Dreamforce 2016 Recap, what to expect

It's been a while since my last post. I can't believe I never even attempted to catch y'all up post-Dreamforce 2016.

Last year, I had the honor to attend Dreamforce as a speaker. It was the most fun I've ever had, professionally, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity. I strongly encourage anyone who has an idea they'd like to share with the Salesforce community submit for Dreamforce 2018 (submissions for 2017 are closed), even if public speaking makes you nervous.

For those who haven't spoken before, you may not know how much work goes into the sessions to ensure speaker success. Here's a rough outline of what the experience looks like, based on my experience:

1. You submit your session ideas (you always submit several!!!)
2. You receive the acceptance (and rejection emails)
3. You receive a welcome email from the SFDC employee who is going to mentor/coach/orchestrate your session logistics with more details
4. You update your speaker profile on Success Communities
5. You "finalize" your slide deck
6. You post your slide deck to a closed community (and receive feedback)
7. You "finalize" your slide deck 
8. You present your slide deck (over Gotomeeting) with your SFDC mentor/coach 3-8 times the month before Dreamforce (and receive feedback each time)
9. You "finalize" your slide deck
10. You send your final slides to your mentor/coach (and receive feedback)
11. You finalize your slide deck
12. You get the schedule for your session and the details of how many signed up/bookmarked it
13. On speaking day, your mentor/coach is there for you, in the front row
14. You get nervous and throw up 5 min before your big session
15. You nail the session
16. You await for the session recording to be posted
17. The session recording is posted
18. You watch the recording and feel like you did a better job than you could have hoped for
19. Who is that person in the recording??? I can't even!
20. Imposter syndrome sets in

Massive thanks to Larry Bushey and Mike Gerholdt for their help last year. Without their coaching and mentoring, and Larry's front-row-cheerleading, I would have (probably) thrown up on stage.

My two sessions from last year are linked below.

• Triggers for Admins
• Become a Formula Writing Badass in 20 Minutes or Less (co-presented with Mike Martin)

This year, I'm SUPER STOKED to be speaking again. I've asked a few of my favorite Salesforce peeps (who are just plain incredible) to join me for their first time speaking at Dreamforce, since the topics I chose are definitely in their wheelhouses.

More to come.