What I learned: TDX19

We’re just going to leave the elephant in the room right where it is, so…make peace with that.

I had the great pleasure to attend TrailheaDX last week, Salesforce’s smaller developer conference, in San Francisco. It was my first TDX, but I certainly hope it won’t be my last.

For those who have never been, it is WAY smaller than Dreamforce. Dreamforce spans over blocks and blocks, from Moscone to local hotels, and it’s not unheard of to walk close to a mile just to get from one session to another. TrailheaDX is not like that. It takes place entirely in Moscone West – granted, all three floors, but comparatively, it’s easy.

It also is repetitive. That has some negative connotations, I realize, but hear me out.

Dreamforce takes place over what I’m confident is half of the city, and very few sessions are alike. If you miss a session because you’re on one end of the event, and the session is on the other, then that’s it. You can hopefully catch a recording later.

TDX had some – not all – but some sessions repeated in the theaters, so if you missed it one time, you might be able to catch it again. Not all of the sessions worked that way, but enough of them that I was able to safely select one session over another because I knew I’d get a second chance later during the event.

There was still all of the energy and good vibes of the community; I still got to see a lot of my friends and coworkers.

And this was the first time in years that I simply attended the event. I didn’t volunteer or serve on a panel or do anything but go to sessions and try to absorb, and I’m glad I did. I learned quite a bit while I was there, and I came away energized enough to sit down and write this. Which is no small feat.

I had a bit of an epiphany, as well, that I’d like to share now.

As a self-proclaimed polymath, I have struggled with how best to run this blog. I wrote about it already, but I still never answered my own question.

So I’m going to unshackle myself a bit. Moving forward, I’ll be sharing things I learn – random, and untethered to a single category. Because that’s what’s interesting to me. Sometimes it’ll be Salesforce related, or technology related, or project management related, or…whatever I learned.

That’s what I’m taking away from TDX19, and I’m already looking forward to next year.