Dreamforce in San Francisco

I was lucky enough to head out to San Francisco for a work trip to Dreamforce, Salesforce.com's annual training and networking conference. To make the most of my first trip to the States, I tacked on a couple of extra days at the start to check out the city.

I flew in on Saturday evening and in a great coincidence, Adrian Biggs, a friend from high school that I'd run into in London a few times was in town. He lives in LA now, but had spent some time in SanFran – and knew all the best places to go. With a couple of his friends we visited some great cocktail bars – and because he works 'in the industry' they took great care of us (a big thanks to him and Borys if he ever reads this!)

Thanks to the change in timezone, I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to catch my boat out to Alcatraz. The island isn't large in itself, but really does dominate the harbour, and the prison (which is looking very much the worse for wear) had some really interesting stories to tell. The views back to the city were stunning as well. It sounds touristy, but it is really worth it. I got there early, which meant that I was actually by myself at the solitary confinement area – which made it somehow so much more real.

Heading out to Alcatraz

Arriving into Alcatraz

I'm never going to complain about the size of my bedroom again...

Freedom doesn't look so far away - apparently on a still night you could hear the parties happening onshore

After a few hours the crowds had built up too much, so I headed back to the mainland and down along Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where I stumbled across a random marching band (I'm still trying to figure out who they were) and had the 'classic' clam chowder in a bread bowl – well worth it.

Random marching band - bonus points for anyone who can tell me who they are!

Lazy seals at Pier 39 - this was actually taken about 10am, and they're still just lying around basking in the sun

I continued along the waterfront to the 'Long Now Foundation' museum and shop. The Long Now Foundation was formed to encourage people to think about the 10,000 year view (that number is relevant given that civilisation really started 10,000 years ago) – I really enjoy their podcasts and they had been talking a lot about two of their projects, the 10,000 year clock (which is being designed to sit within a mountain and run, untended, for 10,000 years) and the rosetta project, which is building a collection of over 2500 of the world's languages, engraved in incredibly fine print on a titanium disk. They had samples of both the rosetta discs and small-scale prototypes for the clock on display, and it was really cool to see the podcast brought to life.

A model of part of the 10,000 year clock - the real gears will be something like 8ft in diameter

Monday I rented a bike (from Blazing Saddles, who I would recommend) and rode across the Golden Gate bridge – really spectacular. I carried on North from there up to Sausalito and to Old Mill, which had some amazingly tall trees. I had hoped to ride all the way around to Tiburon, but realised that if I did that I wouldn't then have time to get back for the dinner that was arranged for the conference, so caught the ferry back from Sausalito instead.

On the way to the Golden Gate bridge

Those are some big cables!

The spectacular trees at Old Mill Park

Wholefoods Markets - great spot for lunch (they had far more than pumpkin in store)

Tuesday I slept in (having been up until 4am because of a conference call in the UK – stupid time zones), then headed around to the Exploratorium, the science museum in SanFran which is right near the Palace of Fine Arts (an extraordinary Neoclassical slice of Rome in SanFran). This was brilliant, like being a kid again!

The Palace of Fine Arts - possibly the most out-of-place building in the world

From Tuesday afternoon the conference really got going, and I had a fascinating time learning about where the product is going, and how we can make better use of it at work. The also had Colin Powell speak about leadership, and the Black Crows played at their gala event (don't ask me, I hadn't heard of them either, but they were actually really cool).

The conference wrapped up about lunchtime on Friday, by which time I was well and truly exhausted. But after a siesta I was refreshed enough to check out one more sight that I'd heard on a podcast – 826 Valencia, the Pirate Store. Dave Egger is a writer from SanFran who was looking for a property to build his after-school writing program for disadvantaged children – the place he found was required by a by-law to include a shop. They didn't particularly want to sell anything, just fill the space with something cool – so they created The Pirate Store. They've gone the whole hog, selling everything from peg-leg oil, to anti-scurvy lotion. They also sell a range of propaganda to support their ongoing battle with 'Captain Rick's', the Walmart of pirate stores. It was hilarious, and a really fun place to visit – there are other 826 Valencia shops across the US so you should check them out if you ever get the chance.

The Pirate Store at 826 Valencia

I had only a few hours on Saturday morning, so took a brief run along the waterfront and then up to Lombard St, and finished up my trip by catching a cable car around to the cable car museum (an amazing reminder of how things could have gone if electricity distribution hadn't been developed, and mechanical power transmission was the way to go instead).

Classic San Francisco - a cable car, a steep street, and Alcatraz in the background - eerily close

San Fran was a great city to visit, but it wasn't more than just fun times and sightseeing – I learned a lot at the conference and met some really good contacts there as well (but won't bore you with that)...