THAT'S A WRAP FOR 2023 FOLKS - THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT 😍

Meeting Summary

Right on cue the sun burst forth at 4.30 pm, just in time for the start of the #sfwelly #trailblazercommunity annual festive gathering ☀️

We welcomed our largest ever crowd to the fabulous #tewhanganuiatara #wellington Foxglove Ballroom venue, take note of the happy faces, blooming pohutukawas (aka the #aotearoa #newzealand Christmas tree) & the glorious Welly harbour…

We continued the annual tradition of visitors from around the motu, including Auckland, Kaitaia and Wairarapa, & also welcomed some visiting Aussies - lovely to meet Andy Burgess & Sarah Galbraith - please visit again soon 😍

An event of this scale doesn’t happen easily, and we are hugely grateful again this year for the support of the 2 Salesforce titans in NZ - Karen Blake & Hamish Miles. Thanks so much for your generosity, it is appreciated by our whole community 🙏🏼

Special shoutout to the local #salesforce #publicsector team for your annual support for this event too - especially David Currie Yareev Nathan & Milo Davies 😄

Our ‘activity’ sponsor for the 4th year running was the powerhouse that’s Upper Echelon NZ - the photo booth was a huge hit this year. The winning photos from the fun challenges will be announced in due course - see if you can work out who the winners might be…. Special thanks to Lauren Foster for her outstanding coordination skills in arranging the photo booth again this year 🤩

Also an enormous thanks to the co-organisers who were so amazing behind the scenes: Raksha Meanger, Sam Copeland & Natalie Savell. Thanks team 😘

Thanks to everyone who generously donated to our appeal partner - Wellington Women’s Refuge., whether it was online donations, cash, groceries or gifts. Sam and I will be delivering these early next week 🎁

Congratulations to all our community award winners (names are below), your contributions to our community are very much appreciated, and we loved celebrating you...🎖️

Also congrats to the spot prize quiz winners - watch out for the answers, to be added below….perhaps you’ll see some familiar names…

Watch out for our annual newsletter celebrating 2023 & highlighting upcoming early 2024 events, coming to your inbox next week… ✉️

CONTENT SUMMARY

Quiz Questions...answers - at least a summary of the answers relating to actual attendees provided by attendees on the night - may not be 100% correct! And of course many others fit these categories but weren't named!

1. Can you find someone with a CPQ certification?
   Bill, Ben S, Suresh
2. Can you find someone with the UX Designer certification?
   Ella G, Liam Mac, Anna L, Chee, Bill
   
3. Someone who works for a non profit company
   Patrick, Noriko, Mel
4. someone who works for Salesforce
   Charles, Milo
5. someone who works for a Salesforce partner
   Tu, Pas, Felix, Callum, Mark, Virath, Jack, Logan
6. someone who works at a government agency / public sector
   Jacob, Malde, Karthik 
7. someone who works for a customer (not non profit or public sector)
   Anna L, Alisha, Sarah S, Zed, Senara
8. Someone with 5 or more certifications
   Hamish W, Anna L, Dilip, Brook, James W, Vivek, Marilie
9. Someone who's attending their first SFWelly event
   Ella G, Jess Henn, Shriya, Virath, Tyler
10. Someone who has changed jobs this year
    Tyler G, Katie C, Mel, Hamza, Brendan, Virath, Ankush
11. Someone who is looking for their first Salesforce job
    Aidan H, Ella
12. Can you find someone with the Salesforce Associate certification?
    Senthil, Nick, Alex C, Jay

Spot prize winners were: Riya Alagh, Katie Connors, Chee, Virath, James G.

Mostly or fully completed entries will also get a spot prize - see us at the next in person event:

Congrats to: Patrick C, Dilip N, Chloe M, Mel B, Jay G, Felix, Charles T (with the proviso that it's doubtful that Natalie S would have said she has more than 5 certs!!), Ashish, Alisha D

Trailblazer Community Awards - Congratulations to the following well deserved winners!

1. Salesforce Welly's most committed couple - Callum MacErlich (Merkle) and Sarah Smith (ANZ)
2. Trailblazer new to SFWelly in 2023 - Srinevu Seelam - came as a job seeker (and newcomer to NZ & Welly) to a SFWelly in person event earlier this year then offered a role at Merkle
3. Rising Star - Rosie Kelly (who's presented at SFWelly for the first time and has since presented at other events)
4. Welcome Back - Airdre Knox - back after a long break
5. SFWelly's Non-Profit Super Star - Gabrielle Martell-Turner 
6. New 2023 Salesforce Welly welcome visitor -  Ben Hamid
7. Most Prolific SFWelly speaker - Mark Barcham
8. Welcome to SFWelly’s Newest NZ Citizen - Ben Stokes
   
9. Welcome to Te-Whanganui-a-Tara and Aotearoa - Daneen Johnson
10. SFWelly’s Most Supportive Partner Company - Upper Echelon

Hamish Miles

Hamish Miles congratulated the SFWelly team for another excellent event, and said that our community was very well respected and admired within the APAC region.

