Author: Ravi Chudasama

Get ready to mark your calendars because Dreamforce is back for 2023! It’s that time of year again where the global Salesforce community gathers for the world’s largest software conference from September 12^th to 14^th in San Francisco, California. With so much bustling excitement and a sea of knowledge and innovation, ProvenWorks has your back with a list of the top 10 sessions you must keep an eye out for.

The enlightening sessions aren’t all that Dreamforce 2023 offers. On the evening of Wednesday September 13^th, prepare for the atmosphere to be electrified as Foo Fighters take the stage for a spectacular live performance.

And if you can’t make it to the in-person event? No worries! Salesforce has got you covered. With Salesforce+ you can experience all the magic of Dreamforce from home absolutely free. By registering through here: Salesforce+ Original Series and Events, you will unlock three full days of Dreamforce content. With 120+ on demand episodes, live sessions, keynotes, exclusive digital content and so much more, you don’t want to miss out!

Who’s Speaking at Dreamforce 2023?

Some of the brightest minds shaping our future will be at the largest and most magical AI event ever. From visionaries and AI experts to global leaders, you get the chance to hear them speak at this incredible Salesforce event.

Look forward to insights from Marc Benioff (Chair, CEO & Co-Founder of Salesforce), AI innovator Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) and even San Francisco’s very own Mayor, London Breed.

But that’s not all, joining them are award-winning celebrities such as will.i.am and Rainn Wilson adding an extra layer of glamour. Want to know more about the impressive line-up of speakers at Dreamforce 2023?

Check out the full list here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

Key Sessions to look out for at Dreamforce 2023

1. Dreamforce Main Keynote

Tuesday 12^th September

10:00 am – 12:00 pm PDT

6:00pm – 8:00pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

No Salesforce event can start without the main keynote and Dreamforce is no exception. Hosted by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and a special guest, the keynote is set to kickstart the event with some inspiring words and insight into Salesforce’s latest product, Einstein GPT.

2. Automate the Customer Journey with Bots, AI & Real–Time Data

Tuesday 12^th September

12:30pm – 12:50pm PDT

8:30pm – 8:50pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

Want to boost productivity within your business and reduce costs? Well, this session’s just for you! Learn how to bring intelligent automation across every channel and every part of your business from sales and marketing to service, all within a perfectly productive 20-minute session.  

3. Lightning Web Components: What’s New and What’s Coming

Tuesday 12^th September

3:00pm – 3:40pm PDT

11:00pm – 11:40pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

Join the Salesforce Product Management team as they show you how you can use Lightning Web Components to make developing on Salesforce easier and more efficient. Also get a taste of what’s coming up in the roadmap and the latest features in the LWC world.  

4. Beyond the Hype: How AI can actually make our Lives Better

Wednesday 13^th September

9:00am – 9:45am PDT

5:00pm – 5:45pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

So, you’ve already had a glimpse into AI with Salesforce’s Einstein GPT and Open AI’s Chat GPT, but how can these tools make our personal lives better? Don’t worry you won’t be having to battle it out with I, Robot! Instead, David Luan (CEO & CO founder, Adept AI Labs), DR. Fei Fei Li (Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University), Richard Socher (Founder & CEO, You.com) and Sam Jacobs (Editor in Chief, TIME) take us back to reality in this session to discuss the exciting opportunities available to us through AI.  

5. Study Smarter, Not Harder for Cert Prep without Burnout

Wednesday 13^th September

10:30am – 10:50am PDT

6:30pm – 6:50pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

We know many of you trailblazers are probably looking to complete another certification or maybe even your first. To assist you on your journey, take onboard these key lessons for managing your work-life balance to avoid burn out. With Kate Lessard (Delivery Team Manager, Arkus Inc).  

6. Drive Business Value with Sales Metrics that Matter

Wednesday 13^th September

3:00pm – 3:40pm PDT

11:00pm – 11:40pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

In this limited spaced session, become part of the circle of success with David Carnes (Chairman, OpFocus Inc) and gain the unique opportunity to network in small groups and learn how to create reliable dashboards using metrics to fit your needs.  

