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London’s Calling Speakers

by with No Comment Salesforce Events

Cloud Galacticos is proud to be one of only two Platinum Sponsors for this year’s London’s Calling event (alongside OwnBackUp). We’re also proud to have two of our team members as London’s Calling speakers.

London’s Calling is one of our favourite Salesforce related events. It’s also Europe’s largest community-led event for Salesforce professionals. And this year, it’s back as an in-person event in June.

 

London’s Calling Speaker: Paul Battisson 

London's Calling Speaker Paul BattissonOur COO Paul Battisson, will be one of two from Cloud Galacticos who will be a London’s Calling speaker. His session will be ‘Getting the Job – Tips and Tricks for Salesforce Interviews and Careers’.

“My hope for the session is to help people who are looking for a new job or to improve their career with some practical tips about growing your career and nailing job interviews.”

“This is my 5th time speaking at London’s Calling and it’s always such a great event. It will also be one of my first in-person events for a while so I’m excited to reconnect with the community face to face again after too long.

I’ll be spending a fair bit of time at the Cloud Galacticos Platinum Sponsor booth, so come by and say hi!”

Paul will also be speaking at DreamOle, in Madrid, in April.

 

London’s Calling Speaker: Mark Jones

Mark Jones Cloud GalacticosThe second person from our team speaking at London’s Calling will be Mark Jones, a Salesforce Consultant. His session will be ‘Skills for Success: The Skills Every Admin Needs to Succeed in Their Career’.

This session will provide you with a high-level overview of the skills needed to succeed in the ecosystem as a Salesforce Administrator. You’ll get the chance to hear a little bit about each of the skills identified by Salesforce and be signposted to some really good resources related to each skill. If you’re a Salesforce Admin, or simply just want to understand the role a little more, then this session is for you.

“I’m really looking forward to speaking at London’s Calling this year. This is one of the events that I’ve had on my wish list of events to speak at for a few years now. It’s great to finally be able to do it. I feel this topic is one that is so important to a very large portion of the ecosystem, so I’m really looking forward to being able to talk on this subject.”

Mark also spoke at Cactusforce in January. You can watch it again here. Mark will be heading to Prague in May to speak at CzechDreamin’ (same session as London’s Calling).

 

Event Details

London’s Calling will be held at The Brewery, in London on Friday 10th June. It will be an action packed day full of great sessions from great speakers, Demo Jam, and Keynote guests. It’s also a great chance to catch up with the Salesforce Ohana. Don’t forget to buy your ticket here.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Gold Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our Salesforce consultancy has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce Gold partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

 

Digital City Awards, Best Small Digital Company Finalist 2022

London’s Calling Platinum Sponsor 2022

Yeukai Business Show

Yeukai Business Show

by with No Comment Team Galacticos

Yeukai Business Show is a UK-based podcast. It’s ‘dedicated to helping business owners and entrepreneurs succeed though the expert knowledge of [its] highly esteemed guests. The latest guest happens to be our very own COO, Paul Battisson.

 

Yeukai Business Show – Episode 408

Yeukai Business Show - Episode 408 - Paul BattissonThe show is hosted by Trevor Stockwell, a leadership coach and trainer.

Paul starts off by talking about how* he got to where he is today as COO of Cloud Galacticos.

The podcast is 37 minutes long which is perfect with your morning coffee or daily commute. You can listen here. And why not check out the other Yeukai Business Show podcasts too?

 

 

 

 

*It was writing computer programmes on Championship Manager.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Gold Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our Salesforce consultancy has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce Gold partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

 

Digital City Awards, Best Small Digital Company Finalist 2022

London’s Calling Platinum Sponsor 2022

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Consultancy Dreamin is Here…

by with No Comment Salesforce Events

As the Salesforce trailblazer community continues to grow, the demand for events by ‘the people for the people’ is strong. And on Thursday 8th July 2021, Consultancy Dreamin will join an already awesome list of Salesforce community events. Normally these are location focussed such as London’s Calling, Singapore Dreamin, Down Under Dreamin, or Midwest Dreamin. Consultancy Dreamin will be 100% online and aimed at anyone who already is or wants to be a Salesforce Consultant.

