Anyone who is, was, or may ever be involved in organizing a corporate event, listen up: this is how it’s done.
Salesforce (or SFDC), a pioneer in the CRM software space, throws a conference every year in San Francisco called “Dreamforce.” The first time they held the event was in 2003 and 1,300 people showed up.
This year, 160,000 people signed up for the event. It has gotten so big that there aren’t enough hotel rooms available in downtown San Fran to accommodate all the guests. So Salesforce did what any other company with a market cap of $48 billion dollars would do…
They rented a massive 12-story yacht, called it the “Dreamboat,” dolled it up to feel like a hotel, and offered up an additional 1,100 rooms to conference stragglers for a very reasonable $250-$850 per night.
Photo: Eugene Kim/Business Insider
Photo: Eugene Kim/Business Insider
Photo: Eugene Kim/Business Insider
Photo: Eugene Kim/Business Insider
While for “regulatory” reasons they weren’t allowed to open the casino and the shops, the boat still had more than a handful of bars, several restaurants, two swimming pools (with company logos on the bottom), four whirlpools, a running track, an arcade, a DJ and, of course, a gorgeous view of the bay.
The boat also had a theatre on board in which up to 1,000 people could watch the conference remotely if they didn’t feel like getting off the Dreamboat or dealing with the six-figure swarm of live attendees.
Understandable, too. According to a number of guests, the boat had one hell of a party vibe.
Mark Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce told USA Today that for next year, he plans on having two Dreamboats.
Turns out sometimes the early bird really does get stuck with the worms.
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