Yesterday was the annual big day for the UK (and wider European) Salesforce community. A mass stream of people descended on London’s Excel Exhibition Centre to participate in the annual Salesforce World Tour. This years focus was anything and everything related to AI.
After a very early alarm and a nice smooth journey on the Elizabeth Line (never been easier to cross London) we entered the already busy hub. As we arrived well ahead of the Keynote, we decided first point of action was the Trailhead Challenge. Visit minimum of 6 stands, talk with the people there, collect stamps and in return collect an awesome Cody Bear.
Collecting some drinks on the way it was time to make our way to the Keynote. And what a Keynote it was. Of course most of us had already heard news about EinsteinGPT, but it was great to finally see it in action. And more importantly how we as Salesforce Experts are going to interact with it. Although I still think that it will be a while before the masses get access to it, due to price point, knowing how it is going to work will help us starting to upskill ourselves. The Prompt Studio looks awesome to work with! In addition, there is of course the (unsurprising) news that we will be able to show of our learned skills with a new cert. News to follow later in the year at Dreamforce.
No Keynote will end without a new Golden Hoodie winner, this year the great community leader and one of the organisers of London Calling, Todd Halfpenny.
And then it was time to learn, network and mingle. It was quickly obvious this was the biggest event ever, as everywhere there were long queues. Queues trying to attend sessions, queues for the churos or crepes, queues to get a photo with the awesome McLaren race car.
We tried to join the sessions in the Trailblazer area, but this was so popular that it was hard to hear the presenters. Maybe next year Salesforce can make the Trailblazer sessions centre stage at the Keynote room. It will be easily filled as the content is always so rich and useful.
Luckily this year the breakout area with headsets was back. So we decamped in that area to catch as much as we can. Loved the session about Maximising Salesforce Adoption, with some great principles we all should adhere to. Some great tips in the session on Crosschannel marketing fatigue. I think we can all say that we sometimes get fed up by the amount of automated emails we get. So for us as experts to make it a more streamlined experience for our client’s customers is much needed.
Of course no Salesforce event is complete without catching up with clients, mentees and previous students. Still missed many people it was so busy, but also managed to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for ages. It seems I was not the only one catching up with many people as everywhere there was this happy buzz of old friends meeting up, people being surprised coming across previous colleagues which create an uplifting atmosphere.
After a busy day, we decided to chill out, enjoy the roof garden at Canary Wharf and a quick bite to eat before heading home. Only when you move away for Excel do you know notice how buzzing and noisy over 12,000 people can be! Spending half an hour in a city garden, hearing birds chirping and the occasional noise of a train was really nice.
And as they say, we always have the videos and the swag to look back on a long, exhausting but also energising day. Cody has already made a tentative friend with one of my cats, the rest is not sure yet 🙂
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