Can you believe that 2016 is coming to an end already? Apart from obvious political news, we lost the legends of David Bowie and Prince...The Dixie Chicks reunited...Brangelina split up...We cheered that epic father/daughter wedding dance, and who could forget Chewbacca Mom? With all the excitement out there, it's quite possible you missed some of the epic Salesforce U news of 2016. Let's recap.

The Year of the Salesforce-certified Professional

2016 saw the launch of our first series of Incredible Certification Stories, hearing from people all over the world on how becoming Salesforce-certified has truly changed their lives. Our very own Master Instructor, Wendy Braid shared the feeling she had when she became the first U.S. woman certified back when the program launched in 2008.

Girbson Bijou, the first (and only) Salesforce-certified person in Haiti, talked about the importance of opening the door to guide others to join him. Jenn Romaniszak told us how she went from being a public artist, to having to manage five-part time jobs before becoming certified and building a successful career as a Salesforce Consultant. In the UK, Hamza Abib did the near impossible by sitting for and passing five certifications in one day. And in Australia, Certified Technical Architect Steven Herod went one more and passed six of the new Architect certs in the same day. Now that deserves an epic water bottle flip type celebration!

The Launch of the First-Ever Salesforce Training and Certification Conference 

Similar to how the world's best of the best traveled to Rio to compete for the chance to become world champions in their chosen sport, Salesforce experts competed in our inaugural World Champion Showdown at Destination Success (#DST16), Salesforce's first dedicated training and certification event in Las Vegas. We crowned champions in the Admin, Developer, and Marketer tracks. And #DST16 was so well received that we won an award from Brandon Hall for Best Use of Blended Learning! See our best-of round-up, then secure your place for March 2017 as there were no seats left in our 2016 event.

Extended Learning at Dreamforce

The past success of our rapidly sold out, highly coveted Hands-on Training sessions led us to add even more learning opportunities at Dreamforce '16. For the first time, Salesforce University had its own lodge at the event complete with a peak performance theater, Mt. Swagmore, sherpa lounge, summit slalom game, “Climb the summit” gif photo booth — spot the theme here at all? Packed with training and certification opportunities, over 11,000 Salesforce customer trailblazers joined us to explore, get hands-on training, learn tips from our Master Instructors, and to get certified. Check out the highlights.

Certified Technical Architects: Charting a New Path to the Top

The Mannequin Challenge swept the internet this year, inspiring people to reach even higher with their elaborate “still as a statue” set-ups. Even Oz Dreamin' got in on the act! We, too, wanted to inspire people to go higher and reach the dizzying heights of the coveted Certified Technical Architect program with the launch of the all-new Salesforce Architect Journey, where the path to the top became more defined than ever before, and now includes FREE learning resources, new domains, and new certifications.

The Introduction of 10 New Salesforce Certifications (And a Retirement Too)

Speaking of new certifications - what a year! As with the Pokémon GO^TM phenomenon, you'll want to “Catch 'em all!”; especially popular are the new credentials added to the Implementation and Architect tracks. MVP Admin Hero, Salesforce Ben, sums up a year of new cert releases very nicely here. We also discovered that, just as Season 8 will be the last ever for Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming” too for our Force.com Developer and Advanced Developer Certifications. However, fear not! We detailed how you can maintain a foothold on the Iron Throne with our “Steps to transitioning” blog.

So, what's going to be big in 2017? If 2016 is any indication, we'd hedge our bets on hearing from even more certification heroes, the delivery of additional award-winning learning opportunities, and the introduction of even more industry-recognized credentials you can hang your hat on. Want to get a jump start on your Salesforce learning for next year? Head over to salesforce.com/training.