Dreamforce has been growing non-stop since its first edition, involving new topics on the agenda such as sustainability and equality, and featuring more awesome speakers year after year.  

As the event thickened and involved new attendees, it stopped being only Salesforce-oriented and gained a great deal of hi-tech business networking. However, it’s important not to forget a core initial perspective: Dreamforce is also an amazing event for developers in general.  

In this article, we’re reviewing some of the key activities DF offers to the devs community.  

Salesforce values and the importance of the community

Salesforce.com’s CEO Marc Benioff has always held that developers are the key to the company’s success. Among Salesforce’s core values, both Trust and Innovation are directly applied to development teams and leaders, who are in great part responsible for creating customer-faced software. As he says, “After all, the better the developers you have, the better the product you build.” It’s within the parameters of this culture that Dreamforce is planned. 

For this reason, besides networking there’s a great deal of learning and listening to global thought leaders’ opinions on the coming trends for the industry. Some of them will be available on Salesforce+, the online platform where the main keynotes will be streamed.  

Let’s see some of the best ways of leveraging this event.  

1) Developer Hour: The Future of Development

Each area has its special keynote in this event. There’s a sales, marketing, service, and, of course, a developer hour. This should be the baseline for every developer attending or watching DF since it’s a great outlook on the latest news, updates, and expectations for the times to come.  

The panel will be featuring Christophe Coenraets, Andy Fawcett, Ananya Jha, Sue Berry, Jeremiah Peoples, and Greg Whitworth. If you want to watch it live on SF+, it will be streamed on September 20, 1:00 p.m. PT. 

2) Salesforce upskilling

As we’ve said above, there’s a great deal of learning going on at Dreamforce. In fact, the problem is probably that the amount of information can be overwhelming. In this sense, if you are attending the event, our recommendation is to save some time to drop by the Developer Track, on the first floor of Moscone West.  

There will be 20 and 40 minutes sessions in which you’ll be able to listen to experts on topics and technologies such as Digital Transformation, DevOps Center, Salesforce and AWS, Anypoint Code Builder, Slack, and Lightning Web Components. 

If you feel that you won’t be able to keep up, or if you won’t be attending personally to San Francisco, a broad selection of the sessions will be recorded and uploaded here.  

3) Ask me anything

Another kind of session we love attending is the Ask Me Anything, or AMA. These talks are highly interactive, and in fact considerably fun. Many experts and members of the community take the time to share their expertise around specific technologies, inviting all-levels developers to join and participate.  

These sessions are great for learning and getting to know the community at the same time. If you aren’t used to breaking the ice and building new relationships with colleagues, this is a great opportunity to open up.  

4) Enjoy!

Last but not least, don’t forget to enjoy this amazing event. Besides all you can learn and the key insights you can get to improve your career, Dreamforce is a special occasion for people who love technology. Listening to the classical main keynote hosted by the co-CEOs, for example, is always an opportunity to rethink our work in relation to global trends.  

Take some time to attend to more general activities and other areas experts, even when they aren’t especially tailored for you. The technical lessons will remain there for you online, and these events are great for thinking a bit further, discussing with others, and broadening your perspective on your career and lifestyle. 

And more than anything: Share the experience! 

Stay tuned with Dreamforce

If you’ve found these tips interesting, follow us on Linkedin. We’ll be covering the whole event in real-time, and continue publishing hi-tech news!