 

Consultancy Dreamin

According to to the Consultancy Dreamin website: ’Every presentation will be tailored to help you understand more about this role, check out if consultancy is for you, how consultancy skills can benefit you in any Salesforce position and the importance in your day-to-day job , as well as plenty of tips and advice from experts about getting the most out of a career as a Salesforce Consultant.’

As per other Dreamin events, it’ll be a jam-packed day from 10.30am to 7pm. It’d be filled with keynote speakers, sessions, panels, and a Demo Jam. The sessions will be divided into topics, here are some of our highlights to look out for:

 

‘Skills’ 

Francis Pindar: ‘The Key ‘One-Pagers’ Every Consultant Should Use’

Houssam Saoudy: ‘How Salesforce Admins Should Think About the Code?’

Paul Battisson: ‘10 Things Every Salesforce Consultant Can Learn From Jurassic Park’ 

Consultancy Dreamin – Paul Battisson

“I love the idea of the event being focussed around consulting and less on the specific details of technology. As much as I love a deep dive into a specific tool, often the hardest problems we deal with day to day are those related to individuals and communication around the project. Hopefully this event can help everyone improve these skills to make delivering good outcomes easier.” Paul Battisson, Cloud Galacticos COO

 

‘Experience’

Paul Harris: ‘10 Things You Might Not Expect From Being a Consultant’ 

Vanessa Grant: ‘How to Fake It and Make It in Your First Salesforce Business Analyst Role’

Alastair Dinning: ‘How Making Beer Can Improve Your Salesforce Projects’

 

‘Careers’

Amy Oplinger: ‘Strategies From Seasoned Consultants for Dealing with Burnout’

Jonathan Fox: ‘Optimising Your CV to Make the Top of the Pile’

Bradley Rice: ‘Practice Makes Progress: How to Learn Consulting Skills in Any Position (Freelance)’ 

 

‘Solutions’ 

Barbara Clarkson: ‘Buying the Cow and Other Ways Salesforce Can Solve ANY Problem’

Natasha Gilani: ‘Careers in Salesforce Marketing Cloud’

Ankush Agarwal: ‘Power of Salesforce Flows’

 

‘Trailblazer’

Ashley Allen: ‘From Craigslist to Being a CEO Supermum’

Med Reed: ‘Transition to Salesforce from the Military’

Shobhit Aggarwal: ‘NonProfits During COVID19’

Consultancy Dreamin Skills Panel – Luke, Olivia & Mieszko

In addition to the above, one of our Salesforce Consultants, Luke Menzfeld will be on the Skills Panel ‘Three key skills for consultant success‘:

“Consultancy is a fantastic and engaging career path and i’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my thoughts regarding ‘Three Key Skills for Consultant Success’ on the skills speaker panel with Miesko Rozej & Olivia Omega. Sign up now and join the conversation in what is set to be a great event!” Luke Menzfeld, Salesforce Consultant, Cloud Galacticos

 

Get Your Consultancy Dreamin Tickets Now!

Now that you know more about Consultancy Dreamin and some of the great sessions on offer, why not get your tickets here?

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Salesforce Developer Podcast – Weird Apex and Being Inquisitive

by with No Comment DevelopmentNewsTeam Galacticos

Recently Josh Birk interviewed my for the Salesforce Developer Podcast on “Weird Apex”. You can find the full recording here. I’m going to share some additional thoughts about the background to the discussion and how the simple act of being inquisitive has lead me to some of the weird and wonderful things I discussed on the podcast.

 

Weird Apex Salesforce Developer Podcast

Image taken of https://developer.salesforce.com/podcast/2021/05/episode-82-weird-apex-with-paul-battisson.html

Love What You Do

When we meet clients for the first time, we tell them that at Cloud Galacticos we are 100% Salesforce nerds. We have team members who are MVPs, user and developer group leaders, and authors. We also have speakers, CTAs, and a number who tick multiple of these boxes. When hiring, one of the things we focus on is how much people enjoy working with the platform. I always ask “Why Salesforce?” Of course, sometimes working your way through a big set of profiles and permissions to figure out what the gaps are is not the most riveting work. I find that it is important to ensure I take time to do things I enjoy within my work to stay inquisitive.

