The annual tech conference of Dreamforce is not at all what you’d imagine of a tech conference – it is more like the biggest music festival for geeks. It is a congregation of innovators, thinkers and of course, dreamers from all over the world. Are you going to be attending this year’s Dreamforce in San Francisco?
The Success Community is a zone (#SCZ) at Dreamforce for exchanging ideas, networking and learning. All through the year, there is an online portal that does just this. But when at Dreamforce, things get notched up – a hundred times over. We have put together how you can make the most of this Success Community Zone:
Start Networking Early
Once you have registered for Dreamforce, you can join the online success community here. You can start networking and get involved with this community beforehand. Dreamforce is huge, and it’s easy to get lost. So this way, you can get to know people before the conference, and you can forge those relationships at the community zone – it’ll reduce the feeling of ‘not knowing anyone’. Once the conference is over, you can continue to use the online portal for building new relationships and staying updated with the old.
“Join the online portal, this way you can get to know people beforehand which makes interacting with them at Dreamforce even better.”
Join a Group
There are a ton of groups at Dreamforce – and most of these are run by the success community. Some of these groups can be categorized as:
- Role-based groups – Ex. Admin, User
- Industry-based groups – Ex. IT, Automobile, Retail
- Region-based groups – Ex. Dubai, London
- Flying solo group – In case you’re traveling alone
- New to Dreamforce group – Which will help a newbie with tricks and tips to get around
A total of 215 groups exist, as mentioned in a recent video interview. In fact, this year there’ll be a room at Marriott dedicated to hosting these groups, which is a first at Dreamforce. We recommend you to join groups early on, so there’s a starting point for you to start your Dreamforce journey.
Interact with MVPs
It would be any attendee’s dream to get to interact with community and industry experts – Salesforce.com calls them MVPs – the top 1% of the social community contributors.
To begin with, follow these MVPs on Twitter. On the main Twitter handle @salesforce, there’s a complete community list which has all the MVPs. You can also introduce yourself to the MVPs who you would like to interact with or learn from on the success community online. The MVPs have a great amount of experience and knowledge, and you’ll only benefit from it. Make the most out of this interaction.
“The MVPs are the greatest social contributors, you’ll benefit greatly by interacting with them.”
Ask questions
Now even though this is a very simple instruction, it’s a powerful one. The Dreamforce Success Community has the best-in-industry experts – and amazingly enough, from all industries alike. Be it automotive, small enterprises or sales. The community comprises people from every background and the best way to get your answers is from other users. Whether it’s on the online portal or during Dreamforce, get your questions ready. You could be a new Salesforce user, a leader, a potential applicant to getting Salesforce for your company, you could be just about anyone, and you may have certain doubts/lingering thoughts that need a closure. What better way to address them than here?
Learn something new
You may have been using Salesforce for a long time, and yet, there’s still something for you at the Success Community Zone. With hundreds of sessions, live solutions, hands on training workshops and high impact certification courses, there’s going to be a wave of a learning curve for everyone – whether you’re from a company of five or five hundred. You can talk to experts, talk to peers and listen to inspiring talks. Innovation thrives at Dreamforce – and there’s tailored content for every industry – which makes the learning very useful. One advice would be to take notes as you engage with peers – you will not have time to get important learnings to sink in during Dreamforce, so you need to save them somewhere. Learning can be in the form of ideas, theories and new technologies, but also in the form of team building skills which are very valuable. Go with an open mind. “You go with X, and come back with X times 100” says Ganesh Iyer, attendee for the past 6 years and Director at Tesla.
“The 4 days at Dreamforce are packed pretty tight, so instead of relying on memory, take notes when you come across something worthy.”
Have fun – It’s not all work
Dreamforce has always stood out as a technical conference that is more like a tech wonderland. While the community zone at Dreamforce could get highly intense, you can balance the nights out with a little fun. This year, the Foo Fighters are coming for what can only be imagined to be a mind blowing performance. To add to that, Dreamforce has hired a luxury cruise ship which can house the attendees for all four days. Enjoy these four days to the fullest.
So whatever your reason be to attend Dreamforce and the Success Community Zone, don’t forget to learn, listen, ask, talk, play, interact, exchange ideas and meet some of the best and smartest people out there. Who knows – you may just come back with a new idea!
Image Credits – salesforcefoundation.org
Folks!
We’ll be participating at the Dreamforce 2015 held at San Francisco, September 15-18. Lets meet !