AI Shows Fill Void Left by Conferences That Ditched San Francisco

In the first half of this year, what people started calling a “doom loop” continued to unfold in downtown San Francisco, hollowed out by remote workers who emptied out office buildings. 

The office workers were followed by an exodus of downtown retail as conditions deteriorated and safety became a big concern. The next domino to fall was the city’s convention business.

San Francisco’s premier convention venue, the Moscone Center—located in the heart of downtown—suddenly saw its schedule hollowing out as tech players bailed out of conferences traditionally held in the city.

In March, Facebook parent Meta canceled its Meta Business Group Summit 2024, which was slated to take place at the Moscone Center.

Google had booked the Moscone Center for its 2024 Cloud Next conference, which was scheduled to be held April 16-18. Over the summer, Google canceled the booking and relocated 2024 Cloud Next to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Software giant Red Hat canceled two annual tech summits it was scheduled to host at the Moscone Center in 2024 and 2025.

Okay, stop the presses, here’s a flash: there’s a tsunami of a rising tide sweeping across San Francisco that’s going to erase the doom loop. San Francisco is now the global capital of generative AI, a tide that will lift all boats.

Including San Francisco’s convention business.

Salesforce is promising that next week’s annual Dreamforce conference will be “the largest gathering of AI minds in the world,” CEO Marc Benioff said in an August 31 earnings call. Salesforce is hoping to match pre-pandemic attendance for the conference, which drew 180,000 to an in-person event.

Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest employer, is getting a challenge from the new kid on the block. OpenAI, the ChatGPT pioneer now valued at an estimated $30B, announced this week that in November it will host its inaugural developers conference.

The San Francisco-based company is aiming to lure hundreds of the world’s leading generative AI developers to what the company is calling OpenAI DevDay, scheduled for Nov. 6.

OpenAI said its technical staff will present sessions at DevDay giving attendees a chance to look at the firm’s latest innovations. A keynote presentation—will it be delivered by a bot?—will be livestreamed, according to a company blog post.

Another global spotlight will be landing on the Moscone Center in November: President Biden and two dozen heads of state will convene the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit at the convention center.