My first Dreamforce – and definitely one to remember!

Having been in the Salesforce ecosystem for more than a decade, folks would be surprised if I told them that 2022 was my first in-person Dreamforce experience. One thing that the pandemic has taught us all is to never keep procrastinating – when opportunity presents itself, you must welcome it with both arms and make full use of it.

My boss had already given me approval to attend this year’s Dreamforce and I was eagerly looking forward to it, especially since it was the first major Salesforce event that I would be attending in a long time – a great chance to meet a lot of friends I had made over the last few years through virtual networking and online community meetups. Time to find out what the fuss is all about that I keep hearing from my friends who all have attended Dreamforce in the past!

Getting into SFO

I always dreaded long-haul flights – and traveling from Kuala Lumpur to San Francisco wasn’t going to be a joyride. Luckily I was able to upgrade (thanks to points accumulated over the years) and enjoy the top notch business class service of ANA.

I flew into SFO a few days early as we had APAC Customer and Partner events lined up on the weekend leading into Dreamforce. The weather was supposed to be cool but I was greeted with strong winds and rain for the first few days and just hoped it would get better during the rest of the week.

The “Calm” before the “Storm”

I did get a chance to visit the Salesforce Tower and the Ohana floor on the 61st floor with my Salesforce friends from Malaysia – the views are breathtaking and definitely a must-visit for any Trailblazer who plans to be in SFO.

Badge collection was open on Monday and was very quick and well organized. Met a few of our friends from the community and even had a chat with Megan and team, who were filming for the APAC broadcast the next day.

My Marketing Champions family

Part of what kept me going during the pandemic was the constant support from my Salesforce Marketing family – especially Guilda and our Champions. Even though all of us couldn’t make it to DF22, I was excited to meet the few who did including our HowToSFMC team – just wish we had reunion events like these more often. It was great to finally meet all of them in person.

Dreamforce was also a chance to meet some of our amazing MVPs and Trailblazer Community leaders. I even got to meet our new Salesforce character “Genie”. Brandy’s burrow at the Marketing Lodge was always bustling with excitement and a hangout for most of us Marketing folks – I just had to drop in and say hi!

Day 1 – The Main Keynote

DF22 was expected to have an in-person turnout of about 40K – I imagined it would be peaceful as it was on Monday but Tuesday morning painted a whole different picture. There were people everywhere – getting badges, rushing to sessions, running from one building to the other – security personnel had a really tough job but they did it quite well. I stopped to ponder what it would have been pre-covid when the attendance cross 150K (almost 4 times what I was witnessing)!

The highlight and main event we looked forward to on Tuesday was the main Keynote – thanks to the Trailblazer Community team, we had reserved front-row seats to the show. In the past, I had mostly watched the keynote online with Marc, Brett, Leah, Sarah and the other leaders – but now seeing them just a stone throw’s distance away was just awesome. Being in the hall with all these amazing leaders is a mind-blowing experience – and one that every Salesforce evangelist must experience at least once.

We even got a sneak peek of renowned Hollywood actor, Matthew McConaughey, who apparently did a voice over for one of the Trailblazer videos in the keynote, and was also expected to have a separate session with Marc the next day.

Day 2 – Circles of Success

I had volunteered to be a Roaming Facilitator for one of the Marketing Circles of Success sessions on Wed morning. For those of you who are not familiar, the Circles of Success are 40 min sessions with about 100-200 participants in a room (7-8 per table) with a Super Speaker presenting a topic and also allowing participants to have three 5 min discussions at the respective tables in between. Roaming Facilitators help answer any questions the participants may have at the tables they are assigned to.

Being the first session of the morning, there weren’t too many folks for my session – Gina helped walk through the best practices to be considered when designing journeys and we could see participants engaging in their own experiences during the 5 min breakouts. Overall a great experience and of course a chance to meet Vladimir Silak, one of my mentors in the Salesforce Marketing Community.

The Marketing Keynote and the Golden Hoodie surprise!

The Marketing Keynote was scheduled for 1pm on Wed at the same venue where the main keynote was held the previous day. Now many folks asked me after the event if I knew about the Golden Hoodie and some of you may still be wondering – my answer: “NO”. In fact, I was asked to just share my Trailblazer story for 2 min – I didn’t even know it was supposed to be in a Keynote session till a week before the event. As we approached the keynote session, I got more nervous – after all, it’s not often you get called on to the very stage in a Dreamforce Keynote where many great leaders and VIPs have spoken earlier.

I was able to go in a bit early to get accustomed with the venue and stage – thanks to Guilda, Sasha, Matt, Cassandra, Ana and the Technical team for trying to make me feel comfortable. I even found my name listed on one of the VIP seats closest to the stage – it was actually mixed reactions at that point, with nervousness probably overpowering my happiness of being asked to speak in a Keynote.

