As Salesforce’s flagship conference, Dreamforce is the highlight of the year for many professionals in the ecosystem. With countless workshops, networking opportunities, and parties – not to mention a famous musical headliner – Dreamforce is a much-loved event that attracts tens of thousands of Trailblazers to San Francisco every year.
In the wake of the global pandemic, Dreamforce has adapted to cater for a virtual audience, launching Salesforce+ (Salesforce’s very own streaming service) to offer a combination of live-streamed and on-demand events. Now that in-person events are back in business, Dreamforce has adopted a hybrid approach to reach an even wider audience.
From choosing which workshops to attend, to booking your accommodation, this complete guide will tell you everything you need to know – with dates now confirmed for Dreamforce ’24, here’s a taste of the conference from past events.
What Is Dreamforce?
At its core, Dreamforce is an annual conference that aims to bring the Salesforce community together to share and learn. As one of the largest global tech events, the 180,000+ attendees can expect to enjoy a spectacle of Salesforce innovations, as well as countless training sessions and presentations from visionary keynote speakers.
Dreamforce encourages attendees to share their stories and celebrate their successes in the technology industry. Described as “more than just a conference”, this unique event focuses on:
- Learning
- Getting inspired
- Giving back
- Having fun – scroll to the Parties section below!
Yes please – sign me up!
When Is Dreamforce?
Dreamforce takes place each year during autumn (fall), often in September. Next year’s event is due to take place September 14-17.
Key Information
For 2023, tickets started at $1,499, rising to $1,899 once the “early bird” tickets were snapped up!
Here are some key highlights from 2023’s event:
- Over 40,000 people attended in person, with over 200,000 people registered to attend online.
- 25K square footage was allocated for booths – that’s a lot of partner activity!
- There were over a thousand sessions, including keynotes and breakouts.
- All this took place over three days: September 12-14, 2023.
Where Is Dreamforce?
San Francisco has been the official home of Dreamforce since its launch in 2003.
From a virtual experience in 2020, to a hybrid event the following year, 2022 followed in 2021’s footsteps by offering global access to a mixture of live and on-demand events via Salesforce+. From that point, if you didn’t manage to get tickets, you could always tune in online.
With a wealth of free original series and special episodes available to watch, the Salesforce+ platform offers stress-free access to great content – minus the plane journey!
Who Attends Dreamforce?
Admins, developers, architects, newbies, and Trailblazers alike. Dreamforce is for everyone working in the Salesforce ecosystem – everyone across every team, in every industry around the world.
With over 180,000 attendees in previous years, you’ll be in good company!
What’s on the Agenda?
The Dreamforce ’23 agenda was packed, including well over a thousand sessions during the 3-day event. Attendees were invited to watch keynotes for favorite products, alongside smaller more intimate sessions on pretty much any topic you can imagine!
Here’s what you can expect:
- Main keynote: This is the place to hear all about the latest and greatest Salesforce announcements.
- Dreamfest: Time to let off some steam and party. Last year we had the pleasure of seeing Foo Fighters at the Chase Center!
- True to the Core: This is your chance to ask senior Salesforce execs your burning questions. Previous Q&As have asked when Workflow Rules and Salesforce Classic will be retired. Juicy!
- High-profile interviews: You can also expect to see some legendary speakers at Dreamforce. Previous speakers include Barack and Michelle Obama, David Beckham, and Stephen Curry. In 2023, we heard from Sam Altman, Ayanna Howard, Rainn Wilson, and Dr Jane Goodall – just to name a few!
Where to Stay?
As mentioned earlier, Dreamforce attracts a lot of people to San Francisco, so competition for accommodation can be fierce! Once you’ve booked your tickets, your next step should be booking somewhere to stay.
We recommend booking early to secure not only a bed, but also a more affordable rate – inevitably, Dreamforce can see prices soar. We also recommend filtering your online search to include accommodation that offers free cancellation. Covid is still out there, after all, and while many hotel policies reflect this, it’s always best to check before you commit.
In terms of location, we suggest looking in downtown San Francisco. There will be plenty of walking to and from events, and public transport is bound to be busy during Dreamforce week. As always, plan in advance according to your own agenda to maximize your enjoyment of the event (and minimize time wasted).
Take a look at:
- Official Dreamforce Hotels: When you register for Dreamforce, you will be presented with a range of hotels to book alongside your ticket. Salesforce has agreements in place with these hotels that allow them to get a preferential rate for their attendees. While these accommodations may not be cheap, they should be relatively reasonable.
- Hotel Comparison Sites: If the Dreamforce hotels don’t take your fancy (or if they are sold out), hotel comparison websites are a fairly safe bet. Booking.com, Hotels.com, Kayak, and Expedia are all good options, but it’s worth noting that these are likely to be more expensive than the Dreamforce hotels.
- Alternative Accommodation: Sites like Airbnb, FlipKey, and Vrbo are great alternatives to hotels as you can rent a whole property or a private room – perfect if you are traveling in a group and would rather have that ‘home away from home’ vibe.
- Hostels: Although you might be picturing dormitories packed full of people, there are plenty of great luxury hostels in San Francisco available for a fraction of the price – you can even book your own private room. HI San Francisco is just a 5-minute walk to Moscone, and it’s bound to be full of Dreamforce attendees!
- Out of Town: If none of the above options work for you, San Fran’s BART system will deliver you to Moscone from various places outside the city center. These will be a lot cheaper than neighboring hotels to Moscone, and you will only be looking at around 30 minutes of travel time.
Dreamforce Parties
Dreamforce is a fantastic place to learn, network, and progress your career. And there are also some pretty amazing parties for letting off steam.
Official Salesforce events include the legendary “Dreamfest”, which has been headlined by some of the world’s biggest acts, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, The Foo Fighters, and The Killers. You can also expect pop-up surprise parties, where you might be lucky enough to catch artists like Flo Rida and Macklemore.
Alongside the official Salesforce events, there are a huge number of partner parties hosted by Salesforce Consulting and AppExchange partners. Check out our full list of parties to see where guests headed in 2023. We’ll be working on another party list ready for next year’s Dreamforce.
What’s Next?
Now that you have the lowdown on all things Dreamforce, you can start thinking about seeing this iconic conference in action for yourself – whether that’s in person or online. Tickets for 2024’s event will be available soon. We’ll keep you posted!