Dreamforce by the Numbers

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First I did the Dreamforce Alphabet, and now it’s my Dreamforce by the Numbers.

One – Dreamforce is ONE awesome conference!

Two – There are way too many great breakout sessions to choose from but my top TWO, must attend sessions are: Michael Farrington’s Comedy of Clouds and Formula Tips & Tricks featuring Steve Molis. Fair warning though, be prepared for loud laughter, thunderous applause and the occasional “F-bomb”!

Three – 2014 will be year THREE for me hosting the Newbie Reunion Breakfast. Learn more about that here: http://goo.gl/5bwkBa

Four – Dreamforce covers FOUR days, and this will be year FOUR for me attending Dreamforce.

Five – Take FIVE minutes out of every hour at Dreamforce to introduce yourself to someone near you. Go on, Dreamforce attendees don’t bite, and you’ll never know who you might meet, and what you might learn if you don’t say “Hi, I’m Eric. Is this your first Dreamforce?” (Of course I would suggest you use your real name, and not mine!)

Six – Samanthia Achuff, Erica Kuhl, Matt Brown, Phoebe Venkat, Eanna Cunnane & Elna Miller are SIX key Salesforce.com people in the Success Community you should get to know.

Seven – The number of hours of sleep you should be targeting each night at Dreamforce is SEVEN. Your actual results may vary (widely) but try to be well rested each morning.

Eight – The number of meals you are likely to eat during Dreamforce. I know the math doesn’t work out…4 days, 3 meals a day should be 12, but this is Dreamforce. I’ll bet you’ll not have time between sessions for a real lunch or not wake up early enough for a real breakfast every day!

Nine – Nine Salesforce MVPs you should make a point to meet while at Dreamforce: 1. Sarah Deutsch – her story is inspiring; 2. Matt Bertuzzi – if you’re on Professional Edition, Matt’s your man with the answers; 3. Denise Carbone – she runs the Chicago User Group and has some serious skills; 4. Leyna Hoffer – one of the first 500 Certified Admins and runs the Twin Cities User Group; 5. Rhonda Ross – not only a Salesforce MVP, but also the San Diego User Group leader for both the Salesforce user group but also the Marketo user group; 6. Michael Farrington – not only is he a dual MVP (Salesforce.com and Force.com MVPs) but he also manages his girlfriends using the force.com platform and he’s ‘kind of a big deal’ at Dreamforce; 7. Tal Frankfurt – a four-time MVP and founder of Cloud For Good; 8.  Bill Greenhaw – he’s the guy responsible for there being less of people at Dreamforce – he founded the DF’14 Health and Weight Loss Challenge;   9.  Steve Molis – He IS the Answers KING.  Who here hasn’t had a question answered by Steve?  Come on, admit it, you owe Steve a beer, or two

Ten – The number of Starbucks locations within a mile radius of Moscone Center. (If you’ve ever attended Dreamforce before you’ll understand the importance of this!) Disclaimer – this was a guess…I did not make any measurements.

What’s your lucky Dreamforce number?  Tweet it using hash tag #DF14FavNumber 

Oh no, I Forgot the “O”!

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A little while ago I published my “Dreamforce Alphabet” post. Since then, I’ve gotten some great feedback on other options I could have made for certain letters, such as B is for Bruno Mars.  One awesome reader also pointed out that I did not have the letter “O” in my alphabet.

Now I’d love to say that I did that by design, but that would be a flat out lie!  I totally overlooked the “O”.  Rather odd, if you ask me, how one might overlook an “o”.  None the less, since I missed it, the letter “O” gets a blog post all to itself.

Ode to Dreamforce

O is for OMG!  As is OMG, what  neat trick I just learned, I’m going to have to implement that as soon as I get back to work!

O is for OMG!  As in OMG, there are so many people walking between the Moscone buildings during session breaks that I feel like a salmon swimming up stream.

O is for OMG!  As in OMG, being able to walk up to a few MVPs in the Success Community Zone, ask a tough question and get a great answer on the spot is Outstanding!

O is for OMG!  As in OMG, I just ran into someone I know on the Dreamforce campus, and I didn’t even know they were attending Dreamforce this year!

