Last Sunday morning, while still in bed, I got a call from the boss asking me to go to the Dreamforce 2009 conference in San Francisco… on Monday. Still a little sleepy, I thought about it for a minute, and jumped on the opportunity. I quickly booked my flight got my laundry together, shirts ironed, and before I knew it I was on the west coast! I had a great week at the conference, and of course, out on the town.
I got into San Francisco Monday morning about 10:30 am, and checked into the InterContinential San Francisco. What a fabulous hotel. It was in a great location, with a great view and very modern in decor. Each room had a 40 inch flat screen on the wall, and a gorgeous tiled bathroom.
After checking into the hotel, I headed up to Chinatown and found a hole-in-the wall place where the locals eat. The food was pretty good. After that I went in and out the various shops, and markets, which I found particularly interesting. I truly felt like I was in a different country with the food out on the streets, fresh seafood, and foods I had never seen before.
After Chinatown, I hiked and hiked up to Coit Tower. The view was spectacular. You could see the entire city, the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz. I then proceeded down to Pier 39 and saw the shops, and of course, the stinky, noisy sea lions. I then walked the rest of Fisherman’s Wharf, got some good shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, and took in the scenery. I then headed to Ghiradelli Square and visited the original Ghiradelli shop, and of course, bought some chocolates there.
By this time it was getting late and caught the cable car back over to the Market Street area where I was staying. This area was really cool- it includes a lot of shopping and Union Square. They were putting all the Christmas decorations up while I was there, and by the end of the trip had a lit Christmas tree with ice skating. I then had dinner at an old drive-in type restaurant called Mel’s. I ended up having several meals there; it was reasonably priced and good.
Tuesday the conference began with special meetings for Higher Education institutions at the Salesforce.com headquarters. It was very interesting to hear what other schools are doing with cloud computing, specifically the cost savings and functionality available. One thing thing in particular that struck me was how confident, excited and dedicated salesforce.com employees are. They seemed to genuinely love their product, and more importantly the good their foundation does and what they offer to higher education and non-profit organizations. That evening, I met up with my good friend Andy (friend from high school for those of you who don’t know) and went to dinner at the Cheesecake factory on the 8th floor of the Macy’s building overlooking Union Square. It was good to catch up with him on such short notice. He is living out there doing his residency at the UCSF Medical Center. Incidentally, salesforce.com donated $2 million during one of the sessions to the new Children’s Hospital they are building.
Wednesday consisted of break-out sessions, networking and information gathering. There was so much information at this conference I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose. That morning was one of two keynote addresses from the CEO of salesforce.com. This session included many notable CEO’s including, Google’s, Eric Schmidt. Later that evening was the Gala, which was a lot of fun. The drinks and food were plentiful, as was the music. They turned the conference hall into essentially a huge club scene. There 4 huge screens from floor to ceiling playing mixed videos before the entertainment of the evening, The Black Crowes!
Thursday was pretty much a copy of Wednesday, with the exception of getting to hear Colin Powell speak. I was glad I was able to hear him; he is an exceptional person and public speaker. That evening there was a reception for non-profit and higher education institutions over at the Ferry Building. Later, Andy picked me up, and had a spectacular dinner at an Italian restaurant called North Beach Restaurant. We then drove down Lombard St. and headed back towards the hotel, the sessions on Friday morning started at 7:30 am.
Friday morning proved to be useful; I got to attend some hands-on training and get a better grasp on the force platform. Once again, there is so much to learn, and so many opportunities, it was quite overwhelming at times. From the networking with other schools such, I determined the best way to integrate cloud computing into Miami’s environment is to start small, perhaps with one office or one application, and learn from that experience and add and move to the cloud as time permits and necessary. The conference ended at 12:45, so once again I pretty much covered the same ground as I did Monday, with the exception of heading over to Lombard street and watching the cars during daylight, and hiking up to a park to get some good views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I then headed back to Mel’s for one farewell dinner and prepared for my flight home Saturday morning.
I can honestly say San Francisco is one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. It has such a young, vibrant, positive, upbeat feel to it. I definitely could see myself living there sometime. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to make it back next year for the Banner conference, or just to visit Andy.
Anyways, its getting late, my internal clock is all screwed up, and am off to work bright and early tomorrow. Check out the photos here!
.
