How I'm Staying Connected to Dreamforce from 3K Miles Away!

It's that time of year again, my favorite time of year, it's Dreamforce time!  Unfortunately this year I had to make a tough decision not to attend Dreamforce.  I will tell you; it was one of the toughest decisions I've had to make in a long time and some tears were shed.  But I do know it was the right decision for me at least right now.  You will see me at the NYC World Tour and most certainly at DF17!

Without further ado, here are the ways I'm staying connected to #DF16!

Success Community/User Groups
It's no surprise that this is first on my list as it's an excellent way to connect with the community outside of Dreamforce.  Holly Goldin-Firestone wrote an excellent blog post on this very topic here.  In addition to that, User Groups around the world are hosting Dreamforce Outpost viewing parties!  I'll be hosting an Outpost party in NYC you can sign up for here.  If you're not in NYC, you can see the whole list of parties here.

Twitter

Twitter was one of the first places I connected with a majority of the Salesforce community outside of Dreamforce.  I remember leading up to Dreamforce '11 some of my Salesforce friends talked me into signing up for Twitter, I've never looked back.  To make it easy for myself and you, I put together a list of some great people to follow at DF16.  Click here to subscribe to the list!

Salesforce Live

One thing I'm super excited about is how many sessions are being streamed this year!  You can see the schedule and register here to watch many sessions from work or home! I'm glad I have two screens at work.  Screen 1: work, Screen 2: Dreamforce. 

Periscope

If you haven't signed up for this nifty app, you definitely should!  It's a great way to see real time what's happening through someone else's eyes.  When you sign up, you can choose to follow people you're already following on twitter.  When they start broadcasting, you will get an alert on your phone, and you can also see that they are broadcasting on Twitter.  

Snapchat

I'm pretty new to snap chat, but I've been following the Dreamforce Snapchat the past few days and have gotten some cool sneak peeks at the setup for Dreamforce.  I feel like I know some big secret now.  Ooooh. I hope there is a Dreamforce Story I can follow from NYC.  If anyone knows let me know!  

Facebook

Over the past few years, my Salesforce family has become part of my regular life, and I have befriended many from the community on Facebook.  I've already seen some Facebook Live Streams and great Posts.  

Salesforce World Tours

The world tour will make stops in Tokyo and NYC in December!  As you can imagine, I'm super excited for the World Tour in NYC, and I hope you'll join me.  More details can are here 

Even if you weren't able to go to San Francisco for Dreamforce, you can still have fun!  If there are any other ways you are connecting to Dreamforce virtually that I haven't listed here, please leave a comment!  

Much Love <3

Cheryl

My Sessions at Dreamforce

I am so excited for Dreamforce 2014!  This is the first year I'm presenting and I'm presenting five times!  Here is the list of sessions where I'm presenting. 

Monday
Admins and Business Analysts: Agents of Change

1:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Moscone Center West, Admin Theater Zone 

Tuesday

So You're a Salesforce Admin..Now What?

10:15 AM - 10:35 AM

Moscone Center West, Admin Theater Zone 

Why Button Click Developers are the New MacGyvers

11:15 AM - 11:45 AM

Moscone Center West, Community Lounge 

Wednesday

 Kicking a Hole in the Glass Ceiling

11:00 AM - 11:40 AM

Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Plaza A 

Thursday

Hands-on Workshop: Introduction to Point-And-Click App Building on Force.com

8:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Moscone Center West, 2020

These are sessions that I will be attending and you should too!

Monday

Success Community Keynote

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Golden Gate A,B 

I'll be in the Admin Zone at Mascone West for most of the day, so come by and say hello, especially since it will be my Birthday :)

Tuesday

Welcome to the Customer Success Platform with Marc Benioff & Special Guests

1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Moscone Center South, Main Keynote Room 

 Dreamforce Gala

6:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Civic Center, Civic Center Plaza 

Wednesday

Salesforce Admin Keynote

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Grand Ballroom B

 

Complete Customer Intelligence Driven By the Best 3rd Party Data

5:00 PM - 5:40 PM

San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Yerba Buena - Salons 10, 11, 12 

Thursday

Marc Benioff & Parker Harris Q&A

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Moscone Center West, Product Keynote Room

See you in less than a week!!

