After my trip to Uruguay earlier this year, I continued my world travels in 2017 with an extended vacation to Europe and India! I spent a total of 4 days in Bangalore and while not nearly enough time to see the surrounding area, let alone the entire country, it left me with a tremendous amount of memories!
On top of all the sights and tours I took in Bangalore, the main reason I went was to speak at the Bengaluru Salesforce Developer user group, according to Meetup, the largest Salesforce Developer group in the world. I was honored to be invited to speak there and loved the opening remarks by one of the group leaders, Abhilash Kuntar, who announced that his goal was to see 50% attendance from the WIT community in Bangalore at the Developer group. This is a tremendous goal that I think all groups should try to emulate! There is a growing and thriving WIT Community in India, thanks in part to Abhilasha Singh. I’m excited to see what’s to come!
I started off by presenting on the Tooling API and finished up presenting on how to Blaze your Trail and grow your career with Salesforce. Feel free to check out the slides.
I was able to get some authentic samosas and get some selfies with some of the great people that make up part of the Salesforce community in India.
I was also extremely touched after being presented with several gifts
One of my major takeaways though, was how passionate the people are there. In addition to some great cultural experiences from the tours I took, everyone I met was extremely welcoming and helpful. Bangalore specifically, made me feel like I was back in the Bay Area, with the enormous amount of tech talent and entrepreneurial spirit that I felt from everyone.
Being based in San Francisco, near Salesforce HQ, it is easy to forget how vast the Ohana truly is, spreading all over the world. For me, this trip was proof that it is thriving in many other places as well! For anyone looking for their next major trip, or just to get some world travel in, I would highly recommend Bangalore, and India in general. There are several events taking place there in 2018, and a great many people to follow to stay up to date about all that is happening there.
India Dreamin’, Bengaluru Calling, and Jaipur Dev Fest were the major events that took place or were planned for 2017. I’d recommend following their accounts to stay apprised of 2018 details.
Special thanks to the following people who made my stay incredible, I recommend following them all and connecting with them to learn about the Ohana in India and/or to get some travel recommendations if you are able to visit!
Adam To Architect 