Virtual marketing conferences offer a wealth of benefits to marketers looking to learn and increase brand awareness, and in the current crisis they represent the only event opportunities for marketers.
How do you go about finding events that match your business and B2B marketing needs, however?
With in-person marketing events not likely until well into 2021, more virtual events than ever taking place, making it harder than ever to find the ones that can best help build your business, expand your communication opportunities, and offer the most relevant new industry education from top marketing industry experts.
Marketers are getting more out of virtual events, too — with 75 percent in a recent survey saying they were satisfied with their virtual event experiences. Online events also hold their own unique advantages.
“Bringing events online has its downsides, naturally — there’s no substitute for personally meeting and interacting with all the valuable contacts attending a conference — but there are some key advantages,” Amanda Bulat, senior content marketing manager at LinkedIn Sales & Marketing Solutions recently observed.
“Virtual events are easier for people to attend (with no geographic restrictions), less resource-intensive to host, and can make it easier to capture lead gen info,” she added.
Expanding on our previous listing of “8 Virtual SEO Conferences for B2B Marketers,” for summer 2020 and beyond we’ve gathered together a collection of some of the top virtual marketing events, and we’re happy to present the list here, in chronological order.
Virtual Marketing Conferences For Summer 2020 & Beyond
Adobe Experience Makers Live — #ExperienceMakersLive
When: July 22-23, 2020
Theme: Digital Experiences
About: Adobe* Experience Makers Live is focused on creating long-term business success through inclusive digital experiences, featuring speakers including author Dr. Brené Brown, Microsoft’s Shelley Bransten, Forrester’s Joana de Quintanilha, and Adobe’s Marissa Dacay.
ContentTECH Summit — #ContentTECH
When: August 10-12, 2020
Theme: Content Marketing
About: ContentTECH Summit explores the ever-increasing importance of content marketing to create, manage, deliver and scale enterprise content and provide customers with better digital experiences, and features top speakers such as Mastercard Worldwide’s Wendy Richardson, author Alan Zweibel, and our own CEO Lee Odden.
Digital Summit At Home — #DSatHome
When: August 11-13, 2020
Theme: Digital Marketing
About: Digital Summit At Home examines digital marketing in over 30 virtual sessions, and features top speakers such as author Seth Godin, LinkedIn’s* Ty Heath, and our own senior director of digital strategy Ashley Zeckman.
IABC MN Convergence Summit — #IABCMN
When: August 12-13, 2020
Theme: Business Communications
About: IABC MN Convergence Summit weaves together business and academic experts to learn how to overcome today’s business communication challenges and explore how to build reputation, connect with audiences, and influence stakeholders, and features speakers such as Best Buy’s Andy Gorski, Deluxe Corporation’s Devon Block, along with our CEO Lee Odden who will present “In Search of Trust: How Authentic Content Drives Customer Experience.”
INBOUND 2020 — #INBOUND2020
When: September 22-23, 2020
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: INBOUND 2020 presents some of the biggest names and brightest minds in sales and marketing and other industries, and offers speakers from firms including Intuit, HubSpot and others.
AI Summit Silicon Valley — #AISummit
When: September 30-October 1, 2020
Theme: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
About: The Virtual AI Summit Silicon Valley 2020 presents all things artificial intelligence for business marketers, and includes leading speakers from Google, Lyft, Boeing, Lenovo and more.
2020 B2B Next Conference & Exhibition — #B2BNext
When: September 29-30, 2020
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: The 2020 B2B Next Conference & Exhibition explores the digital-first B2B economy with a focus on collaboration in eCommerce, and features top speakers including Grainger CEO D.G. Macpherson, Graybar CEO Kathy Mazzarella, RBC Capital Markets’ Marketing Manager Mark Mahaney and others.
Advertising Week Virtual — #AW2020
When: September 29-October 8, 2020
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: Advertising Week Virtual serves as a worldwide gathering of marketing, advertising, technology and brand professionals, offering major speakers including Google VP of Marketing, EMEA Yonca Dervisoglu, SNAP VP of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Baroness Oona King, Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth and others, for eight days and six global markets filled with unlimited ideas.
