Week full of events

What a week behind me. Four events across five days which I was somehow involved in organizing. I had a feeling that it will be easy peasy as everything has been prepared in advance, but the whole week I had a feeling of missing something and the stress in the background made it really exhausting experience. But definitely worth it.

This will a long post, but the TLDR is that I survived, I enjoyed every single one of them even though I had no clue what to expect from most of them.

Johann’s & Nina’s You, the Architect!

TLDR: wow

I’ve met Johann at the beginning of my preparation for the CTA board. That guy is highly organized and very detailed oriented, which was very clear the whole time of this event. Fantastic presentation in terms of content, design and delivery. How Nina read the room and whenever we got out of focus kicked us out to get some fresh air at the beautiful garden on Impact Hub K10, no matter we had just extra 10 minutes planned for that part.

What it takes to be an architect

While it was busy the whole day we still had a time to connect with others and have a chat, as most of the attendees were people being of aiming to be architects we had a lot to share. Including the opening line from Johann – I’m an architect and I’m confused.

Architect Dreamin

TLDR: second edition (or was Paris just soft launch?) of event dedicated to architects, which has completely different structure to other events

While the previous event was logistically pretty easy here I had to orchestrate a few more parties. Saying that we started the first day in lovely nearby cafe, where we recorded some to-be funny video and had a great chat to get to know each other. Another unstructured time followed with people enjoying the beauty of nearby park and organizers putting the finishing touches to the agenda and venue.

Slow start at Flat cafe

Day and half full of „workshops“ on various topics, where people had to be active to get any result out of it. Also CTA preparation workshop with Seb, where I would say the crucial outcome to attendees was the level of detail they need to pay attention to not just when they want to pass the board but in real life as well.

Katka and Angela facilitating the workshop

Great presentations from the sponsors included, Elements.Cloud presenting their new AI features (and the platform itself was hugely promoted by Maria, their happy user), CapStorm introducing us to their solution allowing for having data outside Salesforce (if I got the main benefit right) and Adaptus presenting not just their antivirus solution (important at minimum for all companies running Experience Cloud) but also their work with bringing up the security framework for Salesforce (which looks really promising).

Most surprising part to me was the graphic artist who went from room to room, listened and draw pictures of what was going on as a summary of the day.

We finished the first day with a dinner on a boat cruising the Prague, the second day we went for the opposite and enjoyed dinner and view from the Zizkov tower.

Catching the subset from the Zizkov tower

We didn’t have as any attendees from the CZ/SK market as some expected, but the feedback was pretty consistent in why. The price itself, while high, wasn’t the challenge, the unclarity in what to expect and why my boss should send me was the main challenge. Hopefully next year people will understand the importance more and – while Kevin doesn’t want that – the number of attendees will grow.

Photos by Katka.

CzechDreamin

TLDR: 500 attendees at one place learning new things while networking and getting to know each other better

I would say this event was the main driver for all the other events which took place at Prague this week. The event grow from 250 people in 2019 to roughly 500 people this year, with roughly 50:50 between CZ/SK attendees and the rest of the world, which is pretty amazing achievement.

Packed room for the welcome words

There were so many people this year, that we didn’t fit into the space we had allocated for badges and swag, it (again) surprised how huge the space is at KCP and where I planned two booths for sponsors extra one might fit. We had coffee and tea stand again and a lot of questions before the event whether tea will be available again. We oversold as we really want to give a chance to everyone, not sure the same will be true next year.

Time for relax

The rooms were packed, something we aimed for and super glad it happened, at least a bit of the Dreamforce experience. The Zoom room for the lunch was super awesome with plenty of space for people and just wonderful view at Prague. We also had a plenty of bean bags for some rest and they were heavily used.

Packed room for Mark's session

Demojam, plushies, non Salesforce related closing keynote, which made you think how AI is different to people (not much actually), drinks after the event and a pub visit for those still with energy left.

Demojam winners at work

What a great day, where I didn’t have time to see a single session (I saw one last year if I remember correctly), where we didn’t (and most attendees as well) post anything on social networks during the day but the posts which were coming after the event were super long and super positive, that’s the fuel for us.

Great food

Photos and presentations will be shared on the web.

Wine tour

TLDR: CzechDreamin doesn’t end on Friday evening, you should plan with us for the weekend as well

As is our tradition, there is always some bonus activity after the event. Historically it has been Prague tour, last year we also went for a trip to Pilsen, this year we step up the game and organized a night at Moravia, tasting some wines.

Lednice chateau

Originally I was scared by the three hours trip to get there, but people fully used the time to have a chat and get to know each other better. Quick lunch and short walk to the Lednice chateau, where I’ve probably never been to and which is super beautiful. Short trip to watch out tower where we got our first wines of the day, quick relax at hotel and cellar was ours for the night including the music, which started some dancing as well.

Music was included

A lot of talks again during the night, breakfast in the morning and another 3 hours back to Prague, where people just didn’t want to go home but they continued to another location and most of them directly to the airport after that.

Professionals

Anytime people asked how much time I spend with putting the event together I say not that much. And this year, especially as the small hicups were quickly solved, I realized how important it is to work with professionals, who made the life so easy for me and at the same time allow me to look great.

Thank you:

  • Flat cafe
  • Impact Hub Prague K10 – great coworking space with awesome garden;
  • AV Media
  • CEELI Institute – the villa is just awesome;
  • Prague Catering
  • Zelená Zahrada
  • Jam & Co – where Asia meets Europe;
  • Prague Congress Centre
  • Zátiší Group
  • The Miners – I didn’t notice big queues this year, great job;
  • Meetea – people told me during the day „I tasted all the teas and they are all great“ and I replied with „actually they change them during the day so I don’t believe you had them all„;
  • Kolkovna – we brought 50 % more people than expected (thank you Bryan), but they managed;
  • Aurora – wine cellar which handled our changing requirements without any problems;
  • Student Agency – comfortable bus for our Moravian trip
  • SmileBox – somehow photos are part of any SF related event and we just follow;
  • Kytky od potoka – make the place nicer was our main goal this year, at the same time we didn’t want to spend money on booth made just for the day. Flowers were our way and hopefuly they made someone happy in the evening;
  • Lukáš Hrdlička – for the first time this year we provided presentation couch to selected speakers;
  • Evka NeumanPavel Humpolec – thank you for great photos.

That’s it

That was quite long, but this is the end for the time being. We plan to be back with CzechDreamin next year, we plan to extend our audience a bit with the single admins from small customers without partners, who might get the most from the event. And we are definitely looking for help from anyone who can somehow help, marketing isn’t the topic we are strong in.

See you next year? Or sooner elsewhere? London’s Calling is sold out, but YeurDreamin still have some tickets left.

Leave a Reply