O is for Orange.  As in I think I’ll have some Orange juice with my bacon at the DF14 Newbie Reunion Breakfast. #DF14Bacon  For details, check here:  http://goo.gl/N4CXM8

 

I hope no one Objects, or calls me Obtuse.

I hope no one says Off with his head, or makes me an Outcast.

I hope I don’t Offend anyone for Obvious reasons.

I hope to meet all you Outstanding people at Dreamforce in October.

The Dreamforce Alphabet

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Here’s everything you need to know about Dreamforce from A to Z!

A is for Activity. There’s a lot of things going on at Dreamforce!

B is for Bacon. Join the DF14 Newbie “Reunion” Breakfast, and enjoy some bacon and conversation with your fellow newbies, and a few veterans too.

C is for Community and Causes. Get together with your community and do something good for someone!

D is for Discussions. Go ahead…talk to someone! You might get into a great discussion and solve a problem!

E is for Eggs. Why eggs? Because you need something to go with all that bacon.

F is for Fun. If you don’t leave Dreamforce after having some fun, do us all a favor…don’t come back next year, unless you change your attitude!

G is for #GirlyGeeks. (Sorry Guys, this one’s for Ladies only!)

H is for Howard Street…which most likely won’t look at all like a street during Dreamforce.

I is for Isaacs…Charlie Isaacs. If we are lucky we’ll see him do a handstand or cartwheel!

J is for Julie Liegel, because without her and the Dreamforce team, well, let’s not even go there!

K is for Kraines…Marissa Kraines that is….she’s another member of the awesome Dreamforce team!

L is for Learn.  As in you’ll learn a lot from all the great content found at Dreamforce.

M is Moscone. By the time Dreamforce is over you’ll know it like the back of your hand.

N is for Newbies. That’s people attending their first Dreamforce, in case you didn’t figure that one out on your own. I’ve got a few tips for Newbies here: http://goo.gl/OBOSVC

P is for People you should get to know…like the MVP’s! http://goo.gl/CPqNLS

Q is for Quick. QUICK! Someone get me a battery pack, my mobile device is dying!

R is for Rain, because if we mention it now, perhaps it will stay away from Dreamforce this year!

S is for Salesforce…need I say more?

T is for Twitter…keep an eye on #DF14, #SalesforceLive, & #Dreamforce among others to stay informed.

U is for User Groups.  Join one (or more) today!  http://goo.gl/CW3fpy

V is for Vicariously. If you can’t attend Dreamforce, you can experience at least parts of it vicariously through Twitter, the Success Community and Salesforce Live!

W is for Water. You’ll want to be sure to stay hydrated and drink plenty of water.

X is for Excellent. Yeah, I know, that’s not quite an “X”, but it’s the best I could do. Dreamforce is an Excellent place to meet Excellent people, learn Excellent things about an Excellent ecosystem!

Y is for You. Because without You, Dreamforce just won’t be the same.

Z is for Zipper. Why?  Honestly, I’m at a loss for how to relate the letter Z to Dreamforce other than the zipper on your Dreamforce backpack! 

Notable quotes from the Salesforce Community

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Here’s a few of my recent favorite quotes from the Salesforce Success Community and Twitter.

Here’s a great presentation shared by Patrick Watkins on the Raleigh User Group page on “Putting Your Browser to Work as a Salesforce Admin”…lots of great time-saving tips in here.

Here’s a “short-n-sweet” post from MVP Jen Nelson “How to Become a Salesforce.com Consultant”. She sparked some great conversation on the community, so be sure to read through the entire thread, not just her blog post!

Here’s a great Salesforce1 Admin tip from Kelly Bentubo, If you build it, they will come! I just recently moved to an Org not using mobile (and thought they didn’t need it). I’ve been slowly recruiting team members over to mobile and now users are starting to approach me to ask about ‘that cool thing that Aaron is using’… If you can think up the use case, build it out and then demo it. Often users/management need to see it in action before you can get their buy in. Also agree on the other tips for automation & ease of use, show them how it will save them time (answer the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question)

Want your quote included in a future post? Use hashtag #sfdcQOTW and I’ll be sure to check it out!

