7 Tips to Make the Most of your Dreamforce ’18 Experience

Dreamforce 2018 is just around the corner! From September 25-28th, over 170,000 attendees from all over the world will soak in content from thousands of sessions and hundreds of hours of hands-on Salesforce training. This 4-day long, mother of all Salesforce conferences is held at the Moscone Convention Center and various hotels in San Francisco. Dreamforce attracts IT managers, Salespeople, marketers, CEOs, developers and everyone in between who is interested in learning more about how Salesforce can expand their business.

As a Dreamforce sponsor back for the sixth year in a row, we’d like to share a few not-so-obvious, often overlooked tips to help make the most out of your Dreamforce 2018 experience. We cover everything from what to pack, how to network like a boss, and how to build the best activity schedule. Below are our top 7 tips on how to prepare for and navigate the busy week:

1. Master Your Elevator Pitch

You will meet new people each day at Dreamforce- at keynote sessions, the Expo hall, and even while waiting on line for food or to use the bathroom. The places you least expect are often where some of the most interesting and meaningful conversations begin! Whatever your Dreamforce goals may be, we recommend coming prepared with a 15 second well-rehearsed pitch about who you are and what brings you to the conference. ational and effortless you will sound. Now go out there and woo your fellow Trailblazers!

2. Build Your Schedule Ahead of Time, but be Prepared to Change Your Plans

Dreamforce 2018 will have over 2,700 breakout and theatre sessions and 300 exhibitors. Trying to find and book the best content for your Salesforce goals can be daunting. Don’t waste your time researching all of the sessions because Salesforce has plenty of tools to filter what makes the most sense for you. Having said that, do make an exception to read through the shorter list of visionary Keynote Speakers including Marc Benioff, Al Gore, and Unilever CEO Jane Moran!

The first scheduling resource we love is Dreamforce trail maps. Trail maps allows you to filter activities and sessions by your area of interest to help choose the right events and topics for your business needs. Dreamforce has trail maps for people in Sales, Service, Marketing, IT, Admin, Developer, Analytics, Finance, Education and other backgrounds. It uses filtering to spit out every activity related to your interest area. Pretty neat!

Pictured below is an example of what the trail map for the “Service” trail map looks like for Tuesday, Sept. 25th. There are custom maps for every day of the event! Conveniently, recommended activities that you can bookmark are linked directly to the Dreamforce Agenda builder. We discovered a fantastic blog written by Salesforce which provides Dreamforce agenda builder tips. Read Dreamforce’s agenda builder blog

Among all these sessions, there is one that stands out for us as a Salesforce Silver implementation partner. Our long-time customer, Riverbed, is speaking about building stronger relationships with Salesforce partners to achieve your channel sales goals. Read more about their session “Riverbed and Telstra Build Stronger Partner Relationships with Sales Cloud PRM” and see if it fits in to your Dreamforce agenda!

As you can see, it is possible to pre-plan for every minute of each day at Dreamforce. With so many interesting sessions and people, you are going to want to leave time in your day for last minute changes and unanticipated events. There will be impromptu meetings on the expo floor. You will pass by an interesting session in the Moscone Convention Center that wasn’t on your agenda. Leave yourself enough flexibility for these types of things. You’ll also want to consider spacing out your day so there is enough down-time between sessions. Dreamforce fatigue can hit anyone, and you are going to want enough recharge breaks to power through each day!