Fast Co. Innovation Festival — #FCFestival
When: October 5-9, 2020
Theme: Innovation
About: The Fast Co. Innovation Festival offers business inspiration by leaders making a difference through technology and creativity, with a powerful slate of global speakers to be announced.
MarTech — #MarTechConf
When: October 6-8, 2020
Theme: MarTech
About: Martech Conference focuses on actionable tactics in marketing technology for solving marketing problems, with top speakers to be announced.
Content Marketing World — #CMWorld
When: October 13-16, 2020
Theme: Content Marketing
About: Content Marketing World conference and expo explores the best in content marketing to grow your business and inspire your audience, featuring top speakers including Beverly Jackson of Activision Blizzard, Jay Baer of Convince & Convert, MJ DePalma of Microsoft Advertising, and others.
ANA 2020 Masters of Marketing Conference — #ANA
When: October 21-23, 2020
Theme: B2B Marketing
The Association of National Advertisers’s 2020 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference is set to examine brand marketing practices related to digital and social, and to help brands and businesses navigate these difficult times and drive sustained success, with a lineup of speakers to be announced.
B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange — #B2BSMX
When: October 26-28, 2020
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange Online Experience brings together thought leaders in ABM, revenue marketing and demand generation, including top speakers to be announced.
Sitecore Symposium 2020 — #SitecoreSYM
When: October 26-28, 2020
Theme: Marketing Automation
About: B2B marketers looking to explore the marketing automation landscape can attend Sitecore Symposium 2020 and learn the next generation of strategies and tactics, with a lineup of major speakers to be announced.
Brand ManageCamp — #BMC2020
When: October 27-29, 2020
Theme: Brand Management
About: Brand ManageCamp’s conference explores the insights, tools, strategy and leadership inspiration to drive new brand growth, featuring a lineup a speakers including Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute, author Shep Hyken, author Carla Johnson, and others.
MarketingProfs B2B Forum — #MPB2B
When:November 3-6, 2020
Theme: B2B Marketing
About: At MarketingProfs B2B Forum top leaders, innovators, and people who make things happen gather to share their secrets to success, with a stellar lineup of speakers to be including keynotes by author David Meerman Scott, author April Dunford, and writer and comedian Sarah Cooper.
Dreamforce 2020 — #DF20
When: November 9-12, 2020
Theme: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
About: Dreamforce brings together the Salesforce community of thought leaders and industry pioneers for education and inspiration, and with over 2,700 sessions its one of the latest business conferences. Look for speakers to be announced in the lead-up to the event, and also check out Dreamforce’s virtual Leading Through Change series.
Gear Up Your 2020 Virtual Marketing Events
We hope you’ve found a number of new and exciting virtual events to attend on our list to make the most of the rest of 2020, and that the learning you’ll experience from either these virtual conferences or the many others available will help you achieve new levels of B2B marketing success this year and beyond.
If you’re also considering hosting a virtual event of your own, check out “Boost Your Virtual Event By Taking These Actions Before, During, and After,” by Kylee Lessard, associate product marketing manager of LinkedIn Pages & Elevate at LinkedIn.
At TopRank Marketing we’ve explored the power of events both virtual and in-person for B2B marketers, especially those who incorporate influencer marketing, in a number of articles, and here are five to help you get the most from your virtual 2020 marketing events:
- 8 Virtual SEO Conferences for B2B Marketers
- How B2B Influencer Marketing Offers Brands an Ideal Alternative to In-Person Events
- Content Marketing Gold Rush: How to Unearth Content Gold at Marketing Industry Events
- Learning Changes Lives: Top Insights from #MPB2B & 5 Tips for Rocking Marketing Events
- 12 Helpful Tips for Effectively Using Social Media at Events
* Adobe and LinkedIn are TopRank Marketing clients.