You Can’t Spell Dreamforce Without Six Cs

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Yes, I know, there’s really only one C in Dreamforce, but I titled this post that way to make a point. Technically, to make six points, that all add up to why I attend Dreamforce every year.

1. Content – Awesome keynotes; training opportunities galore; find a solution to a nagging problem; discover how to improve your professional and/or personal life

2. Community – Networking opportunities like you’ve never experienced; reunite with long-lost colleagues; make new friends (find a new career opportunity, if you want one); the Dev Zone – hack away at that new app you’ve been thinking about and get advice from experts; the Success Community Zone – hang out with the MVPs and join a User Group so you can keep the Dreamforce feeling alive all year long!

3. Cloud Expo – The Cloud Expo includes the Salesforce Campground, which is your one-stop shop to get your hands on all the Salesforce products and solutions…interact first hand with the products and hear success stories shared by customers. The Cloud Expo also is where you can interact directly with the event sponsors to See live demos and meet face-to-face with over 350 cloud companies featuring 1,000+ solutions.

4. Cheers – Enjoy the awesome musical talents of Bruno Mars in concert, FREE with your Dreamforce Conference Pass! Also enjoy a wide variety of social gatherings to give you even more networking time with colleagues.

5. Cash – Who doesn’t like money? You can gain some ROI for your company and maybe win some cool prizes too!

6. Charity – Helping others who really need a hand always feels good! Give some of your time to help support the Salesforce Foundation’s efforts to help homeless children have sweeter dreams by packing a few bags for Project Night Night. Watch the Dreamforce schedule for details on when & where the pack out will take place.

Register today at Dreamforce.com, then get active on the Success Community to get in on the full experience.

I’ll see you at Dreamforce!

Quotes from Around the Salesforce Community – Star Wars Week

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I sure hope I do not have to explain the date in the title of this post…I have a feeling that many people, whether they’ve see a Star Wars movie or not, would know what that means, thanks to social media.

And now, a quick two memorable quotes of the week!

Love the “Power of One” technique for tricking reports into counting records they way you want? You might like this too… This Is Mine – TJ Stevens

If this doesn’t make your toes tingle, I don’t know what will: http://youtu.be/SSS0MQPwM4Y – Marissa Kraines

Memorable Quotes from Around the Salesforce community for the week of April 27, 2014

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Here’s a few of my favorite quote spotted in and around the Salesforce community this week. Tweet yours to me or post to the Success Community using #MQOTW-SFDC and maybe you’ll get a mention in a future post!

And now my favorites for the week:

Just registered for my 4th Dreamforce, really excited. Does anybody know when is the call for papers? I would really love to speak at this years event! – Sacha Villeneuve

Matt, When you can carve out some time I would like to talk to you about restarting the Roanoke/Lynchburg User Group. – Jim Gentile (Editor’s note:  Yeah, Matt…when can you make some time for Jim?  We need more active user groups!  Jim – while you are waiting on Matt, check out this session from Dreamforce 2013: How to Make Salesforce.com User Groups a Hit!)

Kidding, You guys know we don’t give hints! – Julie Liegl (Editor’s note: Julie is the Dreamforce Chair, and this was in response to SEVERAL people trying to find out who the band will be at this year’s Gala.)

I just saw that we have MORE Veterans that are certified admins/developers with Salesforce thanks to the#Veterans2Work program!! Please think of these Vets when you are hiring at your companies! Many of them have resumes that are impressive beyond their time in service! – Natasha Walker (Editor’s note: for more details see the Salesforce.com blog post From Service to Salesforce: Veterans Take on New Tech Skills and Veterans2Work.org)

 

Top 10 Reasons to Attend Dreamforce 2014

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Here’s my top 10 reasons why you should attend Dreamforce updated for 2014:

10: Networking…its a fabulous place to meet like-minded people. Don’t be scared, introduce yourself! You could very well be talking to your next coworker or manager, or even discover a solution to a challenge you have been facing!

9: Exercise…with all the sessions and activities spread out over Moscone’s 3 buildings as well as a half a dozen or so hotels in the area, you might end up dropping a few pounds from all the walking you’ll do. (Be sure to wear comfortable shoes!)

8: Knowledge…Keynote sessions, hands-on training sessions, breakout sessions…who knows what all you could learn! Even without knowing who the keynote or breakout session speakers are, or who the special guests during Marc Benioff’s keynote will be, I’m 100% certain I will learn a lot!

