Dreamforce, Are You Ready?

It's HAPPENING! It's REALLY HAPPENING! One of my favorite event of the year is back, and I'm counting down the days until it's here. I'm looking forward to every moment of sessions, speakers, hands on training, and networking at Dreamforce! As exciting as these opportunities are, it can also be very overwhelming.

To help your days at Dreamforce go as smoothly as possible, I’ve put together some Dreamforce survival tips.

Early Preparations:

• Block your calendar for the day before and the day after arriving home. The day before is for you to review your agenda for the week and reflect on the days ahead. The day after is a self-care day for you to play catch up and reflect on the event.
• Leverage your network: Take time to research the speakers’ websites and LinkedIn profiles. Make a list of the people you’d like to meet. Think about the 1-3 biggest challenges you're running into, and create 1-3 questions to ask them.
• Packing for the conference: Wear comfortable shoes and socks. During your time in San Francisco, you'll be getting more than your 15,000 steps. You can't focus on the information being presented in the session if your feet are killing you - no matter how cute you look! The right comfortable shoes are everything for this conference. What you're going for here is straight survival. You'll thank me after the conference.Bring multiple layers of clothing. Remember that the conference is in San Francisco in autumn. You can expect varying temperatures, cooler nights, warmer afternoons, and lots of wind. Inside session locations, it can also be quite hot. You’ve got to be prepared for anything!
• Essentials: Spare battery pack to charge your phone, water bottle, snacks, comfortable backpack that won’t hurt your back!

Before you go:

• Download the official mobile app (Apple / Google Play). This is absolutely critical to a successful conference. It will be your best tool for navigating the conference. Through the app you’ll be able to build out a personal agenda, network with fellow attendees, and save a seat for capacity-limited sessions Research the speakers’ websites and LinkedIn profiles.Think of a couple of questions relevant to the session to ask the speakers afterwardsSessions fill up fast! Plan to arrive 15 minutes early to key sessions

During Dreamforce:

• Registration and Badge Pick-Up: Pick up your badge early — avoid long lines and the potential risk of being late or missing sessions or programming on Tuesday morning!
• Divide and Conquer: If you are going with multiple team members from your team or organization, take the divide and conquer approach. Splitting up gives you the best experience and force you to start a conversation with someone you don't know!
• Take Care of Yourself - Avoid Burn Out: With such a fast-paced conference and sessions stacked on sessions, it gets exhausting and overwhelming. Don't feel like you have to go to every single session that you registered for. You're there to learn, but you're also there to network and have fun. Take time to enjoy the conference. Check out all the other amazing programming at Dreamforce. Eat healthy and stay hydrated.
• Be Social! Share what you are learning at Dreamforce with the hashtag #DF23. X “formerly known as Twitter” is incredibly popular during the conference. Take photos and share the tips and insights you’re learning but resist the urge to “live-tweet” everything—it makes it much harder to stay locked in on the session itself and could mean missing good information; Your brain will thank you. Sharing on social is a also a great way for those unable to attend Dreamforce to follow along.
• Connect, Connect, Connect: Dreamforce is full of amazing content (there's over x number of sessions), but there's also some great networking opportunities to meet some amazing Trailblazers from all over the world! Now is the time to get your burning questions answered!
• HAVE FUN!

After the Conference

• Give yourself time to digest the conference experience and firm up connections with new contacts.
• Start putting what you learned into practice! Create a “Lessons Learned” conference notebook and add information about what resonated with you most. How can you use that information to do your job better or faster?
• Pass along your newfound knowledge. If others on your team weren’t able to attend the industry conference, share key learnings with them.
• Write a Post-Conference Blog! This is a great way to recap the event and highlight the covered key points. This can be especially helpful for those who were unable to attend or want a refresher.
• Offer feedback. If you receive a post-conference survey, fill it out. Offer your praise or to provide constructive feedback on improvements you feel could be made.