A prime example of this is the VR setup I built with Vincent Reeder for a Dreamforce talk. Virtual Reality is cool and still fairly new tech, however it is not really enterprise friendly (as we discuss in the podcast). Still, Vincent and I took it as a technical challenge to see how we could get different pieces of the Salesforce Platform to play together to deliver something cool. Is this a completely practical exercise that we will reuse? No, but the learnings on how to use the different bits of technology will definitely help me in the future. It’s a much more fun way of learning.

 

Build a Career You’re Interested In

I’d highly encourage anyone who is looking to learn more about a particular topic to approach it in this way. By trying to keep this in mind I have built my career on Salesforce and have had a great time doing so. It has helped me learn enough to be able to write two books on Apex as well as given me the opportunity to speak at events all over the globe. I would recommend listening to other episodes of the Salesforce Developer Podcast. You will notice this is a common theme.

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Learning and Mastering Salesforce Apex

by with No Comment Team Galacticos

Last year our COO Paul wrote and published two books on the Salesforce Apex programming language – “Learning Salesforce Development with Apex” and “Mastering Apex Programming“. Both have received great reviews on Amazon and we asked Paul to give us a bit of background as to why he wrote the books, who might be interested in reading them, and how to best learn and master the Apex language.

 

Where the idea came from

Over the 12 years I have been working with Salesforce, I have worn a number of hats. I have been a product manager, a developer, an architect, and a trainer to name but a few. I have been lucky enough to get to help a number of people start off working on the platform. A couple of years ago I took this to the next level and became a Salesforce Certified Instructor. I have noticed there are a number of key areas which many people find tough when working with Apex. I have found this both in helping people get up to speed on the platform, and as a senior team member on projects mentoring and guiding others.

Learning any programming language is difficult, but I think Apex is uniquely tough sometimes. For starters, it is not typically taught at university. You have a few hurdles to getting setup such as getting a developer environment and knowing how to navigate Salesforce. There is often a lack of abstract learning and reference material. We are blessed with many learning resources in the Salesforce ecosystem. There are official options like Trailhead and the Trailhead Academy classes and additional material from community members including blogs and courses. I personally find I learn best from a book. I like the ideas and concepts explained to me with an example. But I also want it in a way I can come back to and use in the abstract later.

 

Learning Salesforce Apex

I agreed to write my first book, “Learning Salesforce Development with Apex” to help try and plug this gap for those new to Salesforce Apex. For admins and junior developers there can be a plethora of terms and concepts that are difficult to grasp. It can also be difficult to learn a programming language. Many of the pieces need you to know other pieces first. Many learners struggle as too many concepts are taught at once. This makes it difficult to understand the topic at hand.

Learning Salesforce Development With Apex Book Cover

In writing this book, I tried to make it simple and easy for someone to go through, chapter by chapter, and focus on one topic at a time. I cover a lot of the concepts in the abstract first, irrespective of the programming language. Whether it is Salesforce Apex or some other language, many of the core concepts are the same. So understanding them in general will make it much easier to apply them when needed. I also tried to make it easy to both jump to a section in the book, so it can be used as a reference. If you are a new developer or Salesforce Admin trying to learn Apex, hopefully it will help your understanding.

 

Junior to Advanced Developer – Mastering Salesforce Apex

As I was writing the first book it became clear that there were many areas I wanted to cover or cover in more detail, but were not really right for a beginners book. I therefore began noting down a list of areas that would help someone who had been working with Salesforce Apex for a few years really begin to master the language. At this point I want to thank Mike Gill, one of our awesome architects. Not only did Mike help sense check the ideas but was a brilliant technical reviewer throughout.

Mastering Apex Programming

The focus of “Mastering Apex Programming” is therefore on understanding some of the more complex areas of Salesforce Apex. I was fortunate when I started that it was easy to be on the bleeding edge of Apex. This was because the platform was a lot smaller and everything was bleeding edge. In my time working with Salesforce and Apex, a number of huge innovations have occurred to the language. Batch Apex, Platform Events, updates to the testing framework, Queueable Apex and Apex REST to name a few. These options all help you to deliver more robust and scalable applications, but are not used by every developer. They can be very min-boggling when you first start working with them.