7: Awesome…yes, be prepared to hear that word quite a lot. Many will describe the event as Awesome or Outstanding.

6: Get Social…That’s right, Dreamforce isn’t really just an 8 to 5 event. Social gatherings, dinners, parties and even concerts await the adventurous soul. In fact, you can keep the Dreamforce feeling alive all year by joining your local user group…find them here!

5: Charity…Don’t just take things away from Dreamforce, give things away!  Give back some of your time to help out  great causes. Look for the Salesforce Foundation volunteer events and GIVE!

4: Save some money…register fast and get a lower price, and very likely a better choice of closer and/or more affordable accommodations. To register, visit the Dreamforce tab on the Success Community! Register Here!

3: Partners…be sure to carve out time to visit the Cloud Expos. Many AppExchange partners will be there to give you live demos, great reasons why you need to extend your salesforce org outside the box, and pick up some cool swag along the way. You can also connect with Salesforce experts, interact firsthand with Salesforce products, and hear success stories shared by customers at the Salesforce Campground.

2: Rub elbows with the elite…the MVPs and User Group Leaders. Those people are almost overly passionate about the Salesforce ecosystem, but guess what? They are people too, and love helping others gain knowledge and overcome challenges!

And my number 1 reason to attend Dreamforce this year:

1: Community…What’s that? It’s the culmination of all of the other top items rolled into one neat little package. It’s that intangible benefit you get from being part of a group that is well over one million strong. It’s that awesome feeling you get when racing between sessions with over 100,000 of your closest friends  It is Salesforce…it is Dreamforce. And its AWESOME!!!

So How’s THAT Make You Feel?

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So, how’s THAT make you feel?

Don’t you just hate hearing those words? It almost always involves hurt feelings or revenge some how. It’s very often a sign of something bad, something that really shouldn’t happen, but most likely will end up happening…like it or not.

Well at precisely 10:22AM (Central Time) on May 1, 2014, those very words, “So how’s that make you feel?” came into my mind. And it was a good thing.  But it was really more than just a good thing.  It was one of those things that keeps you grounded. It was one of those things that helps keep you motivated to do something that helps others.  It was an email, that hit my inbox at 10:22AM, and it came from Matt Brown, Advocacy Program Manager at Salesforce.com.

Congratulations!

It’s just a word. It was the first word of that email.

congratulations

And with the simple reading of that one word, I felt excited and humbled at the very same time.  It was deja vu!  It was the exact same feeling I had on April 10, 2013.  The day I was first named a Salesforce MVP.  Whoa, hold it a second.  Back that bus up!

The_Magic_School_Bus

I just got transported to a magical place!  I just got honored as a Salesforce MVP…AGAIN!

I’m still not sure I deserve it…I’m not an Answers machine, like SteveMo or Jeff May. I’m not a blogging or podcasting machine, like the ButtonClick Admin, Mike Gerholdt or the guys from Arkus, Inc. who do the CloudFocus Weekly series. I’m just a user group leader, from the cornfields of Southern Indiana who seems to enjoy connecting with other Salesforce.com users.

To all of you in the Success Community who inspire me every day, thank you…for without you, there would be no community!

Memorable Quotes From Around the Salesforce Community

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Here’s this weeks memory makers:

It works! It works! Oh this is awesome! I was trying to to find a way to send links for S1 dashboards via email – especially while I am creating them on demand for exec meetings or for district managers. No more explaining…just instant access! Yay! – Jennifer Wobser

Home sick, but I still have everything I need in the palm of my hand #nolaptopneeded – Launa Saunders

Well criminy bananas…sometimes “simple” is the least “simple” of all – Jen Nelson

If you’re feeling a little frisky you could spice the report up with a few custom summary formulas to show their Win Rate % and Close Rate % so you can see stuff like: ‘User A had 10 Opportunities that were supposed to close THIS month, they Won 30% (3), Lost 20% (2), and 50% (5) are still open’ – Steve Molis (SteveMo)

** San Diego User Group Milestone! ** We just had 13 new members join our group, bringing us to over 700 members! – Rhonda Ross