The Salesforce World Tour is THE Salesforce event of the year for a lot of us. Whether you’re considering Salesforce for your business, an existing customer, or you make a living from the Salesforce ecosystem, it’s the one event of the year where we can all get together in one place (Dreamforce aside) and see what’s going on in the CRM world.

Despite the fact that over 15,000 registrants made the event last year, we’ve had several customers ask us what the event is about, and what to expect. Here’s our quick guide on what to expect based on our previous visits.

The Keynote

The keynote kicks off the day at 10am and sets the tone for the rest of the event. You can expect to hear from some industry leaders, see some fascinating product demos, and experience some dramatic entertainment. Salesforce will likely show off some of their key customers and their success stories, talk about new and upcoming features, and will more than likely contain some kind of demo (which may or may not go completely to plan!). If you’re going to the World Tour, do not miss the keynote. They’re always good.

Exhibition Hall

The exhibition hall will be filled with implementation partners, ISV partners, and other related companies. Salesforce will also control a large part of the floor with product specific screen where you can request a demo of any products that you’re interested in. When you’re not in sessions or at one of the theatres, it’s definitely worth taking a stroll around the exhibition hall and taking a look at all of the other products on show. If you’ve got a gap in your Salesforce strategy, there’s bound to be a product on the floor that can help.

There are LOTS of products on show, so it may be worth creating a shortlist of anything you’d like to see ahead of time. The full list of sponsors can be found here.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions run throughout the day and cover a wide range of topics. This is your chance to see what Pardot can do, find out about Einstein (the product, not the man), or get some more information on how GDPR will affect your business. The sessions are focused and informative. In fact, the main problem with the world tour is that there are too many good sessions, and not enough time.

Look at the agenda ahead of time and plan your day. Put the sessions you want to attend in your calendar, because you will get stuck speaking to a long lost colleague and forget all about that important session on Quip that you wanted to attend.

Admin & Dev Zones

These small corners of the exhibition floor are for “my people” – the developers and administrators in the Salesforce world, to share their knowledge and experience with other Salesforce experts. Get your wellies on, because you’re going to be up to your knees in Apex Code, Lightning, and Configuration Conundrums.

Swag (for about the first 30 minutes of the day)

The suppliers in the exhibition hall will be so desperate for your attention (and a scan of your badge) that they will revert to offering out cheap trinkets in exchange for listening to their elevator pitch or taking a demo. This isn’t a bad thing though, we like free stuff, right? Pickup all the freebies that you can.

Word of warning: as the hordes descend on the venue following the keynote, the annual swag shortage is sure to rear its head. Get out there early with your swag bag and get as many mini drones, fidget toys, USB sticks, headphones, and pens as you can physically carry.

We got caught out last year not wanting to carry items around all day, only to find that there were no more branded M&Ms or stress balls towards the end of the day. We’re not making the same mistake this year!

After Parties

The most important part of the world tour, right? Towards the end of the day, drinks will start to flow and it will be time to commit to one of the epic after parties.

There’s lots of choice, and if you’re a prospective customer then you can be expecting invites to private parties, booze cruises down the Thames, or a “quiet few” in one of the pubs or bars around the ExCel.

Seasoned veterans already know the deal – sign up for every event going, and then decide on the night where you want to go.

Most of the events do require signing up ahead of time, so now is the time to speak to your favourite “Salesforce people” to find out where the best parties are and how to get on the guest list.

That’s it, our very quick guide to what to expect at the World Tour. It’s an extremely busy day for everybody involved, so if you’d like to grab a coffee with someone on the Silver Softworks team (or something a bit stronger after the event), then make sure you get in touch.

See you there!