Dreamforce

If you have not experienced dreamforce yet, do yourself a favor and attend.  The conference is held yearly in San Francisco, CA and runs for four full days and is huge. Around 100,000 Salesforce.com fans from all over the globe descend upon San Francisco, including end users, developers, partners, non-profits, and others.

The conference has valuable keynote presentations by well-known CEOs from multiple different companies, including Marc Benioff himself.  Many different training tracks are offered from end user to developer and more. There is so much to do and the networking is incredible.  When the sun goes down the fun just gets started with many companies throwing parties and offering free food, drinks, and more.  Every year there is a concert that supports a charity with well-known performers like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Bruno Mars.

I have attended many times and can say it is easily one of the best ways to network and gain valuable Salesforce training that would cost you thousands of dollars normally.  Make sure you drop by the Developer Zone and get all kinds of free books and don't forget to grab as much free awesome swag as you can.  Every year you are provided with a new branded backpack and when you are walking the streets of San Francisco you will literally see hundreds of attendees with the same pack.

I would recommend you setup your schedule before you attend and know each and every day what keynote, session, or event you plan on attending.  Dreamforce has their own app you can download to your phone or tablet and the schedule is provided well in advance so you can plan out your schedule. Make sure you book your hotel very early, a lot of rooms are taken even a year in advance.  Since your gonna be in San Francisco don't forget to plan to visit a few local sights and events.

Please feel free to share your own dreamforce experiences or helpful tips.