No Running Shoes Required: The Salesforce.org Sprint is Coming to Denver

By: Joanna Iturbe, Salesforce Denver User Group Leader and Secretary of the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council

Proof that Salesforce.org Open Community Source Sprints are an exercise for the mind.

The Salesforce.org Open Source Sprint is coming to Denver, the Mile High City, July 31 – August 1, 2018.

I was a sprinter in a past life so when the concept of an Salesforce.org Open Source Community Sprint first hit my radar, I was excited albeit a little nervous because I haven’t used my spikes for a good ‘ole 100 meter dash in about 15 years, but I thought I’d give it a try.

Then, after a few quick conversations with some great folks in the higher education and nonprofit communities, I snapped back to reality and realized I wouldn’t need to pack my running shoes.

What is a Salesforce.org Open Source Community Sprint?

All kidding aside, sprints are a successful practice in the software development ecosystem to divide large projects into easily manageable pieces, ensure effective use of time and money, keep projects moving efficiently, provide visibility across teams and allow for changes to be implemented quickly.

But let me make one thing clear: this Sprint is not just for developers – it’s for everyone, whether you’re a first-time open source contributor or experienced community member!

The Salesforce.org higher ed and nonprofit communities, both of which are known for collaboration intra-industry, have started to collaborate inter-industry, to bring together the best of both worlds in order for us to not only share our time but our knowledge, passion, innovation, determination, and stories. To me – that’s where the magic is. The magic is in community.

The Denver Sprint is the second Salesforce.org Open Source Community Sprint structured as a collaborative effort across the nonprofit and higher ed industries that encompasses folks in all roles (business users, administrators, developers, project managers, partners and more!) to brainstorm and affect change across the suite of Salesforce.org open source offerings – the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), Higher Education Data Architecture and Volunteers for Salesforce (V4S) – as well as provide input on potential future solutions, be they .org solutions or community-created open source solutions.

And, as if you didn’t have enough reason to attend, I’m calling this particular week of Salesforce.org and Salesforce Community events #salesforceapalooza because the Open Source Community Sprint will be running alongside a WITness Success (July 27-28) and Daydreamin’ at 5280 (July 26).

Sounds great, but how do I convince my boss to let me go?

This all sounds awesome, and I’d love to join to learn and share, but how do I convince my boss to send me on our shoestring budget?

Conferences are great, but sprints are not conferences, and here’s why:

1. Salesforce.org, higher ed and nonprofit staff get to know each other well on the Power of Us Hub, but a sprint is a way to bring the people, ideas and solutions from the Hub together in real life to solve problems and affect change in Salesforce.org products.

2.Sprints make hands-on workshops look like child’s play. At a sprint, no one person is in charge – the sprinters are in charge and work together to prioritize the issues they’re going to dive deep into over two days to come out with tangible feedback for Salesforce.org and the Community to work on to improve the product ecosystem.

3. Other than flight and hotel, the event is totally free! This includes breakfast and lunch (on both days) including dinner on the 1st day. The best part is that you’ll only be out of the office three days, including travel – as opposed to a full week for most conferences.

4. Build lifelong relationships. Some of my best friends I have made through my involvement in the Salesforce ecosystem. A sprint is an intimate environment to get to know and be inspired by some of the biggest movers and shakers in higher ed and nonprofit, AND, we get face-to-face time with valuable staff from Salesforce.org.

5. Denver during summer. Most may think that Denver is a destination during winter months, but the things to do in our beautiful city during summer are endless, and it’s cheaper to fly into Denver during summer months. Plus, the weather is beautiful!

So, I’m going to leave you with this and hope that I see you in Denver in July:

“There’s two kinds of people in this world when you boil it all down. You got your talkers and you got your doers. Most people are just talkers, all they do is talk. But when it is all said and done, it’s the doers that change this world. And when they do that, they change us, and that’s why we never forget them. So which one are you? Do you just talk about it, or do you stand up and do something about it?…” – David Della Rocco in The Boondock Saints

About the Author
Joanna is a Salesforce MVP, secretary of the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council, a member of the Amplify Board, and leader of the Salesforce Denver User Group. Joanna has 5 certifications: Salesforce Administrator, Salesforce App Platform Builder, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), database management and project management. She’s been involved in the Salesforce and higher ed ecosystems for over 10 years. When not “talking shop,” she loves to ski, camp, hike and travel with her husband and two daughters. For more information about Joanna and/or to contact her: Twitter, LinkedIn, Salesforce Trailblazer Community, Salesforce Power of Us Hub, Career Girls Role Model (Video Interview)