Don’t look now, but Dreamforce ‘18 is right around the corner — and with it comes the opportunity to present in front of thousands of people, establishing you and your company as a thought leader in the industry. And to sweeten the pot, if you’re selected to speak at DF18, you’ll receive a complimentary full conference pass as well!

This year, Salesforce is offering three options for submitting full presentations and one for nominating speakers. You can find them all on this simplified submission landing page, but we’ll also break them down in more detail here along with tips on completing the submission forms. Note — there is a bit of confusion on when the deadlines for each option are. This Salesforce page states that all submissions must be in by July 20th, but different deadlines are listed on a few of the individual landing pages and can be found in the sections below.

The sessions are still divided into two lengths: 20 and 40 minutes.

The shorter theater sessions are ideal for speakers that:

  • showcase a tip or trick 
  • tell a fantastic customer success story
  • spotlight a specific feature and use case
  • have a killer demo
  • feature cross Cloud solutions to solve challenges

The longer breakout sessions are ideal for speakers that:

  • have a juicy story to tell and a love for sharing knowledge with the ecosystem
  • help solve common challenges
  • provide clear successful use cases, best practices, teachings and how-to’s
  • go deep on how your company is using Salesforce including the roll-out
  • highlight the ROI and additional benefits your company and team has seen since implementing Salesforce

Presentation and Speaking Options

Partner Lodge

Because CodeScience has had the honor of presenting each year in the Partner Lodge, we may be biased when we say this is one of the most fun and educational parts of Dreamforce. The Partner Lodge is located at the Park Central Hotel and is an oasis for partners with breakout sessions, catering, live feeds of Dreamforce keynotes, and direct access to the Salesforce ISV team.

If selected to present in a Partner session, you could be added as a speaker to:

  • an existing session based on your expertise (product, industry, role)
  • an existing session to provide a custom demo
  • an existing session to answer questions at the end
  • a custom session
  • a panel session
  • a Partner Meetup (networking session)

Salesforce doesn’t list a deadline for this option, so you can assume it is the overall July 20th deadline.

Admin/Developer

The Dreamforce Admin/Developer call for presentations will remain open until July 15, with the goal of having all acceptances out by August 4. Salesforce is looking for product experts to share advanced content that helps their Admins and Developers become highly skilled on the platform. Some ideas for sessions that Dreamforce provided are:

  • Build Lightning Components with Salesforce DX
  • Advanced Lightning Components
  • How to Build a Lighting App from Start to End
  • A Beginner’s Guide to Lightning Components
  • The Admin’s Guide to the Developer Console
  • Change Management for Admins
  • Process Automation: Actions, Process Builder, or Lightning Flow?

If you have a great idea that is not on this list, don’t fret — this list isn’t exhaustive and you can still submit it for either a 20-minute theater or 40-minute breakout session.

In addition to the session abstract, you’ll want to include the skill level of your content, the Salesforce products you’ll cover, and the major content themes.

General Call for Speakers

For this session, you are able to nominate either yourself or another person to speak. When nominating, you are required to specify at least one role, theme, industry, and product that will be covered, along with the basic application information that will be broken down later in this blog.

Again, the deadline for submission is July 20th.

Salesforce.org

Presentations for Salesforce.org sessions are are divided into Education and Nonprofit tracks this year, with the longer breakout sessions often featuring two organizations sharing the time. Be sure to identify which track you would like to present on in your proposal. The call for presentations will be open until July 16, and decisions will be known by August 13.

Topics for this session can vary greatly, ranging from tips, tricks, and best practices on the platform to honing in on a single Salesforce use case or solution, such as program management.

Tips for Completing the Speaker Submission Form

The online submission forms are where you demonstrate why you would be a great presenter or speaker and give some information on your topic. All four options require you to apply, and they each have similar requirements for information needed. Before you fill it out, take some time to gather your thoughts and nail down key points. Better your chances by outlining:

  • your talking points – fueled by why an attendee should give your their time
  • the problems you are solving
  • your top messages, ranked in importance
  • your story’s audience (target personas and/or industries)
  • the essential take-away or action item the attendee walks away with
  • a catchy session title

One of the most important parts of the submission process is the abstract. This is where you concisely — but compellingly — state what attendees will learn and why they should attend the session. Take your time on this because if you are selected, the abstract will be published in the event guide and the mobile app.

The other pieces of information needed, such as Salesforce Products and Content Themes covered, prior speaking experience, or what track your presentation is on are all fairly straightforward. Be sure that you are not just pitching your own product or service — this is the top reason proposals are not accepted.


Speaking at Dreamforce can give you a fantastic boost both personally and professionally. If you think strategically about your session submission and make the trends of today work for you, you’ll have a great presentation and the chance to establish credibility.

Need help building out a new feature or getting a demo ready for DF18? We’ve developed over 220+ apps on the AppExchange and can help you get to the finish line, fast. Contact us today!