Yes! Basecamp Netherlands is coming. Thursday 26 March will be a day full of innovation and inspiration. I can’t wait to meet 6000 like-minded people and share knowledge with them. It will be a fantastic edition where you can meet the User Community in real life and if you want to read on in Dutch, then check out the Salesforce NL blog (with a bit of help from friends).

You may be wondering why I am so enthusiastic about Basecamp when I don’t work for Salesforce at all. To answer that question, it might be helpful if you first know my perspective: I am a Salesforce customer.

Salesforce administrator by day, Salesforce enthusiast by night

During the day I am a Salesforce manager of the Watersportverbond, a non-profit organization that has been around for 130 years and that helps to promote the interests of watersports enthusiasts throughout the Netherlands, from canoeists to sailboat owners, from the leisure user to the competition and Olympic rower.

To better manage our activities and to provide the 400 clubs and their 80,000 members with the right information, we use Salesforce. We use Service Cloud to handle questions from our members and also Community Cloud so that people can serve themselves and get the advice they need to keep their qualifications and licenses.

We currently also have Marketing Cloud in mind. This could help us automate our marketing processes. It then becomes much easier to get the right message to the right people at the right time.

If only there was an event where we could hear the stories and best practices of current Salesforce users…

Basecamp Netherlands, formerly World Tour Amsterdam

And that is where my enthusiasm for Basecamp Netherlands comes in. Basecamp was previously World Tour Amsterdam and is the largest local event of Salesforce Nederland.

Basecamp is more than just an IT conference. At Salesforce, they believe that companies should be concerned about making the world a better place. Profit and progress are no longer sustainable unless they serve the greater good. To remain competitive, companies must have a corporate culture that inspires all employees at every level to do the best job. Basecamp is intended to challenge people precisely on the above points and to inspire them.

Basecamp Netherlands: what can you expect?

The program will be refilled the coming time, but I can already share a sneak peek with you:

• Many local Trailblazers come to speak, including Renewi, EVBox, Bugaboo, CarNext and IMCD. Discover how they manage to take the customer experience to a higher level time after time.
• During the 80+ sessions for each Salesforce knowledge level, you will learn more about how practical examples were created using the Salesforce platform and ecosystem.
• Pep Rosenfeld from Boom Chicago will be the host of the Opening and Closing Keynote. He does not speak up and no one is safe from his sharp tongue.
• Connect with 6,000 other registered participants to boost your knowledge, network and career.
• You want to stay for the Closing Keynote anyway: it is given by illusionist Victor Mids. Be enchanted by habits, perception and innovation.
• To end the day there is a networking drink with the young promise DJ Pieter Gabriel.
• During Basecamp there is an entire zone with partners who can tell you about how they grow their business.
• Learn how you can support non-profit organizations and how you can work towards equality and sustainability. Find out how NGOs work and how you can support them, during the event and afterwards.

Dutch Salesforce User Community during Basecamp Netherlands

To set up a program as diverse as possible, the Dutch Salesforce User Community has its own lounge during Basecamp Netherlands to tell more about the peer-led activities that take place in the Netherlands on a weekly basis.

“Peer-led?” I hear you think. Yes! Every week in the Netherlands (and in the rest of the world) Salesforce users come together, after their daily work, to learn more about Salesforce and the solutions. These types of evenings are a combination of sharing knowledge, best practices and practical experience. At the last count they had (ok, ‘we’, since I am a co-leader of one of these groups) 15 different groups in 8 different cities in the Netherlands ( Amsterdam, Den Bosch, Den Haag, Groningen, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Veenendaal).

During Basecamp we as a User Community have presentations all day long (we can be found at the Trailhead Theater) on the following topics:

• Administrator
• Developer
• Women in Tech
• Nonprofit

Do you want to know more about, for example, the use of agile methods, release management or building Salesforce APIs? Then you’ve come to the right place with us during Basecamp.

Interested? Make sure you register for Basecamp Netherlands while there is still room.