Present at Dreamforce 2016!

Believe it or not, Dreamforce is just around the corner (Oct. 4-7). The Call For Session Proposals has officially opened and we’re more excited than ever to create an amazing lineup of Nonprofit and Higher Ed breakout sessions that showcase the awesome things our customers are doing with Salesforce.

As you begin crafting session proposals, we thought we’d share a few tips and guidelines to give you an idea of what we’re looking for in a session this year.

For our Nonprofit sessions, we’re looking for proposals that:

1. Illustrate your use of Salesforce for Program Management in one of our key Cause areas. Causes include: Arts, Culture and Humanities; Environment and Animals; Faith and Religion; Foundations; Health; Human Services; International Development and Disaster Relief; Education and Youth Development; and Public and Societal Benefit
2. Relate to one of our “solution areas” from a business or technical perspective. Solution areas include: program management, fundraising, marketing communications, analytics, building apps, and community engagement
3. Demonstrate how you’ve become a ‘Connected Nonprofit’ using Salesforce in multiple ways, across your organization
4. Highlights the ROI your organization has seen since implementing Salesforce (anecdotes and/or quantitative)

For our Higher Ed sessions, we’re looking for proposals that:

1. Are relevant to one of our solution areas from a business or technical perspective. Solution areas for Higher Ed include: recruiting/admissions, student success, advancement, platform/apps, HEDA, marketing, communities, and analytics.
2. Provide clear successful use cases, best practices, teachings, how-to’s, metrics and results that will be relevant to peers.
3. Demonstrate innovation at your institution (business process, technical, etc) and how you’ve become a Connected Campus as a result of using our technology.

Confidence is key. In both Nonprofit and Higher Ed session tracks, we’re looking for strong speakers who can effectively present to large Dreamforce audiences and share their story. And we love organizations who can demonstrate their solutions.

Now that you have an idea of what we’re looking for, here are a few helpful tips for creating the ultimate Dreamforce proposal provided by one of our amazing Salesforce MVP’s.

Outline Your Story

Map out the journey you want for the attendees. What is the key theme you want them to remember? What is the scope and breadth of the saga you’re presenting? You can do this via a simple outline, or even create high-level bullet points for each stage of the session.

Cut It Out

Built a great outline? Did you storyboard most of it? Great! Now cut out half of it. Editing your proposal is incredibly hard to do. You’re passionate about your subject matter. Your story is amazing. But when it comes time to present, you’ll easily go over your allotted time, and everyone will be left with an incomplete experience. Smart editing – removing duplicate or similar information from your outline – can help you trim down the overall presentation, making your proposal that much stronger.

The Call for Proposals closes July 15th, 2016 and all speakers will be notified of their session status the week of August 1st, 2016. We can’t wait to hear more about what our great customers are doing this year at Dreamforce. Submit away!

Have more questions? Check out the Dreamforce Proposal Submission FAQ.

And remember, nonprofits, colleges, and universities can register for Dreamforce today for just $400 with the Dreamforce Nonprofit Discount Code*. Enter nonprofit discount code D16NP400FS when registering for our special Salesforce.org Dreamforce rate, exclusively for full-time employees of an organization recognized as a charitable, nonprofit, or nongovernmental organization in the country in which you are located.

* The Salesforce.org discounted rate is ONLY available if you are a full-time employee of an organization recognized as a charitable, nonprofit, or nongovernmental organization in the country in which you are located. All registrations utilizing this discounted rate will be subject to verification.