Editorial
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If you attended Connections and are planning your first Dreamforce trip, our very own Janine Hollick, Director of Business Growth breaks down the differences and similarities between the two events to help you maximize your investment. 

event showdown: dreamforce vs connections

Sessions and Keynotes

While Connections is for the Marketer, Dreamforce is for everyone. Whether your role relates to Sales, Operations, Customer Service, IT or Marketing, you’ll gain practical business knowledge whether you’re a current or prospective Salesforce customer. With over 2,700 sessions and workshops, you’ll not only find your standard topics about the Salesforce platform, you’ll also find sessions related to leadership, technology trends and innovation, social change and mindfulness. With a broad range of content, you’re bound to gain new and fresh insights and perhaps even a sense of restoration after a busy week of learning. 

Scorecard: Dreamforce: 1 | Connections: 1

 

Networking Opportunities

This is where Connections and Dreamforce are both equally matched. Conferences are all about learning, but it’s also the people you meet that leave a lasting impression. From striking up a conversation with someone in a breakout session or in line for coffee to the many breakfasts or dinners you’ll be invited to, you’re bound to meet your kindred work-mate. Through the informal and in-the-moment connections, you’ll bond over shared challenges and discuss strategies, solutions and exchange ideas. These candid moments are what make the networking experience truly powerful. 

Scorecard: Dreamforce: 1 | Connections: 1

 

Innovative for the future and beyond 

Dreamforce is so much more than the technology. It’s about showcasing what’s possible and inspiring business leaders, entrepreneurs and scientists to not only think innovatively about the future, but to imagine what lies beyond that. Through sharing new ideas and challenging the status quo, Dreamforce is a way for the business community to get invigorated, motivated, and recharged. 

Scorecard: Dreamforce: 1 | Connections: 1

 

Implementation and Consulting Partners & AppExchange

When you hear the name Salesforce, most people think of a software giant - the 13 billion Fortune 500 company led by visionary CEO Marc Benioff. Yet, Salesforce’s impact and presence is much larger when you consider the partner ecosystem that has been purposefully built and developed to service Salesforce customers around the world.

 

According to IDC’s 2017 study on the Salesforce economy, the Salesforce ecosystem is nearly four times bigger than Salesforce itself and is expected to be five times bigger by 2022.1 How is this possible? While Salesforce is an end-to-end platform, it certainly can’t do it all, which is why organizations supplement their Salesforce subscriptions with third-party applications. IDC’s study indicates that 87% of Salesforce customers have installed at least one of these third-party apps through the Salesforce AppExchange.2 Organizations also seek out services from consulting partners to provide strategic and technical guidance on how to best leverage enterprise software amongst their existing systems. If you’d like to see whether there’s a pre-built app that plugs into Salesforce, or better understand how a consulting partner can help you get the most out of Salesforce, both Connections and Dreamforce will check that box. You may even find a solution to a problem you didn’t even know you had.

Scorecard: Dreamforce: 1 | Connections: 1

 

Let Bubblebox Help with Your Salesforce Implementation

 

Still not sure what Salesforce actually does?

You’re not alone. Things were a lot more straightforward pre-2009 when Salesforce was a single-product company. Need a CRM? Call Salesforce. Ten years later, with significant development efforts and countless acquisitions, explaining what Salesforce is to your grandmother isn’t so easy. In fact, Salesforce has launched a new global ad campaign to “...help the world better understand what Salesforce does”,3 says Stephanie Buscemi, CMO at Salesforce. If you’re more of a ‘see it to believe it’ kind of person, Dreamforce is the place where you’ll have that lightbulb moment. Starting with the opening keynote delivered by Marc Benioff and continuing through each of the Product keynotes, you’ll start to see how all of Salesforce Clouds and products come together. This is especially important for those whose view of Salesforce is limited to a single product. Looking at Salesforce through the lens of Sales or Marketing in isolation is very different than seeing it as an end-to-end platform and understanding how it functions across other areas of the business. This is perhaps the single biggest ah-ha moment you can have at Dreamforce.

Scorecard:

Dreamforce: 1 | Connections: 0

 

Click here for part 2 of the Event Showdown: Dreamforce or Connections. 

 

Meet Bubblebox at Salesforce Dreamforce

 

References

  1. Salesforce Economy to Create 3.3 Million New Jobs by 2022. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2017/10/salesforce-economy-idc-study-2022.html
  2. Salesforce’s New Marketing Campaign: We Bring Companies and Customers Together. https://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/stories/2019/09/091019-aa/
  3. Salesforce.org. 2019. https://www.salesforce.org/pledge-1/