The book falls into 3 sections. Firstly it discusses common mistakes and best practices. I felt this was an important first section to help ensure that the common silly mistakes we all make are identified and dealt with. The second section focusses on the various asynchronous Apex options and how and when to use them. The third and final section focusses on performance. This has long been an area of interest for me and I recently spoke on this at London’s Calling.

 

The Trilogy?

A few people have asked if I have a third book in mind to complete a trilogy. Currently this is a no, but never say never. Being locked indoors for a year due to the pandemic allowed me to focus on getting these books written, something that I am sure would have been harder in a normal year. I would also encourage anybody who is interested in writing a book to do it. There can never be too much material on a subject in my opinion. I categorically do not see my books replacing any of the amazing existing works out there. Rather it is a different set of eyes and experiences on the subject.

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London’s Calling 2021 Review

by with No Comment Salesforce Events

As a UK Salesforce consultancy, we, Cloud Galacticos, are always proud to sponsor and support London’s Calling. This year’s event happened last Friday 19th March. And as always, the team behind the event did a great job. Here’s our quick review of London’s Calling 2021.

 

LDNsCall 2021 Sponsors Screen Grab

 

Attendify

Firstly, we have to mention the new online events platform Attendify. It worked well as an online version of the ‘real thing’. Everything was organised in an appropriate manner and was easy to navigate. You could see which sessions were happening, check out the sponsors, and chat to other attendees. Overall, it really made the day run smoothly and a better experience than if it was all on Zoom.

“I was instantly impressed by the look and feel of the London’s Calling desktop platform. It was really easy to navigate and find my way around. I was able to see which sessions were live as well as being able to chat with other attendees in real time.” Ben Duong, Head of Marketing, Cloud Galacticos

 

London’s Calling 2021 Sessions

Paul Battisson’s Session London’s Calling 2021

As per previous years, there were plenty of awesome sessions to choose from. From the ‘Top 10 project risks’ to ‘getting connected in Salesforce Field Service’, and ‘implementing lightning message service’ to ‘using Salesforce to create happier workplaces’. Of course, we may be biased, but our COO at Cloud Galacticos, Paul Battisson’s session ‘Turn it up to 11 – Improving the Performance of Your Apex Code’ was pretty good..!

“It was another great event from the team which had a jam packed line-up. From the speaker’s perspective it was a nice change being able to engage with the audience through the live chat during the session as they were all pre-recorded.

Often you are just looking at a room full of faces and unsure what people are thinking. With the chat function I was able to get more real time feedback on people’s thoughts as well as answer questions as they came up rather than waiting until the end.

The London’s Calling attendees were as engaged as ever and it definitely helped make the event feel far more connected.” Paul Battisson, COO, Cloud Galacticos

 

London’s Calling 2021 Demo Jam

The Demo Jam is always a highlight for us. We enjoy the fast paced nature and seeing our peers perform under pressure. This year’s demo jam was done live and online. There were demos from the likes of Gearset, Copado, Provar and Own Backup. The winner, chosen by the attendees, was Gearset.

 

Cloud Galacticos London’s Calling Sponsor Video

London’s Calling 2022

As we wrap up another great London’s Calling event, all eyes are on next year’s event. As great as this year’s event was online, the general consensus was that it’d be great to be able to meet in person again for 2022. The Salesforce Ohana are a social bunch, and we also enjoy being able to catch up with our trailblazer community – as well as meeting new people and making new friends. So fingers crossed all around!

 

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London’s Calling is Back This Friday!

by with No Comment Salesforce Events

London’s Calling, Europe’s largest community led event for Salesforce professionals, is back for 2021 this Friday 19th March (this year will be fully virtual). It has been an event highlight for Cloud Galacticos since its in augural event in 2016. And once again, we are proud to be sponsoring  the conference.

 

London’s Calling Team

Over the past 5 years, London’s Calling has grown in size and popularity. We believe one of the main reasons for its success is the awesome hardworking team behind it. So a big shout out to Francis, Kerry, Todd, Louise, and Amanda.

