About Us

In 2015 eight members in the Southeast region of the United States recognized the lack of professional development opportunities for Salesforce professionals. Taking a risk, they founded Southeast Dreamin to be that answer to the large-scale learning and networking to support their professional advancement. Since it's inception, Southeast Dreamin has invited 1200+ national & international Salesforce professionals to share industry knowledge and best practices in Atlanta, GA.

As a community-led conference, 100% of the conference's development is organized by volunteers. Over the course of 11 months, the volunteer team dedicates over 1,440 hours to the annual 2 day conference featuring 30 sessions and 10 hands-on trainings. Funding for the conference is only possible with various sponsors comprised of Salesforce Consulting and ISV partners. The continued support of the sponsors is what makes it possible to offer afforable professional development opportunities to the community.

Core Team

Our team works hard to bring the best event we can to you!

Photo of Amber Boaz

Amber Boaz

Other duties as assigned

Amber entered the Salesforce universe in late 2008 and was immediately smitten. Since then she has passed 14 certification exams, founded or co-founded 5 user groups (Nonprofit UG, Dev Meetup, Architect, Women In Tech, & Slack), started a weekly Salesforce Saturday in central NC, and is a 8 time Dreamforce speaker. Amber has been a Salesforce.com MVP since 2011.

Amber is always looking for ways to help organizations streamline their processes. She has worked with Fortune 500 organizations, startups, nonprofits, and everything in between. When not Salesforce-ing, Amber enjoys walking her dog Ranger in her hometown of Durham NC, tweeting (@amber9904), community theater, and spending time with her nieces. Amber can be bribed with chocolate cake or gin.

Photo of Patrick Connelly

Patrick Connelly

Session Wrangler & Code Tamer

Patrick has been writing code since he could first type (BASIC on the Commodore 64). In 2009 Patrick was asked to "help with this Salesforce thing since you know coding" and the rest is history. This set him on the track to lead the RDU Developer user group, becoming a Salesforce MVP in 2013 and speaking multiple times at Dreamforce and various Salesforce webinars.

When Patrick isn't writing code for work he's writing code for "fun", photographing things, 3d printing things, making things of wood and building things out of electronics.

Photo of Dee Hamori

Dee Hamori

Keynote Wrangler

Dee is a former pharmacist turned Salesforce Architect. From the very beginning of her Salesforce journey, Dee has been captivated by the world of automation, and she continues to channel this passion into transforming businesses, one Flow at a time. She actively supports the Salesforce community by mentoring career changers and leading Salesforce Saturday meetups. Dee shares her Salesforce insights through articles and conference talks.

Beyond her professional life, she finds joy in tending to her plant collection, exploring the great outdoors in national parks, reading, and painting.

Photo of Karmel James

Karmel James

Magic Marketer & Resident Adult

Karmel started her Salesforce career in 2015 after a single data migration exposed her to streamlined, consistent data quality. Applying scientific principle to complex business processes, she strives to build holistic technical solutions. Karmel has held multiple roles from in-house administration to consultancy working at over 20+ organizations in industries including healthcare, nonprofits, venture captial, and ed-tech. As a Salesforce Marketing Champion and Golden Hoodie, she's passionate in sharing innovations and best practices with the Salesforce community at user group meetings, WITness Success, and TrailheadDX.

Outside of Salesforce, Karmel is an avid learner of American Sign Language (#LearnFromDeafTeachers), a hobby seamstress, and music aficionado creating a personalized soundtrack to her life.

Photo of Kelly Spaulding

Kelly Spaulding

Salesforce Doula and Sponsor Wrangler

Whilst being adjacent to Salesforce (in some capacity or other) since 2012, it wasn't until about 2016 that Kelly decided that "resistance was futile." And so, for fun…she, and a couple of other family members, put her very large family on in a Salesforce org so she could solution real world problems in her spare time. She is a lover of coffee, yoga, and travel. She is also a dog momma.

Photo of Steven Welch

Steven Welch

Marketing Wrangler

A relative newbie when it comes to all things Salesforce, Steven dove right into the ecosystem back in 2022. Since then, he's been working to tell the stories and form the bigger picture for all things Salesforce data management. A native of metro Atlanta, he was looking for a way to become more engaged with the conference that's hosted in his own stomping grounds so he jumped at the chance to join the Southeast Dreamin' team.

