As a small business owner, it can be very difficult to grasp the range of knowledge required to grow and market a company. Not only are you responsible for overseeing the operational aspect of your business, but you need to know how to establish an online presence, promote your brand, hire a strong team, create an innovative product and brand, and on top of that you need to accomplish all of this without spending more than you’re making.
I wanted to highlight some of the best conferences that offer the most value for their cost. These conferences are broken down into three categories.
They are:
- Best Conferences For Online Marketing
- Best Conferences For Strategy and Growth
- Best Conferences For Creativity
Rather than simply listing out a list of conferences without any additional context, you can now make your decisions based on the type of value you are looking to gain. This way, you can attend one conference from each category in order to develop greater knowledge on the most crucial aspects of running a successful business.
Best Conference for Online Marketing:
An important part of growing your business through online marketing is understanding how to convert leads and visitors into paying customers. This conference is organized by Leads Pages and offers a lot of highly actionable tips and strategies for conversion rate optimization. Leaders in the industry whose main focus is to optimize landing pages, email funnels and ads, share real strategies and examples for not only acquiring the right customers, but monetizing and retaining them as well.
When: October 2018
Number of attendees: 1,000+
Cost per ticket: $850
Location: Minneapolis
Content Marketing is an integral part of growing an online presence, and Orbit Media’s event is one of the largest content marketing conferences in Chicago. The speakers present are all experts in their fields and masters of using content as a strategy for scaling their businesses and acquiring new customers via online channels. You’ll gain useful tactics you can apply right away from everything related to the basics of blogging, how to optimize your content for organic search, viral content strategies, and social media strategies.
When: November 2018
Number of attendees: 300+
Cost per ticket: $650
Location: Chicago
HubSpot’s conference is one of the biggest digital marketing conferences in North America, and this year expects to see close to 19,000 attendees. The conference covers everything from email marketing strategies, visual marketing tactics, social media marketing strategies and much, much more. Some keynotes even include major public figures like Michelle Obama, Issa Rae and Ed Catmull. If you’re looking for a one stop conference that will provide you with expert tips on a wide range of online marketing content, this is definitely a conference you want to attend.
When: September 2018
Number of attendees: 19,000+
Cost per ticket: $1,699
Location: Boston
If your business doesn’t have a website that is optimized for organic search, then it’s missing out on a lot of opportunity for more traffic, more leads and as a result, more potential customers. This event is put on by Distilled, a search marketing agency. Attendees will learn everything about driving organic traffic from search engines to their websites.
When: March 2018
Number of attendees: 1000+
Cost per ticket: $1,000
Location: San Diego
Some of the top leaders in the content creation and demand generation space are present at the B2B Marketing Exchange conference. This is a much more intimate event than some of the others mentioned, but is certainly not shy on essential tips for online marketing. Attendees will gain insights on how to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, real-world case study examples from some of the most successful companies in the B2B space, and plenty of networking opportunities with other professionals in marketing.
When: February 2018
Number of attendees: 900+
Cost per ticket: $1,095
Location: Scottsdale
Best Conferences for Strategy and Growth:
More and more big brands are understanding the value of “growth hacking” in the workplace. Even Coca-Cola has introduced a Chief Growth Officer position. The reason for this is that growth hacking does not solely revolve around marketing efforts, but is a strategy that involves marketing, sales and product working in unison in order to find high-leverage opportunities to rapidly scale multiple areas of a business. This event is hosted by GrowthHackers.com and is a one-day conference that is jam-packed with stories and strategies by leading growth practitioners who have built and marketed viral products. Attendees learn from the best and will understand what a “growth-worthy product” really is.
When: February 2018
Number of attendees: 2,000+
Cost per ticket: $1200
Location: San Diego
This event is another very growth-focused conference. The main focus of this event is to bring together leaders of some of the fastest growing tech companies in the world together, to teach attendees how to find new customers, but also retain them and growth their businesses and revenue. It’s a great conference for early stage businesses and more mature companies as well since the strategies shared can be applied by either.
