Standing with a fist raised in the air, chanting “Bernard come back, Bernard come back”, I felt as though I was in a positive mental attitude, MLM event, getting geared up for yet another year of break-neck sales.
But no, thank goodness…I was one of the 30,000 attendees at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event in San Francisco participating in a Marc Benioff marketing stunt to combat Microsoft Dynamics guerilla marketing tactics with their “I Didn’t Get Forced” campaign.
Fueled by an army of Segways buzzing around all three buildings of the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, Microsoft attempted to slow the flow of energy surrounding Salesforce.com … It didn’t work.
Why so much chatter?
The four-day event was exciting and memorable. With two new clouds being released, the acquisition of Heroku, and soon to be released chatter.com and Database cloud, the place was rocking. However, I’m not sure if the hype around the new announcements will live up to expectations as their value add remains questionable.
Salesforce continues to expand their breadth, continuing their all-encompassing adventure into diverse markets and peripheral industries of the CRM world and beyond; including the omnipotent public social media space with Chatter.com.
The Cloud Team
Amidst the flurry of activity, I was able to connect with several of NetDocuments’ Partners, Potential Partners, Customers, and advocates, including Mary Ferguson, the CEO of Concenter Services – XLR8 CRM.
“We are already fully committed to the rocket ship known as Cloud computing, and Dreamforce ’10 has proven just how powerful and valuable the Salesforce community can be. We came away with many ideas on how to provide even better products and services to our Financial Advisor clients … plus we may have initiated potential partner relationships that might someday be as strong as our partnership with NetDocuments!” – Mary Fegurson
I also connected with Deepa Patel of Halak Consulting who stated, “This was my first Dreamforce and I enjoyed every minute. The sessions were fantastic and I learned a lot of little tid bits that I would not have otherwise. It was great networking with other Salesforce users and partners. The fourteen thousand people at the keynote session was amazing – this shows the direction Salesforce is heading into with future innovative technology platforms. I will attend the next Dreamforce for sure.”
Halak Consulting and Concenter Services were two of our many visits with NetDocuments’ Partners and Customers, so we need to give a special shout out for the mentions, meetings, and overall good time, to Kai and Melissa of SilverlineCRM, Karen Frigon of Taylor Frigon Capital Management, Sujung of MK Partners, Jordan of NADROJ Consulting, Raymond and Kevin of Charles-Schwab, John and Fritze of Healthios, Jake of Brand Tactics, Paul of AdvologixPM, Brad of BCE Technology, and Michelle and Vera of DocuSign… Thanks for making it a great show, and we can’t wait to see you next year at #DF11!
My #DF10 recap
Day 1 – Kicked off with the Partner Keynote, announcing ISV Force for partners, expanding the feature set for native and OEM applications on the force.com platform. With over 1,000 apps now listed on the AppExchange, it was a packed room to say the least.
Day 2 – The opening keynote with CEO, Mark Benioff, highlighted five, yes five, mobile devices emerging from the pinstriped suit Benioff was wearing. Will.I.Am shared his thoughts on collaboration and cloud computing, giving a fresh perspective, and highlighted the gap of the tech and music space! Stevie Wonder spiced up the night with the Global Gala, and everyone got their groove on.
Day 3 – The days are beginning to blur at this point, but day three highlighted the UCSF and the $100 million dollar donation Benioff and his wife are giving to build a new children’s hospital in San Francisco. This was accentuated by the various onsite philanthropic events and projects, which allowed partners, attendees, and customers to participate in the 1 – 1 – 1 initiative so famously started by the Salesforce.com Foundation. And although former President Bill Clinton was 1-hour late, Stevie Wonder was interviewed, giving a peek into his life, philosophy and struggles he’s overcome.
Day 4 – Blisters, dry mouth, and nausea from street dogs, I was ready to wrap it up. I enjoyed one last walk through the Cloud Expo before they officially shut the doors, time to wrap it up until #DF11.
Post written by Marriott Murdock, head of Partner Development at NetDocuments
