Intro
It has been nearly 2 years in Tech Sales and I have gone to 4 conferences in that time (3 KubeCons and now 1 Salesforce one). Given that I started in the midst of the pandemic that is a pretty decent amount but I am hoping it only increases as I love selling at events. It is easy to think that selling at events should be easy since everyone is basically a warm lead but they are also all expecting you to sell to them and try to avoid it. So it is a delicate dance yet it turns out I am somewhat decent at this dance. And only this dance. But let’s set the stage first, what is Midwest Dreamin?
Midwest Dreamin’
Midwest Dreamin’ is a Salesforce “community led, community ran event” which comprises of talks, workshops, networking, booth crawls, and more! It is an opportunity for Salesforce professionals of all types ranging from Admin to Developer to Super Users to get together, exchange ideas and info, and have some fun! The first Midwest Dreamin’ was in 2011 in Louisville, KY. This year it took place from August 16-18 in Minneapolis Downtown. The schedule was filled with topics ranging from AI to SFDX to building a Salesforce career. They also had some amazing conference food. No joke one of the lunches was one of the best conference lunches I’ve had!
AutoRabit @ Midwest Dreamin
So what was AutoRabit (who I am a SDR for now) doing at Midwest Dreamin? They were a sponsor of course! With the best looking booth there, tho I may be a bit biased. But check it out, we even had a cute bunny that everyone wanted!
We had plenty of swag for everyone and while the mini Charlies were popular the pens with a stylus and the tote bags were also flying off the table. Thank you to our amazing Field Marketing Coordinator, Nicole Penrod, for all her hard work on the booth and the event! The booth was definitely an attention grabber and helped bring people over for us to talk to. Midwest Dreamin’ isn’t as big as something like Kubecon or Dreamforce which are the main conferences for their respective industries. But it is still a valuable conference for AR to be at since it gave us the opportunity to have some deeper conversations with people.
Conclusion
Even before the pandemic and WFH revolution, I loved conferences. Now working remote they are even more fun as they are opportunities to get out in front of prospects and really talk to them and understand what they want and whether my pitch is good or not. The Salesforce ecosystem is huge and has so many types of users, developers, admins, etc that it naturally lends itself to tight knit communities and more regional events to accommodate everyone. I have been studying for my Salesforce Admin exam and it was amazing getting to meet so many people in the Midwest where I also live that are in the ecosystem.
Up next is Dreamforce 2023 in San Fran from Sept 12-14 so if you are there stop by Booth 1700!