Dreamforce 2023 Call for Participation
Today, we launched the Dreamforce 2023 Call for Participation (CFP). From now until June 6, you can submit your architect session ideas through our call for participation portal.
For the Architect track at Dreamforce ’23, we will only be accepting theater session submissions through the CFP. We’ll have a variety of sessions for Architects at Dreamforce (and we’ll share more details on those in the future), but we want to fill our theater with your amazing ideas!
Theater sessions are 20 minutes long, so you should plan to present ideas that can be covered in a relatively short amount of time, like key considerations or best practices. A strong theater session will contain content that’s useful or meaningful, in a format that’s well-suited to the 20-minute time frame. Dreamforce is a jam-packed event, especially for architect attendees. We want to make the best use of your time, and we know that one of the most important skills an architect can have is the ability to make complex ideas clear. So send us your best theater talk ideas for sharing your insights and expertise with Dreamforce ’23 attendees.
What makes a good proposal?
When we looked at the data from our previous Architect track content at Dreamforce and TDX, we noticed a few key patterns related to content and structure that are common to successful sessions. A good session starts with a strong proposal that includes a title and abstract that clearly convey the potential value of the session to attendees.
We want all submissions for the Architect track to use our submission template. Our template brings together two forms of key best practices: content development and audience engagement. Using this template will allow our selection panel to focus more clearly on your content and ideas, and remove some of the uncertainty around submitting session ideas.
How to format your CFP submission
For your session title, we suggest using a format similar to the ones below. We’ve found that these formats make it easier for people to find sessions in Agenda Builder.
- Option 1: “Architect’s [Brief, Notes, Recap, Review, Summary] of [Topic]”
- Option 2: “[Topic] for Architects”
Note: Sessions are listed alphabetically. So, if you want your session to be among the first listed — and have a greater chance of being noticed by attendees — choose the first word of your title with this alphabetic ordering in mind. It seems many people don’t look past the first few letters of the alphabet when choosing what sessions to attend. (Be honest — you probably don’t either. :) )
Use the following template for your session abstract:
[Topic + reason it’s important]. Attendees will [key takeaways] and be able to [calls to action].
We want to see abstracts using this structure. This format will not only make it easier for us to understand your ideas more clearly, it will help potential attendees understand them as well.
All titles and abstracts will be limited to 60 and 200 characters, respectively. While the submission form itself may allow for longer abstract lengths, please keep your titles and abstracts within these limits when submitting.
Questions to ask yourself
Here are two questions you should ask yourself as you get started:
- What is my topic?
- Why is it worth a Dreamforce attendee’s time?
Once you have a good handle on those, take time to work through and define the following elements before you submit to the portal:
Topic name:
- Why is this topic important to business stakeholders? [The reason this is important]:
- What does an architect need to understand about this topic? [Your key takeaways]:
- What will architects in attendance learn from your talk? What will they be able to do after this session? [Your calls to action]:
Use the items above to brainstorm. Then edit your ideas down to a few clear, phrases for each element. If you’re having trouble doing that, you’re probably also going to struggle to convey your ideas clearly in a 20-minute session. Keep going until you can summarize your ideas in simple words. Then practice saying your words and phrases out loud. If they sound straightforward and conversational then you’re on the right track.
Topics we are most interested in
We’re looking for real world examples of how our tools like Salesforce Well-Architected and the Salesforce Diagram Framework are being used in the real world.
- If you’ve used the guidance or patterns and anti-patterns in the Well-Architected framework to design a solution or solve an architecture related issue at your organization, we’d love to hear about it!
- If you have diagrams share that show your organization’s approach to a business problem, we’d love to see those as well.
- We’d also love to hear stories about adopted new Salesforce features to create Trusted, Easy, or Adaptable solutions.
Sample CFP submissions
Here are some example submissions, using the title and abstract template we’d like you to use:
Example 1
Session Title: Architect’s Guide to Data Model Optimization
Abstract: An optimized data model will improve system performance and scalability. Attendees will learn about best practices to optimize their data models.
Example 2
Session Title: Diagramming for Architects
Abstract: Diagrams are an effective way to communicate complex technical concepts. Attendees will learn about diagramming best practices and be able to build and use diagrams to communicate effectively.
How to submit your session proposal to the CFP
The Dreamforce ’23 Call for Participation is open until 11:59pm Pacific Time on June 6th. Use the call for participation portal to submit your ideas. You’ll receive an update about the status of your submission in late July.
Resources
Troubleshooting
If you have any issues submitting your proposal, please reach out via email dreamforceregistration@salesforce.com
