Dreamforce Diaries

This is my Second Blog post as part of the series of articles I am writing called “Dreamforce Diaries”.

Dreamforce is the biggest and the most awesome event organised by Salesforce.

A lot happen at Dreamforce you learn, share your knowledge, and make connections, memories, and friends that you may cherish a lifetime.  This may surprise you; this Dreamforce had the biggest number of attendees of all time, so I reached out to some of the lucky people who got the chance to attend this year’s Dreamforce about their experience.

Here I share Awesome!! Dreamforce Experience of the following WIT:-

Stephanie Herrera (Salesforce MVP, Started #SalesforceSaturday in Austin)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

I look forward to Dreamforce EVERY YEAR!! This year was the first year I attended as a Salesforce MVP, and believe me, it did not disappoint! Just when I didn’t think the experience couldn’t get any better, it did!

We also had our first Salesforce Saturday Global HH, where we all got to come together in one place and hang out, and it was without a doubt one of my FAVORITE memories of Dreamforce 2016! It brought me so much joy to hear what others are doing in the Salesforce Community for others, first hand and to see their smiling faces as they talked about it! Shout out to all my Salesforce Saturday Peeps!! Always Be Learning!! I was also FINALLY able to meet Atul Gupta and Vinay Chaturvedi, who are leaders in Salesforce Saturday in India. It was so much fun being part of their first Dreamforce experience too!

Another Favorite moment for me was taking a picture with Cheryl Feldman’s picture!! Cheryl had gotten sick and could not attend Dreamforce this year, which of course was a loss for all of us!  However, Jennifer Wobser & Selina Suarez were carrying Cheryl’s Beautiful picture around everywhere!! It just reminded me of the AWESOMENESS of our Ohana family here at Salesforce! It was the next best thing to having Cheryl there! Though, I will be VERY happy to have her there in person next year 🙂

Without a doubt, my Favorite moment was Marc’s fireside chat! We had so many AMAZING women, speak up, and voice their concerns about issues that needed to be discussed, and Marc listened. It was AWESOME! They all made me SO PROUD to be a Woman In TECH!

Speaking of WIT, the Salesforce WIT panel blew us all away AGAIN! I do wish they recorded it, so we can share it with other women who are not as fortunate as us, to travel to Dreamforce, as it motivates me, and really drives me to do more!

As you can see, I’m all about the amazing Connections you make at Dreamforce! It’s what feeds my soul!

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

When Jade Fisher and I RAN around ALL of Moscone North looking for the Plural Sight Booth so that we could get a David Liu SFDC 99 t-shirt before they ran out.  Once we covered ALL of Moscone North, we found out, their booth was actually in Moscone West.  We did eventually get our t-shirt after we took a short break to catch our breath of course!

Another funny moment for me was seeing Atul Gupta and Vinay Chaturvedi dressed up in Trailhead gear!

Also, the Bus situation at the U2 concert, I think we can all laugh about that now, right?

My favorite funny moment is when Willie Hooykaas and I got photo bombed by Charlie Isaacs 🙂

Jennifer Wobser (Salesforce MVP)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

2016 Dreamforce (#13 for me) can only be described as traveling to the island of Salesforce where everyone who loves Salesforce as much as I do, is here! It was as if everything I had ever lost had been found in one place. Every few steps I took once I arrived at Moscone were filled with squeals, hugs, and even a few tears I as I reunited with my people and met new members of our ‘Lost Tribe.’ The overall feeling was of being home where I belong! Ohana is definitely correct word for Salesforce employees, customers, partners, and newcomers to join together in a united passion for the platform!

Top DF16 Moments:

Visiting with the Monks from Plum Village in the Dreampark and remembering to take care of myself on such a busy week!

The Ambassadors of Aloha Opening Dreamforce 2016 & The Aloha Song at the main keynote – how very lucky we are as Salesforce customers at Dreamforce to receive blessings from the Aloha Ambassadors! I’ve never been to Hawaii, so I appreciate the roots of Ohana being brought to me in San Francisco!

Participating in the (RED) community service activities, wearing their shirts, and helping to spread the word of the lives they save!

Moscone West Trailhead Zone – I love the concept of Trailhead uniting Admins and Devs! I even had the opportunity to bring a few USF students with me to their first Dreamforce. I reveled in their excitement to see Trailhead brought to life and the future career opportunities available to them.

I had the privilege of visiting with Salesforce’s Karen Mangia after her session and had her sign a copy of her book Success with Less. This book literally changed my life & I highly recommend it especially for anyone in a Salesforce career crossroad and/or admins that have been in the ecosystem a long time like me!

The Admin Keynote – when Zac Otero received the gold jacket and award, I was so happy that I cried! He has been part of our Springfield user group and a friend for quite a while. To watch him blossom from wanting to learn Salesforce to featured Admin, I couldn’t be more proud!

The Marc Q&A on Friday was the pinnacle of my Dreamforce memories! If I could bottle the feeling in that room to bring home, I would! The whole audience danced to ‘Harvest Moon’ as a unified community. Then, I was able to watch my Salesforce community peers speak freely to Marc and see how he very much cares about each and every person in that room, it was surreal. What other CEO does that? He actually wants feedback and ideas about the product he created from the people that work with it every day. Other companies could take a few lessons from him!

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

My Best Friend, Cheryl Feldman, could not attend Dreamforce this year. She was featured in many of the keynotes in Trailhead film clips, but it wasn’t the same as having her there by my side in person. So, to cheer her up and still have her with us, our friend Carlos Frias printed a picture of her to bring to all the events. We laughed until we cried taking her picture around for selfies at the Admin Keynote, AppExchange Party, and Trailhead Breakfast! That’s what best friends do for each other, right? We’ve been around the Salesforce Admin block since before there was a community, the app exchange, and Trailhead – so there was no way she was going to miss this Dreamforce!

