How time flies—it’s been a week already since Dreamforce 2022 took over San Francisco’s Moscone Center to deliver a program packed with exciting keynotes, product launches, and exclusive announcements. And we had an exciting announcement ourselves…
Announcing ReSkill
We’re excited to announce the launch of our brand new talent offering, Revolent ReSkill, designed in collaboration with Salesforce. ReSkill offers Salesforce customers and Partners the opportunity to either reskill their employees from any non-Salesforce cloud stack across EMEA and USA or upskill their Salesforce employees, equipping them with advanced Salesforce certifications and crucial consultancy skills training. In just 10-12 weeks, they’ll have all the skills and knowledge to make an immediate impact on your projects as they return to work on-site. We are excited to play a key part in solving the skills shortage!
“It’s really exciting to see such a unique and valuable offering go to market in our ecosystem. The ability to upskill our ecosystem through Revolent empowers Salesforce partners and customers to build the advanced skills they need within their organization, while improving retention rates for their Salesforce professionals.”
– Don Lynch, SVP Worldwide Strategic Alliances at Salesforce
As experts in cloud talent creation, we took to stage at this year’s Dreamforce to discuss the current issues around finding and retaining Salesforce talent while sharing best practices on how to access the talent you need in this competitive market, without breaking the bank. Read on to discover our personal highlights and those of Salesforce professionals who attended in-person and remotely. Use the jump links below to go straight to the section that interests you most.
Revolent at Dreamforce 2022—our highlights
Through a series of stimulating panel talks, we discussed the state of the Salesforce talent gap, and what role we can play in solving it through our ReSkill and Talent Creation offerings. Here are some of our personal highlights.
From crisis to opportunity:
Leveraging net-new talent to grow the Salesforce ecosystem
How can Salesforce Partners and end-users leverage net-new talent to grow the ecosystem and solve their skills gap?
To get expert insights into this topic, we were joined by panelists from Salesforce and DXC in this fireside chat, moderated by our very own Curtis Brackett (SVP, Global Alliances & Channels at Tenth Revolution Group) at one of San Francisco’s most iconic landmarks, The House of Shields. Here are the key takeaways from this talk, which, we hope, will help you grow your Salesforce practice too—whether you’re a Partner or an end-user.
Michael Hammel
VP, Global Cloud Solution Alliances at Salesforce
“Salesforce is currently the second largest enterprise software company in the world today with expected revenue of $31B this year, and on the path to $50B over the next few years. According to the latest IDG report, the Salesforce ecosystem is creating more than 9.3 M new jobs by 2026 (next 3-4 years). Salesforce is seeing amazing growth across the entire C360 product portfolio and as a result, it is requiring more and more qualified implementation-ready consultants to deliver customer success. At Salesforce, we are a data-driven organization and have developed an implementation capacity model that is based on product revenue projections and implementation services ratios to indicate how many consultants we will need now and over the next 3 years by product and by country/region. Some of the fastest-growing products in our portfolio are our Marketing and Commerce Cloud offerings, followed by our Industry Cloud Solutions. This is why we are partnering with Revolent to become our first training partner to be able to provide instructor-led training for all of our Marketing Cloud solutions. Or as we like to say—a Full Stack Marketing Cloud training partner.”
Ashley Morris
Director of Salesforce Talent Alliance at Salesforce
“There is an incredible opportunity in the ecosystem right now, and Revolent is one of the most important players in that. Salesforce runs a lot of programs with a lot of incredible community partners, training up new talent—it really is a team sport. And the reason we’re so excited to work with Revolent is: one, from the scale perspective, both in terms of global reach and the numbers they’re able to bring in is really making a significant dent on the numbers we need to get. I think they’re really leading the charge in that capacity. Second, things like Revolent and PwC’s partnership with the Indigenous Tech Academy are the sorts of things that make us all get up and go to work in the morning. Yes, there is a tremendous business opportunity but there’s also a tremendous human opportunity to meaningfully and transformationally change individual careers, in some cases even communities. And thirdly, it’s the breadth of the products. We know that our Partners and customers will become more and more advanced, and the skill sets of talent they need is beyond Admin. I’ve loved seeing how, over the past few years, Revolent has started to look at where the capacity gaps are and where the talent demands are for Partners and customers.”
Kevin Sharp
General Manager, Salesforce Practice - DXC Technology
We were struggling with talent like everyone else was and so we started exploring as many different options as we could identify. We’ve been a Revolent customer for a bit over two years. What it’s given us is another value channel—we’re getting people in with 5-10 years of experience in the technology space, not necessarily in Salesforce, and we’re able to bring across this experience and their maturity, which really benefits the business. It gives us fresh perspectives and fresh ideas.
MuleSoft: Build digital skills to future-proof your company
Our dream-team Trey Roldan, CCO of Tenth Revolution Group and Ami Noble-Newton, Director of Learning and Development at Revolent, also took to stage to dicuss ways we can all think differently about skills, talent, and hiring. We shared our tips on creating programs that build diverse, inclusive, and regenerating technical skills in MuleSoft and across the wider Salesforce ecosystem.
Accelarate company growth through talent partnerships
As customer demand for Salesforce 360 grows, so does the need for skilled talent on your team. Kyle O’Brien, Director of APAC at Revolent was joined by PwC Indigenous Consulting, to share their success story of the Indigenous Tech Academy (ITA) to help young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds start amazing careers in Salesforce. The results of the ITA have been outstanding so far—not only is the ITA opening new doors to young adults, but it is also encouraging more women to launch careers in Salesforce, with 75% of ITA’s Salesforce consultants identifying as female.
IT Talks: Winning and retaining IT talent
Ami also represented Revolent at IT Talks, co-hosting 3 sessions with Hollie Suffield, Director of Partner Talent Programmes EMEA & LATAM at Salesforce, to discuss challenges and solutions to winning and retaining IT Talent.
