For the past 11 years, CodeScience has brought over 250 commercial applications to the AppExchange and watched Salesforce grow into the powerhouse it is today. Every year, our Dreamforce experience yields more opportunities.

Join us as we share some of our favorite moments with you.

Tuesday

There is nothing like the first day of Dreamforce. With a palpable buzz in the air, we saw thousands of people flocking to the city to learn, explore, and share this experience with others who are just as passionate about the Salesforce ecosystem.

We opened Day 1 by attending the Opening Keynote if you missed it, you can check out the recording here. Here were some of our favorite moments:

This year’s Dreamforce had an all-star cast of speakers and presenters

A look at the Salesforce economy and its global impact

Salesforce joining in on the Sustainable Development Goals

The Release of Trailhead GO

Latest stats and impacts of Salesforce

A surprise appearance of Alicia Keys

And much more

Day 1 also included a release of our 3rd Annual State of AppExchange Partners Report as well as a Partner Panel with our friends from Geneia, Twilio, and Sparta Systems.

Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for a recap of this session, but here are a few key insights:

  • The AppExchange has entered into a Prime stage: Stretch goals are set, aligned, and constantly achieved; an enterprise-wide focus on customers and earning their long-term satisfaction; and enjoy consistent, above average growth in both sales and profits.
  • Business motivators like access to the install base and gateway to the enterprise have overtaken platform motivators like Security and Scalability for Partners when it comes to joining the AppExchange.
  • 95% of ISVs report they expect to see revenues increase in the coming year.

Additionally, as our Partner Panel was happening, Salesforce MVP and CodeScience Technical Architect, Mohith Shrivastava, shared his insights on becoming a Rockstar Admin and what it takes to stay forefront of Salesforce innovation.

As our sessions wrapped, we made our way over to the AppExchange Partner Keynote. You can check out our recap of the session here! We, once again, want to give a major thank you to Woodson Martin, EVP and GM of the AppExchange at Salesforce, for featuring our State of AppExchange Report in the keynote as well as showcasing the entire PDO community.

Wednesday

Wednesday was another full day of learning and fun as we anticipated seeing Beck and Fleetwood Mac at this year’s Dreamfest.

We kicked off our morning with a session learning about the future of the AppExchange with some Salesforce all-stars.

This session reiterated some of the highlights from the AppExchange Partner keynote, and the team reiterated that over the coming months, more details about changes to the Partner program would become available. Once quote that stood out to us was from Mike Wolff when talking about the goal of the AppExchange, “Bringing the solutions that Partners need when they need it.” Enhancements to the platform will continue to bring better context and solutions to meet Partners’ needs.

Next, we headed into the Platform Keynote, where we were able to get up close and personal with some of the Salesforce mascots.

The theme for the Platform keynote was digital transformation. We heard stories of how Caesars Entertainment and Arizona State University leveraged the new Salesforce Customer 360 platform to implement digital transformation.

You can watch it in full here.

Our CRO, Sean Hogan, was joined by Salesforce Build ISV VP, Doug Chaney, to discuss AppExchange monetization strategies. Here were some key takeaways

  • You don’t have to use per user/per month as your business model, but to get it approved by Salesforce, you must make sure must define a unit of measure and ensure it is an auditable, repeatable process.
  • If you want to change your model, you need to have a deep understanding of your various agreements with Salesforce.
  • Don’t forget about your sales team! If you want to sell effectively, make sure that your model is set up to encourage sales to sell.
  • The partner agreement has a standardized process, and if you bring in counsel who isn’t familiar with the process, it will slow you down.

This year’s Dreamfest brought together Beck and Fleetwood Mac!

We had a great time rocking out, and on top of that, $11 Million was raised at the concert this year alone.

Thursday

We started our morning waiting in line for the Featured Keynote with President Barack Obama. We lined up two hours early and were lucky enough to grab a spot in line before they closed down the line 30 minutes later.

Unfortunately, no photos or video were allowed in this session. However, I think this post from Rosalie Chan of Business Insider captures the highlights nicely.

After the keynote, we had a busy afternoon with all our speakers. With two Circles of Success happening simultaneously as well as a session with our friends at Optimizely, CodeScience filled the lunch hour with many great ISVs.

Thursday also marked the end of the Demo Jam sessions, and winners were announced. It is a major achievement to selected by the community.

Thursday also happens to be our favorite day of Dreamforce, because it is when we host our party! This year’s theme was Give Thanks. In honor of Dreamforce falling the week before Thanksgiving, we invited Salesforce and Partners to join us for fun and celebration of the year we had.

We had costumes, a wall to write what you’re thankful for, live music, and so much fun. Here are a couple more shots from the evening.

And with that, our Dreamforce ‘19 drew to a close. As some of us made our way to the airport, we were already talking about what comes next for DF20!

Where are we off to next? You can find us at the New York World Tour in a few weeks!

Also, be sure to check out our 3rd Annual State of AppExchange Partners Report to see how your company is benchmarking with industry performance as well as key insights into the strategies partners have adopted to succeed.

If you want to chat about your opportunity on the AppExchange, drop us a line! It is our mission to help partners thrive on the AppExchange.

About the Author: Jacob Rouser
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