I'll be presenting at Dreamforce in a couple of weeks, which I'm very excited about. [I hope I'll get to meet you there! If you're a reader, please say Hi. I'll even give you some stickers!]
If you have never been to Dreamforce, it's quite...something. Over forty thousand of your closest friends, in packs of Trailblazer hoodies, taking over the streets of San Francisco. I should say it's probably not worth the cost for most people compared to going to Dreamin' events. (In fact, I should probably write a whole post about that!) But Dreamforce is something to see. I think everyone in the Salesforce ecosystem should experience the Mother of All Salesforce Events at least once. I mean, I got to see U2 at my first Dreamforce. It's not all conference rooms and PowerPoint.
So if you're going to Dreamforce this year, or thinking about it for the future, here are my top tips for surviving and thriving.
Comfortable Shoes 👟
I'm kidding here. Yes, you should wear comfortable shoes. You're going to spend all day on your feet. But this piece of advice has been given in a million blog posts, podcasts, and Trailblazer Community posts already. It was just a joke for me to throw it in. This post is not meant to be a rehash of what's been written before.
Shorten Your Lanyard 🏷️
I've been on the record many times as a fan of name tags. And your Dreamforce badge is truly required to get into any space of the conference, so you're going to be wearing it all the time. Make your name visible by shortening the lanyard. I usually tie a small knot in the lanyard, which raises the badge closer to my chest than my stomach. If you're wearing a hoodie, you can put the lanyard around the hood, instead of just on your neck. If you have a collar, put it outside that. But I still think tying a knot is the best way to go. The benefit here is that even when you're sitting down, other people can see your name easily.
Trust me—you'll appreciate it when you can remind yourself of the name you didn't quite catch over the noise.
Skip the Marketing Sessions - And Too Many Are Marketing Sessions
There's just no way around it, if a Salesforce employee is delivering the session, it's almost certainly going to be marketing. Lots of blah blah blah about the hot new thing and how it will change everything. (Last year and this year: Generative AI.) In my opinion, these are total wastes of time. This applies—perhaps especially applies—to the keynotes. (Yes, all the keynotes. Marc Benioff puts on a good show, but the main keynote is nothing more than an advertisement for new "features" that you probably won't ever use.) And anyway, you're going to hear about the main marketing push ad nauseum in a million other places. The main keynote doesn't have any other sessions happening at the same time, but there are plenty of other things to do with your time. As for the rest of the keynotes, I say look for sessions where you can learn real skills or meet real people instead.
The other kinds of sessions I find tiresome are those where a partner presents with their customer about a big implementation. You can usually spot these with titles like "How the Food Relief Society Served Ten Million Meals" or "Quilts for Cats's Digital Transformation." The partner is there to market their company, sharing the stage with a customer that just spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a project. Salesforce gave the session a stage based on a recommendation by the sales team, with a marketing goal, not an educational one. With an implementation that big, the partner could never present all the nuances. The resulting presentation is too-simplistic and lacking in detail, leaving admins with little they can take back and use for themselves. But that isn't the goal of the session. The partner (and Salesforce) want executives at potential customers to be wowed so they'll do their own big implementation. As a hands-on-keyboard practitioner, I find these about as useful as the demos in the main keynote. Those demos are cool, but all I can think as I watch them is, "How many millions did this take to implement? And how much would it cost in annual licensing to support that org in real life?"
Find the Right Sessions 🔍
So what sessions are worth adding to your agenda? Look for three categories:
Anything presented by members of the community. These are going to be practical How To kinds of sessions, with real demos. (I'm biased, of course, since this covers my own session.)
Community Cove events. These are also usually created/hosted by community members, though sometimes organized by Salesforce itself (members of the Trailblazer Community team). They're more informal, less "session" and more networking and discussion.
Sessions run by Product Managers. This is the major exception to my rule, above, about sessions run by Salesforce employees. The product managers are actually building features, so these are chances to learn from the maker, see the roadmap for feature upgrades, and ask questions. Dreamforce has relatively few of these sessions, as they're more a focus at TDX. But read the Agenda Builder carefully and you'll find some. A special session worth mentioning here is True to the Core, which also features product managers, through it's actually facilitated/moderated by Parker Harris and senior technical leadership. This is the biggest, most public, place for admins to ask technical questions and advocate for feature improvements and interface upgrades.