As I sat wondering if I would be able to even talk when the moment arrived, towards the stage walks in one of the most sweetest ladies I have met. Lidiane Jones is the EVP and GM for Digital Experiences at Salesforce and the host for the keynote. I was really taken aback by how down-to-earth she was – she came over and greeted me, we chatted for a bit and made me very comfortable.

I decided to focus on the Keynote for the next half an hour – was great to see the updates and loved the Build-a-Bear story. Finally it was time – I mustered up all my courage to get onto the stage while Lidiane did the introductions – gave me a minute to catch my breath and calm my nerves. I guess there was a bit of jet-lag kicking in as well owing to the time difference, so it didn’t feel all that bad. I went on to relate my Trailblazer journey over the last few years – special thanks to Guilda, my Marketing Champions family and the Salesforce Marketing community for supporting me throughout. I felt relieved after I was done with my story and just wanted to get back to my seat – however the Salesforce team had other plans. Lidiane asked me to hold on and I was wondering what else was she going to ask – and then suddenly I turn around to see Guilda walk up with a Golden Hoodie!

Now I had seen Sima getting one from Marc the previous day – and her story was remarkable. I had even heard of a number of amazing Trailblazers getting one in the past due to their contributions and impact to the community – but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think of being a recipient of this honorable award. I was at a loss for words but thankful from the depths of my heart to my amazing community for supporting me in my journey.

Link to the Marketing Keynote session where I spoke (need Trailblazer ID to view in Salesforce+): https://www.salesforce.com/plus/experience/dreamforce_2022/series/Marketers/episode/episode-s1e5

I must thank Scott Richmond from my team who stood by and supported me during and after the keynote and ensured I got some lunch (as I hadn’t eaten much the whole day) as well.

Day 3 – Still reeling from the shock!

Thu was the final day for DF22 – and I didn’t realize that most of the sessions would wrap up by noon. I was still not able to believe what happened the day before. I had to meet and personally thank Sasha for all her support and motivation for the Keynote story (and as I came to know later, the Golden Hoodie). I got a chance to meet with our other amazing Salesforce leaders as well – Kavindra Patel sir, Leah McGowen-Hare, Pip Marlow, Sujith Abraham, Amit Suxena, our amazing Trailblazer Community Leaders Jessica, Mallory, Jenn, Alex, Jose, Marissa, Robin and our APAC Dev Relations team (Kiran, Viswa, Aditya, Satya, Jerry and team). It was great catching up with some of our community friends as well – Gaurav, Eliot, Prashant, Amit, Jitendra, Santanu, Phani, Jigar, Rupesh, Rakesh, Meera, Neetu to name a few.

The highlight of Thu was an afternoon with Brett Taylor, Sarah Franklin and Leah McGowen-Hare sharing with some of us the Executive Listening Learnings at the Salesforce Tower. We also had the four pillars of our Salesforce Communities – Jessica Langston (Trailblazer), Elizabeth Kinsey (Slack), Larissa Amoroso (Tableau) and Sabrina Marechal (Mulesoft) – share their visions for making #OneCommunity a reality.

A day to catch my breath (or so I thought)!

And like that, my first Dreamforce was over – suddenly I wished it would continue for a couple more days. Fri was supposed to be a rest day, catch up on sleep and some shopping before heading back home the next day. We spent the most of Fri morning and afternoon shopping, and in the evening decided to head out to one of the viewpoints of the Golden Gate bridge.

The views were really nice and stopped to snap a few photos. It was almost dark by the time we got to the second viewing area – we had to park the rental car a minute’s walk away. Unfortunately one of my team member left her purse in the car on the back seat and by the time we got back, the window was broken into and her purse stolen. She had her passport, cash and a few cards – we searched desperately to see if the perpetrators had disposed off her purse after taking the money and cards, in the hope that she could at least get her passport back, but to no luck. Luckily they didn’t get to the stuff we had stored in the car trunk. The Park Ranger was a very kind person – and he told us we were the 15th case reported just that day – so this is quite normal. There were warning signs posted when we came up but we didn’t expect to be the victims – lesson learnt always keep your passport and critical docs on your self. Luckily she was able to arrange for an Exit Passport from the Indian Consulate on Monday and fly out on Tue evening.

The long trip back – home sweet home!

We got back to the hotel by evening and ensured we had all the emails and paperwork done for my team member to get the police report and Exit passport the following week. That left me with just enough time to pack my stuff and get some sleep.

As I bid farewell to San Francisco, I was taking some great memories back home with me – #LifeWithGoldie was definitely going to be a different experience. Words are not enough to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have helped me in my Trailblazer journey over the years – especially Guilda (who’s my Fairy Godmother I’d say), our Marketing Champions and MVP family members, our wonderful Salesforce community, our amazing Salesforce Leaders, Trailblazer Community Leaders, and our Dev Relations team who constantly support and motivate us to give back to the community. Last but not the least, I thank my wife Shanty for always being there for me through thick and thin, and encouraging me throughout my journey – couldn’t have done all this without her!