San Francisco and Salesforce have come to an accord to ensure the enterprise software company's Dreamforce event will remain in the city for 2024. This conclusion was reached after the CEO of Salesforce initially hinted at the potential departure of the conference, then later commended the circumstances of the most recent Dreamforce.
Salesforce has confirmed that its Dreamforce conference for customers and partners will stay in San Francisco for at least one more year. This comes after CEO Marc Benioff recently discussed the possibility of the 2023 conference being held elsewhere, as other technology companies, such as Google and Oracle, have chosen to relocate their events due to media outlets highlighting the prevalence of homelessness, drug use and theft in certain areas of the city.This year, the Dreamforce event still went ahead of a much smaller crowd of 40,000, despite the 171,000 visitors in 2019. Benioff attributed this to the increased safety measures taken in the city. These included police forces dispersing homeless people elsewhere. The conference was set to produce $89 million in economic activity.Benioff addressed the agreement he had made with the city on Twitter, thanking San Francisco Mayor London Breed in the post. Both were seen wearing Golden State Warriors apparel. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Benioff also commented that San Francisco is an AI capital of the world, a reputation that was reinforced by the showcasing of AI capabilities at Dreamforce, integrated with technology from OpenAI and Anthropic.When it comes to homelessness and narcotics abuse, San Francisco saw an encouraging decrease in figures. In 2020, there were 725 accidental drug overdose deaths, which dropped to 640 in 2021 and 620 in 2022. From 2019 to 2022, the number of homeless people also decreased from 8,035 to 7,754. However, the closure of stores such as Banana Republic, Nordstrom and Whole Foods downtown has caused worries for many.
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