Salesforce.com's annual Dreamforce conference will kick off next week in San Francisco, and with a reported 120,000 people registered to attend in person and virtually, it will be the cloud software vendor's biggest shindig yet. Here's a look at what to expect, from keynote rhetoric to special guests, as well as a look back on Salesforce.com's past. Marc Benioff launches Salesforce.com’s “End of Software” campaign Each Dreamforce gives Benioff an opportunity to spell out Salesforce.com’s broadest strategic initiatives and marketing themes. This year, he’s expected to focus on marketing software. No word on whether he’ll unveil a new company catch phrase to rival the memorable “No Software” tag line that marked Salesforce.com’s earlier days. Marc Benioff at Salesforce.com’s original headquarters “Image by Salesforce.com An older and much richer Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff will take the keynote stage at Dreamforce, compared to the company’s early days. Here’s a rare picture of Benioff in the apartment that served as Salesforce.com’s original headquarters. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff speaks to Virgin chairman Richard Branson “Image by Salesforce.com/Jakub Mosur Photography Benioff’s Dreamforce keynotes tend to be rather long affairs, but he leavens the load with a healthy dose of celebrity guests. Past visitors have included Virgin chairman Richard Branson. Marc Benioff did a “rogue keynote” after Oracle CEO Larry Ellison canceled his official one at OpenWorld 2011 “Image by Salesforce.com/Jakub Mosur An Ellison appearance at Dreamforce would stand in stark contrast to Ellison’s cancellation of a talk Benioff was supposed to give at OpenWorld 2011. That didn’t stop Benioff, however, who used a hotel near the event to deliver a “rogue keynote.” Related content brandpost Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks M&A action is gaining momentum, are your cloud security leaders prepared? Direct visibility is critical in M&A, and cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) are ideal to provide this capability. By Amol Mathur, SVP & GM of Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Apr 25, 2024 4 mins Cloud Management news CIOs eager to scale AI despite difficulty demonstrating ROI, survey finds CIOs prioritize integrating AI into their organizations alongside cybersecurity, according to a new survey. By Sandeep Budki Apr 25, 2024 5 mins Artificial Intelligence news Oracle adds AI capabilities to its Fusion Cloud CX The new capabilities are expected to take on offerings from rivals such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and SAP. By Anirban Ghoshal Apr 25, 2024 3 mins Oracle Cloud Computing feature What LinkedIn learned leveraging LLMs for its billion users The social media giant turned to generative AI to improve its member services. Here’s an inside look at what its engineers learned about leveraging LLMs for business results. By Evan Schuman Apr 25, 2024 9 mins Technology Industry Generative AI Software Development PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe