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Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, speaks during a keynote at the Dreamforce 2023 conference in San Francisco on September 12, 2023.
Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sales team announced Tuesday that the annual Dreamforce conference for customers and partners will remain in San Francisco in 2024.
The dedication to his hometown comes months after co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff told the San Francisco Chronicle that Dreamforce 2023 could be the last in town. Some other tech companies, such as Googling And Oraclehave chosen to move their events elsewhere due to increased concerns about homelessness, drug use and theft in parts of the city.
“We signed a comprehensive agreement with the city that outlined the key components we knew we needed!” Benioff told CNBC in a text message. The event takes place from September 17 to September 19.
The deal runs only until 2024, in line with Salesforce’s typical practice of communicating its plans with San Francisco a year later, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential goods.
Before announcing its intention to stay in San Francisco, Salesforce wanted to make sure it could trust the city to provide adequate police presence in the area and keep sidewalks sufficiently clean, the person said.
Dreamforce attracted about 40,000 visitors this year, and Benioff orphan to clear sidewalks and create a general sense of safety. Police officers and others had reportedly pushed unhoused people to migrate elsewhere. The audience was much smaller than in 2019, when 171,000 people participated.
Led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other guests, the event was expected to generate more than $89 million in economic activity this year.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed thanked Benioff in a speech after on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a photo of the two of them dressed in Golden State Warriors basketball gear.
Benioff said on X that San Francisco is “now the AI capital of the world.” It is home to OpenAI and other notable artificial intelligence startups such as Adept AI and Anthropic. Salesforce used this year’s Dreamforce conference to show off AI capabilities that integrate with technology from Anthropic and OpenAI.
San Francisco reported 620 drug overdose deaths in 2022, up from 640 in 2021 and 725 in 2020. As of Feb. 23, 2022, there were 7,754 homeless people in the city, compared to 8,035 on Jan. 24, 2019, city data shows. Banana Republic, Nordstrom and Whole Foods have closed downtown locations in recent months, adding to concerns.
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