By Leanne Botwright, Shirtforce Director | 4-minute read

Since joining the Shirtforce board, one of the areas I’ve been getting involved with is our Sponsorship Programme.

The programme was already doing some great work helping people access Salesforce community events, and I’ve been looking at how we can build on that. In particular, I want to understand more about the experience our beneficiaries have before, during and after an event, and make sure we’re sharing those stories.

There’s a personal reason why this matters so much to me.

Before I knew the community existed

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll know that I usually write a “diary” style post after attending an event. I try to bring people along with me by sharing what it felt like to walk into the room, who I met, the conversations I had and what I took away from the experience.

I do this because, early in my Salesforce career, I was completely on my own and trying to figure everything out as I went along.

I was working for a small start-up where there wasn’t the time or budget for conferences. We had limited resources, so attending community events simply wasn’t something I had access to at that point.

I didn’t know there was a huge community of people out there sharing their knowledge and helping one another. I didn’t know about user groups or community conferences, or that there were rooms full of people dealing with the same problems I was trying to solve.

“I didn’t know there were rooms full of people dealing with the same problems I was trying to solve.”

My first London’s Calling

In 2019, my manager recognised that getting involved in the community was changing the way I worked and that our small, home-grown Salesforce org was benefiting from the connections I was making.

They agreed to fund me to attend London’s Calling for the first time, and it genuinely became a turning point for me.

Of course, I learned loads from the sessions, but the biggest impact came from meeting people who understood the work I was doing. I could talk openly about the problems I was trying to solve, learn from people who had been through similar experiences and realise that I didn’t have to work everything out by myself.

Some of the people I met that day are still part of my network now and we have become firm friends. They’ve answered questions, encouraged me, shared opportunities and helped me find my place within the community.

It also helped me recognise that I had experiences and ideas of my own that were worth sharing.

Creating opportunities for other people

I’ve never forgotten what it felt like before I found the community or how much changed when somebody gave me the opportunity to attend that first event.

That experience has influenced a lot of the things I’ve chosen to get involved with since, including InspireEast 2024 and our mentoring programme for new speakers. Through the programme, we introduced more than 20 new speakers, with each person supported by an experienced mentor or one of our Salesforce Superstars.

Seeing them develop their ideas, grow in confidence and eventually step onto the stage was really special. They already had the knowledge and the stories. They just needed some support and an opportunity to share them.

Why the Shirtforce programme feels so important

This is what I really connect with in the Shirtforce Sponsorship Programme. Shirtforce was already creating these opportunities long before I joined the board. I now, however, get to work alongside the rest of the team and bring some of my own experience to it, particularly around looking after our beneficiaries and sharing what happens after somebody is selected.

The support might be an event ticket, help with travel or another opportunity to learn and meet people within the community, but I don’t think the value stops there. It could mean somebody has their first conversation with a potential mentor, meets other people at the same stage of their career or realises that they have more to offer than they thought.

It can also make an event feel possible for somebody who has looked at it from the outside and assumed they couldn’t afford to attend or wouldn’t fit in when they got there.

Sharing what happens next

Recently I’ve been speaking with some of our beneficiaries and the event organisers who have supported the programme.

I wanted to hear what the experience was actually like for them. Why did they get involved? How did they feel before the event? What happened when they arrived, and did anything change afterwards?

We’ll be sharing some of those conversations over the next few weeks. We’ll also explain more about how the programme works, who it can support and how organisers can get involved.

I hope hearing directly from the people who have experienced the programme will encourage more organisers to work with us and offer places at their events. I also hope it reaches somebody who has been looking at the community from the outside and wondering whether there’s a place for them in it. I remember being that person, and I remember what changed when somebody gave me the chance to attend my first event.

I’m really proud to be working with the rest of the Shirtforce team to help give other people that opportunity too.

Next in the series

“If one person doesn’t talk to you, it doesn’t mean the other 99 won’t”

Shahriyar Humbatov talks about attending Wir Sind Ohana through the Shirtforce Sponsorship Programme, how he felt walking into the event and what happened when he started speaking to people.

Get involved

If you organise a Salesforce community event and would like to offer a place through the programme, or you’d like to know more about applying for support, please get in touch.