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The Pexlify team had the pleasure of attending Salesforce World Tour in London this year. For some of the team, it was their first time going to a major Salesforce event, while others are now seasoned attendees.
If you are unable to make your way to San Francisco for Dreamforce, World Tour is a great way to attend a Salesforce event and experience the Salesforce Ohana in your local/nearby city.
Opening Keynote
Consultants and Partner Intelligence on the AppExchange
As a partner ourselves, we were very interested in the opening topic discussed in the Keynote. On the Salesforce AppExchange, users can now intelligently sort through partners and consultants by filters like ratings, skills and expertise. This is something we’ll be taking very seriously and you can read more about this here.
Salesforce Core Values
We know how committed Salesforce is to giving back to the community. Their philanthropic 1-1-1 Model is a leading structure that all business should aim to follow. During the main Keynote, Salesforce highlighted their commitment to the UK & Ireland and shared their plans to invest over $2.5 Billion in the region. Salesforce also announced they will be investing a further $125 Million in ecosystem investments ‘Europe TrailBlazer Fund’, like ‘Supermums’.
PINK Shirt Makers
PINK Shirt Makers recently relaunched their brand highlighting the art of shirt making. While promoting an ethical side and moving their manufacturing back into the UK, Pink also needed to achieve convenience by combining technology and AI. By attaining a 360° view of their customers, they have achieved seamless integration of customer data between digital online visits and in-store visits.
We would highly recommend viewing all keynotes which are available on the Salesforce website here.
Sessions
While there are many sessions on at the same time, it is hard to know which ones to attend and which to skip. For this reason, the mobile app comes in very useful. All the times, locations and descriptions of each session are available so you can plan out your day beforehand.
Some great sessions our team attended ranged from Salesforce Einstein and the power of AI to Einstein Voice and Intelligent marketing for empowered customers.
One interesting session we attended was the ‘Salesforce Einstein: Meet your Smart CRM Assistant’. In this session, the presenters explain how Einstein analytics and AI can help every user from Admin, to marketers, to support agents. With this, they introduced Einstein Voice to the audience. Einstein Voice can dramatically speed up data input processes and increase productivity.
The presenters gave a live demo utilising Einstein Voice in a retail setting. The sales assistant uses Einstein Voice to update the customer’s record easily and efficiently. Einstein knows that this customer is a customer related to this sales assistant. Now, you can conversationally update data, notes and tasks.
Another great session at World Tour this year was the ‘How Audi connected their B2B & B2C’. Audi is using Service, Marketing, Communities and Commerce Cloud and wants to show customers that they are more than just a car company. In this session, Audi discusses how they created more personalised 1:1 customer journeys by utilising salesforce. Users can personalise their car order online and get real-time updates regarding their car’s manufacturing status. Well worth a watch!
Customer Success Expo
The customer success expo is a great area to discover new businesses, apps and partners, as well as complete trailheads and see demos.
If you’re feeling really confident, you can also get Salesforce certified. This area also has smaller more platform-specific demo’s where you can find out more about new product features and updates.
The Expo area is a fun area where you can pick up lots of swag, grab free coffee and food to refuel before your next session or talk.
Closing Keynote
Once the majority of sessions came to an end, it was time for the closing Keynote. This is generally not as crowded as the main/opening Keynote, so no need to rush - unless you want to be right up at the front.
This year saw comedian, author and philanthropic funny-man David Walliams as guest speaker. When he’s not appearing on Little Britain, Britain's Got Talent or writing children's’ novels, you can find David giving back to the community, like swimming the English channel which raised over £1 Million for Sports Relief. Having a guest like David Walliams to close off the day was a great way to showcase UK culture and the core values within Salesforce of giving back.
After the closing keynote, it’s time to socialise and network with other attendees.
Highlights from Salesforce World Tour London
We asked the team what their favourite highlights from the day were. This is what they had to say:
- Talking to partners and learning about the capabilities of the solutions they have developed.
- Getting to meet multiple customers in one place and the opportunity to meet new clients/prospects in an informal environment, over coffee, drinks, etc.
- Walking around the exhibition sections and see the products and companies that are utilising Salesforce.
- ‘Driving Business Growth & Innovation with Best Selling Author, Tiffani Bova’ - a great discussion. Tiffani talked about supporting sales by reducing the amount of admin work they have to do. Current salespeople spend 66% of their time on non-sales activities like administration.
- Completing trailheads and tasks to win salesforce swag.
- David Walliams Session was a favourite for a few of our team members.
Setbacks
While Salesforce World Tour London is a greatly organised and successful event, there were one or two snags that we hope can be improved for next year.
- The main issue - Internet / Data connection. It seemed the wifi and phone signals were extremely weak. This undoubtedly was a result of many people being connected, however, it is something we hope to see working better next year.
- Long queues for security, as well as the Keynote.
- Some of our developers would have preferred advanced technical sessions that were more in-depth, especially around Mulesoft.
- Food options were limited and due to very long security queues, it was difficult to go out and get back in within a limited time - it’s easy to get distracted and lose track of time.
- Essentially nowhere to charge your phone - bring a battery pack.
Advice for attending next years Salesforce World Tour
- Registration for World Tour is free but tends to sell out a few weeks prior to the event, so it is important to ∫ as possible.
- Although world tour is not as spread out as other events in terms of distance, it’s important to know you will be on your feet all day and should make sure to bring comfortable shoes.
- Bring a battery pack for your phone. There are very limited options if you want to recharge your phone, as there is no designated area. There are plugs on the 3rd floor at the top of the stairs if you are stuck.
Specific Advice from our team:
We asked all of the members from Pexlify that attended World tour what tips they would have for anyone hoping to attend next year.
Here’s what we got back from them:
- Plan your time, download the Salesforce Events App and set reminders for what sessions you want to attend. You can also view the map on this app.
- Arrive extra early if you want to get into the Main Keynote - it fills up very fast and has a limited amount of seats.
- Bring a bag with you, as there is lots of salesforce swag to win and collect.
- Bring a reusable water bottle - There are water stations everywhere to fill up
- If you are planning on doing some sort of team lunch make sure to book in advance, as there are not a lot of food choices around and they fill up very quickly.
We hope you enjoyed this post. If you’re planning to go to Salesforce World Tour next year be sure to let us know!
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