Last Thursday it was time again for one of the biggest Salesforce events of the year, The World Tour in Excel London. It is one of the must attend events to see the latest developments in the world of Salesforce, learn from the experts and meet friends, colleagues, customers, clients and Salesforce gurus.
The day always starts early. In my case the alarm went off at 5.30!! This is not only because of the 1.5 hour journey to get to Excel, but also because I have several cats that demand attention and food before I leave for a long day.
My normal smooth journey into London was interrupted by a local road closure, resulting in an additional 20 min walk detour to the station and extra time on the tube due to Jubilee line issues. Well, it’s London after all, the chance of no tube problems is less then winning the lottery!
But, as I left early, I did manage to get to Excel with plenty of time spare for coffee and breakfast. Or so I thought. I hadn’t counted on the rigid security checks getting into the event. I can up to a point understand the need for them, but if you have approx. 15k people arriving in the time span of 1 hour, it would help to have more then five gates to go through !!
Luckily I managed to get through security and smooth check in before the Keynote. Fleur East made sure we were all pumped up and awake, ready for the day to start.
I like that the Keynote always celebrates different businesses on what they have achieved by implementing Salesforce or how it has changed someones life.
This year we had Barclays, Pink (doesn’t only make pink shirts and not only for men) and Supermums. The Salesforce Community is now a new proud Golden Hoodie Owner and shocked Salesforce Surfboard owner richer.
After a quick lunch and first tour over the expo, it was time to join some sessions. That is after all one of the main reasons to join the day. For the first session I had to wear some cool headphones to learn some Awesome Admin tricks from LeeAnne Rimel and Mike Gerholdt.
Some great tips to help us improve our orgs for our customers. I also can’t wait to see Object Creator in Beta release. That is going to be such an amazing and helpful tool. I love time saving tools!!!
From the world of Admins I dived in the world of AI. Every time I am amazed about the opportunities that Einstein offers and I definitely will start working my way through the Trailhead badges.
Next on the plan was the Trailhead playground. I wanted that fluffy Cloudy to join Astro on my shelf in the study; of course, as I am certified I claimed my certified t-shirt. One to wear whenever I next sit a certification!
The rest of the afternoon I spend meeting friends, colleagues, and ex class students. I wanted to join the Lightning Components Session by Flavia Waters, but it was so busy, I was not able to hear her.
Next year, it would be great to have more space for these Admin Theatre sessions.
Before I knew it, it was time for the final Keynote with David Walliams. What a great, funny and inspirational man. I loved how he included the students at the end and made sure he spend time with them.
After a couple of drinks and another round over the expo I decided it was time to get home. Let’s see how many fellow attendees I can spot on the tube!! Overall, it was another great, inspiring, fun and knowledgeable day.
To wrap up, some tips & take outs :
• stay in a hotel for the before and after night next year. Less time travelling and more time at the World Tour
• Plan the sessions on the Event App better. I had a great list but some sessions require early queueing. Anything in the Theatres needs an additional 15 mins queueing time!
• Plan meet up with location. Always want to meet up with lots of people but manage to keep missing them. Need to get better at planning the catch ups!
• Admin Theatre needs to be far bigger. Such a shame many had to miss such great content
• Different lanyard for independent / consultant / contractors. As independent consultant I don’t buy for customers, but as I work with many different clients and aspiring Admins and Devs in my classes, I can spread the word of great tools and information out there. I often feel that those with stands on the Expo are mainly focussed on getting new customers, which of course makes sense. But a bit of TLC for us Trailblazers could open unknown areas.
That’s it. Enjoy the 2.5min video of what I was up to and please share your thoughts / tips / ideas in the comments.
Only around 360 nights to go until World Tour 2020!
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