Missed out on Dreamforce this year? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We asked three BrightGen team members who were lucky enough to be there about their experience at Dreamforce 2022 and we’re delighted to share the resulting Q&A with you. Please, enjoy!
– Describe your Dreamforce 2022 experience in three words or less!
Keir: Motivating, reuniting, exhausting!
Steve: Back to normality!
Anna: Fun! Fun! Fun!
– What announcement or new feature reveal did you find the most exciting?
Anna: It was all about Genie this year. It will be interesting to see how this develops and I am looking forward to getting hands-on with it. Also…I like the concept of a ‘composable architecture’, expect to see that in my messaging from here on in!
Keir: Genie – this feels like Salesforce have decided how they want their recent acquisitions to work together and gone all in.
Steve: In the words of Highlander, there can be only one! And this year, that would be Genie.
– How was this year’s experience different from the pre-pandemic years at Dreamforce?
Keir: Smaller – only 35-40k attendee. The Moscone Center was packed as usual, but it was a nice change of pace for everything to be in a compact campus rather than spread out to include hotels around the city. I spent more time than usual just talking to people, as I hadn’t seen many of them for three years.
Anna: It was much smaller this year, but it didn’t feel small at all. It was such a thrill to see so many people and experience the Dreamforce buzz again.
Steve: Salesforce managed to make 40,000 attendees feel like the normal 160,000, so the difference really was that everything was in, or very closely around, Moscone this year. Getting between sessions was a bit easier.
– What was your personal highlight of the 2022 Dreamforce?
Anna: Spending lots of time with a much-valued customer and Salesforce, it was fab to experience the event alongside them.
Steve: Our customer dinner – the traditional venue had closed, but we found a new favourite! Spending time with customers and Salesforce is what Dreamforce is all about for me – all of us there for a common purpose.
Keir: True to the Core – this is a session where a group of executives and product managers receive hard questions/complaints from customers and partners, and they are expected to provide reasonable answers. There are always great questions and a good discussion, and it’s entertaining to see Bret Taylor or Parker Harris turn to an EVP and say “Yeah, why don’t we do that?”
– Any tips for people who want to go to Dreamforce next year?
Keir: Decide in advance what you want to get out of it – even a small Dreamforce can easily become overwhelming as there’s just so much going on at the same time. Don’t pack your calendar too tightly as it can take a surprising amount of time to move between sessions, especially if you bump into someone you haven’t seen for a while. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t exhaust yourself on (or prior to) the first day – this goes double for the parties. Wear comfortable shoes!
Steve: Figure out the real reasons you want to go – there are a lot of sessions and you will learn some interesting things, but it can be overwhelming and is obviously high-level. Focus is key.
Anna: Do whatever it takes to get there – you won’t regret it!
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