Salesforce Dreamforce 2018: What You Might Have Missed
A recap of the technologies, trends and initiatives launched at Salesforce’s annual confab.
October 3, 2018
![Salesforce Dreamforce 2018 sign Salesforce Dreamforce 2018 sign](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt966edb2f30b32c5e/65245d6bff0196a5e03826c4/Dreamforce-2018-1_2.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Dreamforce 2018 overwhelmed San Francisco. Hotel rooms in the city’s seedy Tenderloin district, where crime and vice have long endured, went for as much as $800 per night. Restaurant and event venues were packed throughout the week-long event.
Here’s a view of Howard Street, one of the more popular South of Market thoroughfares that cuts across town. Salesforce shut down the stretch of Howard that divides the City’s main convention facility, the Moscone Center. Dreamforce not only took over Moscone North and Moscone South, but also Moscone West. Between the North and South halls, the company laid down artificial turf and turned the street into national park-themed outdoor convention space. There were bands, food stalls and more.
In his big keynote address, Salesforce co-CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff reaffirmed his company’s commitment to “inclusive capitalism.” Among other things, Benioff called for a new era in technology, one that is more sustainable, fair and prosperous for all.
“Technology is not good or bad, but what you do with it is what matters,” he said.
The industry, he added, needs to restructure and commit to better ethics and reimagined values.
“Is what we are doing ethical and humane?” Benioff challenged. “Every CEO better be able to answer that.”
At one point during his keynote, Benioff turned to Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli, a longtime customer, to talk about his vision for a better way forward. After a short film that showcased Cucinelli’s own vision of commerce, the Italian, speaking in Italian, challenged Benioff to follow in the ways of the Greeks and Italians and build something that will last 2,000 years. A company? Another building? A legacy? Benioff seemed amused.
Two technologies loomed large over Dreamforce 2018, Salesforce Customer 360 and Einstein Voice.
At the event, Salesforce announced Salesforce Customer 360, which it bills as “a new way for companies to connect Salesforce apps and deliver unified cross-channel customer experiences.” With Customer 360, customers can move beyond an app- or department-specific view of each customer and create a unified customer profile. Salesforce believes Customer 360 will bring together service, marketing, commerce and more like never before.
Comprised of a set of platform services, Customer 360 features:
A click-based UI for app and data management that supports trusted connections between Salesforce apps and orgs while creating a canonical data model that provides a single representation of customer data.
A reconciled 360 ID and profile that helps Salesforce apps to recognize a customer across multiple channels.
And pre-built packages for Service, Marketing and Commerce that gives companies the ability to create a Service Cloud experience that enables agents to see purchase and browse history from Commerce Cloud, or a Marketing Cloud journey that is automatically triggered by an event in Commerce Cloud.
In addition, Salesforce showcased Einstein Voice technology throughout Dreamforce. Unveiled in mid-September, Einstein Voice is a new platform service that brings the power of voice to Salesforce experiences.
A big attraction at Dreamforce was the musical performance and on-stage presence of the multiplatinum rock band Metallica.
Co-founder and drummer Lars Ulrich took the stage to the delight of fans and technologists alike to describe how Metallica leverages Salesforce Marketing Cloud to get “a single view of fans across email, mobile and social media.” With the technology, fans can create personalized content and experiences. They can also shop for merchandise and more using Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which includes true AI-powered ecommerce capabilities.
During the keynote, Ulrich told the story of how he replied personally to every fan letter the band received in its early days. “Fan experience is always what Metallica has been about,” he said. Using Salesforce technology, the band can offer the same level of fan experiences but at a scale that touches millions.
Some of the world’s largest and most successful companies use Salesforce technology. Many of them do so to help support their efforts to not only transform their own sectors but make them better for the environment, workers, customers and shareholders alike. At Dreamforce, many of the “Trailblazers” were showcased. This includes Unilever, Adidas, United Way and Brunello Cucinelli and more.
Salesforce chief equality officer Tony Prophet took to the stage during the extended keynote to showcase how Marriott is using Salesforce technology to enhance customer experiences and leverage advanced digital innovations. He demonstrated how a customer could use a mobile app during a trip to request an early check-in, arrange to have a warm coffee waiting for them upon arrival, and even get a digital key sent to their mobile device. Once in the room, he also demonstrated how that same mobile app could be used to change the temperature, order event tickets and more by simply engaging the in-room voice-activated speaker. With a customer’s permission, Marriott can save settings and apply them to the guest’s visit to the same hotel or many others in its vast collection of properties.
Throughout the week of Dreamforce, Salesforce offered plenty of hands-on training, education and peer interaction. At the Park Central Hotel, sales and integration partners heard firsthand tips and suggestions from app developers who have deployed software in the Salesforce AppExchange. Individual developers could be seen sharing tips and technologies, as well as taking classes and seminars.
In addition, Salesforce honored The Adecco Group, Barclays, CBS Interactive, Pitney Bowes, REA Group, Ticketmaster, Vodafone and others as the newest members of the Customer Koa Club. The club honors members of “the Salesforce Ohana” who have driven innovation using Salesforce technology for more than a decade.
With more than 170,000 people walking the streets of San Francisco around the Moscone Center, it was hardly a surprise that some companies resorted to some street theater to attract attention.
Here, a woman representing cloudbrowser.com turned heads with the familiar if not fatalistic message, “the end is nigh.” The company behind the technology, Authentic8, has developed safe browsing technology that runs in the cloud, not on your local device. Here is its marketing pitch: “When you run the browser on your machine, you risk exploit, surveillance, or worse. A cloud browser runs on our servers, giving you full access with none of those risks.”
In addition to street theater, there was also some guerilla marketing. Soaring overhead – somewhat noisily, I might add – was the “failsforce” blimp, courtesy of rival CRM developer Freshworks Inc. It was a bit of a hit on social media.
In addition to street theater, there was also some guerilla marketing. Soaring overhead – somewhat noisily, I might add – was the “failsforce” blimp, courtesy of rival CRM developer Freshworks Inc. It was a bit of a hit on social media.
Now in its 16th year, Dreamforce is not only the largest Salesforce event ever, it’s now the largest event in the software industry, according to Salesforce. Dreamforce 2018 boasted 171,000 register users, 2,700 sessions and more than 10 million online attendees.
Here’s a recap of what you might have missed.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like