5 tips to get the most out of Dreamforce | CIO http://www.cio.com/article/2983436/events/5-tips-to-get-the-most-out-of-dreamforce.html

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OPINION

5 tips to get the most out of Dreamforce Two thousand sessions. 150,000 attendees. Noise everywhere. So much to see, so little time. Here's what to do about it.

By David Taber Follow

CIO I Sep 11. 2015 7:03AM PT

Dreamforce is not just a trades how. It's practically a cultural

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phenomenon (bring on the ukuleles!), and it certainly has a

significant impact on the economy of San Francisco.

Whether you go in person or visit via the web, you'll be subjected to

a mind-numbing array of stimuli. Probably 250 press releases,

hundreds of video streams, pod casts, interviews, CNBC segments,

all screaming "BUY BUY! BUY!!!"- either for the products or the

vendors' stocks. But all of that is in the vendors' interests, not really

yours.

The meat of Dreamforce is in the breakout sessions, not the

keynotes. If you're lucky you can take in 20 of those breakouts.

That's 1 0 percent of the total on offer, so you have to choose

carefully. Of course, everything important was filled up a month

ago ... but that's OK. Because of Tip No. 1: if you're a fully­

registered attendee, go to the Dreamforce site and hit the Chatter

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feed. Some of the session decks are already up there. Load 'em up.

And then there's Tip No. 2: go back to the DF Chatter feed every

weekend from now until Thanksgiving to download the decks, code

samples and other docs as they dribble in.

Of course, all this is begging the question: "What's important to

you?" Depends on who you are and your role. If you're lucky,

Salesforce has a pre-defined track that helps you filter and prioritize,

such as "sales leadership" or "financial services:' For most of those

tracks, the news is not jarring: Things just get better, you have more

choices, and maybe paying your vendors and consultants to get the

latest and greatest is in your future. (OK, "maybe" should be read as

"count on'~)

That brings us to Tip No.3: If you're a manager, your task at the

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show is to figure out for the goodies you like, how much is

essentially "a freebie with some behavioral change" versus "a new

product with a new way of looking at things ... which means

training that borders on indoctrination:' Choose wisely.

[Related: At Dreamforce 2014, Salesforce joins the analytics

revolution with wave]

Not everything you're going to see at the show is "it just gets

better:' If you're a developer or IT strategist, there are going to be

some choices that send you down paths that will be painful to

reverse. SFDC has been really good about keeping technologies in

place and not forcing ugly transitions over the years. And they are

superb at encrypting painful messages into pleasant ones. Every

transition is going to be push-button simple. Everything is going to

be backwards compatible with just a couple of verb changes.

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Uh-huh.

Your job as a technologist at the show is to identify the

euphemisms and decrypt the signal from the noise. With each

announcement that you are interested in, figure out what "difficult

choice" is being masked. And that brings us to Tip No.4: when

you're trying to really understand, ignore the slideware and get

straight to the reference docs. No reference docs? Go to a

developer's camp or other expert session and ask the techie about

the object model, the services, and the APis that are relevant to

your needs.

For example, Lightning really is flashy, it's well-thought-out, it's got

a new component model, and users will probably be begging for it.

It's in place on Salesforce 1, but even though it's not here quite yet

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for the Web Ul there is documentation that will help you see things.

The technologist's dilemma is ''when do I get serious about

Lightning?" because in the not-so-long run you're going to have to.

So at Dreamforce, you need to get your head around issues like:

• If I have a ton ofVisuaiForce, what do I need to do to make it

Lightning-compatible? When do I need to start moving my

legacy Visual Force code off of that language, and which pages

go first?

• If I'm developing for both Salesforce1 and the Web Ul, what do

I need to do in my Lightning code so that it is (1) really, no

kidding, 1 00 percent functionally equivalent on the two

platforms and (2) tolerant of "compatibility drift" that happens

when the SF1 code base does the inevitable update that isn't

exactly matched by the browser code base?

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• Lightning and Aura get their magical powers from JavaScript

(and associated libraries like jQuery). What do I need to do to

become a wizard with JavaScript?

• What JavaScript tools and debuggers should I be using?

• Should I change my development browser from Firefox to

Chrome (or the other way around)?

• What Ul design tricks and habits do I need to learn to create

really cool user experiences on both mobile and web devices?

• To what degree should my designs adhere to the strong MVC

model in Visual Force when I'm re-thinking my app for Lightning

components?

[Related: Salesforce's big opportunity is in keeping it simple]

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The challenge with a show the size and scope of Dreamforce is

prioritization and filtering, managing your energy level so you stay

focused and enthusiastic. The parties don't really help, but they're a

welcome distraction. The Foo Fighters will be a great concert

(although it'll be hard to top Bruno Mars from last year). So here

comes Tip No.5: there's almost sure to be a cappuccino cart

somewhere on the show floor ... so scan your badge for sustenance.

David Taber

David Taber is the author of the Prentice Hall book, .. Salesforce.com Secrets of Success, .. now in its second edition, and is the CEO of Saleslogistix, a certified Salesforce.com consultancy focused on business process improvement through use of CRM systems.

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