 

London’s Calling 2021 Sessions

We also think it’s the amazing diverse line-up of sessions by the people from the Salesforce Trailblazer Community.  And this year, our very own COO Paul Battisson will be doing a session on ‘Turn it up to 11 – Improving the Performance of Your Apex Code’. It’s on at 2.45pm, Channel Four, so put a note in your diary. There’s also of course some great sessions for the likes of admins, developers, and architects. Check out the schedule and take your pick.

 

Paul Battisson’s session at London’s Calling 2021

 

Ben Hammersley

Don’t forget to your get your ticket. It’s going to be a jam-packed day. There’s also going to be a Demo Jam before lunch. And a closing keynote from Ben Hammersley. He’s considered to be one of the world’s leading futurists, author, digital thought leader.

 

Shirtforce

Finally, London’s Calling 2021 t-shirt comes in a variety of colours – red, purple, and black. You can buy yours now via Shirtforce. More importantly money from each sale will go to charity too.

 

See you on Friday!

 

 

 

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Cloud Galacticos is Sponsoring London’s Calling 2021

by with No Comment News

Cloud Galacticos is sponsoring London’s Calling 2021. One of our favourite Salesforce community-led events will be happening again on Friday 19th March. Last year’s event was forced into a hybrid with people having the option to go in-person or watch the content online. This year will be the event’s first fully remote incarnation. Whilst it is sad we won’t be able to all meet up together in person, we are still really excited to be sponsoring and supporting the event.

 

More #SalesforceOhana

We are particularly excited that this year’s event will be more accessible for a broader range of people. One of the challenges for any event, particularly in London, is finding a good space. We know for the organisers it is a constant balancing act. They have to find somewhere big enough to allow as many people to attend as possible, whilst also keeping within a budget. London’s Calling is normally an affordable event, with tickets under £100 for attendees. As the name implies however, the event is in London, and for those attendees outside the city (or even outside the UK) their costs can add up.

This year however your only costs are the £5 for a ticket. That’s £5 for a full day of learning from the comfort of your own home. We know some people who are able to attend this year because of how much affordable it is for them. More people will get to experience all the great sessions at the same time as everyone else and feel a bigger part of the experience.

Highlights from London’s Calling 2019

 

Great #Trailblazercommunity Sessions

Speaking of the great sessions, I love the content at London’s Calling. For me it has a fantastic blend of people like Keir Bowden and Ines Garcia, both extremely well known and experienced, along with newer speakers who haven’t shared or spoken before. The content is all pre-recorded this year so there should be a smaller chance of any technical hiccups. For those who are speaking, they can also enjoy more sessions than they might normally be able to do. Our own COO Paul Battisson is also presenting for the 5th time at London’s Calling. Make sure you check his session out!

 

London’s Calling 2021

As with previous events, we are sure that the London’s Calling team will pull of another awesome Salesforce community event. Expect the usual amazing line up of speakers from the Salesforce trailblazing community,  great keynote speaker, exciting demojam, and much more.

The past year has been very strange and stressful for many people, we are very much looking forward to London’s Calling as a bit of ‘normality’. Whilst it won’t be the same being in person, we are really pleased the event is going ahead. We can still get to see the great content and familiar faces even if only through a screen. Get your ticket here.

 

Don’t forget to follow London’s Calling event on March 19th via the #LC21 hashtag! 

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Cloud Galacticos 2020 Highlights

by with No Comment Team Galacticos

There’s no denying that 2020 has been a strange and difficult year for many people. So as this year comes to a close, the team at Cloud Galacticos tell us their highlights, and what they’ve been grateful for this year. Why not join in the conversation on Twitter using #SalesforceGratitude?

 

Val Southern, Senior Salesforce Consultant

“My first work related highlight would be passing both the Salesforce Platform Developer I (PDI), and the Sharing and Visibility Designer certifications on the first attempt. It felt particularly good to have studied successfully to a structured plan. I did not leave school with great results, so it probably was something of a ‘see if I can do it for myself’ situation. It was a great confidence booster!

Finishing the Cloud Nine implementation was another highlight this year. I had to overcome some significant challenges and this project was a learning process for me. Not my first implementation by far but it was different from any other. I really enjoyed working with the Cloud Nine team and took away a lot of satisfaction from helping them. I also enjoyed mentoring Katie in the first few weeks of working at Cloud Nine.