Amy Oplinger  (Certified #Salesforce Administrator | #CLE WiT User Group & #SalesforceSaturday Co-Leader)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

My #DF16 experience can be summed up in one word: Community. My plan this year was different from the previous year in that my focus was more on connecting with others in the Salesforce community. I had a list of Salesforce influencers that I wanted to meet, and several people had reached out wanting to meet me as well. I was very happy to have finally met Vinay Chaturvedi and Atul Gupta in person, amongst others.

The entire experience of #DF16 was a whirlwind of activities, with friends old and new. I look forward to seeing everyone again very soon.

 

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

I don’t really have the funniest moment, but there was a great deal of laughing daily! Dreamforce is like a family reunion of sorts…where you get to see all your long lost friends and make new ones. I feel at home around other Salesforce people and laughed a great deal as a result. I am always happy with my #Ohana.

Lauren Touyet  (http://Salesforce.com  Solution Architect for Symantec Ltd | Co-Leader of the Salesforce Ireland User Group)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

This was my second Dreamforce and it was completely different to my first! I got to engage more with the community and meet so many people I had met on twitter and the success community. I also didn’t jam pack my schedules with sessions like last year!

There were so many great sessions this year, I really enjoyed “workbench: an admins best friend”, “steps to trusted advisor”, “getting started with apex as an admin”. My favorite was how to “write the trailhead way” I am trailhead obsessed and getting to meet the people behind it was amazing!

I went to the Women in tech summit this year and it was a great kick start to the conference and it set the tone for a great week!

I was also lucky enough to be a volunteer for the admin meadow staffing the Admin best practices, be a security expert as well as train and onboard users booths. It was great to speak to other admins and see what issues they were having!

The highlight for me was meeting so many people who inspire me and want me to be successful! There are many people I want to thank for making my Dreamforce awesome so here goes Amy Oplinger, Ali Waheed, Chris whitehead, David Litton, Zachary jeans, Leanne wong, Annie shek-mason, Stuart Edeal, Ben Bolopue, Adam Olshansky, Meighan Brodkey, Ronald moyo.

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

How can I pick just one! There were so many seeing everyone sing the Solo Admin song by Apex & The Limits I listen to that song every day on my way to work! The Karaoke in Dreampark was great I’m a big scaredy cat so I didn’t get up and sing but I did sing in solidarity with them all and one that still puts a smile on my face the lipsync battle in the admin meadow I will be entering that next year!

Regina Walton (Program Manager: Marketing Events, @Salesforce, @SalesforceDevs | I organize @SFTech4Good )

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

It was my first Dreamforce “behind the veil”. I started at Salesforce in August to cover while Jessica is on maternity leave. I miss being about to lounge in the Dreampark and head to the keynotes, but it was great seeing how Dreamforce comes together.

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

I’m not sure there is one funny moment. There were a bunch of them.  No, no, no…wait. The Goat-Pro was pretty funny: https://twitter.com/hashtag/goatprodf16

Melinda Smith (@Salesforce WIT User Group Lead, 4X Certified, Beer lover)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

Dreamforce 2016 was, by far, the best one yet!  The reason this is true is 100% because of the Salesforce community.  I got more involved, started a podcast, brought on a WIT co-lead and engaged on Twitter.  This made this Dreamforce feel like a BIG reunion with all of my favorite people.  My next favorite thing was Moscone West.  The way they made everything like Trailhead & their attention to detail was amazing!  The WIT Breakfast & the Badger Breakfast were really special moments as well.  This last Dreamforce was definitely more about making connections & building the bond with my community.

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

Funniest moment of Dreamforce…..haha, Amy Oplinger is gonna make fun of me for saying this AGAIN but for me, the funniest was hanging around with Amy

(My SaaLSoulmate) and this 1 person came up & was VERY excited to meet her because they knew her on Twitter.  After they gushed and shook her hand, they looked at me, deadly serious and said: “And you are?”  HA ha!  It cracked me up!  This whole Dreamforce had my sides hurting from laughter & that was all because of Amy.  We shared a room & laughed for 5 days straight!

Rebecca Fontanilla  (@salesforce#adminbootcamp alum & #DF16attendee + @google in Sunnyvale)

Your experience at Dreamforce 2016?

As a first-time attendee of Dreamforce, I wasn’t actually sure what to expect. But it was simply amazing! There are so many sessions to attend, and keynotes to see. But my favorite part was Benioff’s keynote because it highlighted the notion of “paying it forward.” I think was drives Salesforce is not only its customers but their ecosystem. And thank goodness I wore comfortable shoes…walking around the Dreamforce campus was no joke.

Funniest moment of Dreamforce 2016?

I don’t recollect a funny moment but just moments of happiness seeing all my friends in the Salesforce ecosystem, as well as meeting new friends! Jennifer Wobser, Charlie Isaacs, Zachary jeans, Eric Dreshfield,  Daniel Peter, David Liu, @shivanathd  just to name a few – oh and I also got a picture with Peter Coffee too!! Everyone is definitely much taller than they appear on television/social media…haha, until next time, Dreamforce!

I Hope you liked my first blog post as part of the series of articles I am writing called “Dreamforce Diaries”.

In case you missed it (https://nitinguptasalesforce.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/dreamforce-diaries/)

If you also want to share your experience with Salesforce Community, please contact me.

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I will be introducing other ambassadors soon and will be sharing their stories too.