Mayor London Breed said she has received assurances that Dreamforce will remain in San Francisco next year.
Asked in an interview Wednesday, the second day of Dreamforce, if she had received guarantees that the city’s signature business conference would return next year, the mayor said, “I’ve gotten some.” She declined to share specifics she has heard from Salesforce and its CEO, Marc Benioff.
“Big events are our specialty. It’s what we do best,” Breed said. “We’re seeing other conventions saying, ‘Our attendees are a little too distracted in Vegas.'”
The comments mirror statements Benioff gave to The Standard when asked if Dreamforce would return to his hometown.
“I’d like to as long as everything goes well,” he said. “If it all goes well, why not?”
The tech billionaire previously threatened to move the conference to another city. He later said those comments were meant to push city leaders to make SF “shiny, clean, and safe.”
Salesforce has reportedly told city leaders that it would not commit to holding Dreamforce in San Francisco in 2025 unless a “safe and secure environment” is demonstrated. The company is using the pressure to negotiate discounted hotel rates and other concessions.
Breed said Dreamforce is expected to bring more than $95 million in economic activity to the city.
The California Highway Patrol offered extra security for the conference, Breed said, alongside city forces that increased capacity to handle the number of attendees.
Breed said large conventions and events are a way to show that SF’s downtown can be a place where people work and play, noting that Dawn Club, a jazz bar close to the Moscone Center, was “packed, and people are having a good time.”
This year, the number of conferences held in San Francisco is down from 2023, alongside associated hotel bookings. Several tech companies, including Red Hat, Twilio, and Workday, have canceled scheduled conferences in the city.
But Breed said the city expects an uptick in business events in 2025 and 2026.
The mayor also addressed efforts to clean up drug dealing, saying city and federal officials would use “every tool” to ensure that those who sell drugs that lead to overdoses and deaths are held accountable.
“My message is: San Francisco is not the place to come and deal drugs,” Breed said. “It is a violent crime, especially if someone ends up overdosing and dying.”