How to submit a talk for Dreamforce 2018 and get it accepted

Weโ€™ve blogged before about why itโ€™s a great to get involved and speak at Salesforce events. ย The Desynit team are big fans of the Salesforce speaker circuit and love to participate around the world (so far in 2018 our team has delivered talks at Spainโ€™s DreamOlรฉ, The London Salesforce World Tour, and a host of user groups around Europe).

But I think we all agree, the dream ticket has really got to beโ€ฆ.

Dreamforce

Where else do you get to share with an international audience, connect with worldwide experts in your field, and get your content broadcast on the global Dreamforce platform? And of course, there is the free conference pass – at current price point of $1,999 thatโ€™s a pretty good incentive to give some real thought to how you can get your talk on the schedule.

How do you take great content and make it even better?

Who better to ask than Edith, Salesforce developer and Desynit delivery team member. Edith spoke at Dreamforce for the first time last year, along with her fellow spanish-speaking Desynit colleague, Julio. In fact, they submitted two separate proposals and had both accepted to their surprise and delight. Dream team.

With this experience in their back pocket, Edith has put together some key tips for seeing your name up in lights in the Moscone Centre:-

1. Do your research

Start by checking out the Public Speaking Trailhead module – ย itโ€™s a great source of encouragement, useful content and advice.

2. Be a specialist

Edith and Julio talking at Dreamforce 2017You could legitimately be the worldโ€™s top authority if you really hone your topic. ย I am a Salesforce developer, so in my case I chose Lightning components. Very common topic right? However, it was the โ€œJavascriptโ€ angle I really specialise in, principally their migration to Lightning. โ€œMigrating from Javascript applications to Lightning componentsโ€ was the much more targeted result.

3. Make your talk title stand out on the schedule

Dreamforce is busy and your talk title really needs to stand out on the schedule. Review past presentations and see what catches your eye when choosing sessions. It was as a result of going through this process that I was able to hone my talk title even further. Result? โ€œFrom monolithic Javascript to reusable lightning componentsโ€.

4. Write a focused abstract

For the abstract, put yourself in the shoes of the conference attendee: What would I be looking out for as my area of interest? Write that down and youโ€™ve got your abstract. From my point of view, as a delegate I was interested in hearing about code, and seeing demos, but really my focus was on the design of Lightning components.

5. Bring something unique

Make sure you are bringing something new to the Dreamforce party. In our case, we submitted both our proposals for talks in Spanish. Vamos a la fiesta!

6. Enjoy yourself!

My final advice is: just go for it and remember that you are among friends. Anyone turning up to see your presentation wants you to do well, so they can learn something.

Good luck!

 

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