Almost surprising to say, but FrenchTouchDreamin was probably the first conference/event this year, which I really „just“ enjoyed. CzechDreamin was obviously full of work (including all the event before), London’s Calling and YeurDreamin was still somehow hectic, Dreamforce wasn’t quieter and while I prepared my presentation for FTD just the day before (ups, probably shouldn’t admin that publicly) it was the first time this year where I just relaxed and enjoyed.
Yes, the days before were hectic with no time, flight was delayed so I arrived directly for the speakers‘ dinner – which was absolutely fabulous.
In the morning back to the same location as last year, which is spacy enough with rooms all over and sponsors nicely in the center. This time I didn’t even activate the event app, had no plan to run around sponsors, really just wanted to enjoy people, presentations and interesting apps from the sponsors.
Sponsors
Which I should probably cover as first even though in fact it was the last thing I paid attention to. FTD not surprisingly had all those „traditional“ sponsors, but besides them there were plenty of new ones, I never heard about, but whom have really interesting applications:
- heeet which tracks your website and paid ads and allow you to really see the costs of acquisition and how each channel works. Two folks company who has enormous potential;
- EverReady which syncs all your sales activity with Salesforce and helps you figure out whether you communicate with the right people. And it might be perfect alternative to Einstein Analytics Capture;
- PipeLaunch which syncs/parses with (not just) LinkedIn and remove manual work with entering all the data into Salesforce;
- Sliced Bread with bold idea of doing ETL on platform.
People
FTD is happening at Paris so obviously the room was full of French and I didn’t understand a word. But plenty of international attendees were there as well I could connect with. Together with friends, speakers from other conferences, meeting people I know just virtually, bumbing into new connections absolutely randomly.
But most importantly – having the time to chat with them. Even though during the day I might got a bit down on energy.
And at the same time missing people. The tribute to Gemma at the beginning was amazing, sadly (or luckily) we didn’t know about Amanda at that time. Two at once would be way harder.
Presentations
As the whole day started with memories of Gemma, who was behind the Ladies be Architects, obviously we spoke about architects a lot.
Melissa and Louise started with what it takes and that everyone can be an architect and shared a list of resources where you can find more. Ansar, the „real“ keynote speaker followed and spoke about all those different types or architects who has their place during the project, about value they can/will bring into the project and their skills. (Not) surprisingly a lot of them are pretty „soft“ – speaking, listening, team work, problem solving, the list goes on. And then, under the line, similarly long list of technical skills.
Ekat and Cyril spoke about Einstein Trust Layer, how leaders are worried that they are missing out on AI and at the same time they feel more work needs to be done to address all the problems and challenges of its use.
Hyperforce is the next big thing which I wanted to cover at CzechDreamin but wasn’t really able to find someone who can tell us more. Jim told us probably everything he could and I oversimplified for myself – they don’t want to worry about data centers anymore so decided to use AWS instead. And the possibility of running Salesforce in my own AWS, which I heard a while ago as something which might be eventually possible, is just a dream. Single customer environment will be eventually possible, but probably not in your AWS. The main reason for this is the agility of adding new data centers.
- Birgit and Stephane speaking about Data Cloud;
- Pallavi about why design is important not just from the UX/UI perspective but can be a game changer when solving the right problems;
- Rupert on packaging and how consultants can benefit from it;
and final word from Trish how she travels world and help her international clients to gain benefits while using Salesforce. Really love how she divide between her American and international clients, she doesn’t speak about volunteering but it is still a job, where they have to provide her with housing, food and travels.
Plenty of other great sessions, which were all recorded and should be on the website soon.
Evening drinks, some refreshment, trip to bars or restaurants and – again – late end around midnight.
Some run in the morning in nearby gardens, which should open at 8am, which means that the guard will start pouring their coffee at 8am, once finish they will take a slow walk around and probably half past the garden will be finally open. A few calls during the morning, checkout from the hotel at the very last minute and trip to airport via train, where they check everyone for their ticket when getting out. Completely redone airport if I remember correctly from last year, another delay of the flight, but by some miracle the about to be closed Prague airport opened probably just for us, cleared the landing strip and I’ve been home just when kids get ready for the bed.
What a perfect trip. A bit rushed this time due to other plans during the weekend, I would definitely love to stay longet, but what can I do. Get back next year? Tickets are already available!