2023 saw the opening of the Salesforce Tower in Sydney, and Hamish was strongly recommending a visit, to see it in all its glory.

He also promoted the Sydney World Tour, happening Feb 28th. Hamish also presented the community awards.

Raksha Meanger

Raksha was introduced to the community as the new co-lead for the SFWelly community group - once she has completed the application and onboarding process in 2024. Raksha is familiar to most anyway, having been around the Wellington Salesforce ecosystem for many years, and is a Xero long-timer. Raksha's Salesforce highlight for 2023 was attending Dreamforce. She presented on her specific Dreamforce highlights at a session hosted by Deloitte back in October.

Sam Copeland

Sam joined Natalie as the non-profit user group co-lead in 2023. Sam's Salesforce related highlights for 2023 both included travel to Australia - first of all to the Trailblazer Boot Camp over on the Gold Coast in July, where she learnt all about Flows. In November Sam flew to Sydney to participate in the first ever Down Under Salesforce community commons sprint. This was a 2 day event, and was hosted at the new Sydney Tower, so Sam got to visit the tower as well, and experience the amazing views from the Ohana floor! Sam also promoted the upcoming Salesforce community commons sprint, which will be held in Sydney, on the 2 days immediately after world tour (29 Feb & March 1). Take this chance to help the global Salesforce non profit community by working on some worthwhile projects, and see the Sydney Salesforce Tower as well!

Natalie Savell

Natalie Savell has been involved in leading the non-profit user group now for a couple of years. It's been a busy year for Nat (she changed jobs), and a particular highlight for her this year has been that they've been able to relaunch the non profit user group and host in person meetings, and more are planned for early 2024. The group is really starting to get some momentum - so keep your eye out for upcoming meeting announcements!

Original Meeting Listing

Join us for our famous annual SF Welly mega combined Community December meeting....to review 2023 & hear Salesforce news, participate in a fun quiz, celebrate with community awards, network, win swag, participate in the photo booth challenge, and of course, pay it forward to Wellington Women's Refuge.

We have a large venue, so we have the space to welcome many of our #SFWelly whānau, so we have capacity for plenty to attend (but you do need to register please). Already we have our largest number of registrations ever - but we do have room for more!

Get ready to meet in person, acknowledging another challenging year for Salesforce and the Wellington community. This will be our last in-person event for 2023, come and join us as we wind down to the festive season. We are so lucky that we can meet in person. All are welcome - but please ensure you register to ensure the catering can cope. There will be a CASH BAR operating once the bar tab limit reached! Platter nibbles will be served at approx 6pm. 

We are expecting a large crowd and we have exclusive use of Foxglove's beautiful and spacious Ballroom function space to ourselves.

Check out the agenda for the approximate timings of the quiz, Salesforce updates, speeches, community awards, quiz spot prizes and nibbles. All announcements / Salesforce updates covered at the event will also be summarised in our annual group newsletter which will be sent out later in December.

PAY IT FORWARD

Our chosen charity for this event will again be Wellington Women's Refuge as per our annual tradition, and this year, as always, they need our help and support. You are encouraged to support the refuge by bringing along a donation - this can be cash, a Christmas gift suitable for a child (or parent), or grocery items. All items will be gratefully accepted and will be passed on to the refuge as soon as possible. We will also be circulating a QR Code with a direct link to digital donation, at the event, so no worries if you've come without cash :)

ENTERTAINMENT

This year Upper Echelon will once again be sponsoring the fun photo booth for you. Huge thanks to Carl, Lauren and the Upper Echelon team for making this happen. There will be prizes awarded for the most creative photo booth photos - check the challenges on the day and be in to win swag to be awarded at our first event in 2024!

SPONSORSHIP

This popular annual event wouldn't happen without sponsorship, #SFWelly is hugely appreciative of the support of Salesforce and Upper Echelon. Thank you so much!

MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK AND CHECK OUT THIS EVENT LISTING AFTERWARDS TO ENJOY THE PARTY PHOTOS :)

Please ensure you are registered as we need to keep track of attendees. If you have trouble registering or have any questions, please email anna.loughnan@trailblazercgl.com - you can be manually added to the guest list if need be!

ACCESS TO FOXGLOVE'S QUEEN'S WHARF BALLROOM FUNCTION SPACE

The Queen's Wharf Ballroom has a separate entrance to Foxglove. The entrance is on the city side of the building, between One Red Dog and Cuckoo. Go up the stairs and you'll find us.