Planning a Dreamforce Strategy

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Who has been? How have you engaged with customers before/during/after the event? I'd love to brainstorm with you all. This is our first time attending. At a high level, here is what I've been thinking about:

Tell all customers we will be there - tell them to stop by to get special, customer only swag
Find a customer with a cool product to give away to any prospect who will take a demo with us
Invite VIP customers to exec meetings, meals, etc
Invite customers with open expansion opportunities to talk to someone on site
Invite all customers to large events, eg happy hour
Identify strong customers as speakers
Showcase big brands in our marketing onsite
Ensure onsite team is equipped to talk about customers who use our integration

What else have you seen work well - or what has flopped? Thank you!

For reviews, I recommend having something available at your booth. You can either have it stand alone (as part of your booth display) for customers to interact with without necessarily needing to interact with your team. Think: introvert targeted conference activity. Or, you can have your team equipped with iPads, the links on their iPhones, or QR codes. When the interaction with your team is over, in closing they can mention a gift card in exchange for leaving their valuable feedback on your products/services. I'd recommend equipping your team with quick scripts to advertise the incentive. Maybe something along the lines of "we're offering Amazon gift cards so you can send a quick gift home to let your family know you're thinking of them even while away for work" or "we'd like to buy your lunch today," etc.

For testimonials, I've seen a few things work really well. It depends on your set up at the conference though! Some recommendations:

Book a hotel room for scheduled shoots with your top customers. Ask them for 30 mins of their time, offer to meet them at a convenient location like your booth, walk them to the room, and shoot a quick video. This should all be booked <i>ahead</i> of the conference and afforded the super white glove treatment.
Use a "man on the ground" approach, have someone available to shoot quick clips on the conference room floor. Equip your booth staff with a script for inviting customers with positive sentiment to share a few words about their experience. This can be done at a moment's notice, versus needing a booking ahead of time.
If there's an option for a meeting space on the conference floor, book quick slots throughout the day to correspond with customers who are already meeting with your teams.
If you're doing a customer event, have a videographer available to film parts of your event and capture quick comments from your attendees.

Overall, with testimonials, I recommend a mixture of product/services prompts mixed with general sentiment or thought leadership. Think questions about partnering with your company or participating in your company-run events. This keeps things a little lower pressure for your advocates (they don't have to dive so deep into selection, implementation, use cases, etc.) while also giving you some content to help advertise the experience you create for future conferences or events.

Hope that helps!

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Planning a Dreamforce Strategy