Dreamforce is one of the biggest tech conferences in the world. It is Salesforce’s massive event with over 170,000 attendees completely occupying San Francisco over a 4-day period in the 2nd half of every year. Over 2,700 sessions and workshops with keynotes delivered by elite speakers from renowned companies take part in this event.
Thousands of Salesforce trailblazers from all over the world come over for this extravaganza. Dreamforce has grown into so much more than a conference — it’s an experience like no other. Admins, Developers, Consultants, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Technical Architects, Customers, Companies, App Builders, Visionaries, Partners, Salesforce MVPs – they all make this event a life-time experience for everyone attending.
Dreamforce To You Goes Viral
Don’t rush to buy a ticket to San Francisco or book your accommodation. As you have probably guessed, due to the COVID-19 situation, Salesforce decided to hold Dreamforce To You 2020 virtually. This will happen for the first time in 17 years. This decision was made in efforts to help ensure the health and safety of customers, partners, employees, and communities, and we can only applause Salesforce for this commitment.
Finally, it’s official – Dreamforce To You 2020 will be a free to all six-week event full of thought leadership, community participation and entertainment starting on November 12th, 2020. This virtual experience gives a chance to the whole Trailblazer community, and especially to those who didn’t have a chance to attend the event in person, to experience Dreamforce 2020 like never before.
Here is what we know about Dreamforce To You 2020 so far.
Date and Location
This year, Dreamforce To You 2020 will kick off on Monday, November 9, 2020 with personalized meetings that get down to business. During these personalized meetings, the Salesforce team will help you build your perfect Customer 360, tailored to your specific business needs.
A virtual keynote by Marc Benioff and special guests from AT&T, Bentley Motors, and others will take place on Wednesday, December 2, 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET in the comfort of your own home or any other place with an Internet connection. Marc Benioff and his guests will share Salesforce’s vision for the future, celebrate customer success, unveil new innovations across the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform, and more.
From November 18 through December 18, the Dreamtalks program will offer presentations and panel discussions featuring artists, authors, and thought leaders discussing not only business topics, but a range of urgent concerns such as equality, health, wellness and the climate.
After four full days of learning nad community events for admins, developers, architects and partners (DreamTX: December 14-17), the Dreamforce To You 2020 will close with a finale on December 18, 2020. We can expect a special guest speaker (Salesforce is still keeping a secret on who that will be) and a musical celebration.
Pricing & Registration
While the attendance is free for all, you still to register for Dreamforce To You 2020 on the official website – https://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/.
Agenda & Speakers
There is no full agenda announced yet, but you can stay up to date with all of the free, publicly available Dreamforce to You 2020 content at Dreamforce.com.
Here is what we know until now:
- Starting November 9: personalized business meetings with the Salesforce Team
- Wednesday, December 2, 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET: Keynote by Marc Benioff and special guests from AT&T, Bentley Motors, and others
- December 14–17: DreamTX
- December 18: Closing finale
To get a better idea of what else to expect, you can always refer to the main highlights and announcements from Dreamforce 2019.
For example, in 2019 Dreamforce featured such speakers as Marc Benioff, Tim Cook, Barack Obama, Emilia Clarke, Arianna Huffington, and more.
Salesforce states that it will record as much content as possible for on-demand viewing. However, we still suggest you to join the sessions live since some content and experiences might only be available during the live Dreamforce event.
Why Attend Dreamforce 2020 – What’s in it for YOU?
- Learn: From learning about the newest products, getting inspired, discovering the future of technology, getting hands-on with it – there’s a lot more Dreamforce 2020 can offer to you. Learning is endless with thousands of demos and solutions from Salesforce, partners, and insights from experts. In the following article written by Inspire Planner, you can find the main highlights and announcements from Dreamforce 2019.
- Connect: You have 6 weeks to connect with the trailblazers with unlimited networking opportunities day in day out – it is the perfect place to meet new people, build careers, get inspired. While a lunch with someone might not be an opportunity this year, get creative and think of new ways to meet new people during Dreamforce 2020.
- Charity: Philanthropy is a huge part of Dreamforce every single year. Dreamforce brings opportunities to make the world more equal. Salesforce has raised over $73 million to support the communities so far. By attending Dreamforce you are doing your part too. Dreamforce To You 2020 will not be an exception. As part of Dreamforce to You, Salesforce will donate $5 million to address today’s economic, hunger, health, climate, and racial inequality crises – $2 million small business fund to provide financial relief to San Francisco small businesses, and $3 million to support organizations addressing hunger.