On a personal note, I’m grateful for witnessing my partner’s success in her new writing career. For most of 2020, Jen has been going through the (surprisingly complex) process of getting her new book series ready to be published. I’ve been lucky enough to have done some beta-reading, and loved brainstorming funny ideas for story ideas and illustrations. I could not be prouder!”

 

SalesforceGratitude Phil Walton

Phil’s #SalesforceGratitude

Phil Walton, CEO

“I think my highlight of 2020 is seeing how adaptable we all are. It is easy to get used to the status quo (not the band!). Big changes or events can really shake things up and enforce change. When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!

Also, it wasn’t a choice to stay in the house for months on end, but I’ve been grateful for the chance to spend more time with my family. In the last couple of years I have spoken at Salesforce events on five continents. This year I am not sure I have gone 5 miles away from my house.

I have also enjoyed reading books. I got out of the habit, but this year have read a mix of fiction (including some 1970’s science fiction that I found in a skip!?), and non-fiction (including Paul’s book, Ines’ book, The Barcelona Way, Range, Factfulness).”

 

Emma with one of her paintings

Emma with one of her paintings

Emma Frost, Project Manager

“I’m grateful for the fact that we now have a second person, Pippa, to work on project management. It has been great to share the workload with her. Also having someone else to bounce ideas off and discuss what we can do to improve our project management offering.

This year I managed to launch a new website for my landscape painting. With opportunities for art fairs and exhibitions completely at a stand still, I knew it was time to sort out my online offering in order to continue selling work and reach new audiences. It was a lot of work and I’m very proud of the final result.

Finally, I’ve managed to give out over 100 bikes through my charity, Bikes in Need. During lockdown I have given pool bikes to be used by asylum seekers staying in a hotel on the outskirts of York. This took me over the magic 100 which has been a personal goal since I started.”

 

Rhi McCorkindale, Lead Developer

“My work-related highlights for 2020 would be getting the Salesforce Certified Service Cloud (SP20), and Salesforce Certified Nonprofit Cloud Consultant (SP20) Certification. These were areas that I have done a lot of work in but so far hadn’t taken any certifications for, so it is nice to be able to back up my experience with the relevant certifications. I hope to make some inroads into the Integration Architecture Designer Certification too this year as part of the journey towards becoming a Certified Systems Architect.

Outside work, it would be moving house. We were lucky enough to move just before the first lockdown happened. The new house has much more space for myself and my partner. We both work from home full time, along with my partner’s children who also spent half the time in lockdown here. With the extra time on our hands, we were able to do a lot of work renovating the house and garden. Looking forward to being able to have visitors in 2021!”

 

Learning Salesforce Development with Apex by Paul Battisson

Paul’s first book, ‘Learning Salesforce Development with Apex’

Paul Battisson, COO

“I think my main highlight for 2020 has been getting my first two books published!

I’ve always had an itch to write a book, but this year thanks to lots of time indoors and a lack of travel options I managed to get not one but two books on Apex programming written. It has been great to have the physical copies of the books in my hand and to finally share some of the practices and tips I have learned over the past 12 odd years with the rest of the Salesforce Ohana.”

 

Nkosi Ncube, Developer

“Amazingly, I managed to run a total of 200 miles during the first lockdown with my wife. We’ve been married 18 years and never thought this day would come. And a work highlight would be having two go-lives on projects!”

 

Sales Cloud Consultant Certification Luke Menzfeld

Luke’s Sales Cloud Consultant Certification

Luke Menzfeld, Salesforce Consultant

“ It has been a turbulent year for all with a very real requirement to adapt to day-to-day life in many different ways. My ‘highlights’ would be surviving and thriving in lockdown, changing jobs/starting at Cloud Galactico, hosting a number of events for the Newcastle User Group, mastering domestic project management (a.k.a home improvements), lawn management and gaining three Salesforce certifications.”

