"Dreamforce is, by this point, a bona fide tradition in San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people flock to South of Market each autumn to don lanyards, strap on winning smiles and plunge into a branding extravaganza. For three days, the Moscone Center, the Metreon mall and an entire block of Howard Street are remade in Salesforce's image. The tech conference also draws a mass of journalists like me, hoping to see how CEO Marc Benioff and his guests will peddle their new tools and technologies."
"Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer were due to perform at the conference's annual comedy showcase on Thursday afternoon. It was an exciting prospect; like last year's Sheng Wang and John Mulaney, Nanjiani and Glazer are a pair with differing comedic styles, unafraid of punching up at tech's excesses and power structures. Nanjiani rose to prominence on the industry-skewering show "Silicon Valley," and I was looking forward to his updated schtick."
"But "unforeseen circumstances" dropped the duo from the event, in the words of Salesforce's electronic banners in the room. Fellow actor-comic David Spade replaced them - I would've loved to see the company's list of B-list talent backups - and delivered 40 minutes of rambly, down-home storytelling. He tried many sound effects, and made much use of his classic sarcasm, but joked little about the conference, its themes, or San Francisco."
Dreamforce 2025 turned South of Market into a Salesforce-branded spectacle, filling Moscone Center, the Metreon mall, and Howard Street with tens of thousands of attendees. The event drew journalists and industry watchers seeking product announcements and demonstrations, alongside celebrity appearances and discussions of artificial intelligence. Two headline comedy acts, Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer, canceled at the last minute and were replaced by David Spade, whose rambling set featured sound effects and sarcasm but little conference-specific satire. The conference combined major news, product theater, and unpredictable moments that ranged from disappointing to bizarre.
Read at SFGATE
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]