When he's not busy working, he loves all things London, the color blue, and spending time with his pets - two cats named Winston Purrchill (no for real, he really does love London) and Emma, and his geriatric chihuahua Baron who still serves all the lewks even in his golden years.

Photo of Chris Zullo

Chris Zullo

Bad Marketer

Salesforce MVP, Marketing Champion, and Partner. Transplanted Bostonian. Family guy. Dogs > cats.

Photo of Amber Boaz

Amber Boaz

Other duties as assigned

Amber entered the Salesforce universe in late 2008 and was immediately smitten. Since then she has passed 14 certification exams, founded or co-founded 5 user groups (Nonprofit UG, Dev Meetup, Architect, Women In Tech, & Slack), started a weekly Salesforce Saturday in central NC, and is a 8 time Dreamforce speaker. Amber has been a Salesforce.com MVP since 2011.

Amber is always looking for ways to help organizations streamline their processes. She has worked with Fortune 500 organizations, startups, nonprofits, and everything in between. When not Salesforce-ing, Amber enjoys walking her dog Ranger in her hometown of Durham NC, tweeting (@amber9904), community theater, and spending time with her nieces. Amber can be bribed with chocolate cake or gin.

Patrick Connelly

Session Wrangler & Code Tamer

Photo of Patrick Connelly

Patrick has been writing code since he could first type (BASIC on the Commodore 64). In 2009 Patrick was asked to "help with this Salesforce thing since you know coding" and the rest is history. This set him on the track to lead the RDU Developer user group, becoming a Salesforce MVP in 2013 and speaking multiple times at Dreamforce and various Salesforce webinars.

When Patrick isn't writing code for work he's writing code for "fun", photographing things, 3d printing things, making things of wood and building things out of electronics.

Photo of Dee Hamori

Dee Hamori

Keynote Wrangler

Dee is a former pharmacist turned Salesforce Architect. From the very beginning of her Salesforce journey, Dee has been captivated by the world of automation, and she continues to channel this passion into transforming businesses, one Flow at a time. She actively supports the Salesforce community by mentoring career changers and leading Salesforce Saturday meetups. Dee shares her Salesforce insights through articles and conference talks.

Beyond her professional life, she finds joy in tending to her plant collection, exploring the great outdoors in national parks, reading, and painting.

Karmel James

Magic Marketer & Resident Adult

Photo of Karmel James

Karmel started her Salesforce career in 2015 after a single data migration exposed her to streamlined, consistent data quality. Applying scientific principle to complex business processes, she strives to build holistic technical solutions. Karmel has held multiple roles from in-house administration to consultancy working at over 20+ organizations in industries including healthcare, nonprofits, venture captial, and ed-tech. As a Salesforce Marketing Champion and Golden Hoodie, she's passionate in sharing innovations and best practices with the Salesforce community at user group meetings, WITness Success, and TrailheadDX.

Outside of Salesforce, Karmel is an avid learner of American Sign Language (#LearnFromDeafTeachers), a hobby seamstress, and music aficionado creating a personalized soundtrack to her life.

Photo of Kelly Spaulding

Kelly Spaulding

Salesforce Doula and Sponsor Wrangler

Whilst being adjacent to Salesforce (in some capacity or other) since 2012, it wasn't until about 2016 that Kelly decided that "resistance was futile." And so, for fun…she, and a couple of other family members, put her very large family on in a Salesforce org so she could solution real world problems in her spare time. She is a lover of coffee, yoga, and travel. She is also a dog momma.

Steven Welch

Marketing Wrangler

Photo of Steven Welch

A relative newbie when it comes to all things Salesforce, Steven dove right into the ecosystem back in 2022. Since then, he's been working to tell the stories and form the bigger picture for all things Salesforce data management. A native of metro Atlanta, he was looking for a way to become more engaged with the conference that's hosted in his own stomping grounds so he jumped at the chance to join the Southeast Dreamin' team.

When he's not busy working, he loves all things London, the color blue, and spending time with his pets - two cats named Winston Purrchill (no for real, he really does love London) and Emma, and his geriatric chihuahua Baron who still serves all the lewks even in his golden years.

