Top Salesforce Conferences To Attend In 2023
Since the inception of (DevOps) time, people have been attending conferences. Why? Because they are an excellent opportunity to get out of the office (or off your home office chair) and travel, connect with new people in your field, and learn what they have to say.
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Conferences are all about:
- Networking
- Expanding your knowledge
- Getting insights into the latest trends
- Getting to meet your heroes or role models
- Leveling up your CV.
The Salesforce environment is no exception. In fact, at 2022’s Dreamforce conference, a whopping 120K people attended the event online – not to mention the thousands that showed up in person.
This article is for you if you’re interested in finding the right Salesforce conference to up your DevOps game. We’ll delve into some of the top in-person and virtual Salesforce conferences. So, no matter what role you are in, you will find a conference (or two or three) that will meet your unique needs, expectations, and desired learning areas.
Official Salesforce Events
Dreamforce 2023
Start date: September 12–14 2023.
Where: The Moscone Center, San Francisco, California (and online).
Dreamforce, one of the most elite and sought-after Salesforce events, is a flagship conference with a live broadcast of sessions – featuring celebrities and leaders in the field.
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In 2022, more than 200 on-demand episodes were made available online, each tailored by role, topic, and industry. The conference details will be released soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
2023 TrailblazerDX Conference
Start date: March 7–8 2023.
Where: Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, California (in-person and select episodes online).
The TrailblazerDX Salesforce Developer Conference, also known as Trailhead and TrailheadX, is one of the largest tech conferences for all Salesforce developers. The event provides an opportunity to gain insight into the newest products and advancements of Salesforce engineering and product teams.
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Don't miss out on engaging with keynote speakers and developers and gaining valuable knowledge from Salesforce administrators and architects.
This all-inclusive event features many activities, including workshops, sessions with industry experts, and networking opportunities with fellow attendees and Salesforce personnel.
Salesforce Nonprofit Summit 2023
Start date: TBD
Where: Online.
At the Salesforce Nonprofit Summit, attendees can build their network, increase their fundraising success, and engage with their community.
Additionally, the virtual event includes:
- Endless innovation
- Engaging keynotes
- Activities to complete with other attendees
- An overview of everything you need to know about the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.
Community-Led Events
Dreamin’ Events
Although increasingly virtual or hybrid, these are usually put on by members of the Salesforce (Trailblazer) community. Dreamin' events are created by Salesforce users, for users, and are loosely sanctioned and supported by Salesforce.
You’ll find practical advice from admins and hands-on professionals. Dreamin’ is a great place to find your people and meet someone you can collaborate with when you’re stuck on something.
A great thing about them is that they happen all around the globe, so they are highly accessible. Trailhead provides a Dreamin' calendar – so make sure you check it out to find one near you.
Salesforce Success Anywhere World Tour
The Salesforce community hosts live world tours highlighting best practices, innovations, and product updates from the industry experts themselves. With these live broadcasts, you can:
- Hear the latest news and announcements from Salesforce
- Listen to the most inspiring stories of customer success and transformation
- Get the latest insights from Salesforce executives, global leaders, and changemakers.
You can access these tours by registering on Success Anywhere's site.
London's Calling
Start date: June 9 2023.
Where: The Brewery, 52 Chiswell Street, London, United Kingdom.
One of Europe's largest Salesforce community events is London's Calling. 2023 will be its eighth event, promising nothing short of hands-on learning, networking, and fun.
London's Calling offers:
- A full day of content, with seven sessions to choose from at any time
- A keynote presentation and the opportunity to network with independent software vendors (ISV) and system integrator (SI) partners
- Networking with members of the community, MVPs, and Salesforce employees
- Food and after-party drinks.
Stories Of Resilience Series
Start date: TBD
Where: Online.
Stories Of Resilience is an engaging weekly online seminar where they showcase how business leaders have adapted to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
This virtual gathering promises to revolutionize your business thinking, making it one of the leading online Salesforce events.
Currently, no live broadcast information is available for 2023, but you can subscribe to be notified of upcoming episodes.
Free On-Demand Salesforce Webinars
How Sales Ops Is Reimagining Sales Strategy With AI And A Consolidated Tech Stack
Start date: February 16th 2023.
Featured speakers:
- Ted Hazard, Director of CRM Business Development, Unum
- Ben Brantly, GM and VP, Product Sales Performance Management, Salesforce
- Andy Kung, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce.
