As we arrived in Ramallah today, the local phone network welcomed us to the land of jasmine and olives, we didn't see any jasmine, but there were a lot of olive trees.

We received a very warm welcome, with delicious coffee, at the Birzeit University office, where we were co-hosted by the University and the United States Consulate General from Jerusalem.

Twenty-five Palestinian NGOs attended our workshop today. Only one was an existing user, and at the end of the day, all 25 had started a trial of the nonprofit template, had learned how to add fields, manage users and find their way around the self-service resources.

It was a great introduction to a new nonprofit sector for us and we're confident we've met some technology innovators today.

Isabel

Just to follow on Isabel's comments was what an interesting and unique experience the whole day was in Ramallah. Our trip to the west bank started early in the morning and we were transported safely and efficiently to Berzeit University. It was a great room, fast internet and good computers for the participants. We split up the work, Isabel on our programs, Sara on resources, and I doing the product demo and setup training.

The participants asked great questions, with a few jumping ahead wanting to use our portal products and build custom applications. We stayed for about 6 hours and were able to cover a pretty in depth hands on demo on the product. We left feeling genuinely appreciated and feeling the excitement of opening the eyes of the NGO's on software as a service. I think a lot of Palestinian NGO's feel left out of some of the programs other nonprofits get and really valued the attention and focus on them in a classroom setting.

Chris

What more can I add to Chris and Isabel's comments? I hope we shared some knowledge of Salesforce with the nonprofit organizations we met today. I felt I received an education in wonderful hospitality and I am genuinely looking forward to building on the relationships started today.

Sara