Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference, which these days is all about AI, is set to bring in about 45,000 attendees when it kicks off Tuesday in SoMa, which is the biggest crowd it's had since the pandemic.

Back in 2019, Dreamforce had swelled to around 100,000 annual attendees, being one of the biggest conventions on SF's often crowded convention calendar. But things have changed dramatically in the last five years, both in the convention landscape and in SF's downtown, and this year Dreamforce will be about half that size — but still larger than it's been in its last three iterations.

Dreamforce 2024 will be larger than last year's by about 5,000 attendees.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff infamously threatened to take the conference elsewhere last year, and then when the event kicked off and things around SoMa seemed relatively cleaned-up, he praised the city and asked why this couldn't happen all the time. The September 2023 Dreamforce conference ended up being a trial run, of sorts, for the city's efforts to make downtown seem safer and saner ahead of the APEC conference in November.

This year, Salesforce is playing the same game, withholding a contract with the city's hotels to secure rooms for next year's Dreamforce saying that it wants to see this year's convention go smoothly first. As the SF Business Times reports, Erin Oles, Salesforce’s senior vice president of strategic events, emailed SF Travel interim CEO Anna Marie Presutti to say that the contract was "contingent on our ability to demonstrate a safe and secure environment for Dreamforce."

Otherwise, Salesforce's event planners have reportedly received approval to move forward with a three-year contract, through 2027, with SF Travel to secure the Moscone Center for the next three years of conferences.

In a statement, the company said, "We want to be part of that story of recovery. We love having the conference in San Francisco. It is our preference to remain here for the fullness of time."

This year's Dreamforce has a number of big names on the bill, though sadly their big Elton John concert is canceled — frequent convention performers Imagine Dragons will be performing instead, along with Pink.

As the Chronicle reports, there will be talks and sessions this week with comedian John Mulaney, and actors Kate Hudson, Kerry Washington, Edward Norton, and Dreamforce regular Matthew McConaughey.

Ariel Kelman, the chief marketing officer for Salesforce, tells the Chronicle that they've been "expanding the footprint" of the conference, and they've made efforts to include a broad mix of speakers and entertainment. "[At a] four day conference … [you] can’t just do product training sessions all day," Kelman says.

In addition to training sessions on Salesforce's new Agentforce product — one of several AI products, which creates a customized bot "agent" to handle some customer support tasks — the conference will feature a session with Ayesha Curry, maybe talking about her restaurants (?), one with will.i.am, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan talking politics.

As we can see from the "Dreamforce National Park" map, the Agentforce Launch Center is on the second floor of Moscone West.

Mayor London Breed put out a statement saying, "San Francisco is proud to welcome Dreamforce back with its largest crowd in years. Not only are we excited about the energy that Dreamforce brings to our City, but we know our restaurants, hotels, and small businesses will benefit from the tens of thousands of visitors flooding Union Square, Yerba Buena, and the surrounding area.”

Breed added, "This will be another major boost for Downtown and we are ready to make sure our visitors feel welcome, safe, and supported when they come to San Francisco."

There are, of course, street closures associated with Dreamforce, some of which began last week as the convention began its usual, elaborate buildout on Howard. These include Howard between Third and Fourth streets, and Fourth Street between Mission and Howard streets.

Photo via Salesforce_NL/X