- Party: What’s all fun without a party? That’s why there’s Dreamfest. Typically, Dreamforce is a week-long celebration with parties and happy hours all over town. But it doesn’t get more fun than Dreamfest. Past performers have included Metallica, U2, Bruno Mars, and Alicia Keys. What’s more – all the money raised from Dreamfest supports UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Given the current situation, we are excited to see what the plans for Dreamfest and all the parties would be.
- ROI: Past attendees have seen significant increases of over 20% in ROI on sales productivity, customer retention, marketing lead volume, win rate, and deal sizes. Refer to the ROI calculator on the Dreamforce site to check how your attendance can give the ROI. Are you trying to convince your company to let you attend lots of sessions during the Dreamforce To You 2020? Then you can also use a sample letter that you can download on the same page to convince your employer. This year with the virtual event at not cost, it should be easier than ever!
Dos and Don’ts at Dreamforce
The typical 4 days at Dreamforce can get seriously hectic without proper planning especially with the excitement around, let alone the 6-week period for Dreamforce To You 2020. Do not drain yourself in the first few days. Here are some useful tips on planning your journey to Dreamforce as an attendee.
Preparation Tips for Dreamforce 2020
While there is no need to pack for traveling to San Francisco this year, there are still several items that you could prepare for a successful online experience. Here’s a comprehensive list. Do not miss any of these:
- Right attitude: Treat a virtual Dreamforce as you would a regular in-person event. Plan your time to attend the most interesting sessions, engage during the sessions. Take advantage of conference hashtags (#Dreamforce, #DF20, #Dreamforce2020, etc.), Twitter, live chats, slack channels, or any other online tools to stay connected with other trailblazers.
- Limit distractions: Find a place where you would limit distractions so that you can get a full experience of attending this amazing event. You might also want to turn off notifications to stay focused.
- Test your Technology: Make sure you have all the technology prepared for a perfect virtual experience. Test your Internet speed and think of a backup option (e.g. using a personal hotspot to share the cellular data connection).
- Smartphone: Pack your phone with useful apps like Salesforce events (your go-to guide for Dreamforce), Twitter (the entire SF crowd is on Twitter), Notes (GDrive, Quip or similar), and more. Download Dreamforce Jetpack when it is available.
- Chargers and necessary cables: It’s highly likely that with a fully virtual experience, you would need to stay connected over multiple devices at a time. Prepare the laptop and phone chargers as well as additional cables in advance. You don’t want to have your devices run out of battery in the middle of a great session.
- Business casual attire: The most common question is what to wear to Dreamforce? The dress code has always been business casual. There is a chance that you might need to connect with new people online, so even if you are attending Dreamforce from the comfort of your home, look your best. Don’t go too formal or too casual.
- A printed schedule: You might be doing lots of other tasks on your laptop/phone/tablet, so a printed schedule in front of you might come in handy.
- Pen and a notebook: Your devices might die during the session, so keep a good old pen and a notebook next to you if you need to write something down.
- Virtual background: if you have any virtual meetings during Dreamforce 2020, some video conferencing tools allow you to upload a nice virtual background. Why not use this opportunity to show off some of those nice Salesforce certifications?
- Keep some snacks and water next to you. You don’t want to miss any important announcements while running to the kitchen to grab something.
- Oh and bring lots of enthusiasm!
Session Bookings Tips
Pace out your sessions on a day and over these 6 weeks. It’s unlikely that you can attend all of them, so focus on the most relevant ones for you.
Do not overbook yourself on the 1st day – we know you are all excited but most of the people drain out by the end of 1st day.
Networking Tips at Dreamforce
- Most of the sessions will be available on video after the event. Leave some time for networking (no matter how it is organized this year). Meeting a person (even virtually) is equally if not more valuable than attending a session.
- If there are specific people, customers, partners that you want to talk to, contact them in advance and arrange a virtual meeting. Now that Dreamforce 2020 is an online event, you don’t actually need to try and meet everyone during these 6 weeks.
- Have your elevator pitch ready. You never know who you could meet during Dreamforce To You 2020.
- Do not forget to catch up with those whom you wanted and agreed to.
Dreamforce is exciting and daunting at the same time. Without proper planning, it would be a messy ride. Plan well, register for the sessions, have fun, and make new virtual friends that you can meet in person at Dreamforce 2021.
Read the full blog at the link below:
source: https://inspireplanner.com/blog/salesforce-dreamforce-ultimate-guide/
