Reflections on Dreamforce 2025 from a First-Time Attendee
First Trip to Dreamforce
Dreamforce 2025 was my first time attending the event in person, believe it or not. I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem since 2013 but I had yet to make it to Dreamforce. I received lots of tips about #DF25 and thankfully I wore comfortable walking shoes for the entire trip and had a solid plan for each day of Dreamforce.
So much change has happened in the last 24 months in regards to Salesforce and in the area that Canvas Cloud serves most: Nonprofits. I was eager to hear about the new product releases before anyone else and to meet thousands of people who share a mutual love of Salesforce.
Dreamforce Logistics
The first big takeaway from my own experience is to get your badge before Day 1. Because it was my first time, I walked to the wrong side of Moscone Center and then had to loop all the way around because I had no badge, to then join hundreds of folks in line for badges. I had very little time once I got my badge to get back in time for the keynote.
Walking through Dreampark for the first time was very impressive! I’ve been to many conferences but rarely has a conference transformed a street to feel like Dreampark, what an incredible experience to walk the street lined with woodland feel and grass beneath your feet with a true fantasy vibe. Salesforce knows how to get people to feel all the feels!
The line for the keynote was the busiest and longest line I was in the entire week. It was exciting to be in the crowd for the keynote and I was able to get a really good seat, but if I’m being honest, I think in future years I’d skip the keynote session. It’s always going to be available on Salesforce+, but there was a lot of hype and renaming offerings, with little action or takeaways. I was intrigued, however, by the announcement of Vibe Coding and it was one of the activities I participated in later on.
Also, for those that haven’t attended before, I knew that Dreamforce was big and for years people talked about Moscone Center, but I did not realize that Moscone was multiple massive buildings. I always thought it was one giant convention center, like McCormick Place in Chicago.
They are all MASSIVE buildings also, so there were definitely times I miscalculated how far one session was from another. Lessons learned are always good for next time!
“I attended 13 demo booths, nine experiences, and eight sessions in the course of three days, while having many conversations and getting to see so many great colleagues. As well as multiple offsite events and happy hours! ”
Dreamforce Content
When looking back in the event app, I got a recap of what I accomplished at Dreamforce from official Salesforce activities. I attended 13 demo booths, nine experiences, and eight sessions in the course of three days, while having many conversations and getting to see so many great colleagues. As well as multiple offsite events and happy hours!
Most of my demos were focused on areas that I thought myself or my team could benefit from. One demo in particular that I appreciated was the integration of Slack, Agenforce, and Salesforce all working together. Our team uses Slack but it is separate from Salesforce and seeing how the three tools can work together seamlessly was exciting! It's the level of collaboration we all want, but know it's challenging to accomplish and we are at the age that it can be delivered at our fingertips.
I did get to try out Vibe Coding as that was a hands-on learning experience. I was excited to see how the concept would work. The premise was simple: create a website with a sales forecast for the team. I essentially prompted the tool to create the proper code and it did most of the work. As I was watching it, I was impressed but also constantly asking myself, “How do I know this code is accurate?” At the end of the prompts you generate the website and see if it was successful. My vibe code did create a website, but the sales data did not generate. It was a good learning experience, but my takeaway is that Vibe Coding should be used only for those who have some coding background and can properly check if the code is correct and then if it doesn’t work can go back and find where the error occurs.
I also got to see a demo of Volunteer Management in Nonprofit Cloud. It was great to hear that over 300 folks from partners and nonprofits have participated in providing feedback to get Volunteer Management to where it is today! It’s a great start to the much desired and needed part of Nonprofit Cloud (now Agentforce Nonprofit), but there is much more to develop and Salesforce sounds committed to making continuous improvements to the volunteer management in Nonprofit Cloud.
A semi-regular theme (that is not surprising but also seems to fall on deaf ears for Salesforce) is that everyone is tired of the word “Agentforce.” Agentforce is Salesforce's take on AI or agentic use cases, but they use it so often and the greater population feels it is overused. However, Salesforce has doubled down on the name and many of the core products are now named “Agentforce” 360, Sales, Service, Nonprofit, etc. I’m not sure how well those names will be adapted, but time will tell and regardless Salesforce will continue to lean heavily on the Agentforce name.
Focus on Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (Now Agentforce Nonprofit)
Another key takeaway for me was the desire and excitement around moving to Nonprofit Cloud (now Agentforce Nonprofit).
A couple of years ago Salesforce released a new product offering for nonprofits after a 20-plus-year run with Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) has been getting all the investment and attention from the Salesforce side and seems like the industry cloud of the future from Salesforce for Nonprofits.
Thankfully at Canvas Cloud we have seen first hand, the power of Nonprofit Cloud and have done many implementations and migrations from NPSP to NPC. Canvas Cloud just developed an NPSP to NPC FastTrack program and you can learn more about it in this recent blog by Danny Rodriguez, our Director of Services.
Nonprofit Cloud was a hot topic of conversation with customers of Salesforce and Salesforce nonprofit leadership. I’m really excited to see how this offering will serve our community as a whole as Canvas Cloud does believe that Nonprofit Cloud is an amazing solution and can be more powerful for nonprofits then NPSP ever could.
Also, future agents that are being created from the community are going to be accessible only through nonprofit cloud, and the ability to utilize the best in class technology is valuable. I had dozens of conversations about NPC and I am excited to see how many more organizations come into NPC this upcoming year.
Dreamforce Food
From a food perspective, I never got a single lunch in the three days that I was at Dreamforce. The primary lunch spot was outside in the Yerba Buena Gardens. I prioritized meetings and conversations over lunch. There were plenty of other snacks during the event and I was able to make due. Many folks who wanted lunch missed out because the food ran out before they could get to a proper spot. My takeaway from that experience is I wish Salesforce had more locations for lunch, probably in every primary building, and if you need to prioritize lunch then have a plan and set an alarm to make sure you're in line when the food first comes out. Again there were plenty of snacks, unlimited popcorn and ice cream from different vendors every day so finding food wasn’t hard, finding healthy options was a much more challenging task.
