February
Startup Grind
February 23-24 – Redwood City, CA ($525)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, startup enthusiasts, CEOs, investors, press
They feature: Successful local founders, innovators, educators, and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. To date, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and hires, pursue funding, and reach new users.
March
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March 2-4 – Phoenix, AZ ($299 – $499)
In attendance: CEOs, entrepreneurs, small business owners
They feature: Over 4,000 entrepreneurs and the opportunity to attend 30 educational sessions. You can work with partners and experts to implement their sales and marketing frameworks and grow your small business.
Launch Festival
March 2-4 – Phoenix, AZ (Free)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, startup employees, CEOs, investors, press
They feature: The event is jam-packed with value and is free to attend, thanks to the support of their partners. LAUNCH has the mission of “supporting founders & inspiring innovation” and has proved it year after year.
South By Southwest™ Interactive
March 11-15 – Austin, TX ($650 – $1645)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, artists, content creators, filmmakers, musicians, business executives, anyone interested in creative and professional growth
They feature: The event is a launch pad for new creative content. New media presentations, music showcases, and film screenings provide massive exposure for creators and compelling entertainment for audiences. Attendees learn from the conference panel discussions, business activity thrives at the trade shows, and everyone will have a chance to meet people from around the world.
Habit Summit
March 22 – Stanford, CA ($685)
In attendance: Product designers, executives, marketers, people who want to understand what makes customers tick
They feature: Understanding your users’ habits can be a game changer to your product or service. Habit Summit is hosted by Nir Eyal, author of Hooked, who has built a career around this exact topic.
April
VentureBeat Mobile Summit
April 4-5 – Sausalito, CA (Application)
In attendance: Chief executives, vice presidents, senior leaders focused on mobile initiatives
They feature: The most senior leaders coming together to debate the strategies and technologies they’re using to capture mobile audiences and grow their businesses. It’s exclusive, intimate, and primed for great discussion.
Converge SE
April 13-15 – Columbia, SC ($200 – $400)
In attendance: People who work on or with the web to make a living, like designers, developers, front end engineers, marketers, business leaders, startup entrepreneurs, film producers, and directors
They feature: Highly specific training in the form of keynote sessions and in-depth workshops on:
Design/UX: graphic design, web design, user experience, responsive design, content development, mobile first
Development: front end engineering, Ruby on Rails, database dev, devops, JavaScript, frameworks
Frontend: CSS, HTML, animation, responsive development, JavaScript, tooling, deployment
Business: leadership, management, strategy, sales, marketing
Elevate Summit
April 16 – Austin, TX ($299 – $349)
In attendance: Web and app professionals
They feature: keynote sessions & in-depth workshops about customer support and success for people who work on the web. This is the only conference on this topic. Customer service can make or break any business and should be prioritized as companies scale.
Social Media Marketing World
April 17-19 – San Diego, CA ($1497)
In attendance: Marketers, brand managers, creatives, social media, community, CEOs, founders, anyone who publishes content
They feature: The opportunity to meet social media gurus, and full access to the recordings of every session. As a bonus, the event is hosted right on the waterfront, so you can enjoy beautiful San Diego weather.
The OpenStack Summit
April 25-29 – Austin, TX ($350 – $600)
In attendance: IT leaders, telco operators, cloud administrators, app developers and OpenStack contributors
They feature: Attended by thousands of people from more than 50 countries, this is the ideal venue to plan your cloud strategy and share knowledge about architecting and operating OpenStack clouds.
Generate
April 26 – New York, NY ($375)
In attendance: Web designers, developers
They feature: Generate has assembled a stellar lineup of speakers including Cameron Moll, Dan Mall, James White, Una Kravets, Tim Kadlec and more.
Social Media Strategies Summit
April 26-28 – Chicago, IL ($1799)
In attendance: Digital marketers, social marketers, anyone interested in an interactive learning experience to explore current and future social media trends
They feature: No product pitches allowed. Just great content you can relate to and learn from. They’ve also organized networking dinners with the speakers to give candid feedback on what you’re working on.
Collision Conference
April 26-28 – New Orleans, LA (Price TBD)
In attendance: CEOs, entrepreneurs, startup enthusiasts, investors, press
They feature: Collision 2016 will welcome thousands of attendees to New Orleans in between the two weekends of Jazz Fest. Attend the conference and have dinner with your new friends in a great city.
May
Big Omaha
May 4-6 – Omaha, NE ($399 – $599)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, CEOs, creatives
They feature: Big Omaha strives to be a positive voice among today’s startups. Their goal is to make their community a welcoming, inclusive space for anyone and everyone who wants to come.
IA Summit
May 4-8 – Atlanta, GA ($570 – $800)
In attendance: Industry leaders, mid-weights, and juniors alike – arriving as guests, leaving as friends, and sharing in this celebration of IA practice and culture.
