As most of you are aware by now, next week is Dreamforce 2014 will be upon us.  You hear about it all year, but the time now and over 100,000 people will descend on San Francisco looking to be inspired, motivated and quite frankly for some, to party. Dreamforce is more than just a vendor conference. It grown so to become the best and biggest vendor led technology conference in the world.  This years version of Dreamforce promises to be no different. As you prepare to attend Dreamforce as a first time attendee or are a veteran, below are a few thoughts I can share with you from the perspective of being a customer and attending the last 6 years.

Have Clear Objectives

When I first attended Dreamforce in 2008, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought I would learn a little about the product and attend a few sessions and that was it. However, the reality proved something entirely different. While it was fun, I am not sure I got much out of it, other than a few hangovers.  After you register for Dreamforce, make sure you have a plan for attacking the conference in a way that will prove valuable to you and your company. One clear way to help you hit some of your objectives if to ensure you and your team attend the right sessions. The ‘session builder’ is live and can get you registered for sessions relevant to your goals. The session builder tool allows you to search through over 1400 sessions.  You can even search by industry as indicated below.

Attend the Key Notes

There are several great keynote speakers at this year’s Dreamforce 2014. Make sure you take the time from your busy schedule to attend a few of these. Most of the key notes are inspiring and the key note with Marc Benioff is always great as there are always cool product announcements and inspirational stories on the non-profit side. If you or your company uses a particular Salesforce product, make sure you allocate some time to attend the product keynotes. All product keynotes and times are below and are on October 15th for the most part.

Cloud Expo

The cloud expo is always a fun and stimulating area of Dreamforce and this year will be no different. The cloud expo is the best way to get the most out of Salesforce products and solutions. There are many company’s that have integrated their products with Salesforce and very well be something that can help your company grow.  You will be able to find the apps you need and even test-drive hundreds of salesforce.com and partner demos. Below is a map of the cloud expo and what the Salesforce portion of the expo looked like last year.

Final Tips

A couple of more tips as before you head out to Dreamforce 2014 next week;

• Bring business cards, you will need them
• Don’t book back to back sessions building that are several blocks from each other (see campus map below)
• If you did not book a session you wanted, don’t worry, this year is the first year Salesforce allows for ‘walk-ups’
• Bring an extra phone charger, you will need it.
• Go see Bruno Mars at the San Francisco City Hall (Civic Center Hall)
• You can see all the key notes and sessions you missed on the Salesforce You Tube channel
• Have fun and enjoy the after hours fun. You can even download “Partyforce” to give you insights to all the parties at Dreamforce 2014

Hector Perez Jr.

• Tags: Dreamforce, Salesforce