As a San Franciscan working in the nonprofit Salesforce ecosystem, there are two big events each year that vie for my attention: Dreamforce and Burning Man. Some years they overlap, whereas other years they take place one right after the other. (If you’ve ever attended either, you can just imagine going to both, back-to-back!)

After attending both events many times, the years start to blur together: was that the year that Metallica played Moscone South? Or was that the year Daft Punk played at the trash fence? There were definitely people handing out tequila shots that year and asking me to sign up for an obscure “service” that I probably didn’t need. Then there was the memorable art at both events. Where was it that I saw those giant inflatable forest creatures? I’m pretty sure I did see them! There’s oontz-oontz music everywhere, and a pretty good chance you’ll be screeching Bruce Springsteen songs at 1am with your best buddies, some of whom were strangers only a few hours earlier.

No matter which event you attend, you will learn more than you thought possible and expand your horizons in the process. Skills you thought were useless will suddenly be in demand. Your ability to manipulate digital systems will enthrall everyone around you.

I don’t know if I can call myself a veteran(1) of either event, but I do feel like I have sufficient experience to offer advice to those who are lucky enough to be repeat offenders attendees. So, for those of you coming to the City by the Bay for the biggest annual technology brain-melting love-fest extravaganza–I’m talking about Dreamforce–here’s a list of advice from someone who has your *best* interests at heart.

1. Do the Expo the right way.
   • You have to do the Expo. I mostly just float around the Expo and look for old friends and acquaintances. Like everything in life, your network is your power. Rekindle old relationships with anyone and everyone you recognize. Catch up on what they’re doing. With a year or more between seeing these people, you never know where they might be now; a lot can change in a year. Think of the Expo not as a vendor demonstration hall, but as a giant networking event.
   • Tchotchkes: Don’t just grab anything in sight. Be thoughtful about which tchotchkes you take, so that they don’t end up in the landfill the week after Dreamforce. C’mon folks, be green and only take items that are actually of use to you.
2. Make a list for the Expo ahead of time.
   • If you really must get software demos, make a list ahead of time of the kinds of things you want to see. Interested in document merge capability? Then write that down, do some research on which companies you’d like to talk with, and then talk to those people. You can ignore all the other stuff that isn’t on your list until you have open blocks of time that aren’t scheduled. Unless of course they’re doing a Segway raffle, in which case: YES, SIGN UP FOR THE RAFFLE, YOU FOOL. (Note: Entering a raffle is different from grabbing another bobblehead.)
3. Pace yourself.
   • Think of Dreamforce as an Ironman Triathlon that takes place over four days. The first day is literally just diving in and swimming several miles while everyone else is kicking and punching you, trying to make space in a sea of people all wearing the same thing and going to exactly the same place. Do you like getting punched? No? Then remember you can do the Expo any time. Wait until Thursday when the crowds have died down, the booth people are desperate for someone to talk to, and you just don’t have it in you to attend another email marketing automation session.
   • On day 3, remember that you still have to get on the bike and ride 112 miles. Now, I’m not saying you have to be at peak performance, but if you can’t make it out of bed and your first thoughts at 10:45 am on Thursday are: “Water! I need water. Am I on booth duty? Where am I? Why is someone holding my head in a vise?”, then you may want to dial it back on the evening festivities because you still have a triathlon to finish.
   • Those carts that Salesforce rolls out into the Expo at, like, 4 pm with free booze? Caution, my friend. I’m not saying you shouldn’t partake, but just remember to pace yourself as you still have some meetings ahead, probably a big dinner with coworkers and clients, and possibly some Springsteen karaoke to take care of at the end of the evening. MAKE SURE YOU CAN MAKE IT TO KARAOKE. That’s all I’m sayin’.
4. Take the bus to the concert.
   • Seriously. Uber and Lyft will be buried in requests. Be smart and take the provided free transit. Bonus: you will meet people on the bus, and they just might be as cool as you! It’ll be just like riding an art car from 8:45 and D across to Frozen Oasis at 3:15 and Esplanade with some dude in the back passed out from too much Purple Drank. Not sure what that means? Ask a Burner.
5. Leave space.
   • Your first instinct is to sign up for everything. They give you that book that lists all the cool stuff going on and you just want to do EVERYTHING in it!
   • Resist the temptation to do all the things. Seriously. Leave some space. Do a LOT of things, but save some time to roam the halls and meet people. Or grab a couch and relax for a few minutes. You never know who might sit down next to you. You can always get back up and attend that email marketing automation session that you’ve been dreaming about.
6. Learn. But enjoy. But also: LEARN.
   • Developer Zone.
     • Your organization made an investment when they paid for your Dreamforce registration.  Make the most of this investment by checking out the Developer Zone. Even if you’re not a developer, talk to the folks there. You might learn something, or even discover a passion you didn’t know you had. APEX code might be intimidating, but, like learning any language, it just takes practice and patience.
   • Peer Learning
     • Remember when I mentioned that you should just float around the hallways and talk to people? Yeah, well, when you do talk to new people who do the kinds of things you do try to trade ideas, tips, and tricks.
     • Have you ever shown your Salesforce instance to someone outside of your organization? I know, it’s feels like walking around naked (side note: not recommended at Dreamforce), but showing each other your instances can be really mind-opening.
7. Divide and conquer, but also regroup and share.
   • Send people from your organization to all sorts of different sessions, and then make time to come together to share what you learned. (Lunch is a good time, as is that vortex between 4pm and happy hour.)

