The Developer Track at Dreamforce 2023 is the platform for developers to deliver engaging, cutting-edge, and actionable content that can help other developers elevate their careers and drive success for their businesses. Today, the Dreamforce ’23 Call for Participation is officially open!

The Dreamforce Call for Participation will remain open until Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. PT. We will inform all submitters of their acceptance status in June.

Why should YOU present at Dreamforce?

I often have conversations with developers who have impressive skills and ideas, but are afraid of presenting. They tell me things like, “I am not good enough,” or “My ideas won’t be of interest to others,” or “Only super experienced Salesforce development experts can present great content.” However, in most cases, these are misconceptions.

During those conversations, I usually say, “Tell me about a project you’ve been involved in. How did you solve the challenges you faced? What did you learn from that experience? Which tools did your team build or incorporate, and which processes did you establish to help you succeed faster in future projects?” And I always get great responses — insights that other developers would love to know and benefit from.

Because of this, I would like to encourage you not to be afraid! If you are passionate about Salesforce development technologies, and you have ideas to share, be sure to submit them. Other developers are looking forward to learning from you, and we’ll give you guidance and tools to deliver a successful presentation.

What’s the difference between the session types?

Breakout sessions are held in dedicated session rooms with around 100+ seats. Breakout sessions are in 40-minute blocks, which gives you enough time to dive deep into a topic. The format also allows audience members to engage with you and ask questions. We recommend that you plan 30 minutes for your presentation, leaving the last 10 minutes for questions and discussion.

Theater sessions are held in theaters, and are in 20-minute blocks. Dreamforce attendees are able to walk up and listen to your session or take a seat (around 80+ seats available). As theater sessions are shorter in length, a strong format is to have actionable items for developers to learn in a short time period, such as doing a narrow deep dive. This format means that there isn’t time for questions and discussion, however, speakers can meet with audience members after their presentation.

Session proposal submission process

First, let’s start with the Session Title. It should be something that will be of interest to Salesforce Developers, and you should word it in a way that makes it very clear to those attendees what you’ll be covering (in no more than 60 characters). Remember, there are many content options at Dreamforce, so you’ll want your topic to be very clear.

The Session Abstract field is where you’ll write a short paragraph (in no more than 200 characters) to quickly tell us what you’re going to talk about. Be creative! Don’t just explain your slide deck, but share your ideas for interacting with the audience. What are you going to build/demo? What discussion will you lead? What will your audience take home with them and share with their teams? Address the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) benefits. Remember, this will eventually be published in the Dreamforce guide, and it will be the public-facing view of what your talk is about. It should be compelling and clearly communicate what attendees can expect to learn from your session. You’ll have an extra Why Should this Session be Presented 500-character field to further explain your abstract.

To fill the Developer track with amazing content, we only review completed Session Proposals. These are submissions that include both a topic and speakers for a session. We will not be reviewing speaker nominations for the Developer track.

The Who is Your Primary Audience field is a single-select field, so to be considered for the Developer track, please choose “Developer.”

The Developer track at Dreamforce gets several hundred proposals to fill a much smaller number of speaking spots. In fact, for a typical Dreamforce event, we get around 1,000 submissions for only a few hundred slots, so the competition is fierce. Therefore, as you create your session title and abstract, think about how you can make yours stand out from the rest (and get chosen!) as it makes its way through the session review.

If you have more than one topic that you’d like to propose, please complete the submission process again for each topic.

What kind of sessions are we looking for?

We’re looking for fun, engaging sessions that provide actionable content that helps Salesforce developers build their skills, elevate their careers, and deliver innovative technology solutions for their companies.

Here are some ideas for sessions we’d like to see:

1. Speak on a topic that you’re passionate about. This could be about a specific feature, a solution that you loved, or something you feel strongly about that is supported by your personal experience. The first step in getting your audience to love listening to you is for you to love what you are saying.
2. Strongly consider the takeaways and lessons that your audience will gain by listening to your talk. Their time is valuable and they will have chosen to spend some of their Dreamforce agenda with you. Be sure these things are highlighted in your abstract.
3. Have you gained experience in new features or products that were only recently released? If you’ve had access to a pilot or beta regarding the Salesforce Platform, then you may be in a position to give a unique insight on upcoming features and changes. Or, if you are an early adopter of some of the recent updates to the platform, others might be able to learn from your experience.
4. Do you have a clever technical solution that might apply to a wide audience? Answer that carefully, because a solution you provided for a specific problem might not be generic enough to have mass appeal.

This list is by no means exhaustive — if you have a great session proposal that we haven’t mentioned, we’d love to hear about it!

If you want more tips to level up your content creation, audience building, and presentation skills, check the Public Speaking Skills Trailhead module.

What happens next?

Your session proposal will be reviewed by our core team, and selections will be made to ensure that we have the best mix of valuable content for developers of all experience levels. We will notify you whether or not your session has been accepted in June.

If your session is accepted, you will be connected with a session owner to guide you through the preparation process, which includes feedback on your content and practice sessions. You will also receive a speaker pass to attend Dreamforce 2023. If you’ve already registered to attend, you’ll get instructions on how to either refund that registration or transfer it to someone else.

If your session is not accepted, there are other events, including community conferences and developer groups that may be interested in having you present your content!

Ready to submit your developer presentation idea for Dreamforce 2023? Complete the submission process by June 6, 2023 to be considered. We look forward to hearing your great ideas!

About the author

Alba Rivas works as a Principal Developer Advocate at Salesforce. She currently focuses on Lightning Web Components and Slack development. You can follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.