There was a fantastic turn out to Salesforce Lightning Week world wide! So many people learning Lightning at once was fantastic. Watching the #golightningfast and #lightningdevweek hashtag this week has been a joy. It was even better contributing!
Once again, a Salesforce global user group meetup significantly helped attendance at this month’s Lehigh Valley Salesforce Developer User Group (@LVSFDCDUG/Youtube) meeting. We had one of our best turn outs in months from all of Salesforce’s marketing, but also from some promotion from the local Girl Develop It chapter, a great group looking for more members! Peter Knolle (@peterknolle) kicked off the event with the best Lightning presentation I have seen so far, explaining and demonstrating Lightning Connect, Lightning Process Builder, Lightning App Builder, and Lightning Components. We were incredibly fortunate to have Peter, a Force.com MVP and 6x certified Salesforce architect, presenting. He is one of the world experts on Lightning, sharing his expertise through several fantastic blog posts on his own site as well as on the Salesforce Developer Blogs (with more to come over the next few weeks).
After food, drinks, and Peter’s presentation, we jumped directly into hands on workshops, one of my personal favorite things to do with a user group. It is always interesting when you start working with fellow Salesforce enthusiasts and start hearing their use cases for the different products, specifically Lightning this meetup. Several of our members had begun writing Lightning Components, using the Lightning Process Builder, and experimenting with Lightning Connect. On top of that, it is fun to work as a group towards learning and discovering new technology.
After all of this Lightning talk, we finished the evening up with some drinks and more food at a local bar. The Lightning conversation was very active, and at the end of it, that really is the goal of these developer weeks. Let’s get more people involved and let’s keep them involved. So, what’s the next step for you?
If you don’t have one, get a Lightning Dev Org. This is step 1, and should be followed even if you have a dev org already. These orgs come ready for Lightning development. The next step would be deciding what you want to learn first. You have:
- Lightning Connect Tutorial
- Lightning Process Builder Tutorial
- Lightning Components Tutorial
- Lightning on Trailhead
After you have gone through the material, start to share your work! Share your experience on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc! Write some blog posts (if you do not have a blog, I can work with you to guest blog here or on other blogs – just contact me)! Finally, make sure to continue to attend your user group. I know there is a large influx of attendees during this week, but you can get value year round from your local user group. Not only are you interacting with a larger set of people in your industry (perfect for recruiting/sales/job search), but in general you will find a ton of really smart people who will be able to teach you knew things.
It is a fun, exciting time to be involved with Salesforce. How was your Salesforce Lightning Week? What meetup did you attend? What are you most excited about with Lightning? Share in the comments below!
