Some Kind Of (Social) Monster: 30 Scenes From Dreamforce 2011

Welcome To Dreamforce

With more than 45,000 registered attendees and more than 30,000 actually present, Salesforce's Dreamforce 2011 cloud computing conference -- the ninth Dreamforce -- blew the doors off of previous years, and that's not just because of the eardrum-exploding performance from heavy metal gods Metallica.

Dreamforce 2011 focused heavily on the idea of the social enterprise, a confluence of social, mobile and open cloud technologies to transform how the world does business.

There's a lot that went on as Dreamforce 2011 took over San Francisco's Moscone Center this week. Here are 30 scenes from Dreamforce 2011.

Clouds Over San Francisco

Salesforce is never shy about its branding, and the clouds just weren't in the San Francisco sky during Dreamforce 2011. Salesforce plastered its massive clouds on the side of one of the Moscone buildings, so there was always cloud computing on the horizon.

The Social Enterprise Is Born

Salesforce CEO and chairman Marc Benioff took the stage to unveil Salesforce's vision of the social enterprise at Dreamforce 2011. Using a blend of social, mobile and open cloud technologies, Benioff said companies can stay connected and increase their value to customers, partners and others.

Cloud On The Brain

Some people took their hatred of legacy software up a notch at Dreamforce 2011. This conference attendee showed his allegiance to Salesforce and its cloud computing message by displaying Salesforce's now-iconic anti-software logo atop his dome.

Partners Take Center Stage

During the partner welcome keynote at Dreamforce 2011, which drew more than 2,000 partners, Mike Rosenbaum, vice president of marketing and alliance operations, broke down what partners can expect in the coming year.

Bundling Social

With the social enterprise on the horizon, George Hu, executive vice president of platform, marketing and operations, told partners that they can expect to see Social Enterprise License Agreements in the future. These agreements tie together Salesforce's entire product portfolio and offer it for a fixed monthly price for a certain length of time. The cost will vary by seats and company size, Hu said. More details are coming.

ISVs Rising

Ron Huddleston, Salesforce vice president of ISV and channel partners, took the stage and showed partners the growth potential for ISVs. According to Huddleston, Salesforce OEM partners increased 97 percent year over year, ISV revenue jumped 90 percent year over year; ISV orders were up 210 percent year over year and Salesforce saw a 51 percent leap in app installs from AppExchange in the last year. Huddleston added that AppExchange will reach 1 million installs this year.

Platform Power!

Andrew Smith, Force.com director, took the stage to show partners some of the new capabilities in ISVForce and other Salesforce platforms. From new TrialForce branded login pages to a subscriber support console, Smith wowed partners with their new offering potential.

Dark Clouds On The Horizon

Salesforce's clouds weren't the only ones hanging over the city during Dreamforce 2011 this week. Here, you see Salesforce rival Oracle trying to get in on the action claiming to have the No. 1 cloud CRM play. Oracle's cloud balloons could be seen surrounding the Moscone Center throughout Dreamforce.

Bury The Hatchet

Business social network player Yammer, which has taken many shots at Salesforce since its launch of Chatter, calling CEO Marc Benioff and Co. rip-off artists, had let bygones be bygones. In the days leading up to Dreamforce 2011, Yammer launched Salesforce integration capabilities. Now, according to this t-shirt, Yammer considers itself and Salesforce "friends with benefits."

Toyota Friend

On the show floor, Salesforce showed off Toyota Friend, a service that Salesforce and the auto-maker say make automobiles more social. Users can log into a Web portal and view vital vehicle details: fuel levels, battery power, tire pressure and more. And they can do so for other family cars as well. Additionally, a mobile Toyota Friend app lets users lock and unlock the doors, start the car and perform a host of other functions from a smart phone or tablet.

Nothing Comic-al About Cloud

Cloud provider Appirio decked out its Cloud Expo booth with cloud-focused comics, including this fellow, who found himself after ditching hardware.

Social On My Mind

Everyone was thinking about the social enterprise at Dreamforce 2011. Even this guy, handing out newspapers to passersby, was ready to get social.

What part of the social enterprise involves mind reading?

A Hawaiian Welcome

Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, long a fan of Hawaii, invited this Hawaiian couple to kick off Dreamforce 2011 with a traditional Hawaiian song.

iPad 500?

This gigantic, working iPad took center stage on the show floor, allowing users to use Salesforce's AppExchange and other Salesforce offerings.

The Social Profile

One of the main components of the social enterprise is creating a social customer profile, where customer data is aggregated from Salesforce and other social networks, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Here, a Dreamforce 2011 attendee gets a lesson in the social customer profile.

And Leprechauns Are Thieves!

We're not sure what cloud marketing software maker HubSpot has against unicorns. But apparently they're liars. So, remember, take everything unicorns say with a grain of salt.

Mr. Mayor

Salesforce Director of Platform Research Peter Coffee chats with San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee. Coffee thanked the Mayor for letting Dreamforce take over his city.

Searching For A Heart Of Gold

Benioff chats with legendary classic rocker Neil Young, who uses Salesforce's cloud products while working on his music and movie projects to create a collaborative environment.

Schmidt Takes The Stage

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Dreamforce attendees to pay close attention to the mobile, local and social landscapes and reflected on the recent era of cloud and mobile innovation in a fireside chat with Benioff.

Stop! Hammer Time!

MC Hammer made a brief appearance at Dreamforce 2011, telling Benioff that he was excited about the potential changes social media, mobility and cloud computing can create for the music industry.

Burberry Goes Social

Burberry CEO Angel Ahrendts and Benioff reminisce over how their business relationship came to be and how Burberry turned into one of the first social enterprises by creating a brand that customers could touch, feel and smell by using a host of social and mobile technologies. Benioff drew up a template on a napkin from which Burberry and solution provider Capgemini implemented Burberry's social enterprise transformation.

Old Home Week

Former Oracle President Ray Lane demonstrates a duck call on stage with Benioff and Kenandy CEO and founder Sandy Kurtzig. Kenandy makes a social manufacturing management solution for the cloud and as an ISV integrates with Salesforce. Lane is a member of Kenandy's board and is currently HP non-executive board chairman and Managing Partner of Kleiner Perkins.

Oracle Double-Take

In another Oracle twist, Charles Phillips, ex-Oracle president, now CEO of Infor, took the stage with Benioff to showcase an Infor-Salesforce integration that creates InForce business apps.

Metal Marc

Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff -- donning a Metallica t-shirt -- appeared to come straight from the heavy metal parking lot to introduce Metallica to a packed house at Dreamforce 2011.

Metallica Rocks Dreamforce

Metallica front man James Hetfield growled through more than 90 minutes of the metal monsters' catalog. Here, he slows it down with an acoustic for the intro to Nothing Else Matters.

Master! Master!

Kirk Hammet, Metallica lead guitarist, shredded rocking solos dating to the San Francisco natives' back catalog, including the title track from 1986's Master Of Puppets.

Evil

Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo put on his metal face and set the beat for the crushing set.

Lars Ulrich On Drums

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich pounded his way through the roughly 90 minute set during Dreamforce 2011, hammering on tunes including Blackened, Creeping Death and Sad But True.

Salesforce 'Likes' Social

The sign says it all. Dreamforce 2011 was the vehicle through which Salesforce shared its love and vision for all things social. Inspired by the sweeping success of Facebook, Salesforce's key message was that businesses need to leverage more social, mobile and cloud technologies and processes to succeed.