20 Striking Sights At Dreamforce 2018

Dreamforce 2018

Salesforce's 16th Dreamforce conference was another unique event that immersed more than 170,000 attendees in a vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that benefits humanity by bringing people together, helping alleviate poverty and joblessness, and finding solutions to protect the environment.

The world's largest technology conference gets bigger every year because it transcends the world of technology. Dreamforce is a global showcase of innovation that attracts bigwig executives, thought leaders, politicians, social activists, channel partners, developers and other technologists. As such, the networking opportunities are like nowhere else.

Last week, Salesforce again transformed San Francisco's Moscone Center, and most of the blocks around the massive convention center, into a high-tech national park, with re-creations of the natural world adorning the halls, exhibits, theaters and outdoor pavilions.

Crowds Galore

Dreamforce gets bigger every year. Salesforce said a whopping 171,000 people descended on San Francisco during last week's event. CRN didn't count, but it sure took some patience and fancy footwork to navigate between the hundreds of sessions taking place every day across the Moscone Center.

Customer 360

Salesforce integrated its many cloud services with a new feature designed to give enterprises a comprehensive view of their customers. Customer 360 offers a point-and-click interface connecting data across Sales, Service, Marketing and Commerce Clouds, and leveraging the new Integration Cloud to link to systems from other vendors.

Amazon Web Services

AWS was named Salesforce's "preferred public cloud" provider in May 2016, and the two cloud companies have had a strong working relationship for years.

At Dreamforce, AWS showcased the integration of its Amazon Connect contact center platform with the Salesforce Service Cloud for enabling a richer customer service experience.

Google

Salesforce had already named AWS as its "preferred public cloud," but at last year's Dreamforce, it turned out that status wasn't exclusive.

Beyond Salesforce expanding internationally on Google infrastructure, the two technology giants have cooperated to deliver integrations between Google's G Suite office productivity suite and Salesforce's CRM.

Einstein Talks

Salesforce introduced natural language capabilities to its Einstein platform at Dreamforce, the next leap in the CRM leader's efforts to improve the user experience through artificial intelligence.

Salesforce users can now talk to smart speakers to dictate log notes, ask about Sales projections, and hear real-time analytics from their CRMs.

Bluewolf and IBM

Salesforce channel superstar Bluewolf has been the glue in the CRM giant's close relationship with IBM ever since Big Blue acquired the pioneering systems integrator in 2016.

MuleSoft

Salesforce pulled the trigger on the biggest acquisition in its history a few months ago when it snagged integration software vendor MuleSoft for $6.5 billion.

MuleSoft CEO Greg Schott delivered part of the Integration Cloud keynote at Dreamforce, telling Salesforce customers that integration technology is "the engine of digital transformation, at the core of digital transformation."

A conversation between Schott and Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff in February spurred the deal as both executives appreciated the natural synergy, Schott said.

Metallica

The legendary rockers played the after party. But those who couldn't wait to bang their heads got to indulge in the Metallica Fan Experience on the Dreamforce exhibition floor, where they could pick up band members' guitars and bang on a drum kit.

Dialpad Fortune

Cloud phone system vendor Dialpad hired Zoltar to predict the fortunes of all those who entered its booth. It wasn't clear if the crystal ball was actually running any artificial intelligence algorithms.

Drinks On OwnBackup

OwnBackup, a startup that backs up and restores data generated by Salesforce and other cloud software providers, had a good sense of what Dreamforce attendees wanted on the last day of the conference.

Cold beer. On tap.

Training

Dreamforce provided an opportunity for many Salesforce pros to sharpen their skills at Camp Quick Start.

Virtual Jeep

This Jeep equipped with a virtual reality headset was an adventure not to be missed on the Dreamforce exhibition floor. Given how snarled traffic was outside the conference, it was probably the only place within miles where a driver could experience the open road.

Appirio

Salesforce's channel partners are always prominent exhibitors at Dreamforce.

Appirio, an implementation partner incubated inside Salesforce headquarters and later acquired by Wipro after scaling to global prominence, welcomed guests at its booth.

Giving Back

Benioff introduced the Philanthropy Cloud at his keynote—a platform to enable corporations to encourage their employees' charitable tendencies.

Throughout Dreamforce, Salesforce encouraged companies in its ecosystem to donate to worthy causes.

T-Mobile Semi

Cellular network provider T-Mobile hosted guests on a big rig it rolled onto the convention floor.

Deloitte Digital

The booth of the consulting giant that tackles some of the most complex Salesforce implementations is always a hub of activity on the Dreamforce floor.

Dropbox

Salesforce Ventures revealed itself an investor in Dropbox before the cloud storage company's IPO, and Salesforce and Dropbox have been advancing their business relationship accordingly.

The two companies have worked together to enable customers to use Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud to create new branded and customized Dropbox folders, as well as access Dropbox content directly within Salesforce Quip.

But when Benioff interviewed Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston at a Dreamforce "fireside chat," the two leaders were more interested in addressing the problem of homelessness in San Francisco and other social ills.

Marc and Friends

Benioff likes to surround himself at Dreamforce with an eclectic set of friends, including prominent business leaders, musicians, monastics, politicians and social activists. But here, just before hosting another "fireside chat" with Dropbox’s Houston, he was joined by a cuddlier entourage.

Apple

The big announcement on the alliance front at this year's Dreamforce was a strategic partnership with Apple. The two companies will work together to create a new Salesforce mobile app experience for iPhones and iPads, including integration with Siri.

As part of that effort, the two companies plan to "bring together" their developers and customers, according to Benioff.

Benioff told CNBC he's had "Apple in my veins" since working as an assembly language programmer for the PC giant way back in 1984.

Lightning

Salesforce has cultivated such a large, thriving and diverse ecosystem because early on it focused on delivering a platform to developers, not just a suite of applications.

Lightning is a key technology in the platform portfolio Salesforce has evolved in recent years, enabling partners and customers to rapidly develop custom apps that natively integrate into Salesforce's SaaS products.