Last week the Penrod team, along with almost 200,000 other Salesforce enthusiasts, descended upon San Francisco for the epic Dreamforce conference. Over the course of four jam-packed days we gorged ourselves on keynotes, learning sessions, product demos and more. Lucky for you, what happens at Dreamforce doesn’t stay at Dreamforce. Here are some highlights we can’t wait to share.
The Man Himself, Marc Benioff
If you’re at any way involved with Salesforce, you know Marc Benioff. He’s the head honcho, a true visionary and a speaker who commands an audience while also making you feel like a best friend. In fact, he opened the keynote by noting that Dreamforce is more like a “family reunion” than a tech convention. Given the energy and camaraderie, we couldn’t agree more!
During his talk, Benioff pointed out that we are in the fourth industrial revolution – the cloud revolution – and Salesforce is enabling companies to move forward into that age full steam ahead. At Penrod, we’re excited to be a part of that revolution, and every day we empower our clients and help them move forward, too. We have to admit, it’s a great feeling.
Emerging Tech
At Dreamforce, attendees have the opportunity to get a sneak peek at new Salesforce products and features. The Penrod team loved checking out Health Cloud for Payers, a solution designed for the health insurance industry. We know our clients will love it, too, and can’t wait to share more about this and other Salesforce enhancements.
Hands-on Expo Centers
Hands-down, the hands-on expo centers were one of our favorite things about Dreamforce. There were several different booths with product demonstrations, so we got an up-close look at new products and solutions. Even better? There was always an opportunity to talk one-on-one with product experts, so we were able to get the inside scoop on how the products work and integrate with other platforms.
Penrod also took advantage of learning courses, like the all-day Health Cloud Academy. Here we learned about payer data model enhancements, EHR connectivity and more. As one team member said, “It’s exciting because through integrating with Salesforce, we’re bringing the entire healthcare industry forward.”
Inspiring Sessions
There are about 3,000 sessions at Dreamforce, and while we weren’t able to get to all of them (trust us, we tried), we picked some pretty great ones.
Did you know that the Salesforce ecosystem is around 32% female, and that 48% of the Salesforce Admin community are women? With that in mind, a couple members of Team Penrod checked out the Women in Tech sessions. One highlight was “Empowering the Community,” where one Salesforce leader shared how she started a user group from the ground up, to foster collaboration and share best practices. The user group was an amazing success, and at Dreamforce, she was excited to offer advice and encouragement to other Salesforce users.
The Parties (Silent Disco, anyone?)
After spending a day checking out new products, taking in new learning, and networking with Salesforce’s best and brightest, Team Penrod definitely earned a well-deserved break. Dreamforce is known for their parties, and one in particular, Conga’s Silent Disco, didn’t disappoint. Courtney, Penrod Marketing Manager, described it: “As you walked in, you were given a set of headphones that had three different stations. One you put the headphones on, you immediately felt like you were in a club. Take them off and it was silent, yet you were surrounded by hundreds of people dancing to the music only they could hear. It was amazing!”
Inspiration Everywhere
More than anything else, Penrod loved that Dreamforce offered countless moments and ways to be inspired. From the free ice cream trucks to the learning sessions, it was easy to connect with like-minded friends. Just knowing that there were almost 200,000 people in the city excited to talk about Salesforce was inspiring. One team member summed it perfectly: “Sometimes you get used to the ‘office bubble.’ Getting out in a different environment, talking to people from all over and sharing ideas is really cool. It gets you even more excited to be doing what you do, working with great products and a great people.”
There’s no rest for Team Penrod! We came home excited about Salesforce’s latest and greatest and can’t wait to share what we learned. Want to learn more? Contact us today!
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