A little planning goes a long way in making Dreamforce a successful experience. To help make Dreamforce 2016 even more amazing, we turned to the sales experts. Between them, they have attended dozens and dozens of this event – but even they acknowledge that there is always something new to learn.

Take David Brock, for example. Having spent much of his time at Dreamforce in restaurants, he’s mixing it up this year by scheduling “walking meetings.” His reasons? First, during Dreamforce, all San Francisco eateries near Moscone are jam-packed, and Uber is overwhelmed to get you elsewhere. Second, all those restaurant meetings add up to a huge calorie bomb! Plus, walking meetings give you the opportunity to see the cool areas being built south of Mission and by the Embarcadero.

Additionally, according to Richard Harris, women don’t need to wear heels all day and – if you won’t make it back to your hotel before going out – be sure to carry a fleece or light sweater.

All of the tips show that you can learn a lot from experience – even if it’s not your own.

Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist, The Bridge Group
One of the benefits of Dreamforce is the power of numbers but it is also a downside. The more you can be prepared in advance to meet with the people you hope to contact the better. The chance of just bumping into them is slim to none so do your pre-work and reap the benefits.

Joanne Black, Founder, No More Cold Calling
Dreamforce is the premier event to network with clients and prospects, meet new people, and attend sessions to learn from top sales leaders. Like any conference, real business is conducted "in the hallway." Sales pros make plans with clients and prospects to meet outside of the event. Some never attend the event, but accelerate their sales process by using Dreamforce as the reason to meet people coming in from out of town--even from out of the States.

Tiffani Bova, Salesforce Strategist
The Sales Summit on October 4th is a must attend for anyone looking to become a sales trailblazer! 40+ experts will share countless insights about sales strategy, sales leadership, sales development and sales operations.

David Brock, President, Partners in EXCELLENCE
Go to at least 2 sessions that you normally would not choose to attend. To be honest, if you stay on one track, e.g. sales, marketing, customer service, you start hearing too much of the same thing over and over. Go to a few sessions most distant to what you do every day and listen to them. You’ll learn a lot and be able to figure out how to apply some of the ideas to your role.

Deb Calvert, President, People First Productivity Solutions
Make the most of your time in one of America's most beautiful and interesting cities! There's so much to see and do here. Don't get stuck in conference-only mode. As you're networking, get out and about with some of your new colleagues and friends.

Sally Duby, GM for The Bridge Group
My tip is to meet at least one new person at lunch, during a break and at each event you go to. The best thing about these conferences is the networking so set a goal so you meet new people.

Richard Harris, Owner, The Harris Consulting Group
Ask people why their business exists, not what their business does. You will get better answers and stand out from the crowd in terms of follow-up conversations. And, if you aren’t from the Bay Area, don’t call it Frisco or San Fran – just call it San Francisco or The City!

Alice Heiman, Speaker, Sales Coach, Author
Enjoy. Don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t be afraid to step away and collect your thoughts or write some notes. Often we feel we will miss something. You might, but so what. Better to absorb a few things well that you can put to use.

Mark Hunter, CEO and Founder, The Sales Hunter
Monitor the Twitter stream during the big events to better hear what others are saying and to engage with others you would otherwise never have a chance to connect with.

Nancy Nardin, Founder and President, Smart Selling Tools
Don’t carry anything that you don’t absolutely 100% need to carry (especially a laptop). Carrying nothing but a water bottle, a phone and/or a purse is ideal. The amount of walking you’ll do in a day will add up to a few miles so keep your load light. Also, the less you carry, the less chance there is of accidentally leaving it behind at one of the many stops you’ll be making.

Lori Richardson, Founder and CEO, Score More Sales
Take enough time in advance to go through the sessions, paying attention to topics and where they are located. For example, on Tuesday, there is a full day of #SalesSummit sessions which have been hand selected and are highly valuable – plus they are all in the same location, so it is a win to focus around those sessions. Don't over think it, but do review ahead before you arrive to make sure your schedule is do-able and there is some downtime to give your brain a rest. Otherwise it can be very overwhelming.    

Koka Sexton, Founder, Social Selling Labs LLC
Create a keyboard shortcut on your mobile phone to respond to people connecting with you on Linkedin. When you're on a train or a cab, the mobile app is a better experience for connection requests, when you accept, fire off a 'thank you for connecting' message. I type in "TFC" and it expands to "Thanks for connecting. If I can ever be of service or answer a question, let me know." Then I just have to add their name and something short to personalize it. This hack has saved me countless hours and started some great relationships.

Finally, after attending Dreamforce several times, my own must do is to carry small, healthy snacks in my backpack – packets of almonds, Kashi bars, dark chocolate, cranberries, etc… In addition to giving you an energy boost, they’re great to share with others and make new acquaintances.

Thank you to everyone for all of the must-dos, and here’s to another great event!

Jennifer Dignum is Associate Director, Communications for LiveHive, Inc., provider of an open and extensible sales acceleration platform. LiveHive powers businesses to drive higher sales growth and deliver greater customer value with analytics and automation. Seamlessly integrated with Salesforce, LiveHive triples rep productivity and gives leaders real-time digital insights into sales activities for faster time-to-revenue.