Dreamforce is around the corner, and while the prestige is permeating the tech community, I realized I know very little about what to actually expect. When I ask many of the Bluewolf Consultants I work with about it, the general consensus is sheer excitement, but many people still don't fully know what it is about, what to expect or what they hope to glean from it.

This year will be my first year at Dreamforce, so I found myself at a loss for words when asked by developers and other techies for suggestions on which events and sessions to keep an eye out for. Ipso facto, I put on my detective hat and chased down Jesse Endo, our Director of Innovation at Bluewolf and a Dreamforce veteran, for insider picks. Here is what I uncovered:

• Product Roadmaps: New Initiatives from every corner will cover things like Analytics, Chatter, Admin tools, Advanced App Lifecycle Management on Force.com, Code Talk around Apex, Customer Support with Desk.com, Social Media Strategy, Mobile (SDK), Data.com, etc.
• Behind-the-Scenes Sessions: Curious about the inner workings of Salesforce? Check out these sessions:
  • Force.com Platform: with Force.com’s CTO, Walter Macklem
  • Advanced Asynchronous Apex
  • Behind the Code: Building the Dreamforce Mobile App: Join the teams from salesforce.com and Bluewolf in a behind-the-scenes look at the process of building this year’s Dreamforce mobile app.
  • Community Keynote: a peek at social media strategy
  • How We Built Touch: Q&A for the Mobile Product Teams at Salesforce
  • Lifecycle of a Salesforce Bug
• Meet the Developers Session: This is a Q&A panel that includes the architects and developers who built Force.com, Database.com and Heroku platforms.
• Hackathon: goes throughout the entire conference!
• Developer Zone 'Unconference': this is a unique opportunity to suggest, select and actually deliver the content of your choice. It is a great way to give back to your community and truly take a social, collaborative approach to topics YOU are interested in. Right now the #1 topic is "How to Add an Instant Back End to Your Mobile App".
• Developer Workshops:
  • Create an App and Database (Clicks not Code)
  • Customize a User Interface (Clicks not Code)
  • Add App Logic (Clicks not Code)
  • Code Custom App Logic with Apex (SOQL and SOSL)
  • Custom UI with Visual Force (MVC simplified!)
  • Integrate Systems with Force.com API’s
  • Go Web with Site.com: static and dynamic data-driven websites
  • Go Mobile with Mobile SDK: build apps with HTML5, JavaScript/jQuery and REST APIs
  • Go Social with Chatter
  • Secure your System
• Code Consultations: you can get help architecting or coding your application from a Force.com, Heroku or Database.com expert... you can also access a Developer Skill Assessment.

So... for those of you DF Veterans, what are your thoughts on Jesse's picks? Did he leave any good ones out? Did any of these put you to sleep last year? We'd love your feedback!

Bluewolf-Hosted Tech Meetup!
Join us on September 17th at Bluewolf’s very own exclusive Dreamforce Tech Meetup and have the chance to meet Bluewolf cloud experts and network with all the techies in town for Dreamforce. Interested in attending? Email events@bluewolf.com to get an exclusive invitation.

We hope to see all of our consultants (past, present and future) at our Dreamforce booth #811. If you haven’t bought your ticket, get a discount now!

–Bluewolf Consultant Relations Team