In the wide world of marketing, it can be difficult to stand out from the masses. For even the most talented marketers, it can be challenging to stay in tune with the many changes transforming the industry. One of a marketer’s best hedges against losing touch with the current marketing landscape is to attend conferences. Last year, I had the opportunity to travel around the world to speak and attend over 15 conferences. One of the biggest takeaways I gleaned from the experience lies in the immense value associated with attending conferences dedicated to exploring new markets or focused on specific niches.
Following is a list of some recommended conferences that marketers ought to have on their radar for 2017.
SaaStr: February 7-9, San Francisco
If you’re in the Software as a Service industry or want to be, the SaaStr Annual conference is a must-attend event. SaaStr is focused on helping SaaS leaders scale and grow their businesses What differentiates SaaStr from most other conferences is its audience. Most attendees are senior-level and, by virtue of this, SaaStr focuses on founder-centric issues, including growth strategy, execution, and management. SaaStr also attracts a fair number of top VCs, which creates a unique opportunity for execs to gain exposure to the VC perspective on the Saas landscape and where it is headed.
Use promo code NODE20 for a 20% discount on tickets.
Revenue Summit: March 7-8, San Francisco
Hosted by #FlipMyFunnel and Sales Hacker, Inc, Revenue Summit 2017 presents a unique opportunity for attendees to learn how to most effectively align sales and marketing. A key component of a successful ABM implementation involves getting sales and marketing working on the same page, rather than being constrained to two siloed verticals. This is one of the few conferences that brings both B2B sales and marketing stakeholders together to focus on tried and true strategies, actionable and concrete tactics, and technologies that can move mountains in terms of helping to meet and d exceed revenue goals. Marketers can expect to learn about the latest insights related to how to drive revenue through account-based best practices and discover the latest technology that can facilitate successful implementation of these programs at scale.
Use promo code FLIPMYFUNNEL for 20% discount on tickets.
Topo Summit: April 12-13, San Francisco
The Topo summit is hosted by Topo, an advisory firm that helps sales, marketing, and sales development leaders grow revenues faster. The conference leverages its 200+ client base to facilitate a number of invaluable speaker tracks that are relevant for any sales and marketing team. The conference specifically deals with the best practices, patterns, and plays necessary to drive growth. One of this year’s most interesting tracks is titled, “Account-Based Everything.” This track will take a deep dive into what it truly takes to succeed in Account-Based Marketing.
Email Evolution Conference: May 1-3, New Orleans
I have written before on why email didn’t die and instead is thriving in a mobile world. This conference is exciting because it’s goal is to show marketers how to take email marketing efforts to the next level. As data becomes more and more available, so does the opportunity for marketers to create personalized experiences and expand their campaigns beyond the mass blast. Everyone knows the saying, that it is cheaper to retain customers than it is to acquire new ones. For this very reason it is essential that all marketers understand how to harness the power of email.
Digital Summit Denver: June 27-28, Denver
The tech scene in Denver has been growing at breakneck pace over the past few years. CB Insights released a report that ranked Colorado sixth among states that had received the most venture capital. SendGrid, LogRhythm, Home Advisor are a few of the many fast growing companies heralding from the region.
Digital Summit Denver focuses on exploring the digital strategies transforming the future of the digital commerce ecosystem – including Marketing, UX & Design, Search, Content, Mobile, and more.One of the main reasons I like this conference is due to its strong focus on the tactical elements of the content. Unlike other conferences, attendees leave the Digital Summit Denver equipped with a list of new ideas and tactics to try. This year, Seth Godin and Morgan Spurlock will give the keynote.
DMA’s &Then: October 8-11, New Orleans
The DMA initialism used to stand for the “Direct Marketing Association”. In the past few years, however,the association has made great strides towards focusing on data to inform the future of marketing. In light of this newfound focus, DMA now stands for the “Data and Marketing Association”. The DMA &Then events explore the pressing issues that will define the future of marketing. The events are both educational and inspirational. Attendees learn tactical strategies for marketing, and also have the opportunity to explore new verticals like augmented reality and artificial intelligence. Speakers and attendees recognize that the next era of marketing will be defined by companies who can both understand complex data sets, as well as exploit this data to tell effective customer stories.
Internet Summit: November 16-17, Raleigh
As technology companies continue to emerge outside of Silicon Valley, new opportunities have expanded in regions like the south. The Internet Summit has become a premier event in the south, taking advantage of its unique location, and its ability to bridge several emerging tech hubs.
The Internet Summit focuses on helping attendees build a professional toolkit through thought leadership and practical solutions. Ultimately, this toolkit is intended to empower attendees to supercharge their customer strategies.