Another year has nearly gone by, and that means another Dreamforce conference is on the horizon. For four days, the city of San Francisco will be transformed into an epicenter of service professionals looking to expand their knowledge, meet with industry leaders, and drum up new business and partnerships along the way.

With 175,000 expected attendees and nearly 3,000 sessions spread across the city, you would be remiss to show up to the conference without doing your homework. So, before you pack your bags, we’ve highlighted a few key things every Trailblazer needs to do in order to get the most out of your Dreamforce experience!

 

Read up on Salesforce Lightning and Einstein integrations

The cornerstone of pretty much every Dreamforce conference is the advent of a new and innovative technology surrounding the Salesforce platform. Last year, the talk of the town was Salesforce Einstein, the company’s artificial intelligence technology. And with the updates we are seeing to that technology, chances are Einstein will continue to dominate the conversation.

This year, the hot topic about Einstein is Salesforce’s efforts to integrate AI technology across all Salesforce Clouds. The move reinforces how critical Salesforce feels AI is in all its forms—machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and understanding, etc.—to the company’s ongoing success.

Another hot-button topic on the docket is the new Service Cloud Lightning platform. Building upon the Salesforce Lightning console, Service Cloud Lightning looks to get customers up and running on the platform with unprecedented speed. Another exciting addition to the Service Cloud is the Lightning Console, which empowers agents with enhanced productivity tools to improve efficiency.

 

Know the types of sessions you want to attend

If you are in the business of financial services, chances are attending a session on the role of Salesforce in the health sector is going to prove little worth to you. You should familiarize yourself with the various categories. Dreamforce veteran Brent Leary has broken the conference down into four categories: products, functional area, industry focus, and role focus.

• Product sessions: this includes more than 600 focused on Sales Cloud, more than 400 on Service Cloud, and more than 200 on Marketing Cloud.

 

• Functional areas: these sessions  include more than 500 innovation sessions, 260 enterprise-focused sessions, more than 200 integration sessions, and more than 180 intelligence-focused sessions.

 

• Industry-focused sessions: more than 400 focused on high-tech, more than 170 on financial services, and more than 140 on manufacturing.

 

• Role-focused sessions: includes 600 sessions for Salesforce Administrators, more than 350 sessions for Developers, and over 160 sessions for Technical Architects.

 

Set a plan of attack

As Brent recalls, the first Dreamforce he attended in 2004 was so small there was no need to make an agenda of all the sessions he wanted to see. Now, due to the sheer magnitude of the event, you would be sorely mistaken if you think you can just improvise your attendance at Dreamforce 2017.

As you may have guessed, it’s simply impossible to house 2,800 sessions in one conference center over the course of four days. Many sessions will held in various hotels that could be blocks away from the Moscone Center. Brent suggests that you go to the event website and check out the event builder page to identify sessions you wish to attend and plan travel time accordingly.

 

Check out the Dreamforce Trailhead module

You are probably very familiar with the Salesforce Trailhead as your one-stop shop for everything Salesforce. But did you know that there is a module that will tell you anything and everything you need to know about the conference? The module only takes 30 minutes of your time, and you can find it here.

 

Download the Salesforce events app

The Salesforce events app is your go-to guide to any and every Salesforce event, including Dreamforce. You can use this app to:

• Get personalized session suggestions
• Find what you need using session filters
• Access event details, including maps, walking directions, and shuttles
• Share sessions with friends and co-workers

Salesforce has even compiled a list of other helpful apps to help you navigate Dreamforce like a pro.

 

Have you done everything you can to prepare for Dreamforce 2017? Follow us on Twitter @simplusnow or on Instagram @simplusnow for regular updates during the conference!