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Dreamforce 2020: Things We’ll Miss and Things That We Won’t

by with No Comment Salesforce Events

Dreamforce, for many in the Salesforce ecosystem, is the highlight of their events calendar. Though with the Covid-19 situation affecting people globally, the conference this year will be re-imagined. Say ‘hello’ to Dreamforce To You 2020: ‘instead of everyone coming to Dreamforce, Dreamforce is coming to you — to your kitchen, to your living room, even to your own backyard.’

A few of us at Cloud Galacticos have been lucky enough to attend in previous years. This blog is about what we will miss, and not miss, about Dreamforce…

 

Paul Battisson Presenting at Dreamforce 2018

Paul Battisson, CEO

What I miss about Dreamforce:

The thing I will miss most is speaking and talking to other speakers. I love going to Dreamforce to share the things I have been working on over the past year, best practices I have found to work, as well as push the envelope with some strange and crazy ideas (I have spoken about VR in Salesforce and did the first talk on Machine Learning at a Dreamforce). I will miss learning from people and having these great conversations.

What I won’t miss about Dreamforce:

The flight. As lovely as a 12 hour flight, plus a connecting flight, and lots of time in an airport is, I will not be missing that part. I do like having some uninterrupted reading time, but the meal is never as good as food made nearer ground level.

 

Salesforce Conference in San Francisco

Trailhead at Dreamforce

Neel Meghani, CTO

What I miss about Dreamforce:

I have only done one Dreamforce trip so far. I had heard how big it is but experiencing it for myself it far far exceeded expectations. The biggest thing I miss is the atmosphere itself. The atmosphere can be felt as soon as you arrive in San Francisco. The coming together of so many people with a common interest just gives the whole town a big community feel making you feel at home! Obviously being there presents a big opportunity to learn, gain knowledge and ideas, but most importantly it’s the social side part that I’ll miss.

What I won’t miss about Dreamforce:

The travel, plus the fact it’s all go – full steam ahead as soon as you arrive. You have to ignore the jet lag and just keep going. This all means the sheer exhaustion you feel when you leave lasts a good week after you return. I needed loads of R&R when I got back. That feeling I will not miss. So Dreamforce To You sounds awesome to me!

 

Salesforce Ohana Golden Gate Bridge Walk Dreamforce 2019

Ben Duong, Head of Marketing

What I miss about Dreamforce:

Dreamforce is a unique beast. Bigger and brasher in real life than you can ever imagine – you have to be there to understand. What I will miss about Dreamforce 2020 going virtual this year is being in San Francisco itself. I have been countless times (due to my dad and family living there), but ‘The City’ never fails to amaze. From the skyline (Salesforce Tower joins the Golden Gate Bridge in iconic terms) to the diverse range of cuisines available, to the many cool venues, Dreamforce was made for San Francisco.

What I won’t miss about Dreamforce:

Having to travel over from the UK, with it’s 8 hour time difference, the jet lag is something I won’t miss. Even with the great coffee and sessions on offer, it always takes a few days to adjust. Dreamforce 2020 going virtual may take away the jet lag, but I’d be happy with the disorientation if it meant being back in San Francisco!

 

Baldforce at Dreamforce 2018

Phil Walton, CEO

What I miss about Dreamforce:

There is a real and constant ‘buzz’ at Dreamforce. Maybe it is just the warm weather, jetlag, and strong coffee? But it feels like there is ALWAYS something going on. It’s not just the sessions, the learning, the parties, it is often the bits in between. The conversation in a shared Uber, the chat in a lift, the friend you make whilst lost in one of the venues.

As well as bumping into friends, & colleagues, you always have your eyes peeled for ‘celebrity spotting’. Whether it is ‘Salesforce celebrity’, the VPs, the Community team, your AEs, or if you are lucky, Marc or Parker. But also (queue name dropping, sorry) I had a chance chat with David Blaine (who now follows me on Twitter!?), breakfast with Billy Connelly, and nearly knocked over Iggy Pop. You don’t get that on a Virtual presentation!

What I won’t miss about Dreamforce:

The downside of the great things, is that there is so much you can not possibly see. There are 1,000+ sessions, last time I think I managed to go to one! So I always have regrets about missed opportunities, missed learnings. I guess I will still have that, but I can sleep in my own bed when it is all virtual. 

 

Fleetwood Mac at Dreamforce 2019

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