They feature: The IA Summit is organized by an all-volunteer committee drawn from the greater Information Architecture community, and is produced with the support of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T).
Hustle Con
May 13 – Oakland, CA ($299)
In attendance: Anyone who wants to learn from the best founders in the world and hear their stories. Or learn non-technical tactics like growth, marketing, hiring, and getting started. If you’re a founder, public company employee, wantreprenuer, technical or non-technical, and want to meet 2,000 ambitious business nerds who think like you, then you should definitely come.
They feature: “We started Hustle Con because we were sick of boring events with lame cliches and fluff. We wanted to find big shot founders (not professional speakers) to teach real, actionable tactics that they used to grow their startup in a casual environment.” The price is well worth the money, especially compared to other business and tech conferences.
HOW Design Live
May 19-23 – Atlanta, GA ($675 – $1795)
In attendance: Designers
They feature: Five days of learning new skills and energizing your creativity. Hear from speakers like Marc Eckō, Shelley Gruendler, Sagi Haviv, Su Mathews Hale, Joel Beukelman, Husani Oakley, and Maurice Cherry.
Techweek
May 2-December 4 – Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Kansas City, New York, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles (Price depends on location)
In attendance: Tech entrepreneurs, startup employees, Fortune 500 CEOs, investors, people interested in tech
They feature: Techweek was founded five years ago in Chicago to showcase their emerging tech ecosystem. They were not alone and expanded their entrepreneurial community into seven more cities so that everyone can connect with and learn from each other.
99U
May 5-6 – New York, NY ($799)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, aspiring founders, anyone who wants to bring their idea to life.
They feature: Most conferences inspire you to dream, but the 99U conference is fully devoted to idea execution.
TechCrunch Disrupt NYC
May 9-11 – Brooklyn, NY ($1795)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, tech fans
They feature: On-stage interviews, the Startup Battlefield competition, a 24-hour Hackathon, Startup Alley, Hardware Alley, and after parties. TechCrunch Disrupt is also famous for launching fast-growing companies like Mint, Layer, and Hello Alfred.
Conversion Conference
May 18-19 – Las Vegas, NV ($250 – $1597)
In attendance: Web designers, optimization and analytics pros, marketers, business owners
They feature: Secrets of the highest converting websites in the world. They teach important subjects like website abandonment recovery, using triggers and targeting to create personalized messages, and cross-device optimization and testing.
The Startup Conference
May 19 – Redwood City, CA ($75 – $199)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, aspiring founders, startup fans
They feature: The chance to promote your own startup for a chance to be featured on CNET, and a low ticket price.
Grow Conference
May 17-19 – Las Vegas, NV ($365 – $1190)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, CEOs, startup fans
They feature: Hosted by Inc., you can meet many like-minded entrepreneurs, business leaders, bestselling authors, and headliners who were featured in their magazine.
Google I/O
May 18-20 – Mountain View, CA (Price TBD)
In attendance: Google I/O is for developers – the creative coders who are building what’s next
They feature: Amazing speakers and people to meet, and the chance to try the latest gadgets that haven’t been released yet. And you can bring home tons of free stuff from t-shirts to developer kits… even new hardware!
Maker Faire
May 20-22 – San Mateo, CA ($20 – $1250)
In attendance: Hobbyists, professionals, all makers are welcome
They feature: The union of DIY mindsets to technology. The launch of Make: Magazine in 2005, followed by Maker Faire in 2006, jumpstarted a worldwide Maker Movement, which is transforming innovation, culture, and education.
Signal
May 24-25 – San Francisco, CA ($499)
In attendance: Developers, engineers
They feature: SIGNAL is the only conference where you will have the opportunity to learn from WebRTC core contributors, innovators in the Internet of Things, and the world’s leading security practitioners and developers from Authy.
June
Funny Bizz
June 9 – San Francisco, CA ($249 – $299)
In attendance: Content managers, creative directors, social media marketers/managers, sales professionals, CEOs, founders, advertising professionals, copywriters, brand managers
They feature: Comedy can be your business’ untapped competitive advantage. Today’s generation has been socialized to receive info via humor. They want infotainment, not information. People don’t watch “20/20” or “Nightline” for news; they watch Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Jimmy Fallon. They want and expect information delivered with a punch line and Funny Bizz can show you how to do just that.
August
World Domination Summit
August 11-15 – Portland, OR ($697)
In attendance: Creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, introverts, people who want to improve themselves
They feature: Main-stage keynotes, hundreds of attendee-led meetups, dozens of workshops known as “Academies,” a city-wide scavenger hunt, a Guinness World Record Attempt, two big parties, and hundreds of new friends high-fiving you on street corners. WDS has no corporate sponsorships and nothing for sale during the event except books from their speakers.