7. CEO Talks: Forging a Brighter Future of Work with Honest AI

Thursday 14^th September

9:00am – 9:30am PDT

5:00pm – 5:30pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

Build on your AI knowledge with Dario Amodei (Co-Founder and CEO, Anthropic) and Lidiane Jones (CEO, Slack) as they discuss how to simplify, enhance and elevate productivity and business outcomes with AI.  

8. Integrate APIs Faster and Effectively with External Services

Thursday 14^th September

10:00am – 10:20am PDT

6:00 – 6:20pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

CEO Saurabha Gupta (Manras) and Sixuan Chen (Software Engineer, Salesforce) invite you to join them to investigate how to integrate faster with External Services. Take a look how the feature transforms OpenAPI end points into invocable actions you can call from low code tools.  

9. How To Avoid 6 Digital Transformation Pitfalls

Thursday 14^th September

2:00pm – 2:20pm PDT

10:00pm – 10:20pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

Digital transformation is essential to your business growth, however typically transformation fails due to 6 common issues. Join this short 20-minute blast on how to avoid these issues and take actionable steps for navigating these challenges.  

10. 5 ways to Ensure Trust and Security on Your E- Commerce Site

Thursday 14^th September

3:30pm – 3:50pm PDT

11:30pm – 11:50pm BST

Add it to your agenda here: Dreamforce – Session Catalog (salesforce.com)

As we grow ever more digital, digital security is one of our most important tools for establishing trust. In this session join Eric Lessard (Director, Product Marketing, Salesforce) and Sid Gupta (Sr Director, Product Management, Salesforce) on best practices to ensure your e commerce site delivers trust and performance at scale.  

Dreamforce Here We Come!

As you embark on Dreamforce 2023, it’s important to remember that it’s more than just an event. Dreamforce, along with all Salesforce events, encourages attendees to share their stories and celebrate their successes within this powerful ecosystem.

The event has a key focus on learning, connecting, having fun and most importantly giving back to help local communities, becoming more sustainable and making your business a platform for change.

We hope that this ProvenWorks guide has helped set the stage for you to engage with remarkable individuals and share in the Dreamforce experience that Salesforce is renowned for!

 

Thriving in both worlds: University study and part-time work in tech

Like many students, I found myself working in industries unrelated to my studies, like hospitality and retail, for financial reasons. For me, the fixed working schedules and travel costs, in addition to the challenge of balancing study with work, made it less practical to work in these industries alongside pursuing my degree.  

However, it all changed when I found a part-time job through my university careers page working for ProvenWorks, a software company and partner of Salesforce. The possibilities were limitless – working remotely, being part of the global Salesforce ecosystem, and gaining access to the most cutting-edge cloud-based technologies!  

Join me as we delve into the challenges and benefits I’ve faced along the way, sharing top tips from other part-time members of ProvenWorks on how to manage your productivity whilst studying at university in this unique industry.   

Decisions and priorities: Navigating university work commitments

As a university student, managing academic commitments is critical, often requiring tough decisions between university and work. To navigate these decisions, you must prioritise. For me, this looks like organising tasks and situations based on their urgency and importance, allowing me to focus on what truly matters.  

Let me illustrate this approach with an example. I find myself torn between a group meeting for an accounting report due at the end of the week and a weekly team meeting at ProvenWorks. 

Recognising that the accounting report takes priority given the deadline and potential repercussions, I make the decision to focus on this rather than attending the team meeting, knowing I can catch up on the meeting later as it can be recorded. This way, I’m able to prioritise my studies without neglecting my work.  

This flexibility within the tech industry clearly contrasts to the rigidness of hospitality and retail. In these sectors, students are often faced with a choice that boils down to working or not. Due to the nature of these workplaces, rearranging shifts and the need for constant staffing makes it difficult to adapt and the final decision is often left in the hands of management.  

Safeguarding your well being: Balancing work and battling burn out

Working in tech part-time has been a fantastic experience for me. As I pursue a degree in Business Management and Marketing, the Marketing Assistant role complements my studies perfectly. I get to apply my academic knowledge of marketing strategies and branding theory to practical scenarios, such as social campaigns. However, it can also be mentally draining, especially after long days of lectures and staring at my laptop.  

