Community Dreamin’- A Recap of Midwest Dreamin’ & WITness Success

Jul 27

Individuals from all over the world collaborated, learned, networked, and were inspired for four days last week at the Midwest Dreamin and WITness Success Conferences in Minneapolis, MN.

These conferences were filled with inspiration, information, and an incredible sense of community. We met many amazing people and learned from the best in the ecosystem. Everyone was welcoming and helpful from the speakers, sponsors, and volunteers–the true #Ohana spirit.

Community is built in real life with people helping people- Justin Barss

Justin Maguire, EVP & Chief Design Officer at Salesforce, led the Midwest Dreamin opening keynote, highlighting the critical role design plays in your Salesforce implementation.

Nick Hamm with 10K Advisors provided a recap on the latest trends impacting the Salesforce ecosystem from customers to partners and independent consultants as we look ahead to 2023.

Midwest Dreamin packed tailored sessions for Admins, Developers, Architects, Marketers, and many more. There were so many excellent sessions, and we couldn’t attend them all, but here are a few highlights:

Embracing a Permission Set Led Security Model: Louise Lockie led a session on the recent changes and why a permission set-led approach is the right path.

Three Questions to Create Your Perfect Salesforce Career Plan: In this hands-on session, Tara Walton and Sheala Vast-Binder challenged attendees to think deeply about what they truly want out of their Salesforce career, with three questions: 1. Who are you? 2. Where do you want to go? 3. What can you do to make your dreams a reality? In addition, they highlighted the importance of niching down and focusing instead of getting every cert and applying for any position you come across.

10 Dashboard Design Principles & Best Practices for CRM Analytics: Jason Hoult shared essential principles to optimize your CRM Analytics dashboards for insights to drive growth and productivity for the business.

There were many more sessions at Midwest Dreamin, and we couldn’t possibly cover all the sessions here all.

They wrapped up with the incredible Welcome to the Edge keynote by Peter Coffee, VP of strategic research at Salesforce, giving us three views of living on the edge: as interface, as transition, and as a competitive advantage.

As Midwest Dreamin came to a close, WITness Success kicked off.

On the first day, we saw a Productivity Bootcamp, RAD Circles of Success, User Adoption – Make Training a Priority, Consequence Scanning for Better Outcomes, Delivering Salesforce Success, tips for getting things done, and a panel on communicating with confidence and authenticity.

And if that was not enough for the first day, the much anticipated Allies Dinner included a powerhouse of panelists who shared the impact Allies and Advocates have had on their Salesforce journey.

The panel included Melissa Hill Dees, Guilda Hilaire, Stephanie Herrera, Jeanne Moeller, Jenh Vo, and Gina Marques, moderated by Nick Hamm. There was not a dry eye in the audience as they heard the stories of how the Advocates and Allies changed the lives of these panelists.

Leverage your contacts.. If you are not being validated where you work, leave- Stephanie Herrera

So much content and inspiration filled the first day of WITness that it was hard to believe that day two was yet to come.

Day two started with a keynote from organizers Melinda Smith and Pallavi Agarwal, touching on what this event has meant to them and its importance in this community. The Shine Theory inspired this year’s theme of shining light, a practice of mutual investment in each other where the goal is to lift and help each other succeed, and this community did not disappoint. So let’s highlight a few:

You’re Amazing, and People Need to Know: How to Become Your Own Best Advocate: In this session, Lauren Dunne Bolopue shared how she started advocating for herself, showing off her brilliance, how it paid off and how others can do the same.

How I manage relationships with bipolar disorder: In this inspiring session, Katie Villanueva shared her journey navigating bipolar disorder and the relationships around her. She talked about CRMs: Courage, Respect, and Mindfulness.

Rearranging Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Women in Tech: In this session, Bree Maddox and Christian Ohonba highlighted the importance of creating an environment to equip women (predominantly black and women of color) to thrive in technology. In addition, they discussed the ways that company, consumer, and employee diversity impact technology.

If you see a #diversity issue at work, don’t call that person OUT. Call them IN and have the conversation- Bree Maddox

These are just a few of the sessions from day two. We also heard about consulting the good, the bad, and the ugly, we learned about hiring veterans, igniting your power, women in architecture, heard from a powerhouse mother-daughter duo, and many more.

We met many amazing people, had insightful conversations, and learned lessons. The speakers truly inspired us. The topics covered and the connections we made with other attendees were priceless. Midwest Dreamin’ and WITness are two conferences that we can’t recommend enough.