Events

Complete Guide to Dreamforce 2024

By Lauren Westwood

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. This year’s event (2024) is due to take place September 17-19.

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!
READ MORE: Who Are the Celebrity Headliners at Dreamforce ’23?

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.

READ MORE: Ultimate Dreamforce Parties & Events 2023

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!

READ MORE: Salesforce Events

The Author

Lauren Westwood

Lauren is the Content Director at Salesforce Ben.

Comments:

    Mark Bruso
    April 27, 2020 6:27 pm
    I suspect Dreamforce 2020 will be a scaled back virtual only event. It will be too early to gather 170K in downtown San Francisco.
    Elisabeth Kooijmans
    May 27, 2021 11:15 pm
    Of course it is on Sukkot!
    Stuart Edeal
    May 28, 2021 2:03 pm
    According to the article at SFchronicle, you have the answer to one of your questions: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Dreamforce-is-coming-back-to-S-F-with-a-16208549.php The headline there states they will invite 5,000 guest attendees for the in-person event and they are mandating they all be vaccinated. At that number of guests, I would imagine it will be a special-invite-only event for those who are asked to join them in person.
    Ana
    May 28, 2021 7:00 pm
    We'd love to participate! Will depend on how they're inviting sponsors. I.e. are they only inviting top tier sponsors? Will top tier sponsors get first dibs at the in-person programs? I wish they'd release more info for partners as many of us are already working on Q3 plans. Thanks for the update!
    Sara Thomas
    May 30, 2021 4:04 pm
    I'm glad it will also be virtual. Not everyone can be vaccinated, and even if they are, not everyone is comfortable with crowded indoor events, and those people should still have the chance to take part.
    Ben McCarthy
    June 03, 2021 4:06 pm
    Thanks a lot for the info Stuart
    Tom from Germany
    August 04, 2021 8:43 am
    "Dreamforce" in Paris and London outdoors, with <200 participants is a joke. What is this? A flagpole, 2 mascots and a small stage? I think rather cancel it, than calling this "Dreamforce". Also not being able to announce any mode of attendance 6 weeks before the event shows the struggle they have. I think we can wipe this from our agendas for this year. Hope to be back in SFO next year with the crowd!
    Ben McCarthy
    August 04, 2021 1:08 pm
    Hey Tom, It is a shame that we won't see a full-scale Dreamforce this year. However, with the Slack acquisition completing, I'm sure we will see some big announcements as per a normal year at Dreamforce! Ben
    Mary Boissel
    August 24, 2021 3:46 pm
    The Pandemic has thrown up all sorts of changes which will affect us all. Looking forward to hearing about all these changes and how they will improve how we work and how we live. Have a few general themed talks that will encourage discussion.
    Ron
    August 25, 2021 1:28 pm
    Yeh what's with that?? Surely Marc B is aware!!
    Katie
    August 25, 2021 9:45 pm
    Has anyone heard an updated attendance number? I heard it has gone from 5k to 2k, but haven't been able to verify that anywhere.
    Chris
    August 31, 2021 4:10 pm
    All I've seen is an article from the SF Chronicle on the 26th which states that attendance has been scaled back to "hundreds". https://www.sfchronicle.com/tech/article/Dreamforce-convention-will-be-limited-to-hundreds-16414414.php
    Arr
    September 01, 2021 9:10 am
    I don’t know how they picked the in person invites, but I got mine on Friday. I didn’t even notice that email til I got a follow up reminder today—I didn’t even think they were doing in person events this year. The only thing I can think of is that the email is addressed “Calling all Trailblazers”. So maybe they picked randomly from that pool?
    Nishant Sinha
    September 16, 2021 2:32 pm
    How to watch the sessions that you have missed? I'm in CEST timezone so most of them are late night for me so cannot watch them live:(
    cookie clicker
    September 20, 2021 5:29 am
    Oh right? Thanks for shairng!
    Christine Marshall
    September 20, 2021 9:24 am
    They should be available to watch on Salesforce+ although there could be a slight delay - https://www.salesforce.com/plus/
    edusurf
    December 29, 2021 11:02 am
    Oh right? Thanks for shairng yeah
    Tom
    April 08, 2022 2:38 pm
    Why do you seem to recycle the article "Complete guide to dreamforce" by just changing the name instead of writing an updated one. It really makes no sense reading comments related to Dreamforce 2020 here.... May I suggest you create a new posting dedicated only to Dreamforce 2022? Thanks, Tom
    Christine Marshall
    April 08, 2022 4:35 pm
    Hi Tom, This article provides a general overview of what Dreamforce is for those who may be new to the ecosystem, as well as information specific to this years event. In light of the global pandemic, Dreamforce has been a very different event for the past few years. The Salesforce ecosystem is growing all the time and there will be many newcomers to the community who won't know what Dreamforce was like pre-Covid or what to expect from this years event. It's important to share this information with them, as well as the ways Dreamforce changed and shifted to accommodate the "new normal" of virtual events in 2020 and 2021. Dreamforce 2022 takes place in September and, as such, some information is not yet available - for example, we won't have details about parties or the full agenda until much closer to the event itself. Although we don't have the complete details yet, isn't it worth letting our readers know what to potentially expect? If you have very strong opinions on what content should or should not be included in this guide, or information you feel we've missed that you can provide, then I would love for you to let us know. Christine
    Tom
    April 11, 2022 8:03 am
    Hi Christine! Absolutely agree and the information is useful... I was referring to the comments section that obviously consists of comments to "Complete Guide to Dreamforce 2020" and "Complete Guide to Dreamforce 2021"! This means comments look very irrelevant which is a pity. But maybe it's just me or I am not reading them correctly... so ignore. ;-)
    Christine Marshall
    April 11, 2022 9:14 am
    Hi Tom, I see - that makes a bit more sense! There are reasons we use the same URL/post to do with SEO and so on!
    Hermest
    June 09, 2022 2:23 pm
    I don’t recognise how they picked the in person invitations, but I got mine on Friday. I didn’t even word that email til I got a follow up reminder today—I didn’t even suppose they had been doing in character activities this 12 months. The most effective element I can think of is that the email is addressed “Calling all Trailblazers”. So maybe they picked randomly from that pool?
    Katerina
    July 12, 2022 8:48 pm
    Can you please tell me more about the vaccination requirements for DreamForce Sept 2022 event? Is there an option to provide a negative test result instead of vaccination card?
    Ming
    September 01, 2022 10:12 pm
    This will be my first in-person Dreamforce. Very excited! But I'm struggling to find how to register for sessions or the dates/times of the sessions from the session catalog? Will there be an app? How do we build out our personalized schedule of sessions?
    Christine Marshall
    September 02, 2022 10:57 am
    The session times have not yet been released! We anticipate them being available next week. You'll then be able to add them to your favorites and build your schedule.
    LaShon Wilson
    September 02, 2022 6:05 pm
    Will there be any expo+ tickets this year?
    Jamie B
    September 12, 2022 6:47 pm
    Do we have any information on expo hall hours, exhibitors, etc? I couldnt find anything on the official website or their facebook page and I really wanted to make a point to schedule with some vendors we are looking for...got any info???
    KWhite
    September 12, 2022 6:53 pm
    Does anyone have visibility into which editors and press will be attending and publishing during Dreamforce?
    Chris Bruzzi
    September 15, 2022 1:54 pm
    You can find the list of vendors who will be on the expo floor on the official Dreamforce website here: https://reg.salesforce.com/flow/plus/dreamforce22/SponsorListing/page/SponsorListPage

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