Louise Lockie's Letters from London

Picture the scene, it was an average Tuesday morning on the last day of February. I was up slightly earlier than normal as I was traveling to our Birmingham office. I was nearly ready to kiss my still sleeping husband goodbye and leave the house when I picked up my phone and quickly scanned my notifications. What's that? Received at 3am from one Holly Firestone with a subject line of Congratulations ! My finger has never moved so fast, open open open email now. Ohhhh Myyyyy..... cue a rather loud scream as I ran into the bedroom to tell my now very alarmed husband that I wasn't being murdered but was instead an MVP. A Salesforce MVP. A most valuable professional in the Salesforce ecosystem. Me. Mind blown. I did what I later found out several of my fellow Winter 17 class did, which was to reply to check that Holly wasn't channelling Warren Beatty in opening the wrong envelope... I then had 9 hours before the award was made public. How would I last that time ...

London's Calling has been and gone for another year and I am sad. The day flew by and as I still can't clone myself (most inconvenient), I didn't get to do and see all I wanted to. The mark of a great event is very much when your attendee's only complaint is that they couldn't choose between all the great sessions, and catch up with the 350 odd community members who were lucky enough to secure a ticket before it sold out, and speak to the sponsors in the expo, and score a new badge in the Trailhead room..... the list goes on. We were spoilt. The festivities actually started for me on Thursday evening with a party for MVPs, User Group Leaders, and London's Calling speakers. As a presenter and user group leader I secured two invites and duly went along. It was a great opportunity to catch up with some members of the London community as well as meet some of the many international visitors in a more intimate setting than the main event. It also enabled u...

Behind the times I know but I have just finished the TV series The Night of and it is still on my mind. Anyway, back on topic, we are now very much in The Week of London's Calling. This community event will always hold special place in my heart. I was there at Dreamforce 2015, sat drinking champagne in the sunshine, when the idea was captured on a napkin and the rest, as they say, is history. See Francis' blog post for more background - http://www.radnip.com/londons-calling-what-you-missed-video-and-how-it-came-together/ Knowing the leaders as I do I have a fair idea of how much blood, sweat, and tears they have spent pulling these two events together and I know they will again be exhausted but proud come Friday evening. To add to my attachment, the inaugural event in February 2016 was my first Salesforce speaking slot outside of user groups. It gave me the confidence and exposure to move on to present at several more events that year, including London's Worl...

Well trained users are every admin's key to awesome adoption.   Fact. It is a subject close to my heart and one on which I have now delivered several presentations. Each time I have given a talk on training I have been overwhelmed by positive feedback and questions which followed and so I know that it is an area of concern for admins and consultants alike. Here are my recommendations to help you to plan and deliver a successful training session: How to plan a successful training session?  Start by capturing the answers to the following questions: Who are you training? Make sure you know who you will be training, the business or division they work for, and their roles. You will need this to settle on the answers to: How will you group your trainees? How many sessions will be required? Numbers will play a part in these decisions, if you are training two new starters then you don't need ten sessions but choose the size of your sessions and who you group together ...

I don't think that it will seem terribly controversial for me to state that 2016 has been a crappy year. The last 365 days has seen some rubbish things happen, not just politically (in my opinion) on both sides of the Atlantic but it has also been a year which has seen more shared loss than usual. Those in the public eye taken from us too soon aside, I know I am not alone in having experienced personal bereavement this year. BUT as I always try to focus on the positives, to keep my glass half full 🍷, I can't help but look back at this disparaged year with rather a LOT of fondness. So, what's to love? Having been part of the London UG community since the London Admin User Group was established in Autumn '14. 2016 was really the year I switched from consuming content and wisdom from the leaders in our groups, to trying to impart some knowledge of my own, to give back to the community which had supported me so thanklessly. When I now reflect on the year passed, these...

I've got one of those r0und birthdays coming up. I am 40 in May. Now, I am OK with that, I know that 40 isn't old, I am not worried about my own mortality, that comes to us all and, if related to age, then we are one of the lucky ones. It is just that as soon as we ticked over into 2016 and the phrase  I am 40 next year  entered my inner monologue, I have been in a state of evaluation. As I say, this isn't about age and death, but about landmarks and measuring myself against my own expectations.  Now that I am approaching it I don't feel that 40 is at all old but when I left university and entered the workforce in 1999,  where did I expect to be come 2017 ? I've always been keen to move up the ranks and progress at work but more from a point of being ready to take on a new challenge, having mastered the last one, as opposed to outright ambition. In my company I have had a number of long-term colleagues who are the same age as me, against whom I have been ...

The dust has settled and the jet-lag has finally passed following my second attempt 'at' Dreamforce. Last year I was certain the conference was so overwhelming, exhausting, and impossible to conquer solely because I was a newbie. This year, though still a novice, I thought I knew enough to tame the beast. I did not. The realisation hit me as soon as agenda builder went live, I remembered that I could not be in more than one place at one time. Clashes appeared left, right, and centre. The Admin Keynote and the Women and Equality Keynote were at the same time, hair was pulled, fists were shaken. The HoTs were the first to go, at 2.5 hours long, they wiped out practically half a day at a time and though useful, demanded too many of my precious DF hours. Just like last year I found it impossible to keep to keep to my agenda, there was just way too much going on. So, what diverted me? Here are my top 3 distractions: Number 1 - SPK on my Dreamforce Badge At just my 2nd D...