Lightning Champions: Thunderstruck

Lightning is coming. That's right - with the Winter 20 release, Lightning will be turned on by default We all knew this day would come... so with that in mind, there's no better time to become a Lightning Champion! I joined the program in July of 2018 and have had some amazing opportunities and experiences since then. It has been such a success that applications had to be closed, but they are back open until January 31!

With the re-opening of applications, I thought I'd check in with program coordinators Chelsea Kaufman and Kelly Walker to find out how the program came time life. Starting only last year, the Lightning Champion program began with several Salesforce team members wanting to help give us Trailblazers a way to share  passion and experience for rolling out the Lightning Experience, or building apps on the Lightning Platform, with the community.

So why become a Lightning Champion? I joined as I was looking for more ways to contribute to the community, not to mention I love building apps on the Lightning Platform. "If you are blazing a trail with Lightning, and want to help others do the same, the Lightning Champions program is for you! The ideal candidate is someone who is excited about sharing their experience publicly and is already proactively engaging with their community to help others find success." explained Chelsea.

The great thing is, you don't need to have a tonne of experience either. There are opportunities for all sorts of skill levels from (relatively) newbie Administrators all the way up to CTAs. At the Breakfast with the Lightning Champions session held at recently at New York World tour, there was quite a mix of champions there, and while I don't have the same experience level that Ladies Be Architects group co-leaders Charly Prinsloo and Susannah St. Germain do, I was definitely able to chat with a group of users and admins about the benefits of the Lightning Platform, and brainstorm some ideas with them.

As a champion, I was asked to participate in a panel session at New York World Tour - "The Code: Trailblazing Women in Tech". As well there were other volunteering opportunities at Dreamforce, and even for Lightning Now tour that came to Toronto earlier in the year. We've also had some other exclusive learning opportunties focused around Lightning - not to mention some literal blingin' swag!

Cloudy borrowed my Lightning Champion Trailblazer Hoodie at Dreamforce

So now I bet you're thinking, this sounds great! What do I have to do, and how do I do it? Well, even though the program is open to everyone, there are some pre-requisites in the form of the Lightning Experience Rollout Superbadge for Activation Champions, or the App Customization Specialist Superbadge for App Builder Champions.

With Lightning coming at the end of the year, there will be plenty of opportunties for Lightning Champions to volunteer throughout the year - the Lightning team will be at all sorts of events, from TrailheaDX, Dreamforce and World tours, to as many Community events as they can!

Lightning Champion applications are open until January 31, and are open for Trailblazers all over the world! Head to https://sfdc.co/Lightning-Champions if you have more questions, and to apply.

Special thanks to Kelly and Chelsea for contributing to this post, and for running the program!

Soundtrack: Thunderstruck - AC/DC