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Sales ops reps spend only 28% of their week selling, according to Salesforce’s latest research report. More than 7.7K sellers weighed in on how sales ops teams are helping reps get back to the work that matters.
This webinar will help you learn more about:
- Why 94% of sales orgs plan to consolidate their tech stack in the next 12 months
- What organizations can do to optimize their CRMs for maximum ROI
- How AI and automation are increasing productivity for high-performing teams.
Automated Real-Time Personalization In Action With Salesforce
Start date: February 29th 2023.
Featured speakers:
- Asae Dean, Senior Director, Product Management, Salesforce
- Sonia Lele, Senior Director, Personalization and Growth, Salesforce
- Katie Wheeler, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, Salesforce.
According to Salesforce’s trend report, 94% of marketers say customers expect personalized experiences, but only 26% are confident in their personalization strategy. Learn how Salesforce uses Marketing Cloud personalization technology to engage with its prospects and customers one-on-one.
In this webinar, you’ll hear from Salesforce experts on their plan to transform Salesforce’s digital experience.
They plan to achieve this using a world-class personalization platform for prospects and customers to have the best experience possible, including:
- How Salesforce moved from running a pilot to personalization primetime
- The pillars of personalization and how Salesforce leverages both Marketing Cloud personalization and customer data platforms
- Content readiness and tagging – plus campaign management
- A sneak peek into the company’s plans for omnichannel personalization.
How To Use Enablement To Drive Revenue
Start date: March 2nd 2023.
Featured speakers:
- Lauren Albanese, RVP, Sales Productivity, Salesforce
- Adriana Romero, Senior Manager, Productivity, Salesforce
- Spencer Grover, Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce.
Sales reps need help right now. According to Salesforce, 60% of sellers say their jobs are more complex than ever, and 72% expect to miss their quotas. The teams enabling them are struggling too, which is why 94% of enablement initiatives do not meet seller expectations.
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That is why Salesforce has developed a new framework to use enablement to drive rep engagement and improve the revenue outcomes for the business.
If you join the webinar, you will learn about:
- The outcome-based enablement framework
- How to find the proper outcomes to drive business impact
- How to engage your sales leaders on their key revenue challenges.
Marketing Cloud Spring 2023 New Feature Overview
Start date: March 9th 2023.
Get an exclusive look at the new features coming to Marketing Cloud this Spring. Hear from product experts walk through all of the recent innovations across Salesforce’s entire suite of Marketing Cloud products, including:
- Mobile
- Data
- Ads
- Web
- Analytics.
Some Pointers When Attending Salesforce Conferences
Attend All Types Of Salesforce Events
A few Salesforce community events might come across your radar, and there’s value in attending all of them.
Each event type brings something unique to the table. You should engage with a mix of Salesforce-sponsored and community-led events if you can.
Salesforce User Groups
Local events are led by a community member, customer, or partner. Topics are often ‘how to’ or ‘best practice’ oriented.
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There are usually 20–30 people, sometimes more in larger metro areas.
Salesforce World Tours
These are generally in a big city and are official events hosted by Salesforce (free to attendees). Expect a couple of thousand people, a large expo hall, dancing mascots, and a high-energy keynote full of product news and big logo customers.
Know Exactly Why You’re Attending
Do a little thinking to figure out your ‘why’ for attending these conferences. Your objectives for attending Salesforce community events might include the following:
- Tactical or ‘how-to learning’
- Getting ideas and inspiration
- Networking with other users
- Meeting your Salesforce account team
- Recruiting
- Sales and prospecting
- Learning about exciting products that work with Salesforce
- Evaluating prospective partners
- Building a personal brand in the ecosystem.
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Determining what’s most important to you will help you identify which events you should prioritize – and what your ultimate go-to conference will be.
Make Digital Business Cards
You can bring physical business cards to exchange with potential customers, investors, or like-minded professionals. But, as you may know already, many people use QR codes instead of traditional printed cards.
Some people connect their codes to their LinkedIn, and other QR codes can create a contact record in the scanning user’s phone.
Speak And Volunteer
Once you have a feel for what these events are all about, you should consider becoming a speaker. Speaking at events can be incredibly rewarding and fantastic for networking.