My best food choice came on the day I attended an event off campus that was next door to a Chinese restaurant. They were offering samples and the food was immaculate, so I ordered a full order of the best Sesame Chicken I’ve had in years. I took it back to the hotel for an early dinner before Dreamfest.
Dreamfest
Dreamfest is Salesforce’s annual concert during Dreamforce and as a first time attendee I had to go! Metallica was playing this year and I was excited about that. I did hear from others and the app made an announcement that no backpacks were allowed, so I had to plan to drop my backpack back to the hotel and then get to the concert. I had walked everywhere before then, but I wasn’t going to walk the 45 minutes to get to the concert venue.
I was planning on taking a scooter, but it was during rush hour and weaving in traffic at that time also sounded like a dangerous prospect. I looked at Uber, knowing thousands of others were also trying to get to the concert and sure enough prices for the four mile trip were over $100.
Thankfully, I had experienced Waymo in other cities and I was able to get Waymo for $30 to the concert and happily took that route. For those unfamiliar with Waymo it is a completely autonomous vehicle that offers similar services to Lyft and Uber, without a driver. I can honestly say that the first time I took a Waymo I was freaked out, but now I’m a huge Waymo fan. We are technologists and are aware at how powerful technology is, getting in an autonomous vehicle is something that shouldn't shock us, that being said its not for everyone. Every Waymo I have taken I know what to expect: I get a nice comfortable ride, I can set my own music, and I feel a bit like I’m closer to a Jetson’s reality. Waymo saved the day and my wallet, and I got to Chase Center right before the doors opened to get my spot for Metallica.
Food lines were crazy and servings were laughable. I get it's a free concert, but giving us one third of a hot dog after waiting in line for a few minutes was a minor disappointment. All that being said, the concert was awesome, high energy, loud and fun. My takeaway is if you like the music go, if not enjoy another event from a sponsor or put your feet up and rest for that evening. It has to be your preference.
After Dreamfest, I attended the Idealist After Party. I’ve known members of Idealist for nearly a decade, and the small registration fee supported a nonprofit so it was worth the experience. It was at a dance club and the vibe was pretty cool. I didn’t have the energy to be on the dance floor much but there were plenty of places to sit and chat if you wanted to not be dancing. I met new folks and had good conversations somehow at 10PM after a Metallica concert.
Final Day at Dreamforce
Dreamforce Day 3 for me was a great day because there were so many sessions regarding nonprofits as well as the Nonprofit Cloud keynote and a Nonprofit Partner Townhall with the Salesforce leadership team. It started out with a networking event for nonprofits and like always hundreds of nonprofits showed up, we were bursting at the seams of the space provided. There was a combination of nonprofits and partners that were able to answer questions. I was able to have a good table conversation with others about Nonprofit Cloud, and give some tips about how they might want to begin preparing for that transition.
We then as a group marched over to the keynote room to get in line for the nonprofit keynote! I was able to get a seat near the front only a handful of rows back. The Nonprofit keynote was exciting, apart from the official name change of Nonprofit Cloud to Agentforce Nonprofit.
After the keynote, I was able to make a trading card of myself, one of the really neat activities available at Dreamforce. It turned out great, and who doesn’t want a trading card of themselves right?
Next, I had to go to another building for the Nonprofit Town Hall. This was an opportunity for Salesforce Partners to have direct communication with the nonprofit leadership team at Salesforce. Many years ago, Salesforce had a Nonprofit Partner Summit where partners would get a few days to talk with and learn what is ahead for nonprofits, but that has gone away the last few years, so this was a welcome time.
Salesforce leadership shared some valuable insights into the future and the need to help organizations migrate to Nonprofit Cloud. Partners have to lead the charge to help organizations on NPSP get to NPC, and thankfully Canvas Cloud has a fantastic solution with our FastTrack offering!
“We all knew it, but leadership made it very clear that Nonprofit Cloud (now Agentforce Nonprofit) is the future for Salesforce, they are investing heavily into it, and will continue to do so. NPSP isn’t going away, but if you want the best of Salesforce and AI you have to be on Nonprofit Cloud. ”
To wrap up Day 3, a wonderful person I met throughout the week, Julia Khon, who is the president of a firm in Quebec, Canada, invited me to dinner with a small group. It was a wonderful evening reminiscing about the week and the future, as well as sharing amazing Indian food! Julia had never taken a Waymo, but was interested and my experience and I helped her to order a Waymo with her colleague, so she got a first time experience of Waymo!
That’s a Wrap on Dreamforce 2025
I was physically tired, but mentally energized after three days at Dreamforce. I’m so excited for what's to come for nonprofits and Canvas Cloud.
When I started Canvas Cloud in 2019, I always had the vision that if we could just help nonprofits get to the best of the best in technology, they could create the most impact for their communities, they could serve their constituents, clients, members better and they could work on what they love about serving. That has always been a passion of mine, and a goal I strive to help nonprofits with every day.
With the age of AI and Agentforce, I really believe the ideal is closer to a reality, I am not naive that it's not a lot of work, but I’m excited that Canvas Cloud gets to help organizations get closer to that, and Salesforce is committed to bringing the best technology forward to assist.
Daniel Doodle, my alter ego with his signature blue beret, rocked Dreamforce and I’m so thankful for the friends, new connections, and old connections I got to meet, and all the learnings I’ve been able to bring back to my team and customers! For now though, I am going to put my feet up for a couple days.
