How did I end up at CTA Summit 2018 that happens to be my first Dream Force experience as well?
In this post, I wanted to share my experience with what happened after I got my title and how did I end up at the very first CTA Summit in San Francisco in 2018. My journey to Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) can be found here if you are interested in my story.To be honest I was not fully aware of how big of an achievement passing the CTA Board really is until I made it over the bar. Soon after I got my exam results I realized that being a CTA comes with its own perks.
- People all over the company started reaching out to me to know me better and understand my background. I also discovered that a lot of people tried and failed the board review and that in general it is much easier to fail than to pass, so the successful candidates are very rare, not to mention passing on the first attempt.
- LinkedIn inbox was full of attractive job offers from all over the world.
- Dreamforce doors were finally open for me without the need to provide a business justification for my attendance.
- I got invited to the CTA Summit that was initiated in 2018 allowing all CTAs to meet with Salesforce Product managers to get a deep dive on the Product vision and Roadmaps that is super important to design best-of-breed solutions on the Platform. As well as to share real-life experience and feedback from the field with the Headquarters.
The next thing I realized very soon is that it is almost impossible to book a reasonable accommodation in San Francisco during the Dreamforce and how massive Dreamforce is.Finally, after getting all the approvals I was booked for my journey to the first CTA Summit. Despite a minor hiccup on the way (missing my connecting flight) I managed to get there on time but straight from the airport. Luckily enough I was about to discover that the CTA Summit got extended from a one-day event preceding Dreamforce to three full days of meetings and workshops overlapping with the main Dreamforce events.Again only on the last day of Dreamforce I had realized how the CTA “VIP” experience differs from the regular Dreamforce guest. I moved from perfectly organized private sessions well hidden in Salesforce offices with full catering and coffee breaks to the wild and massive event with thousands of people everywhere. This time I learned my lesson hard by missing my lunch and getting lost trying to find sessions and buildings that I added to my Agenda.Looking back on my journey I am grateful for many opportunities and doors that the Certified Technical Architect credential opened. None of that would be possible without the support I got from Accenture and the Elevate program especially my Swiss colleague Christian Deckert and Andy Ognenoff leading the CTA program. Thank you!
