, we at integer_net were able to organise another Christmage for the community, with all costs covered. We are grateful for all the support we received from our ecom community and we appreciate anyone that asks us already in July when the next Christmage is to take place. Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are looking forward to seeing you again next year, at Christmage 2026 or earlier opportunities!