Dreamforce is where I go to recharge. Even though Salesforce is part of my daily life — through client work, volunteering, mentoring, and leading the San Diego User Group — there’s something about being in that buzzing Moscone energy that refills my creative cup. It’s my professional reset button.
This year, though, life had other plans. Between budgets, family logistics, and competing priorities, I couldn’t justify a full week in San Francisco. But skipping Dreamforce altogether? Absolutely not. So I decided to do something wild: attend just one day.
Was it a good idea? I’ll let you decide.
My Dreamforce morning started at 3:00 a.m. By 6:15, I was on a plane out of San Diego with nothing but a backpack, laptop, and battery pack. No checked bags, no roller carry-on, no “maybe I’ll need this” jacket. Just me and my caffeine. It felt weirdly liberating.
The flight itself was short and smooth — San Diego to San Francisco is just about an hour. I landed at 7:15, confident I’d be at Moscone by 8:00 when the doors opened. (Cue foreshadowing music.)
What I didn’t account for was San Francisco morning traffic. It took almost 30 minutes to get matched with a rideshare, and then over hour to crawl the handful of miles into the city. Eventually, I jumped out five blocks early and walked the rest of the way, dragging my poor sleepy legs through the streets in my Salesforce converse.
By the time I reached Moscone West, it was almost 10:00 a.m. I’d already spent half my morning in an Uber and had a good laugh at my own optimistic itinerary.
Walking into Dreamforce feels a bit like walking into another world — one filled with music, chatter, and Trailblazers in every direction. There’s this moment when the chaos hits you, and instead of being overwhelmed, you just grin. That’s when you know you’re home.
Badge pickup was ridiculously easy this year. I’d signed up for the Digital Pass, looked into a camera that instantly recognized me, flashed my ID, and was done. (Future conferences, please take notes.)
The main keynote was starting, but I had already made peace with skipping it. (Yes, I stand by my skip the keynotes opinion!) So while others queued up for the big screens, I turned left into Trailblazer Forest.
The first thing I saw? Cloudy and Appy posing for photos. Obviously, I got in line. You can’t start Dreamforce without at least one character selfie.
Trailblazer Forest was alive and buzzing — and noticeably Agentforce-ified. Every banner, screen, and conversation had “Agentforce” stamped on it, and I wasn’t mad about it.
I started in Admin Meadow, where I caught a demo on Agentforce for Setup — yes, using AI to configure and customize your org. It was brilliant. Then I wandered over to the Salesforce Designers booth, where they were running an activity about AI use cases. My card? Record summarization. The catch: you had to define exactly what you wanted summarized and why. It’s such a simple reminder that AI is only as good as your clarity. I loved it.
I posted my sticky note to the wall of use cases and wondered what they’d do with all of them later. (If the Salesforce Design team is reading this — please, publish that wall. It’s gold.)
I’d expected Agentforce to be a major theme, but wow — this year, it was the theme.
Everywhere I turned, there were Agentforce sessions, including these ones that really caught my attention:
- “How Agentforce Thrives on Data Cloud’s Unified Intelligence”
- “Prep Like a Pro: Clean Data and Metadata for Agentforce”
- “Agent Decisions: Using Variables and Filters”
- “Architecting Agentforce: A Blueprint for Success”
I’m already an Agentblazer Legend and spend a fair amount of my time experimenting with this tech, but I’m still constantly learning. There’s just so much happening, and clients are asking increasingly complex questions. It’s exciting — and humbling — to realize how much more there always is to master.
One of my favorite discoveries was AgentExchange, tucked next to AppExchange. I’ve seen the name before, but this was my first real deep dive. It’s essentially a marketplace of prebuilt agents, topics, and actions you can plug right into your org. Think “AppExchange for AI assistants.” My brain immediately went to client use cases — the possibilities are endless.
In the afternoon, I swapped my Trailblazer hat for my Slalom one and headed to our booth in Moscone South. It’s always exciting to talk about what we’re building — like our Zero Legacy campaign and AI Value Platform that identifies and prioritizes AI use cases (it even calculates ROI!).
Dreamforce booth duty is its own kind of fun — part demo, part networking, part therapy session for people trying to figure out where to even start with Dreamforce. I love those conversations, because you can feel people’s excitement and anxiety mixing together in real time.
After my shift, I wandered through the lounges and levels. Level 3 (the Community floor) was my happy place — theater sessions, popcorn (thank you, Release Team, you saved me from fainting), and FeatureFest patches that they actually ironed onto your bag. That little moment of personalization? Perfect.
I also ran into a few Trailblazers I’ve known for years — the best kind of accidental reunions. There’s something comforting about seeing familiar faces in the chaos.
At one point, I heard Jewel performing outside in Dreampark. I love her — but it was wall-to-wall people, so I kept walking. That’s when I hit 20,000 steps for the day and laughed out loud. Dreamforce in a day, indeed.
My final stop was the User Group Leader Celebration at Lucky Strike. It’s such a highlight every year — connecting with other leaders from around the world, trading stories, and realizing how massive and diverse this community really is. I met group leaders from Australia, Brazil, and Portugal. We might all come from different backgrounds, but we share the same passion.
Somewhere between the laughter and the bowling, I realized I needed to head back to the airport. It was bitter-sweet.
By 11:00 p.m., I was back in San Diego, sneakers dusty, heart full.
So — would I recommend Dreamforce in a day? Honestly? Probably not 😅.
It was exhausting, exhilarating, and wonderful, but also overwhelming. I saw most everything, yet felt like I experienced nothing deeply. I skipped long sessions and workshops because they took too much time, and I missed those slower, immersive moments that usually define my Dreamforce week.
Still, I wouldn’t trade it. It reminded me that showing up matters — even for a single day. Sometimes, the point isn’t to check every box, but just to reconnect with the community and reignite your spark.
Dreamforce 2025 may have been shorter for me, but it left me re-energized, curious, and grateful. I’ve already got a long list of ideas to explore — Agentforce, AgentExchange, design use cases, and SO MUCH MORE.
Next year, I’ll try to get more time. But for now? I’m calling this one-day dash a success.
My one day in San Francisco might be over, but Dreamforce definitely isn’t.
As I write this, I’ve got Dreamforce live-streaming on Salesforce+ in the background. I’ll rewatch the sessions I missed. I’m bookmarking product demos. And I’m diving deeper into the topics that caught my attention — especially anything related to Agentforce architecture, data unification, and practical AI adoption.
There’s something kind of perfect about it, actually. My one-day sprint gave me the spark, and now Salesforce+ is giving me the depth. Together, they’re turning this whirlwind trip into a much longer, richer learning journey.
Dreamforce may have been a single day on my calendar, but it’s going to keep inspiring me for weeks.
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