Speaking at Dreamforce (part 1)

Technically speaking, I have presented at Dreamforce in the past (Community Shout out for #DF13) on a panel with other Community experts.

This year was different.

I submitted a solo session on a topic that I am passionate about and was fortunate enough to be selected. Competition for a slot was fierce - out of 867 submissions, only 60 were selected. Many of my fellow MVPs and User Group Leaders had sessions that were rejected this year. I thought to myself that the pressure was on to deliver a presentation that was informative, but still entertaining. Announcements went out in July and I barely had time to start planning before my inbox was inundated with alerts and timelines.

The Process

If you've never spoken at Dreamforce, the process is intense. Each speaker is assigned to a Salesforce mentor to provide feedback on the presentation (HUGE thanks to Dan Glaser!). You're encouraged to create an outline of your presentation, submit slides for peer feedback and practice, practice, practice! Some even go so far as to chart out the amount of time spent on each slide. All demos need to be in Lightning and if you include screenshots, you need to include instructions for both experiences (Classic and Lightning).

My session was titled 'An Admin Roadmap to an Existing Org.' The focus of the deck was to build out a process for being an Org expert at the same time you are a new Admin.

How do you do that? Where do you start? You're still trying to memorize your work phone number, much less how you are going to be an expert on the company sales process and know everything about the SF Org?

It's overwhelming AND you cannot trust that the Admin before you set up the Org correctly. A very heavy topic and one that I receive questions on frequently. So much so, that I submitted it as a session idea. Within weeks of the notification that my session was selected, I was asked if I would be willing to present the session twice during Dreamforce. I was flattered. Of course I would present it twice!

Practice, Practice, Practice

As the time grew closer to Dreamforce, I scheduled time with Dan for a dry run of my presentation. It was awkward. You're on a Go To Meeting, have barely said hello and then you're hitting record and launching into your deck as if you are presenting at the conference. During my first dry run I had so much content to cover that I clocked in at around 42 minutes. 42 minutes STRAIGHT! The total session time is 40 minutes and ideally you're leaving ~10 minutes for Q&A. I had to cut content, I needed to speak slower so the audience could follow along with what I was saying and I needed to take more pauses to catch my breath. I was trying to shove so much content into such a short time-frame. My slides had too much text. My images didn't feel right. I was starting to run out of time. Was my deck too boring? Could I create a story-line character to weave into the presentation?

Be True to Yourself

When something doesn't feel right, change it. I decided to pair down my content and create additional materials to post to the Chatter group after Dreamforce. My biggest pet peeve during a presentation is when someone is recommending a tool or a process and then doesn't show you how to access that tool or how to create that process. It was important to me to deliver that information, but I didn't have time in the session for it. Then I blew up my slides. BEST.DECISION.EVER. I started fresh.

I took all of my 'Key Consideration' questions on my slides and moved them into a doc to be posted in Chatter. I also took the tool and process descriptions and did the same. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I'm pretty obsessed with bitmoji. I went through my slides and added bitmoji that resonated with the content. My slides were cleaner, more fun and the content felt more like me. I stopped tripping through my desk after that. The detail flowed and I was able to share personal stories from all of my past experience. I didn't have to worry about memorizing a script. I was speaking from the heart, telling my story as an Admin.