Speaking at Dreamforce (part 2)

It takes A LOT to present at Dreamforce. You need to be passionate about your topic. There are timelines to follow and deadlines to meet. And this is all while you're trying to coordinate vendor meetings, volunteer opportunities (Ask the Expert booth, Circles of Success) and wrapping up projects before you leave the office for a week.

The Worry

Leading up to Dreamforce, I kept worrying about my session content. Would I go over time? Would someone ask me a question that I couldn't hear? Would I trip on stage?!

Would anyone show up???

So like any confident, type A personality, I kept going back to Agenda Builder to see if my session was full. Perfectly normal to check every day, right? OK maybe once in the morning and again in the afternoon. Why isn't this session full? Why would SF ask me to present this content twice?

I started to worry that I would have an empty room.

It Can Be Overwhelming

My session started at 9am on Wednesday. I left my hotel early to find the conference room.

There I was in the hallway mentally running through my presentation when a woman approached the badge scanners and began to cry. She couldn't find the location to pick up her badge and she really needed to be in the session that was going on in the ballroom. I felt so badly for her. We've all been there at one point - your first Dreamforce, you get lost and the campus is just SO BIG! I started to chat with her and found out she was looking for info on Adoption. Funny that I was hosting a Circle of Success on Adoption the next day! I gave her my info and during that time, the badge scanner was given approval to let her go into the session. I felt really great. She was getting into her session and I had helped her (even just in a small way). Then the door to the session opened.

THE.ROOM.WAS.HUGE.

Like showcasing the next iPhone on stage huge...

I'll be honest, I started to panic. And not in the cute 'I've got a case of excitement butterflies way.' But in the, 'can I get up on stage and do this way.' I asked the badge scanner how many people fit into the room. He told me that I had the most registered for all of the sessions in there that day.

809 people had registered for my session.

He said I would probably have more from walk ins. I had hoped for a few hundred and was preparing to deal with the disappointment of a small group. He started to tell me how scared he would be to present in front of such a large group. I told him he was super awesome at giving pep talks.

I walked into the room and then a wonderful thing happened. I spotted Lauren Jordan packing up her things from the session before mine. (Shout out to Lauren - I still cannot tell you how grateful I was to see a friendly face when I walked into that room)

While I was getting set up for the mic I reminded myself why I was doing this. The content was so important to deliver. I thought of that sweet woman that wanted to be in the session before mine so desperately that she was moved to tears. This is why we share what we know.

By that time Dan had arrived and we were able to laugh at the horrible pep talk the badge scanner had given me. It was amazing to sit in the front of the room while the session began to fill. Here's a pic Dan snapped 15 minutes before my session began. I started to switch my thinking from being scared to being honored that so many people made the effort to come to my morning session.

It Will All Be OK

Salesforce does a great job of preparing you to speak at Dreamforce. You go through multiple dry runs of your content. So much so that you could deliver your speech in your sleep (and you often do in the nights leading up to Dreamforce!). Have fun with your presentation.

I brought small gifts for a few attendees at my session. I awarded them to the person that had the least amount of experience and to the person that asked the first question during Q&A. Kudos to both of them for not being afraid to put themselves out there. This is a great Community. Remember that.

What I Learned

I learned a lot from my experience at Dreamforce this year. One of the biggest lessons is be true to yourself. Don't feel like your presentation needs to be worked into someone else's format. Make it be a reflection of you. It will feel more natural and that will translate to your audience.

Once you present to a group of 800, presenting to a group of 300 is no big deal. I was completely at ease when I presented the content the next day to a smaller group. Now I'm on a mission to present to even more people in the future!

Big crowds can be exhilarating! I was so nervous when I saw the size of the room. Surprisingly I found that the larger room allowed more attendees to feel open to laughing out loud, applauding and contributing to the conversation. If I had to pick, I would choose the larger audience every time.

As a speaker, when you can laugh and move the crowd with you, there is no better feeling.