3. Regularly Check Dreamforce Social Media Pages and #DF18 Hashtag

With hundreds of exhibitors trying to grab your attention both in person, through email and social media, it can be hard to sift through important news coming directly from Dreamforce themselves. We suggest following the official social media channels for Dreamforce on Twitter and Facebook @Dreamforce for updates on Keynote speaker lineups, the Dreamfest concert (Metallica is performing on Wednesday night, Sept 26th!) and more. Updates will also be posted on the Salesforce Events App. The official Dreamforce hashtag is #DF18. To follow specific happenings related to Jade Global at Dreamforce, you can follow our hashtag #JadeatDF18 and turn on notifications for posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

4. Must-have’s in your Dreamforce Suitcase and Backpack

Outside of the social and evening networking events, Dreamforce is not a formal affair. You’ll want to focus on comfort and practicality over anything else when it comes to what to wear. The Moscone Center requires A LOT of walking! To give you an idea, some of our own employees who attended last year clocked more than 20k steps each day. Sneakers or comfortable shoes are your best bet. As for everything else, we have seen some Trailblazers to the campgrounds dressed to impress in business attire (button-down shirts for men, dresses for women) while the majority of attendees wear what comes to mind when you think “casual Friday” in the office. Jeans are certainly acceptable!

Outside of clothing, we recommend that everyone bring a spacious backpack rather than a shoulder bag since you will accumulate a lot of free giveaways and prizes in the Expo hall. A backpack makes it easy to fit plenty our other recommended conference essentials:

• Business Cards (bring more than you think you need!)
• Hand sanitizer. You will be shaking hands with people all day long, sitting among thousands of people in close quarters
• A notebook for old-fashioned note taking during sessions. It’s polite to keep your phone and laptop away during the smaller, more intimate 20-minute theatre sessions
• A change of formal clothes in case you don’t have time to get back to your hotel before evening events
• A phone charger

5. Don’t Overschedule Your Social Events Calendar

There will be networking receptions available every evening in addition to those organized by Dreamforce. You might be tempted to say yes to everything, but take some time to carefully sift through the invites you receive. Ask yourself, “which of these events is hosted by a partner or vendor who I am most likely to connect with after Dreamforce?” Use LinkedIn to get some background on not only the companies hosting the events, but the people who emailed you an invite or handed you a business card. This can help determine which party will have the right people you want to align with.

6. Follow this Post-Conference Follow-Up Method

When Dreamforce comes to an end, there will be a period of time before you can access all of the presentations and content you watched at Dreamforce. If there was a specific session, company, or speaker who piqued your interest, keep the conversation going by connecting on LinkedIn or social media immediately after meeting them. If you have access to their phone number, try calling to schedule a meeting in addition to sending an email. Everyone will be sending emails during and immediately after the conference. The likelihood of getting a call back is higher than having your email read during the chaos of Dreamforce. If you don’t hear back within 1-2 business days, send another reminder email and phone call. Be persistent!

7. Avoid Post-Conference Slump by Getting Back to your Routine before Monday

Taking a week off from your normal day-to-day routine can take a toll on your body and mind, especially if San Francisco is far from home. If you can muster the willpower to get back into your work routine before Monday, you won’t be reaching for that that extra cup of Monday morning Joe. Use the weekend to and wake up and go to sleep around the same time you would during the workweek.

If you made it this far through our blog post, congratulations! You are now one of the most enlightened Dreamforce attendees. Mention this blog to a Jade Global expert at Booth #118 during Dreamforce and we will give you a special gift 😊

Connect with Jade Global During Dreamforce 2018

Jade Global is exhibiting at Booth 118 in the Dreamforce Customer Success Expo in Moscone South Hall. We will be showcasing how to drive business value in the Cloud with Jade’s accelerated implementation methodology. Jade Global is a Salesforce® Silver Partner specializing in customizing, integrating and deploying enterprise Salesforce® CRM Sales, Service, and Marketing Cloud systems. This year’s booth will be focused on educating visitors on how to solve their most difficult business challenges in lead generation, configuration, and price and quote (CPQ). We will be hosting live demos at our booth on field service lightning, lightning conversion, CPQ, partner and channel communities, and integrations with CRM and marketing automation.

Schedule a one-on-one meeting with Jade Global’s Salesforce experts at Dreamforce 218

Follow Jade Global’s whereabouts and activity during Dreamforce 2018 by using the Twitter hashtag #Jadeat DF18 or visiting our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages for Livestream action.

To further connect with Jade Global, email  info@jadeglobal.com