Your Voice is Shaping the Future

Your Voice is Shaping the Future

Trailblazers from around the world came together this summer to share ideas, spark connections, and shape the future of our community.

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Together at the Table

The Salesforce Community ecosystem has always been about one thing: people coming together to learn, share, and grow. That's why we created the Community Advisory Board (CAB): a group of trusted community leaders who volunteered to serve an 18-month term to ensure the voice of the community guides Salesforce's future.

Born out of feedback from the community, the CAB reflects both the deep pride Salesforce professionals have in these communities and the shared desire to shape what's next.

Who's on the CAB?

The 28 members of the inaugural CAB represent the full diversity of the ecosystem:

• From 6 continents and 13 countries
• A mix of ecosystem newbies and long-time veterans
• Covering every product community across Salesforce

This means leaders from the Trailblazer, MuleSoft, Tableau and Slack communities are now working side by side with their Salesblazer, Serviceblazer, Datablazer, Agentblazer, Nonprofit and Marketing Champion peers. Each community brings its own unique expertise and perspectives into one shared conversation.

Some joined in person for the CAB Summit at the Agentblazer Ranch in San Francisco, while others dialed in online ensuring a truly global, inclusive dialogue.

What We Heard at the CAB Summit

The July Summit spanned two days of open, candid discussion and collaboration between CAB members and Salesforce executives.

The Summit opened with a Welcome Session featuring Ariel Kelman (CMO), Meredith Brown (SVP, Trailhead & Trailblazer Community), Leah McGowen-Hare (SVP, Trailblazer Community), and Sabastian Niles (President & Chief Legal Officer).

Other highlights included:

• An Equality Panel with Alexandra Siegel (VP, Equality) and Leah McGowen-Hare, underscoring the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the community.
• A Meet the Makers panel featuring leaders from across Salesforce products moderated by Meredith Brown offered a look at how the platform is evolving to help Trailblazers learn in the agentic era.
• Breakout workshops with executive sponsors, who helped CAB members set goals for their focus areas.

The community's feedback was clear. They want to see:

• Transparency around how Salesforce invests in community programs
• Deeper data insights to understand the needs of both new and experienced members
• Accountability to make sure feedback leads to action

Aligning on a Community V2MOM

A major milestone of the Summit was aligning on a Community Advisory Board V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures) - a guiding framework that defines how the CAB and Salesforce will partner moving forward.

• Vision: To empower a diverse and passionate Community Advisory Board as a trusted partner in shaping Salesforce's inclusive community strategy, amplifying and enabling the global community's voice, co-creating meaningful initiatives, and fostering opportunity across the Salesforce ecosystem. Together, the CAB will create a vibrant mosaic of connection, innovation, and inclusion.
• Values: Trust, Diversity, Accountability, Community Success, and Transparency.

This V2MOM ensures that everything the CAB does - from feedback loops with product teams to creating learning content and event experiences - is anchored in shared purpose and clear measures of progress.

Turning Feedback Into Action

Building on the Summit and guided by their new V2MOM, the CAB has already begun turning feedback into action. They aligned on a shared vision and launched subcommittees focused on:

• Community at Events - Enhance community presence, experience, and engagement at SF & Community events
• Content & Learning - Develop and improve community-driven educational content, knowledge sharing, and enablement strategies
• Digital Community Platforms - Optimize Salesforce's online community platforms for collaboration, innovation, and impact.
• Product & Community - Build stronger feedback loops and access between community and product teams
• Community Member Journey - Defining the Community journey from Member to Leader (and beyond!)
  

And the CAB is already making an impact. After thoughtful discussion, they recommended not moving forward with a standalone Community Keynote at Dreamforce. Instead, they advised investing efforts in infusing community moments and voices throughout the entire Dreamforce experience - ensuring that the heart of the community isn't limited to one stage or one session, but woven across the week to reach more Trailblazers and amplify more voices than ever before.

What's Next

The CAB's work is just getting started. Members will continue to meet regularly throughout the year to advance their subcommittees, share updates, and ensure community voices are represented in Salesforce decisions.

You'll see their impact in upcoming Dreamforce moments, in future blog updates, and across the Trailblazer Community - where their guidance will help shape programs, platforms, and events for Trailblazers everywhere.

Stronger, Together

The Salesforce Community is powerful because of you. Your feedback, your ideas, your leadership-that's what inspires change.

To our CAB members: thank you for representing the voices of Trailblazers worldwide. To every Trailblazer: keep speaking up, keep sharing, and keep showing us what's possible. Together, we're building the future of this community.

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Mallory Ranahan leads the Trailblazer Community team at Salesforce, where she is dedicated to creating impactful engagement opportunities and offering ongoing support to community members.