Photo of Chris Zullo

Chris Zullo

Bad Marketer

Salesforce MVP, Marketing Champion, and Partner. Transplanted Bostonian. Family guy. Dogs > cats.

Support Team

Photo of Michelle Bura

Michelle Bura

Speaker Mentor

Michelle began her Salesforce adventure in 2014 and since then has been on a whirlwind journey of growth leading to 7 Salesforce Certifications and working in multiple industries and various company sizes.

Michelle is all about bringing people together and fostering a sense of belonging. As the founder of Salesforce Saturday Atlanta and the Co-Leader of the Atlanta Admin Salesforce Community Group, she’s fostered a community where professionals can connect, learn, and thrive. As a testament to her dedication to bringing together the community to learn and grow, Salesforce recognized Michelle with a Golden Hoodie in 2019.

Michelle’s impact extends beyond Atlanta, as she’s shared her insights and experiences at major events like Dreamforce, TrailblazerDX, and Southeast Dreamin', inspiring audiences with her passion for learning and teaching.

Outside of the Salesforce world, Michelle is all about family time and embracing hobbies. Whether it's spending quality moments with loved ones or diving into puzzles, games, or woodworking projects, she finds joy in every facet of life.

Photo of Travis Householder

Travis Householder

Demo Jam Presenter

I have been working on Salesforce since 2017 in the Banking Industry with Commercial Loan Originations. Currently working at Truist Bank.

Born and Raised in Indiana and moved down to Ga after High School.

I recently Married my childhood sweetheart.

I have 2 Teenage Boys with my oldest heading off to College in North Georgia in the Fall

Photo of Aaron King

Aaron King

Demo Jam Presenter

Aaron King has been using Salesforce since 2004, pushing the platform to the limits with “creative” configuration. Since joining ISV partner nCino in 2016, Aaron has worked on the Professional Services teams of Implementation Consultants, Managed Services, and Solution Architecture, all with the goal of making happy long term customers. Holder of 16 Salesforce certifications, Aaron loves to get crazy mixing up different pieces of Salesforce functionality and features to find innovative solutions for each customer's needs, often offering a proposal so outrageous that the team then sees the beauty of the more traditional standard approaches.

Photo of Michelle Bura

Michelle Bura

Speaker Mentor

Michelle began her Salesforce adventure in 2014 and since then has been on a whirlwind journey of growth leading to 7 Salesforce Certifications and working in multiple industries and various company sizes.

Michelle is all about bringing people together and fostering a sense of belonging. As the founder of Salesforce Saturday Atlanta and the Co-Leader of the Atlanta Admin Salesforce Community Group, she’s fostered a community where professionals can connect, learn, and thrive. As a testament to her dedication to bringing together the community to learn and grow, Salesforce recognized Michelle with a Golden Hoodie in 2019.

Michelle’s impact extends beyond Atlanta, as she’s shared her insights and experiences at major events like Dreamforce, TrailblazerDX, and Southeast Dreamin', inspiring audiences with her passion for learning and teaching.

Outside of the Salesforce world, Michelle is all about family time and embracing hobbies. Whether it's spending quality moments with loved ones or diving into puzzles, games, or woodworking projects, she finds joy in every facet of life.

Travis Householder

Demo Jam Presenter

Photo of Travis Householder

I have been working on Salesforce since 2017 in the Banking Industry with Commercial Loan Originations. Currently working at Truist Bank.

Born and Raised in Indiana and moved down to Ga after High School.

I recently Married my childhood sweetheart.

I have 2 Teenage Boys with my oldest heading off to College in North Georgia in the Fall

Photo of Aaron King

Aaron King

Demo Jam Presenter

Aaron King has been using Salesforce since 2004, pushing the platform to the limits with “creative” configuration. Since joining ISV partner nCino in 2016, Aaron has worked on the Professional Services teams of Implementation Consultants, Managed Services, and Solution Architecture, all with the goal of making happy long term customers. Holder of 16 Salesforce certifications, Aaron loves to get crazy mixing up different pieces of Salesforce functionality and features to find innovative solutions for each customer's needs, often offering a proposal so outrageous that the team then sees the beauty of the more traditional standard approaches.