Louise Lockie's Letters from London

Oh Salesforce Community. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. This month's reason to heart the community is Surf Force. Sometime last year Shaun Holmes identified a community in need and set his mind to bringing the possibilities of Salesforce to the Welsh town of Aberavon. I am hoping that Shaun will share his story in the coming weeks and tell us more about his connection with the town but I can assure you that there was real fire in his belly. The established community weren't the target audience of the event but Surf Force needed their support and the call to arms was answered with gusto. Surf Force was billed as a User Group with a Twist and it was certainly that. Attendees were offered a real day of two halves. The morning was to be spent surfing, being taught by the Welsh champion no less, and the afternoon was to provide Salesforce content from those that answered Shaun's request for support. Full disclosure, not all of us were enticed into the w...

I am extremely proud to be one of the leaders of the London Salesforce Women in Tech User Group. Jodi Wagner held the first 'soft launch' group meet up in August 2015 and I was one of only 4 attendees. I nearly didn't show as I was daunted by it being held as part of the London Developers UG. Jodi persuaded me that they weren't that scary and so along I went. We started off as Girly Geeks London as it was just before the re-branding and at this first meeting we met and discussed the direction we would like the group to take. Lots of ideas were captured. The next meet up was in October and by then I had got to know Jodi a bit more as we had met up at Dreamforce. This time the meeting was a collaboration with the London Admin User Group and a 'getting to know the community' speed dating night. Great fun. Other commitments (mainly London's Calling) meant that a few months went past without a meeting but during this time I spoke to Jodi a number of times ...

Something strange has happened to me this year. I have seemingly converted from being the MOST reluctant public speaker to finding my arm thrust in the air waving wildly whenever calls for speakers are mentioned. While I scratch my head and ponder where this change came from, I thought I would try and track my about-turn, to hopefully inspire those of you who are currently more like Louise 2015 than Louise 2016 . So let me reflect on how I made the (speedy) trip from the wallflower of yesteryear to the girl you see before you, keeping everything crossed that she is chosen to speak at Dreamforce! Hopefully my transformation can inspire those of you not yet convinced that you should take the leap onto the podium. On reflection, there were indicators that I wasn’t the shy and retiring woman I thought I was. I had paved the way for the new me towards the end of last year by talking at a couple of users groups, not on my own, and nothing too formal but in front of a crowd ...

Now I am not usually a glass half empty kinda gal but I can't help but dwell on all the things that I missed at this month's Salesforce World Tour in London. Here is my top 10: Have a photo taken with Darth Vader (after sharing the ' top 25 ' line up with him a photo would have been a great momento) Attend a silent disco breakout (not even New Features for Salesforce Admins with Gillian, Mike & Kris ) Secure any swag whatsoever (I'm particularly jealous of those sporting the London t-shirt with a cloud replacing the o) Join a circle of success (hosted by the wonderful success team incl. favourites Fran & Deirdre ) Attend the Women in Leadership discussion (thankfully I could catch up via Freya 's twitter feed) Get a photo with Saasy (at least my 5th failed attempt to do so) Catch the Sales Cloud keynote with Tim Clarke and Chris Hoy (thankfully captured on YouTube ) Meet with my AE or any of the people who asked to meet up (apolog...

Having only worked with Salesforce for approx 18 months I was chuffed and excited to be given the  green light  to attend my first Dreamforce way back in April. I quickly booked my ticket, flight, and hotel, filed my expenses and then the nerves  promptly  set in. Fast forward 5 months during which time I had read every blog post, watched every episode of Road to Dreamforce , and anxiously quizzed my London Admin User Group leaders as to whether there would be any kind of Brits Abroad meet up (there wasn't). I did what would best offset my nerves, I got organised. Agenda Builder went live on August 5th but when on the 5th? As a San Francisco based company and event chances are it would be PST but I refreshed the page regularly throughout London's working day regardless, no doubt while those with the power to activate the tool slept soundly.... Just as I was thinking about giving up and heading home it was live. I pounced and enrolled on 33 sessions incl...