If you are a higher education user using Salesforce or plan to use Salesforce and are living around the DC, MD area, and registered for the Salesforce DC event next week, there might be some second thoughts on whether there is any value in going emphasizing Federal and government cloud and lack of sessions for Higher Education. Before you change your mind on this, looking at other options to learn and see how to apply them to your institution is always better. My blog focuses on three sessions you should attend or watch later that can add value to you.

Attend a Higher Ed session

Unfortunately, there is only one session relevant to Higher education. Attending this session will teach you how the Federal government leverages Salesforce to create a unified student experience. For institutions with continuous education departments, this will be a great session to learn more about your key customers, mostly veterans, and provide a point of view for your institution.

Jump onto the generative AI bandwagon and learn enough to start conversations back in Office

Given the hype surrounding generative AI and the world’s obsession with it, I highly recommend these two sessions. They allow you to learn the Salesforce approach from a strategic and tactical perspective.

For institutions that want to gain productivity by leveraging Generative AI with their one-stop service centers, the above session will provide more insights on making your service teams more proactive with support teams, handling student issues, and other areas.

The above session will help you learn Einstein Copilot, which is in GA, how to use it effectively for your institution, and how to get ready to implement your use cases with your admissions, service, and marketing teams.

Explore Data cloud learning and identify ways it can add value to your organization

With Salesforce emphasizing data cloud on every marketing message and the product getting a lot of traction, it would be in your best interest to learn about marketing cloud and how it can benefit your marketing teams.

If you are an IT professional or have data team members who are thinking of data cloud as just another data warehouse product, the above session will help to demystify the myth and understand how data cloud can add additional value to your existing data stack.

The above session can help to understand the underpinnings of data cloud and its features. This will help to take back to your organization on how data cloud features can be leveraged if you feel the value for it.

So before opt-out of the DC world tour or getting frustrated about what I can really do at the DC world tour as a Higher Education user, here are three key things you can do.

1. Attend one session related to Higher Education to understand Salesforce strategy.
2. Immerse in generative AI sessions and pick a session from a big-picture and implementation perspective.
3. The last focus should be on data and sessions on data cloud from a strategic and tactical perspective will enlighten you on the right track.

I will be on the world tour and would love to discuss any other questions you may have about the event. Please feel free to email me at buyan@eigenx.com with any questions or comments.

Join us for a delightful happy hour during the evening. You’ll have the chance to meet me and our team at Eigen X, where we’ll share best practices and enjoy delicious food. Please feel free to reserve your spot for our happy hour by clicking the link below.