Dreamforce made headlines last month after the now-viral moment when comedian John Mulaney roasted Salesforce’s “imminently replaceable” workforce for wearing “fleece vests” and embodying all of the other corporate tech bro stereotypes.  

“The fact that there are 45,000 ‘trailblazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title any more,” Mulaney added during his 45-minute set, throwing in that the Salesforce workers filling the audience around him looked “like a group who looked at the self-checkout counters at CVS and thought, ‘This is the future.’” 

The reality is that hiring a comedian for an event like Salesforce’s flagship annual conference leaves a lot of room for attention-grabbing remarks that end up as news headlines or memes. And though there are likely event organizers who would want to avoid Mulaney saying that their company's employees “are working on products that are just okay,” the moment could also be lauded as a case study in pushing the boundaries. After all, Oscar Wilde famously said: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” 

One thing’s for sure—Dreamforce 2024 was full of other moments that were also worth writing home about, especially for fellow event organizers. Here are the top three reasons why: 

1. Staying relevant when it comes to programming and attendee preferences 

Not every show can buy out San Francisco’s 2 million-square-foot Moscone Center for three days like Dreamforce can. However, organizers of events at every scale can learn from Dreamforce’s ability to stay relevant by leaning into what programming attendees want to see—and the way in which they want to see it.  

Unsurprisingly, Salesforce’s own data proved that artificial intelligence (AI) is still at the top of business leaders’ minds. So, from Sept. 17 to 19, the company welcomed 45,000 in-person attendees to enjoy AI-related programming, featuring more than 70 prominent people in the field, including tech journalists Kevin Roose with The New York Times and Casey Newton of The Verge. 

Salesforce also used the event as an opportunity to bring Agentforce to life. All-things Agentforce, an autonomous customer and employee support program, was housed in the Agentforce Launch Zone.  

When it comes to implementing more AI, a spokesperson for Salesforce told TSNN that Salesforce frequently finds that company leaders are concerned they will “face hidden costs when they try to DIY their AI implementation.”  

Thus, rather than demo-ing the new tech in the Launch Zone, attendees were invited to take a seat and build their own AI robot prototype. Salesforce reported that an impressive 10,000 autonomous agents were created at Dreamforce 2024--each with unique abilities to address the specific needs of their creators’ respective companies. 

Perhaps even more impressively, each AI agent was created “in minutes,” Salesforce’s spokesperson said, noting the company's efforts to embed AI “deeply into the heart of the customer journey.”  

The 22nd annual Dreamforce featured more than 1,500 sessions and workshops. New this year, however, were Personalized Trail Maps, which attendees could utilize to build their own on-site agenda. True to Salesforce’s own AI initiatives, the tool curated sessions and experiences to a guest’s role and interests.  

Another notable addition this year: "Deep learning sessions,” such as hands-on training sessions, roundtables, and workshops, boasted reserved seating arrangements. Reservations could be made ahead of time within the Dreamforce app. Other educational programming, however—including a popular session with Matthew McConaughey and Jane Goodall titled “Leading With Purpose, Building for Legacy”—offered seating on a “first come, first seated” basis. 

2. Tracking economic impact 

Numbers don’t lie—and they don’t always need to include dollar signs to prove a return on investment.  

When it comes to Dreamforce, numbers reveal how impactful the event is, especially to the local community. Here are the most notable figures from this year’s event: 

• $93 million: approximate amount generated for the city of San Francisco 
• $112 million+: money raised with the help of Dreamforce’s fundraiser Dreamfest—headlined this year by P!nk and Imagine Dragons—within the last decade (Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, have also personally gifted the hospital upwards of $100 million over the years) 
• 100,000: roughly the number of plastic bottles Dreamforce prevented from ending up in landfills thanks to compostable packaging and recyclable lanyards and badges on-site 

3. Paring it back when it matters 

For an event that’s as large as Dreamforce, event organizers appear to pay special attention to keeping it approachable. After all, Salesforce advertises that “everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend, whether new to Salesforce or a long-time product user,” and it calls its trade show floor a “Campground.” 

There were some pretty aspirational touchpoints throughout—such as a headlining performance from Elton John, and AI-interactive robot dogs that roamed up and down the event campus. “Offering both entertainment and education on how they can perform different functions,” according to a Salesforce spokesperson, these “dogs” can assume search-and-rescue roles in small, hard-to-reach environments by “seeing” via “infrared in their nose.” 

There were also touchpoints that are attainable to event organizers dealing with all sorts of constraints. Consider the old-school “Idea Wall,” a good ‘ole bulletin board where guests were encouraged to tack handwritten notes about their thoughts and ideas. There were no boundaries on what could and couldn’t be posted, which made for “a great conversation starter,” as was originally reported in TSNN’s sister publication, MeetingsNet. 

It’s also worth mentioning that all of Dreamforce’s programming was streamed via Salesforce+. Though figures related to this year’s registration on the livestreaming service have yet to be published, past iterations of Salesforce+ drew in millions of additional attendees globally each day of the event.  

Already thinking about attending Dreamforce? The next one is slated to return to San Francisco in mid-September 2025. (Exact dates TBD.) 

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