Deepening Marketing & Commerce Cloud capabilities
Trey Roldan, CCO of Tenth Revolution group also had a great Session with Tracey Novotny (Salesforce) Lauren Noonan (EPAM) and Lauren Lourenco (Slalom) on building full-stack Marketing Cloud talent. Leading Marketing Cloud practices are building talent organically by leveraging tailored learning paths, with workforce development partners like Revolent are extending product capabilities and certifications.
Dreamforce 2022 insights from Salesforce professionals
We also reached out to Salesforce professionals from across the ecosystem to get their highlights from the Dreamforce 2022 in-person and remote experience.
Denise Carbone (attended in-person)
Sr. Delivery Manager at RafterOne
Chicago Admin Trailblazer, Community Co-Leader, and Salesforce MVP HoF.
What was it like being at Dreamforce in-person?
“The main keynote was titled The Great Reunion, and that’s what it felt like! It was great to see folks in real life again, it provided me the opportunity to reconnect and connect for the first time with some folks whom I’ve only talked with virtually!”
“This photo was taken at the Salesforce Tower on the last day of DF22. I am to the left of Sarah Franklin. I was invited to join a special event featuring Bret Taylor, Leah McGowen, Sarah, and other Salesforce leaders. The event was focused around the feedback that the leadership team collected via a roadshow tour they each took earlier in the year. This past April, we met with Bret Taylor in Chicago! Salesforce is encouraging collaboration amongst it’s existing Communities, this means Slack, Tableau, Mulesoft and Trailblazers will soon be more entwined. More to follow there….”
What talks did you particularly enjoy? What is your key takeaway from each?
“I enjoyed the main keynote, also the Net Zero Keynote: A New Day for the Environment. with Jane Goodall. & Bono sessions
The main keynote offers product announcements, I was excited to hear more about the enhancements with Slack and the new Genie!
Salesforce is focused on sustainability, it’s now included in their core values. This year, they did not offer backpacks, and something that I thought was interesting and leading by example was they did not offer almonds, beef, or pork for meals.
I also had the opportunity to sit in on Marc’s interview with Bono, “Art, Activism and “Surrender”, which is the title of his new book. I enjoyed hearing of his stories and philosophies on life, I am looking forward to reading it!”
What was the most exciting announcement at Dreamforce 2022?
“This is hard to answer, for me, I was really excited to hear about enhancements with Slack, since I am an end-user! DF22 was just upbeat overall. I came home optimistic that Salesforce continues to invest in the platform and ecosystem. They are leaders and continue to lead by example!”
Are there any talks you’d recommend catching on Salesforce+?
“True to the Core (TTTC) is always at the top of my list! I thought the Q&A was thoughtful, respectful, and honest. Also, I love that Salesforce has its own channel, looking forward to seeing what other content they develop there!”
Amanda Beard-Neilson (attended in-person)
Salesforce MVP, and a leader of the Salesforce London Admin Community Group
What was it like being at Dreamforce in-person?
“So good to be back. It was nicknamed the great family reunion and it totally felt that way. “
What talks did you particularly enjoy? What is your key takeaway from each?
“I had a busy schedule of my own with a mixture of three presentations and booth duty for Capgemini. I did manage to catch a few sessions though, namely the main keynote with the announcement of Genie, the new platform to manage new and legacy data and drive the next best actions and analytics from it. I also attended the Admin Keynote which is always good fun and informative, as they demo new release functionality, such as the dynamic pages and actions for mobile. “
What was the most exciting announcement at Dreamforce 2022?
“The big news for this year was the launch of Salesforce Genie, the new platform. Along with it came a new mascot too, Genie the rabbit. The most leftfield aspect of the launch was watching both co-CEOs Benioff and Bret Taylor sport bunny ears on stage as they spoke about the product!”
Are there any talks you’d recommend catching on Salesforce+?
“Of course, I have to mention the main keynote, for the bunny ears alone! But, they did take time at the beginning of the session to give thanks to Gemma Blezard for her contribution to the Architect track via the Ladies Be Architects initiative. I’d also recommend the Architect Keynote to learn more about their new feature, and build the future of Salesforce, well architected. I must also mention the Admin Keynote for their new feature demos.
Mark Laing (attended remotely)
Senior Salesforce Administrator for REA Group
Based in Brisbane, Australia, Mark has 25+ years as a tech professional and 3.5 years in the Salesforce ecosystem, where he’s acquired 4 Salesforce certifications so far. He attended Dreamforce 2022 remotely, and we caught up with him to find out what his experience was like.
How did the 2022 Salesforce+ experience of Dreamforce stack up against last year?
“Much bigger and better! This year saw Dreamforce get back to its pre-Covid scale. For me, there was too much quality content to view but luckily with Salesforce+ we can go back and watch it when we have the time.”
What are your top tips & tricks to replicate the Dreamforce experience when you're taking it remotely?
“I try to engage heavily on Twitter with friends, Salesforce employees, and others who are at the event in person. With the time difference in Australia, the live streams are VERY early and during work hours, so you must take this into account and focus on those sessions that are most exciting and important to you.”
What talks did you particularly enjoy? And what was the most exciting announcement at Dreamforce 2022?
“True to the Core and the Admin Keynote are always standouts and my favorites. Slack Keynote was also very good!
There were several sessions that are not yet available as recordings on Salesforce+. I went looking on the weekend for a few I have marked down to go back to. I may leave it for another week and then go back and watch several.
In terms of announcements, Salesforce Genie was the big one, but I’ll want to read more about it and see how it can help my company. Some of the takeaways from #TTTC were great, as were the continued enhancements to Flows.”