Cheryl

We Are Admins…Hear Us Roar

Dreamforce 2014 is going to be epic and not just because Bruno Mars is performing.  It’s going to be epic because history is going to be made right in front of our eyes.  For the first time ever, Admins are going to have a place to call our own; a place where you can grow as an admin, get your questions answered, get help on that formula field or validation rule, or think about what’s next in your career path; a place where Admins are appreciated and recognized for your achievements on the Salesforce platform, where you will realize that you aren't just a Salesforce Admin, but an Awesome Admin.

The place I’m referring to above is the Admin Zone.  If you are a Salesforce Admin, want to be a Salesforce Admin, or a Developer that is looking to do more with clicks you need to be in the Admin Zone as much as possible.  There are so many great sessions and things to take away from the Admin Zone that you will be able to learn everything from creating basic apps to being a MacGyver Admin.  

In addition to this history-making Admin Zone, we are going to have a Keynote!  Our very own Admin Keynote on Wednesday, October 15^th at 9 AM, this is when the real history will be made.  This is where all of us Admins will Roar together with one loud voice.

It doesn’t just stop there, the Admin Keynote will have surprise Guest Speakers, Salesforce swag, Awesome Admins that you know and love from the Salesforce Community.  I am telling you, as an Admin, this Keynote is not to be missed.  If you’re an Admin, this is where you need to be to show the world how awesome it is to be a Salesforce Admins and that we are the heartbeat of our Salesforce implementations. 

If all of that wasn’t awesome enough, what if I told you that you could be in the front row of the Admin Keynote?!  Be up close and personal with some of your favorite admins, including Mr. Button Click Admin himself, Mike Gerholdt!  I have the honor of giving away two front-row seats to the Admin Keynote! 

To enter the contest to win one of two front row seats you will need to do ALL of the following:

1. Make sure you’re registered for the Admin Keynote here
2. Comment on this blog post telling me you want to be in the front row of the Admin Keynote
3. Share this blog post on twitter or the community with the hashtag #AwesomeAdmin letting everyone know that you want to be in the front row of the Admin Keynote.

Winners will be selected at random on October 10^th, 2014.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the Admin Keynote!  

As always, thank you for reading!

Cheryl

Packing for Dreamforce

Recently, I watched the Road to Dreamforce webcast on Admin Success and boy was it amazing.  They talked about everything from top five sessions for admins, the new admin zone and packing for Dreamforce.   If you haven’t checked this series out, you can watch all of the episodes here.  A new episode airs live every Tuesday at 11 AM PST.  While you are watching the episodes live you can tweet with the hash tag #RoadToDF14 and they will answer some questions live!  These live episodes have been so much fun, I really try to block out my calendar so I can watch them live, but if you can’t, they are recorded and available usually within a few hours of airing.

One of the exciting items announced during this episode is that they are having a “Pack your Bags” contest where you can win a Premium Dreamforce Pass!   Per the Dreamforce website a Premium Pass is “The Dreamforce Premium Pass is an upgraded pass available to any full conference Dreamforce registrant looking for exclusive VIP perks.”  All you have you to do is tweet your packing list or a picture of your bag you are packing for Dreamforce with the hashtag #DF14COS.  In case you’re curious, COS stands for Circle of Success, you can read more about Circle of Success here (see #3).

Dreamforce 2014 will be my sixth Dreamforce, and even though I’ve been before, I always struggle with what to pack.  I am definitely one of those people that if I could, I would pack my entire bedroom and bring it with me, but since I’m only allowing myself one checked bag this will not be possible.  I know, I know, first world problems!  What to pack had already been on my mind even before this Road to Dreamforce episode.  I was already tweeting asking people what types of shoes they were bringing and it if it was too early to shop for Dreamforce.  I guess I’m not alone in my thoughts, because others tweeted back that they were also already shopping and preparing.

In response to a few of my tweets, I had some people asking me some specific questions on what I was going to pack, as well as I had people tweeting me after this episode asking me what I was going to pack.  I figured I would use this contest as an opportunity to help some other people who haven’t been to Dreamforce before or those who are just struggling with what to pack.   

I am dividing this up into a few separate posts so you can get to different topics easily.

Clothes with some outfit ideas

Shoes

Makeup & Hair

My suitcase, accessories and other essentials

Electronics

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you find all of the related posts helpful!

Cheryl