They’ve done it again. Salesforce has pulled off another year of Dreamforce – four days of networking, innovation, education, parties and giving back.
Marching onto the pavement of Howard St., we saw more than just the Dreamforce Plaza… It was a Dream Park! It was as if we were walking past the gates of California Adventures or the spectacle of a State Fair. The streets were filled with chatter, business cards, bright lights and smart devices.
Months in advance, rumors spread like wildfire about what Salesforce would announce, who would be performing at Dreamfest and what would be the most interesting stunt. Salesforce delivered on all fronts.
In case you missed it, here are our top 10 highlights from Dreamforce 2015:
1. This year, Salesforce collected and donated 1,006,225 books. Talk about the largest book drive in the history of book drives.
2. Among one of the major announcements was Salesforce’s follow-up of 2014’s RelatedIQ with SalesforceIQ CRM solution—both for Small Business and Sales Cloud. Although Salesforce already has a CRM called Sales Cloud that integrates with over a thousand third-party software applications, SalesforceIQ for Small Business is an “out-of-the-box” CRM that automatically tracks and analyzes day-to-day business interactions with potential and existing customers.
Who the heck cares? Well this new advance in technology means making quicker connections and eliminating the pain salespeople endure while going back and forth analyzing emails.
3. Female executives hit the stage! Speakers Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, joined Gayle King for a candid discussion on women in the workplace and in leadership roles.
4. One of the keynotes quickly became a trending topic on social networks. Led by Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce, better known as the “Lightning Man,” and dozens of others came onto the stage in blue with stunning leotards and stage props that symbolized the mighty “Lighting” and “Thunder” platforms Salesforce now offers.
Parker demoed the ladder platforms and, more specifically, the new IoT cloud service, which augments the existing partnership with Microsoft. For the industry, this news was demonstrative of Microsoft and Salesforce, two former-CRM archrivals, putting their differences aside to integrate Microsoft’s Office Delve, Office Graph, Skype for Business and OneNote products directly into Salesforce.
5. Right next door to our office at Pier 70 on Wednesday evening was none other than the annual Dreamfest. This year featured performances from Gary Clark Jr., The Killers and the Foo Fighters.
6. Stevie Wonder opened for Marc Benioff, and it doesn’t get much better than that! The singer/song writer put on quite the show, playing his classics from the 70’s, and even changing the lyrics of his famous hit, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” to “Dreamforce is the sunshine of my life.”
7. Dreamboat was the newest Celebrity (Infinity) to reside in our cold San Francisco Bay waters; it housed over 1,100 Dreamforce attendees and guests. Towering over the buildings, the extravagant cruise ship was easy to spot along the Embarcadero.
8. Salesforce announced a significant partnership with AthenaHealth. Together, the companies are working together to create the WISDOM study, a new approach that will completely revolutionize breast cancer research and treatment. According to Laura Esserman, a world-renowned breast cancer surgeon and oncologist, the WISDOM study will use Salesforce to assist in analyzing whether annual mammograms or a more personalized approach to breast cancer screening is more effective.
9. As an SF-based company, we love seeing our sports teams represented! Bob Myers, general manager, and Rick Welts, president and CEO, of the Golden State Warriors (#DubNation) discussed their Strength in Numbers strategy and what they look for in building a championship-caliber team. Larry Baer, president and CEO of the San Francisco Giants (#SFGiants), discussed the team’s culture of success that led to three World Series titles in the past five years. NBD.
10. The Cloud Expo was not only a highlight because of the 400+ exhibitors drawing attendees to their booths to sit in on demos and sessions, have their badges scanned and to receive company swag (though exciting), but because of the 11 BOCA clients that were part of that number! Highlights include Birst, Clarizen, Druva, Hoopla, Jitterbit, Livefyre, NewVoiceMedia, Seismic, The TAS Group, Velocify and Vlocity.
There may not have been actual clouds, thunder or lightning during this year’s Dreamforce, but there was plenty in the digital and virtual atmosphere. Check out our photos below and thank you Salesforce for throwing yet another amazing event. We can’t wait for next year!
