The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way we approach group gatherings. Cancellations have become part of life as we adjust to connecting in meaningful virtual ways. In spring 2020, Salesforce announced all events for the year are being reimagined to ensure compliance with safety protocols.
Who Can Attend 2020 Salesforce Events?
While the news that all Salesforce events are virtual in 2020 may be disappointing to those who planned to attend in person, it’s great news for everyone who may not have been able to attend in the past. According to the Dreamforce Events FAQ, “We will be reimagining [all Salesforce events] in new and virtual ways to bring all of the fun, innovation, and learning to our dedicated community of Trailblazers.”
Reimagining Salesforce events in safer ways means they are all virtual for the remainder of the year. That means, if you have an internet connection, you can attend Salesforce events in 2020. Whether you’re a Salesforce developer, administrator, analyst, project manager, or fill any other role in the Salesforce ecosystem, you can take part in these virtual events in 2020.
What to expect from Salesforce virtual events
With more than half of the year behind us, Salesforce has already held several virtual events in 2020. Salesforce has partnered with different virtual event platforms that each offer their own advantages.
Reimagining Salesforce events in virtual ways has already made them more accessible to all Trailblazers. The Salesforce World Tour Sydney event held in March usually welcomes 11,000 attendees, but this year’s event was viewed by more than 80,000 people.
The larger virtual events included virtual conference ‘maps’ that allowed users to click on the areas they wanted to visit or presentation they wanted to watch. Each conference included opportunities to network with Trailblazers in chat windows, but conversations rarely progressed beyond introductions or questions about technical difficulties in those chats.
Perhaps the most effective way to connect with Trailblazers virtually during conferences is through social media. All Salesforce virtual conferences in 2020 have encouraged social sharing by pausing during keynote presentations for attendees to take virtual conference selfies and designating hashtags to unify attendee social media commentary.
Salesforce has remained tight-lipped about the biggest virtual events of the year, but you can expect information to be posted here the moment it is available.
Find Replays and Recaps of 2020 Salesforce Virtual Events
Perhaps the greatest advantage of moving Salesforce events online in 2020 is the gift of attending events whenever and wherever is most convenient. Attending virtual conferences on the dates they are scheduled allows an interactive aspect, and some keynotes and sessions are not recorded and released after the conference is over. However, the majority of sessions, keynotes, and video conversations are available to watch after the conferences have ended.
In addition to the Salesforce events we’ve all come to expect, Salesforce has added several virtual events to the roster that address timely topics.
Here’s a glimpse at Salesforce 2020 virtual events as we look toward the future.
Salesforce Leading Through Change Series
Drawing upon timely topics sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salesforce Leading Through Change series offers thought leadership, tips, and resources for navigating hurdles in challenging situations.
Salesforce CMO Stephanie Buscemi said in an April press release, “For twenty-one years we’ve listened to customers share their greatest opportunities and toughest challenges. And with twenty-one years of insights from the Trailblazers among us — those business innovators who have experienced personal and professional transformation, we’ll draw from our experience, and these relationships, to share the best insights with all of you.”
You can access blogs, videos, and full webinar replays from the Leading Through Change Series here.
Salesforce.org Higher Ed Summit 2020
The Salesforce Higher Ed Summit was held virtually on June 16, 2020. The more than 10,000 attendees expanded their skillsets through 40+ sessions, an Education Cloud keynote with a panel of higher education experts, and inspirational keynotes from Soledad O’Brien, Ariana Huffington, and Trevor Noah. Session topics ranged from Advancement and Marketing to Recruitment and Student Experience.
While the inspirational keynote addresses were available exclusively to real-time attendees, you can access replays of Salesforce.org Higher Ed Summit 2020 sessions here.
Salesforce TrailheaDX 2020
Among the largest Salesforce events of the year is TrailheaDX, which gave us a sneak peek of how Dreamforce 2020 may look. The technical-focused TDX20 conference offered four tracks of content for every type of Trailblazer — developers, admins, architects, and community & ecosystem members.
Sessions for technical Trailblazers were abundant, and an inspirational keynote focused on equality and inclusion welcomed guest speaker Trevor Noah and a musical performance from Jennifer Hudson.
Salesforce made several product announcements at virtual TDX20 including:
Salesforce Anywhere - Currently available in beta, Salesforce Anywhere makes it easy for remote teams to collaborate within Salesforce on mobile and desktop.
Code Builder - Built on Microsoft’s Visual Studio Codespaces, Codebuilder is a web-based developer environment that is slowly rolling out to a limited number of Salesforce customers.
You can access all of the Salesforce TrailheaDX 2020 session replays here.
Salesforce Stories of Resilience
Salesforce has launched a series of video chats with business leaders who have overcome adversity to rise above unexpected circumstances. According to Salesforce, “Speakers will offer strategies for adapting and pivoting during periods of uncertainty, and provide inspiration to forge a path forward.”
So far, contributing speakers have included:
Mark Cuban - Entrepreneur and investor best known for his work on the TV show SharkTank
Angela Duckworth - Best-selling author and CEO of Character Lab
Andy Puddicombe - Co-Founder of Headspace
Eric Rodriguez - VP of Operations for Common
Brene Brown - Vulnerability Expert
Chip & Joanna Gains - Co-founders of Magnolia
Dreamforce 2020 Rumors and Speculation
The big question on everyone’s minds is ‘What’s going on with Dreamforce 2020?’ In past years, the event has seen up to 170,000 attendees gather for a week of Salesforce innovation and fun in San Francisco, California. That makes switching the massive event to a virtual one no easy task for the events team at Salesforce.
Finding the best virtual event platform to host a potentially massive audience is key, and we’re hopeful Trailblazers will get to experience the product announcements, big-name guest speakers, musical performances, and networking opportunities they have come to expect.
While little information is currently being released as of the publication of this blog, there are a few places to check often for the latest updates.
Trailblazer Community - Salesforce Trailblazer Chatter Group discussing all things Dreamforce
Dreamforce Webpage - Salesforce’s one-stop resource for Dreamforce news
Salesforce Events - Information about all 2020 Salesforce events
Here is everything we know so far:
Virtual - Salesforce announced in April 2020 that Dreamforce 2020 will take place using a virtual format.
Partner Innovation Awards (Partner Community login required) - Salesforce announced in July 2020 that partners can submit customer stories for consideration to the 2020 Salesforce Partner Innovation Awards. Submissions are due by 5 p.m. PST on August 28, 2020.
The suspense is keeping us all on our toes. In the meantime, you can reflect on simpler times by checking out our Dreamforce 2019 recap.
Contact CRM Science Salesforce Consultants
Trailblazers love seeing lab coats at Salesforce events so they can talk about Salesforce innovation and get their hands on one of our coveted calendar cubes. Even though the team can’t currently attend in-person events, CRM Science is a remote-first company working as diligently as ever to successfully complete consulting projects for clients.
At CRM Science, we use our Salesforce expertise to transform your enterprise. Partnering with our clients throughout the Salesforce journey, we strategize and optimize business processes, and develop solutions across every Salesforce cloud. CRM Science is an award-winning Salesforce Gold Consulting Partner and a Salesforce.org Registered Partner. Contact us to chat about your Salesforce projects.
