Elevate – Bristol’s first Force.com developer workshop

Yesterday Salesforce brought Elevate to Bristol for the first time. Elevate is a hands-on training session for people wanting to learn more about developing on the Salesforce.com platform.  With free events all over the world, this is all about giving people the opportunity to elevate their career in the cloud.

Myself, and fellow Desynit developers Chris & Julio worked hand in hand with Salesforce evangelists and MVPs (most valued professionals) to deliver the training. With two tracks, beginner and mobile development, there was something for everyone.

After the event, we had the chance to chat to a few of the attendees over a beer  at our Bristol Salesforce Developer Meet up FXFW (Force by Forcewest) and here is what we heard:-

I’ve heard the hype, I’m curious

“There has been a buzz surrounding the Salesforce.com platform for a while now. I wanted to check it out for myself and see, is this really what they say it is, or is this just great marketing. Turns out it’s both!”

A chance to get under the hood

“Salesforce.com was introduced at my business a little while ago. I’ve had a feeling that if I could understand more about the way it’s built then we would open up a whole world of potential.”

It’s clicks not code

“I’m amazed at how much of this is about clicking and not code. For someone who grew up with more traditional programming languages this is a paradigm shift. When I start thinking about a solution to a problem I think about code, but I can see now that there is a new way forward.”

I want to compare with traditional software

“I come from the old world of on-premises software. I wanted to know if my C++ programming skills would transfer to this new environment, and could I transfer over the applications I have built.”

I’m considering a career change

“I wanted to find out more about the career opportunities becoming a Force.com developer would open up for me. I see more and more jobs being advertised asking for this expertise and this was the perfect chance for me to talk to others in the industry and find out more.”

We love to hear from you, if you have any feedback on the event, or if you have any questions on becoming a Salesforce.com developer.  More Elevate events are planned for the UK – keep an eye on the events calendar on the Developerforce website.

In the meantime, the next Bristol FXFW meet up will be on the 8th January – all welcome.  In addition to developer events, we also run a networking evening, Forcewest, and a drop in ‘surgery’ for on the spot Salesforce fixes – check out our events page for all future dates.