KingofGIF

My first Dreamforce

Going to Dreamforce for the first time. It has been a personal dream and event contemplated paying out of pocket a few years back...

Alright, I am in with no booth allowed to roam freely, but I plan to make a personal and professional ROI from it, and this is where I need your help:

Personal development: sessions, networking, reconnecting with people, or observing. What have been your biggest takeaways that you can pass on to the new gen of AEs that will stare a the beauty of Dreamforce for the first time
Professional: ya I still want to create a pipeline so I am prospecting, reaching out, and trying to set coffee meetings. Any piece of advice on this front¡

🎈 Mentorship

🤝 Networking

25 comments

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Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

The first bullet is easy. A conference is a conference. What do you feel will benefit you personally? Are there contacts you want to make with certain presenters? Is there a company you'd want to work for or a company you'd like to court as a prospect? Go to those speaking events.

The second - unless you already know people who'll be there or have an attendee list, its hard to prospect conference. So you show up and just stare at badges hoping to see someone on "your list". But if you do know someone, then just casually and naturally reach out them to (1) let them know you'll be there & (2) you'd like to sit down for lunch or stand in the ridiculously long Starbucks line for coffee with them.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Yea I’m constantly networking and reengaging with people I know at large conferences. Great way to stay in touch and catch up

GDO

Politicker

BDM

I need to do this way more often!

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

A 15 minute cup of coffee can go a long way

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Director, Revenue Enablement

Can you tell us what kind of product/industry you sell without revealing your identity?

KingofGIF

Politicker

SaaS for customer support industry

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

Ooooooh, Dreamforce. I have been to 9. You will have so much fun.

Couple recs:

- Be VERY strategic with sessions, and know that some will have limited capacity so you will have to wait in line. Moscone Center is HUGE and with the crowds it can take 15-20 minutes just to change venue. I found the customer sessions describing their use case and implementation most helpful.
- Poke at the new crap. They always demonstrate the new things they "launch" (or fake launch) in the expo center. Go ask questions and get a sense of how real things are if you are in the ISV space.
- RSVP for EVERYTHING in terms of parties, that way you have options. The parties are super fun but also a capacity thing, if you go early or super late it can be more fun. The bigger parties like Accenture or Ad Roll are less fun.
- Decide on your business card strategy. I usually used digital with a qr code, LinkedIn has built in functionality these days for this. Figure out where to store the business cards you receive, otherwise you WILL lose them.
- If you feel like escaping the madness, I highly recommend Fondue Cowboy in SoMa. Such a great place, the fondue platters are insane.
- Swag is less fun these days, but sign up for raffles just in case. I also make sure to schedule time to stop by each of the booths in the expo halls and ask about their products. You never know where you are going to see them, the people at the booth are usually bored, and sometimes they have fun selfie opps.

Brace yourself. It's ALOT. Make sure you are hydrating, make sure you are getting sleep, PACE YOURSELF ON THE BOOZE (no, seriously - more careers ruined than Sales Kickoff here), and build in time just to relax on the Green. They have live bands playing there all day and bean bags you can relax in. Also the speakers flow in and out, I have seen numerous famous people from there.

KingofGIF

Politicker

This was it, you should publish a book: Dreamforce for Dummies

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

Hope you had a great time, it's a blast and a half. I was jealous of everyone on my LinkedIn timeline there.

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

Heard it's a wild one at night.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

👀🍿 do tell

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

A collection of SaaS degens in one resort, you do the math.
I unfortunately have yet to attend.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Always seemed a little cult-y to me.
Why so fired up that you were considering spending your own coin to go?

KingofGIF

Politicker

I was eyeing a trailblazer certification (I was sick in the head)and had little experience with events, so I wanted to do a BootCamp and experience the whole thing

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

What do you sell and what do you want to learn?

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

In case you have a list of attendees / booths that would be there, you can easily prospect into them too. I attended an event recently and did the same. Made a list of all the booths I need to stop and prospect into, and then of course all the folks I might not bump into, but send a message on LinkedIn.
Personal development is easy. The professional part is where you'd need some pre-prep in place to make it a hit.

SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Pro tip: wear comfortable shoes

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I’m coming back to this post to double dog dare you to wear a shirt that says “My First Dreamforce”. Bonus points if it’s done in a super-cutesy font. Extra extra points if you get a picture of yourself wearing it on the closed-off streets of SF.

KingofGIF

Politicker

God damn it why are you doing this to me. I will not sleep well tonight thinking about your challenge

aiko

Politicker

Sr. Account Executive

Keep notes of who you met and how they stood out. I keep my notes on an excel sheet and I have a section of where I met them too. It helps for scheduling meetings afterwards and you can mention something form the conversation so they'll remember you too!

crossroadkid

Enterprise Account Exec

Dreamforce is exciting. I've been in the Salesforce ecosystem for about 8 years now and have had the pleasure of going to many Dreamforce events. Put a LinkedIn survey post out there with something like "Anybody in my network heading to Dreamforce and want to meet up?" Those who answer "yes" simply follow up with a DM and set up a time to meet. hashtag #dreamforce #salesforce helps too. For those who answer no, that's still great - set up a different way to connect. Obviously, wear comfortable shoes, stay hydrated, walk the show floor (exhibitors will appreciate the booth traffic), and try to get on as many VIP lists as you can find. There are numerous sponsors/vendors that host many events throughout the show. Mostly all attendees at Dreamforce are in their glory networking with their Salesforce nerd friends ( I mean that in a very loving way). You'll have an absolute blast.

Armageddon

Opinionated

Enterprise Account Executive

Dont drink too much, its a marathon- not a sprint. Take advantage of all the freebees (free meals, events etc.) have a great time and most importantly, get some business!

Enrossie

Opinionated

Inside Sales Manager

Dreamforce looks awesome. We shifted most of our CRM and sales work to HubSpot from SFDC over the past year so I think I missed the window to attend at this job. I did go to HubSpot:Inbound last year, which was nice but seemed more marketer focused.

My main experience with a large conference was Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Only 80k attendees but was the largest conference I’ve been to. I prepared by reviewing the sponsor list and making a point to visit all of them that met my ICP.

Definitely figure out what to do with business cards. I stupidly put the 50 or so I had collected down in the Barcelona airport lounge and promptly forgot about them. Since then I’ve just connected on LI with all new prospects and made notes in HS about our meetings. I even printed out my LI QR code and out it on a small card in my wallet. Much easier then fumbling around with friend requests.

Pro Photographer

I'm attending virtually. Soo great so far!

Supersize

Personal Narrative

Digital Sales Director

Seeing a lot of Corporate Bro selfies on LI! So there’s that if you can swing it.

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KingofGIF

My first Dreamforce

25 comments

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