Network Network Network 🛜
The real reason to attend Dreamforce is to meet and hang out with people from the community. Sessions are interesting, of course, but the real value is in the people. When you're stuck on how to build something later these are the people you'll be able to ask. So introduce yourself to people in lines, sitting next to you in breakout rooms, and at meals. You never know when you'll run into someone you recognize from Ohana Slack or threads on the Trailblazer Community. Now you can pal around for a bit and turn a virtual contact into a real life friend.
Pro tip for particularly for introverts: Find yourself a "Conference Buddy." The crowds are going to be overwhelming. But if you can find one person and connect with them for a bit, you'll be reenergized. Watch the online communities for events for newbies, including the Bacon Breakfast, the annual walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and others. Definitely go to the First Timers meetup. These are great places to meet people who are also looking for a friend.
Do the Quest—it’s fun! 🏅
Salesforce has significantly cut back on the massive swag load of previous years. But they still build in some kind of "quest" with good prizes like shirts, hoodies, and plushies. You usually have to attend a session or two of particular kinds, do a Trailhead module, and meet with some of the sponsors. It's not that hard. Check the Events app for the requirements and what the prizes are. There's usually also a paper handbook available at the information booths.
Even if you have no interest in the prizes themselves, the quest can be fun. Plus it's something to do with people as you get to know each other. I have great memories from speed-running the TDX quest in 2023 with the Four M's (me, Monica, Misty, and Melissa).
Besides the silliness of getting the prizes as quickly as possible, we had fun at the "escape room" and some of the other goofy games. Plus sometimes you might actually learn something, discover new products, features, or apps that you didn't know about, or even meet a product manager or find an exhibit booth you woud never have come across.
Feed the Circular Economy ♺
Even if you don't care about the quest prizes and swag from exhibitors, you probably have someone in your life you can bring things back for. So take the good swag. Maybe you don't need yet another re-usable bag, or phone battery, or even hoodie. But your coworkers might appreciate them.
(Or your family.)
If you aren't into "stuff," that's fine. But you can be judicious. Only take the good stuff. Socks don't take up a lot of space. Plushies are bulky, but you'd be surprised how much people love them—even people that don't know the Salesforce characters. Stickers take no space at all. And yes, I'm aware of the environmental consequences and the waste swag can represent. But a few fewer stickers or pens taken from Dreamforce are not going to save the world. And if they'll bring joy to someone, that's got value. Your company sent you all the way to Dreamforce, you can share swag with coworkers as a sign of your appreciation.
Or save the haul to bring with you to a user group or Dreamin' event. There are plenty of people that are involved in the ecosystem that don't make it to the big events or don't get their hands on a piece of swag they were hoping for. The more you give away, the more you build friendships in the ecosystem and spread the fun.
Eat 🍴
For my last piece of advice, I'm turning to the practical: Don't forget to eat. Your Dreamforce registration comes with lunches. You need fuel to keep going. So make the time to eat.
Bonus points if you manage to eat with one of your new friends. But even if you just need some time to sit quietly by yourself, get those healthy calories in when you can.
And this applies doubly to dinners, in my experience. Lunch is at least served for everyone on the Dreamforce campus. (It might not be the perfect food you wanted, or the options might run out, but it's pretty good, relatively healthy, and will keep you going.) But dinner is on your own. You might manage to get food at one or another party, if you attend them. But I've learned not to count on that. Sometimes the food is insufficient. Or it's all gone by the time you arrive. Don't compound the exhaustion and the jet lag by also not having dinner. Grab a few people and head to a restaurant when the long day of sessions ends. Don't be shy: You can be certain that any group you announce a dinner plan to will have at least two or three people that want to eat with you!
I also like to swing by Trader Joe's and grab some supplies to keep in my hotel room, both for breakfast and to keep some snacks with me during the day.