September
Content Marketing World
September 6-9 – Cleveland, OH (Price TBD)
In attendance: Founders, social media teams, content marketers
They feature: Over 80 sessions presented by the leading brand marketers from around the world covering strategy, integration, measurement, and more new ideas than you can shake an orange stick at.
MozCon
September 12-14 – Seattle, WA ($639 – $1299)
In attendance: Founders, marketers, CEOs, social media teams, community managers, content marketers, brand managers, anyone who markets on the web
They feature: An amazing community of industry leaders, speakers and Moz staff to chat with, cool swag, and hugs from their friendly robot, Roger.
Business Innovation Factory
September 14-15 – Providence, RI ($1800)
In attendance: Marketers, anyone who tells stories on the web with their content or branding which is… every company
They feature: The focus here is on great storytelling, allowing you to connect the dots while themes such as finding your purpose, building community, and identifying better ways to deliver value emerge.
Cusp Conference
September 28-29 – Chicago, IL (Price TBD)
In attendance: Designers, future designers, marketers, CEOs
They feature: Cusp is not a ‘how to design things’ conference. It’s eclectic by design, intended to provoke cross-pollination of ideas and generate new thinking.
October
&THEN
October 16-18 – Los Angeles, CA ($1195 – $2295)
In attendance: Marketing analysts, artists, strategists, copywriters, CEOs
They feature: Over 100 interactive education sessions and five inspiration keynote sessions, much more in-depth than the average conference.
Inc. 5000
October 18-20 – San Antonio, TX ($595 – $1395)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, CEOs, small business owners
They feature: A variety of special events including the Welcome Reception, the Conference Party, the annual Inc. 5000 Golf Tournament, and the prestigious Black-Tie Gala. You will also be fêted at an elegant Black-Tie Gala, beginning with a Champagne Soiree, followed by a prestigious Awards Ceremony and Dinner, where you will be officially acknowledged, and capped with an unforgettable evening of music and dancing. Yes, this is all true!
AIGA
October 17-19 – Las Vegas, NV ($650 – $1150)
In attendance: Designers, future designers, marketers, CEOs
They feature: This conference is organized by the nation’s oldest and largest professional membership organization for design. They know what they’re doing, and podcast superstar Roman Mars will moderate this year’s event.
November
INBOUND
November 8-11 – Boston, MA ($299 – $1599)
In attendance: Marketing and sales professionals
They feature: Inspiring keynotes, innovative talks, educational breakouts, hands-on lessons, and tons of networking. Past keynote speakers include Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, Nate Silver, and Scott Harrison.
TNW Conference
November 16 – New York, NY (Price TBD)
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, tech enthusiasts, anyone working in startups
They feature: Powerful keynote talks and endless networking opportunities that are tied together by more than seven stages, 300 exhibitor pavilions, and 100+ satellite events about the future of technology, innovation, marketing, communication, and imagination.
DevLearn Conference & Expo
November 16-18 – Las Vegas, NV ($200 – $1695)
In attendance: Developers
They feature: A comprehensive program that provides hundreds of learning opportunities covering the most critical topics in the dev industry. Regardless of your specific role, you’ll find the tools, technologies, ideas, strategies, and best practices to ensure your success.
World Business Forum
November 17-18 – New York, NY ($2390 – $3490)
In attendance: CEOs, entrepreneurs, innovators, thinkers, artists, sports people
They feature: In a world of information overload, World Business Forum focuses on the issues most relevant to today’s business people, stimulating new thinking and inspiring action.
Lean Startup Conference
Details TBD
In attendance: Anyone interested in learning about and applying the Lean Startup methodology, passionate about gaining knowledge on a variety of business topics, startup employees, corporate employees. Lean Startup is most successful when used by cross-functional teams, and for that reason, their audience represents a gathering of 1500+ entrepreneurs and business leaders interested in a variety of business topics.
They feature: Attendees that are as extraordinary as the speakers. You’ll encounter a mix of new and seasoned practitioners from companies of all sizes, in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, government, non-profit, technology, retail and beyond; all from a variety of disciplines.
Post Seed Conference
Details TBD
In attendance: Investors, early-stage founders, members of the startup press
They feature: VCs, investors, and entrepreneurs who have already raised seed funding. Everyone you will potentially meet is highly successful who would make great connections for raising money, finding advisors, etc.
Demo
Details TBD
In attendance: Entrepreneurs, Industry leaders, CTOs, Investors, and startup enthusiasts
They feature: A launchpad for emerging technology and trends. They invite you to come and experience the future of innovation.
CMX Summit
Details TBD
In attendance: Community professionals, founders, organizations
They feature: Today, businesses are finding it harder and harder to stay relevant, competitive, collaborative, and responsive to their customers. Community strategy is the antidote. With a proven community strategy, you can connect your users to drive product, marketing, support, human resources, or platform growth.
The post 45 “Must Attend” Startup Conferences in 2016 appeared first on The Hustle.