When: June 2018
Number of attendees: 1,000+
Cost per ticket: $650
Location: Vancouver
Sometimes you need a mix of strategy as well as inspiration in order to really give your business the kickstart it needs. The Power of Success hosts multiple events around North America and has brought speakers like Bill Clinton, Tony Robbins and even Oprah Winfrey to stage. Speakers share specific stories and strategies about overcoming life and business obstacles, as well as actionable strategies for making more sales, establishing a strong brand, and being proactive in life and work. The events are highly motivational and packed with a lot of useful information on business development and high-level strategy.
When: Multiple Dates
Number of attendees: 5,000+
Cost per ticket: $350+
Location: Multiple locations across Canada and the USA
If you’re an early stage startup, or a new entrepreneur, getting that initial traction and first few paying customers can seem quite difficult. You might identify a few methods that work to get some spikes in interest, but scaling that interest and driving high volumes of customers to your website and/or business might seem impossible. The Launch Scale conference focuses on helping new business owners raise money and grow their businesses more effectively.
When: October 2018
Number of attendees: 500+
Cost per ticket: $495
Location: San Francisco
This event places a heavy emphasis on women in tech, and offers many coaching sessions for attendees looking to accelerate their careers as well as their own personal businesses. Attendees have the rare opportunity to get 1-1 coaching with leaders in the industry. The conference is broken down into three tracks: Inspire, Develop and Accelerate. Each track is meant to focus on a specific area of business development so that attendees really get the most value for their money. If you’re a women in tech or in marketing, you can join the Women in Marketing Facebook group to connect with more like-minded professionals in the industry and start developing useful relationships.
When: April 2018
Number of attendees: 2000+
Cost per ticket: $100
Location: Phoenix
Best Conferences for Creativity:
One of the leading conferences for tech innovation, Future Festival is organized by Trend Hunter and brings some of the world’s top innovators together to help prototype new projects and technologies. It’s been referred to as one of the most engaging, relevant and meaningful events for those looking to expand their creativity and develop more innovative ideas.
When: Multiple Dates
Number of attendees: 700+
Cost per ticket: $1400+
Location: Toronto + Multiple Cities
Malofiej Infographics World Summit:
Data visualization and the importance of visual communication is becoming more and more prevalent for business owners. Fewer consumers want to read text-heavy content, and are less motivated by long-winded sales decks. It’s crucial to show your customers the value of a product in a visually appealing way, and provide relevant data to convince them of why they should even consider your brand above another. Malofiej brings together designers, infographic artists and illustrators from around the world in an effort to pioneer the visual revolution. If you’re looking to incorporate visual content into your marketing efforts, whether it’s via poster design or infographic creation, this conference brings together the best minds in the industry.
When: March 2018
Number of attendees: 2,000+
Cost per ticket: $860
Location: Pamplona, Spain
The Adobe Max conference is one of the largest creative conferences in North America, and offers many sessions and workshops to develop your knowledge of user experience design, photography, illustration, video and graphic design. There are also plenty of opportunities to network with other creative individuals.
When: October 2018
Number of attendees: 11,000
Cost per ticket: $1,595
Location: Las Vegas
Geared towards entrepreneurs and small business owners, the Makers Summit is designed to help businesses grow by addressing some of the many challenges that are faced for independent creatives. They offer many panel discussions and workshops, as well as one-on-one sessions to help attendees work through unique challenges pertaining to marketing, branding, accounting and legal.
When: March 2017
Number of attendees: 100+
Cost per ticket: $250
Location: Greenville
This conference is great for those who are feeling stuck. It’s an inspirational conference meant to untap your creativity through interactive experiences which are designed to bring out any lost passion. More of a retreat than a conference, this two-day event focuses on heightening awareness, self-reflection and rediscovering your company’s mission and purpose.
When: August 2018
Number of attendees: 16
Cost per ticket: $1,600
Location: Highlands
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It can be very daunting as a new business owner, or an exec at a small company to be in a position where you are competing with brands that have a much larger team, or a much bigger budget. Learning a diversity of skills and continuing to expand your range of knowledge is what will help you stay ahead of the game, and effectively train your team so that they become the growth machine you need and want. So if you’re considering attending conferences in order to increase that knowledge, think about attending at least one of the events from each category so you can start to train your brain to think differently and identify opportunities in multiple avenues.