Are you an actual veteran attending Dreamforce?

Make sure you check out VetForce and get set up with some of the veteran nonprofits who use Salesforce, like IAVA. Need an intro? Drop me a line and I’ll get you set up with some other veterans at Dreamforce. I’m the stranger who might become your new friend.

We are proud to announce that Exponent Partners is now an Amplify sponsor!  

Impact. Innovation. Diversity. These are the core values of Exponent Partners; they are the values that motivate our staff to meet the current challenges of today’s working world. As a social venture working exclusively with impact-focused nonprofits, our goal at Exponent Partners is to do well by doing good.

We achieve this goal by using technology to support the success and growth of our nonprofit clients. We know that by supporting an inclusive workplace, providing opportunities to innovate while bringing your whole self to work, we create a collaborative and cooperative environment for our employees.

With our values, we enable our staff and  organization to grow. We’ve been able to expand over the years, while maintaining a balanced female/male staff with women filling nearly 50% of our technical positions and nearly 40% of the roles on our leadership team, far exceeding the industry averages of 25% and 17% respectively. Equal pay for equal work is also a core belief. Our recent salary review demonstrated that for every dollar earned at Exponent Partners, men earn $0.97 and women earn $1.03.

To continue to be the inclusive and diverse team that we strive to be, we will work with Amplify to expand our knowledge and cast our net even wider.  We look forward forging a strong and positive learning relationship!

Meet Susan—a single mother who wants to register for a training program that will make her more employable. After filling out a lengthy form by hand, Susan meets with one of the agency’s employees who asks questions to supplement the information provided. Fast forward three weeks when Susan finds herself evicted from her current rental. She returns to the agency to find out if she is eligible to explore low-income housing services. Susan completes another form—one that is almost identical to the one she completed weeks ago, with the exception of a few extra questions. She then meets a new employee who asks that same questions that were posed during her previous visit.

The pain of this process is palpable on the agency side as well.

John has been working at the agency for almost a decade, during which time new programs have been added, but not much has changed with the client intake process. After a client fills out the required paperwork, John asks follow-up questions to fill in the blanks that the client skipped, and then the intake form is added to the client’s paper file, which is kept in the program’s department. When the client enters another program, the process is repeated; another paper file is created and housed elsewhere. More paperwork. More files. More data silos. The result is not only a time-consuming process for everyone involved, but also limited visibility into the big picture of the client and the agency.

Fast-forward to reporting time, when John’s manager asks him for a report that details the number of clients that the agency has served over the past year. And so it begins: the counting, the manual entry of data into an Excel spreadsheet, the removal of duplicates to get accurate numbers. John spends many hours on these tasks—hours that he would rather spend helping clients. The entire process is not only painful and time-consuming, but it is also ripe for human error.

Susan’s and John’s experiences are common place among Human Services agencies, especially ones that have under-invested in technology for various reasons–internal funding challenges, resistance to change, lack of internal capacity or alignment.

However, the tides are turning, largely due to increasing pressure from funders, changes in legislation, and the need to do more with less by streamlining processes.

And with these pressures and challenges come opportunities including:

• An opportunity to make it easier for a client to gain access to your programs.
• An opportunity to streamline the intake process for staff. An opportunity to simplify the report creation process.
• An opportunity to spend more time helping people instead of pushing papers.

These opportunities can be seized when an agency implements a universal intake form—a distilled version of multiple intake forms across the agency’s programs—that is accessible to staff whenever they have internet access. The online form allows for rapid data capture of the client’s basic demographic information, as well as other information that is pertinent across programs, and then stores the data in the different places where it belongs (e.g., contact record, case record, referral, assessment, and/or household). Your agency’s universal intake form can be supplemented by additional program-specific forms. By having all of a client’s data housed in one system, your agency gains a complete view of the client and avoids the creation of duplicative information.

So, what does a universal intake form mean for clients and staff?

• Clients: With universal intake, clients like Susan who use multiple programs within your agency will have a superior enrollment experience—one that is smooth and efficient.
• Staff: For employees like John, their jobs will get a lot better, as they can quickly access key data online. They no longer have to gather information from colleagues and paper files, and then enter and manipulate data in a spreadsheet. The time saved can be used to provide more services to a larger number of clients.

Organizationally, an online universal intake form is a game changer in terms of identifying trends and promoting the right programs to the right clients at the right time. Your nonprofit will gain agency-wide reporting capabilities, giving your organization more data and better data, which can translate to improved service delivery and greater impact.

Want to see universal intake in action? Register for an upcoming webinar where we will demonstrate the universal intake process using Exponent Case Management (ECM).