There’s More People Working At Dreamforce Than Attending Dreamforce

We’ve taken it easy on making fun of Dreamforce this year, considering that the 2021 iteration of the annual corporate “brand festival” has very wisely scaled down their attendance over Delta variant concerns. But their lowered attendance has led to a curious ratio. There are more people working at Dreamforce as check-in staff, food service, security, engineers, and sound technicians than there are people who are there to actually attend the conference.

We scoped the whole Dreamforce perimeter at lunch hour on Wednesday, so this is not exactly a scientific assessment. But you can tell who’s working and who’s attending based on their badge color and/or how they’re dressed. And our count found about two-thirds of the badge-wearing population and obviously on-duty staff fell into the “worker” category.

Consider this guy. He’s not wearing a badge, but the individual inside the fursuit is clearly on duty.

And it takes a village to run a Dreamforce National Park. In addition to the event staff, the sound and video techs, and the Moscone Center custodial staff, there are a ton of uniformed SFPD and SFMTA staff along the perimeter to ensure the overall safety and smoothness of the event. We included them in our count, because they would not be there if Dreamforce were not happening.

Plus you have these people whose job it is to stand there is Outside Lands “Ranger Dace” cosplay.

Our count is obviously skewed toward in-person attendees and staff. Only 1,000 people were invited to attend in-person, whereas 160,000 paid to tune in to the Dreamforce livestreams. So our count is just limited to the people who are physically at Moscone Center this year, and the number of people attending virtually is exponentially higher than what our count indicates. But in-person, at Moscone Center, Dreamforce 2021 attendees are primarily paid staff.

And you know what? That’s just fine, as long as Marc Benioff’s checks all clear.