To ensure I stay productive and maintain a work–life balance, I set aside time for personal activities during the working week and weekend, whether it’s hitting the gym, enjoying a refreshing swim, or spending time with friends on a night out. I guarantee my world doesn’t solely revolve around the demands of part-time work, despite the significant benefits that come with the job.  

For more insights on how to achieve a balanced and productive lifestyle, check out my colleague Beth’s post: How to increase your productivity.  

Flexibility and focus: Scheduling for triumph in tech

As I’m sure many newbies to the Salesforce ecosystem will agree, there’s a huge learning curve! The demanding nature of balancing tasks and training in the tech industry, particularly within the Salesforce ecosystem, is one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced as a newcomer.  

To address this, ProvenWorks Marketing Assistant Sean suggests having a to-do list every day to know exactly what needs to be completed. Following a similar strategy, I use my calendar app to schedule and set deadlines for when exactly I’m going to tackle tasks and training around my university commitments. For example, I’ll schedule in time to complete a Trailhead module on data imports to prepare for an upcoming task around uploading accounts to Salesforce.  

Whilst the extent of training in tech, especially the Salesforce ecosystem, is far more demanding than hospitality and retail jobs, I’ve experienced less pressure and stress in comparison to those industries. With hospitality and retail, it’s common to receive on-the-job training, requiring you to shadow and then immediately replicate in real-time. This can be intimidating and challenging with potential for mistakes and constant pressure not to keep customers waiting.    

In comparison, training in tech offers greater flexibility, allowing you to have a better balance between work and training as you can schedule it when you want. With Trailhead, you work in demo orgs which simulate real Salesforce CRM instances. You can break down complex topics into bitesize modules, with clear step-by-step guides to tackle in your own time all for free!   

Ultimately the flexibility offered in a part-time job in tech gives me the time and resources to better understand the platform, get hands-on with the solutions, and balance work with training better.   

Strategies for success: Time management in the tech industry

Working for a Salesforce ISV partner gives me an invaluable opportunity that extends beyond the usual part-time job experience. The industry’s incredible networking opportunities with events like Salesforce World Tour London can open doors for future placements or graduate jobs, giving me a competitive advantage over many students who may not have access to such opportunities until much later.   

However, the challenge lies in ensuring there is no lack of focus on the here and now: with so much flexibility about when I complete my work and so many opportunities for networking, setting boundaries is crucial. As I’ve already said, my academics and maintaining a healthy balance between work and studying must stay a priority. An effective way of setting boundaries, prioritising my university studies and maintaining a work-life balance is to practise good time management.   

To gain insight into productive time management I asked Jai Mansford, our Support & Solution Engineer who’s also a university student, for his advice:  

“I find that communicating working hours with whoever assigns tasks to me works best. I found I was consistently free in the evenings, outside of working hours and allocated time to work on tasks that are not time constricted such as blog posts. I also do bits and pieces during the day to handle tasks that require attention during working hours when other people are online.”  

This level of flexibility and time management available in the tech industry aids students as they are still able to focus on their studies without having fixed working schedules, something that’s just not available in “regular” student jobs. By establishing boundaries between working hours and studying, Jai can dedicate sufficient time to work, university and the rest of his life.  

Thriving academically and professionally in tech

My experiences in the tech industry have proven to be an invaluable opportunity that lets me apply academic knowledge to practical scenarios within a thriving industry.   

Despite the challenges of task completion, burn out and risk of losing focus on my university degree, I and my part-time ProvenWorks colleagues can thrive both academically and professionally through dedication, effective time management and prioritisation. Our journey so far in the Salesforce ecosystem is paving the way for a promising future within the tech industry, opening doors to exciting possibilities in this dynamic space.   

To explore how you can be part of the ProvenWorks team and embark on a rewarding tech career, visit our careers page. Join us in the world of Salesforce and cloud-based technologies!  

Learn more about working at a Salesforce ISV partner

Why work for a Salesforce ISV? – ProvenWorks  

How to get a job at a Salesforce ISV – ProvenWorks