Dreamforce 2017: The Holiday That Keeps On Giving

I just flew back home from Chicago, and boy are my arms tired (Sorry; I had to…).

But not as tired as my voice, because before a welcome Thanksgiving week with family, I had a great Dreamforce 2017 week with my contact center family and friends. And while I hope you’ve had some time to breathe after quite a whirlwind month, the fun never ends!

After all, between customer visits planned for December, sprint grooming sessions with the product teams, and roadmap reviews with prospects, Dreamforce 2017 is the Holiday that keeps on giving. Here are some of my highlights from my time at Dreamforce this year:

1. Booth Highlight

This was my favorite Dreamforce out of the 10+ I’ve attended, and it had little to do with the amazing sessions, keynotes, and surrounding events. So, why was this year so impactful?

Job #1 of our product is empowering the right human being to engage another human being in a meaningful way – whether assisted by AI, by machine learning, or simply person-to-person on the phone. The common thread is embracing the human connection to unleash our customers’ business values on the market – and that’s what events like Dreamforce allow us to do.

By investing my time meeting with prospects, customers, analysts, and Salesforce family, I directly heard the needs and desires from the omnichannel frontline. For example, I had the honor of hosting a non-profit customer whose mission is to help and even save Veterans’ lives. I also had the honor of showcasing our differentiation to the people behind some of the worlds’ most innovative contact centers.

Between the hard questions, honest answers, and hearty handshakes, my sore voice suggests that we earned their confidence – and we work hard to continue to earn it.

2. Demo Jam Highlight

The Demo Jam is a great venue to showcase what you mean to your customers, doing it in a fun, vibrant game show format.

So I could regale you with a rousing story of the omnichannel contact center powered by Five9, Salesforce Lightning Experience, and Einstein. I could tell you that we hit the stage hard, wowed the audience, and balloons fell from the rafters. I could tell you that once again, our omnichannel superhero swooped in and saved the world for smarter customer engagement.

In reality, most of that happened, except for the balloons. However, on our way out of the Trailhead Zone, we ran into one of our friends who, smelling small-town Iowa under my fingernails, just wanted to say hi.

3. Partner Meeting Highlight

With over 200,000 attendees, Dreamforce is obviously a busy event. This is many thanks to the hard work Salesforce does to build an ecosystem of partners who themselves work hard to provide complementary solutions and services to the market.

Sitting down on the last day in a partner advisory board, I couldn’t help but look around the room. There we were, surrounded by competitors and potential competitors. Surrounded by joint partners. Surrounded by adversaries and friends alike, both new and old. 

Except “surrounded” isn’t really the right word.

In Five9’s world, competition is a great thing. A vibrant market means our company is taking on the right challenge for our customers, employees, and shareholders. A vibrant market means we are up to the challenge of driving better service and sales experiences through enterprise-grade global contact centers.

A vibrant market means an ever-more vibrant world of business, coopetition, and competition, with a common aim – customer success.

And in earning that customer success, we create a vibrant world full of omnichannel superheroes (maybe one of whom could fly to Chicago and back with no sweat…).

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