September saw the return of Dreamforce, THE date in the diary for all those involved in the Salesforce ecosystem. The event brought people together from all around the globe, providing limitless opportunities to learn, connect and give back to the community.

I watched Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor’s Keynote Speech from the comfort of my front room (unfortunately I didn’t get to visit San Francisco… maybe one day!). Here are a few key takeaways…

#1 The Salesforce Ecosystem goes from strength to strength

This year’s Dreamforce was the biggest ever, with over 1000 sessions, 140+ sponsors and over 150,000 individuals attending. Speakers at the event included Former Vice President Al Gore, Olympic British Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith and Singer-Songwriter/Activist Bono.

Named by Salesforce as “The Great Reunion”, Dreamforce provided the opportunity for the first in-person get-together post-Pandemic. Since the last Dreamforce event, the growth of the Salesforce Ecosystem has shown no signs of slowing down. Events like Dreamforce remind me of the scale of the ecosystem. With 9.3M new Salesforce economy jobs predicted by 2026, it truly feels like “the place to be!”

#2 Salesforce maintains their commitment to boosting the success of nonprofits

I’m always blown away by how much support Salesforce offers nonprofit organisations. At Dreamforce, the co-CEOs reminded us of Salesforce’s commitment to nonprofits.

The organisation sees both profitability and philanthropy as core pillars, but don’t see either as exclusive of the other. This has led to the formation of Salesforce’s 1-1-1 model, in which they dedicate 1% of equity, 1% of product, and 1% of employees’ time to the challenges faced in the global community. When translating these percentages into real numbers, we can see that Salesforce has provided:

• $575M in grants (all time giving)
• 50K + Nonprofits/NGOs running for free on Salesforce
• 7.2M volunteer hours provided by Salesforce

#3 Salesforce tackles the issues facing the environment

One of the biggest highlights of 2021 for Salesforce was the announcement that Salesforce achieved Net Zero across its value chain and 100% renewable energy. Benioff reminded us of how Salesforce is helping organisations worldwide achieve Net Zero, by detailing more about Net Zero cloud. This combination of technologies allows organisations to integrate sustainability management into their practices, helping make sustainability part of every decision.

Benioff also reminded us of Salesforce’s pledge to contribute to the planting of 1 trillion trees (yes, 1 trillion!) to combat climate change. You can find out more about this initiative here.

#4 Genie!

The big announcement this year was Salesforce Genie, which brings latest-generation automation and AI capability to power real-time, intelligent, and automated experiences. Salesforce described this as the biggest innovation to come to its CRM and Sales enablement platform in 20 years, making Salesforce to become the first ever “real-time CRM”. This is a big shift to the platform and one worth getting familiar with, so why not watch the Keynote speech to find out more? pssst… the announcement of Salesforce Genie kicks off around the 45:00 mark.

In addition, it’s worth having a browse through Salesforce+ at the other Dreamforce content they have available. There’s plenty of sessions to tune into! Happy watching and speak soon!