Don’t Hesitate to Braindate!

Why ‘braindating’ at Dreamforce is invaluable for Salesforce partners, and how to get involved at #DF17

I admit that I was a bit skeptical when I got the invitation to this “Braindating” thing prior to Dreamforce last year. I had encountered event networking technologies in the past, and had never had much success with them. However, I’m an optimistic and adventurous guy so I decided to sign up and fill out my profile and see what happened.

I didn’t really put too much effort into my profile or sending out Braindate invites, and I had pretty limited availability on my schedule. I decided to just wait and see if anything came of it. Much to my surprise, I shortly received plenty of high-quality requests for meetings from people in the Salesforce ecosystem that I had never met before, and they had a list of really interesting topics to discuss!

Still, I had low expectations for what value these “brain dates” would have, and checked into the #DF16 Braindating Lounge for my first few meetings with a great deal of curiosity as to how it would turn out.

I ended up being very pleasantly surprised at the caliber of people I met, and the very useful things I learned. I met several founders of successful Salesforce ecosystem startups, key members of the Salesforce Partner Program team, and lots of other interesting people. Many of these relationships have continued to be productive since those original “brain dates” last year.

Braindating at #DF17: be proactive

My positive experience with Braindating at Dreamforce inspired me to try a similar networking technology at another technology conference earlier this year, and once again, I was very pleasantly surprised at how effective it was. I think this digital acceleration of good-old-fashioned-networking has finally achieved critical mass for significantly enhancing event experiences.

This year I’ve taken a more proactive approach to Braindating, and have another round of interesting and horizon-broadening meetings starting to line up. I am really impressed with the number of meetings that the Salesforce Partner Program team is offering, and there are LOTS of great topics offered for discussion!

It’s great to see both the Consulting Partner Practice Development and AppExchange ISV Technical Evangelism teams so heavily engaged through this platform. If you’re looking for an easy way to expand your network and gain a strategic advantage in the Salesforce ecosystem, this is one of the best ways to do it.

Hope to see you in the Braindating Lounge at #DF17!

Heading to Dreamforce ’17 as a Salesforce partner? Build your Braindating profile now to start connecting with peers and leaders in the Salesforce ecosystem on the topics of your choice.