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It’s validating to find others with the same challenges as you and know that others are figuring out the same thing together. Ultimately, we all have something to learn and something to teach.
Another great way to get more engaged is through volunteering. If you’re not a natural networker, some events, such as the Web Summit, offer volunteers the chance to attend one full day for free if they volunteer one or two shifts during the other days of the event. This option is perfect if someone wants to network through volunteering.
Prioritize Your Sessions
When it comes to more prominent conferences and Dreamin’ events, it’s not uncommon for popular sessions to fill up and not be able to accommodate everyone who wants to join.
A good tip is to skim the agenda before you go and pick three sessions you want to attend.
Think About Who You Would Like To Meet And Network With Beforehand
Ask around and see who’s attending conferences you are interested in. Events give you an official space to get facetime with people you only work with online.
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You can then reach out to these people before the event. You can even set up a coffee or lunch date or plan to find them the day of the event.
This step ensures you get the extra value you hope to get from the event.
Monitor Twitter
The Salesforce ecosystem is very active on Twitter. That means Twitter’s the place for social connections during an event. For larger events, follow the event hashtag to see pictures, find information about adjacent events, read people’s takeaways, and more. Many user groups also have their own Twitter accounts and hashtags.
Not Inspired To Attend A Salesforce Conference Yet? Maybe These Quotes From Dreamforce Will
Over the years, some of the world’s most inspiring people have taken to the Dreamforce stage. So, here are some of the most thought-provoking quotes from some of the great minds of Dreamforce.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce Chair And CEO
“In a world where everyone is working from everywhere, a digital HQ is an essential building block to build a trusted enterprise.”
Pam Plyler, Managing Director Of Financial Services Business Consulting, Salesforce
“There is no question that we have accelerated to a ‘digital-first’ environment, which means that your website and mobile experience must be based on human-centered design, complemented with easy-to-use bots, live chat, and voice support for those more complex needs.”
Breanna Kuhl, Global SVP Of Strategic Partnerships And Alliances At Vonage
“It is now fundamental for companies to stay connected to employees and customers from anywhere – through whatever channel they choose – video, voice, messaging, and chat. Customers don’t just want this or expect it – they now demand it.”
Joe Steinbach, CIO Of Author Solutions
“Technology changes very rapidly, but an essential part of a great customer experience is customer awareness and understanding their individual needs.”
Parker Harris, Salesforce Co-Founder, And CTO
“The B2B buyers have changed, meaning that the B2B sellers must change. Are your brands showing up where your prospect wants to buy and is your sales team digitally enabled?”
Breanna Kuhl, Global SVP Of Strategic Partnerships And Alliances At Vonage
“We don’t know what the future will hold, but here’s what we do know – companies that design their service through the lens of their customers, move quickly, and get more done will win.”
James Roth, SVP And GM, Applications Group At Vonage
“Now more than ever, businesses worldwide are realizing the value of integrating the contact center with collaboration and unified communications solutions to keep employees connected and working efficiently to deliver a seamless, consistent, and personalized customer experience.”
Pam Plyler, Managing Director Of Financial Services Business Consulting, Salesforce
“While contact centers receive hundreds, thousands, or even millions of contacts every month, it’s important to remember that for each of those individual interactions, it may be the one and only definitive event or time that a customer reaches out, and that experience can make or break your brand. Companies who get that invest in their end-to-end customer experience and frontline teams, and as a result, win in the marketplace.”
Richard Hall, Senior Director, Global Business Operations And IT At FinancialForce
“We are seeing more and more companies addressing the need to be flexible and work in the cloud to support their businesses – from sales to the customer service organization and finance. If all parts of a business have a 360-degree view of a customer, everyone is able to lean in and support customers. This is when you have customer success events.”
Get Out There And Network
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According to Statista, a research publishing site, 80% of professionals believe networking is critical for increasing opportunities and improving productivity. And one of the best ways to network is through attending (and even speaking at) Salesforce conferences.
The great thing is that they happen globally in major cities, in-person and through online events. So, you will never be out of the loop on what is happening in the world of Salesforce.
Whether you are a Salesforce marketer, consultant, architect, developer, or even someone new to Salesforce, there is a conference that will ‘force up’ your growth.
Our team at Hutte attends most Salesforce-based events – both online and in-person. So, don’t hesitate to reach out, contact us, and meet up!
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