Don’t ruin your Dreamforce, be prepared

As an active Dreamforce attendee, I thought to share my this year experience with you all.

The week-long experience at the Dreamforce in San Francisco is a memorable experience. Not only do you get an opportunity to meet visionary speakers and key business leaders but also it opens up a unique opportunity to interact with key industry pioneers, leaders and lay the foundation of sosme long-lasting professional connections as well as get a strong networking platform. But all of these memories might end up as rather lackluster is you don’t pay attention to some basic dos and don’ts to enhance the overall experience. So I decided to share some of the main problems I faced there to help you organize your trip better.

• Plan In Advance: At Dreamforce, you get the opportunity to connect and grow your business, but the key to it is planning in advance. We started searching for hotel options nearly six months before the event started but realized it was too late for a mega event like Dreamforce. Only the expensive hotel options were left across San Francisco with some costing as high as $500/night. So my advice is if you plan to join the Dreamforce 2017, it is much better to start looking and booking for it right away.
  
  
• Hostel: When we failed to book a reasonably priced hotel room, I thought perhaps a hostel would solve our problem, but alas that was the beginning of much greater problems. The rooms were too small; the location is crucial and getting in and out and spending the night in these rooms can be quite a struggle otherwise.
  
• Know Your Street: As I mentioned in my previous paragraph, the location is crucial. I was not too well versed with the streets across SFO and ended up booking a hostel in Ellis Street. This is not a great location and is filled with beggars and many other trouble creators, so we had always to travel in a cab and walking was never an option. Not only was this a greater hassle but I also ended up spending more than I had budgeted. Couple of references:
  https://www.virtualtourist.com/755471-2422856/San-Francisco-Tips/eddy-and-ellis-streetsand-much-of-downtown
  https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowTopic-g60713-i30-k5758497-Ellis_street_cova_hotel_area_safe_at_night-San_Francisco_California.html
  
  

• Check for Weather Conditions: The last Dreamforce that I attended was rather painful. The simple fact was I did not check the weather conditions and the event being in October as against September that it was held in the previous year, SFO was much colder. I was unprepared and without sufficient warm clothes and ended up being in bed for 2 of the 4 days.
  
  
• Uber Pickup Points: You have to remember that not all points in SFO are Uber Pickup points. So when you are booking a cab on the phone, be very careful about the location you choose to avoid any complication with regard to that.
  
• Cab at Moscone: Finally, if you are at Moscone, it would never be advisable to wait for taxis. If you book an Uber, it keeps getting rerouted, and you might end up waiting close to an hour. It is much better to start walking and getting away from Moscone and improve your chances of getting a cab faster.

You might be aware with all above this if you have been to Dreamforce, but of not, please be attentive about all these points. These can definitely help you in making your Dreamforce in memorable Dreamforce.