When we published our BIGLIST of 50 top B2B marketing events a year ago, we had no way of knowing the disruption the pandemic would soon bring to in-person conferences.
A year later virtual events are still the norm, with the promise of physical meetings a wee glimmer of hope on the horizon. For 2021 we’ve compiled our latest BIGLIST of 50 top B2B marketing events to feature those being held virtually, in-person, or in hybrid formats.
Marketing conferences offer a wealth of benefits to marketers looking to learn, network, and increase brand awareness, but how do you go about finding events that match your business and B2B marketing needs?
Over the past decade the number of conferences has skyrocketed, making it harder than ever to hone in on the ones that can best help build your business, boost your networking opportunities, and offer the most relevant new industry education from top speakers, especially when it comes to B2B marketing.
For 2021 we’ve gathered together events that place an emphasis on B2B marketing in all its facets, and we’re thrilled to present the list here, in chronological order. All events are virtual except where noted.
“We’re all the same size rectangle on the Zoom screen.” — Vanessa Colella of @Citi Share on XLet’s sit back and dig in to our collection of 50 top B2B marketing-related conferences and events for 2021.
BIGLIST of 50 Top B2B Marketing Events in 2021
FEBRUARY
Salesforce World Tour — #SalesforceTour
When: February 9-10, 2021
Theme: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
About: For 2021, the Salesforce World Tour is broadcast live from surprise locations around the world, with in-person studio audiences and global broadcasting, featuring a kickoff keynote address by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Oracle Cloud CX Virtual Summits — #OracleLive
When: February 11, 2021
Theme: Oracle Customer Experience
About: Oracle has replaced its previous in-person Modern Business Experience event with live virtual summits for CX, finance, HR and supply chain.
Challenger Brands Summit 2021 by Adweek — #Adweek
When: February 22-25, 2021
Theme: Brand Marketing
About: Challenger Brands Summit is Adweek’s third-annual conference offering two days of brand discovery and learning covering 12 major topics that impact the brand ecosystem, with top speakers including Mark Cuban, Jennifer Garner, Jim Beluishi and others.
B2B Marketing Exchange Experience — #B2BMX
When: February 22-24, 2021
Theme: B2B Sales and Marketing
About: B2B Marketing Exchange focuses on B2B sales and marketing tactics and technologies with sessions covering content marketing, demand generation, sales enablement and more, with leading industry speakers including our CEO Lee Odden, Microsoft’s Miri Rodriguez, Forrester’s Jay McBain and others from Cisco, SurveyMonkey, Oracle, BMC Software, Honeywell and other B2B brands.
SMX Report — #SMX
When: February 23, 2021
Theme: Search Marketing
About: SMX Report focuses on two tracks of sessions focused on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, along with analytics training for search marketers, and features speakers from Adobe Systems, Microsoft, and other firms.
SaaStock Remote — #SaaStock
When: February 23-25 and March 3-4, 2021
Theme: Software as a Service (SaaS)
About: The SaaStock Remote event focuses on the B2B side of Software as a Service for founders and executives, with two days of content sessions on February 23-25 and two days of networking on March 3-4, all featuring leading speakers including Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne, Calendly CEO Tope Awotona and more.
B2B Online — #B2BOnline
When: February 24-25, 2021
Theme: eCommerce
About: B2B Online’s free virtual event for 2021 is a leading digital B2B marketing conference for manufacturers and distributors, offering speakers from Dell, Adobe, Salesforce and others. A physical event for later in 2021 is also in the works.
Sales 3.0 — #S30C
When: February 24-25, 2021
Theme: B2B Sales Enablement
About: The 2021 Sales 3.0 conference is a two-day virtual event for B2B sales professionals incorporating AI-powered networking and speakers from Vidyard, Social Sales Link, Selling Power and more.
Digital Marketing for Financial Services Summit West — #DMFS2021
When: February 24-25, 2021
Theme: B2B Financial Services Marketing
About: For 2021 the Digital Marketing for Financial Services Summit West presents a two-day financial services sector event featuring top speakers from Wells Fargo, Northern Trust, HSBC, BMO Harris, U.S. Bank, Edward Jones and others.
MARCH
Fast Co. Most Innovative Companies Summit — #FCFestival
When: March 9-10, 2021
Theme: Innovation
About: For 2021 the all-virtual Fast Co. Most Innovative Companies Summit offers business inspiration by leaders making a difference through technology and creativity, with a powerful slate of speakers including Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Color of Change’s Rashad Robinson.
Martech — #MarTechConf
When: March 16-17, 2021
Theme: MarTech
About: Martech’s free 2021 online event focuses on actionable tactics in marketing technology to solve marketing problems, with speakers from Amazon Web Services, Red Hat, Western Governors University and more.
ITSMA Events — #ITSMA
When: March 18, 2021
Theme: Marketing Leadership
About: Virtualizing Executive Engagement: C-Suite Marketing for the New Normal is one of several virtual event offerings on tap from ITSMA in 2021, exploring how virtual executive engagement works and how it can be even more effective than traditional in-person approaches.
ANA B2B Marketing Conference — #ANAB2B
When: March 24-25, 2021
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: The Association of National Advertisers’s all-virtual 2021 ANA B2B Marketing Conference is all B2B, all the time, offering the latest B2B marketing insight by leading speakers from Google, IBM, HP Inc. and more.
APRIL
MarketingProfs B2B Forum — #MPB2B
When: April 7-8, 2021
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 including keynotes from Jacco van der Kooij, Wil Reynolds, and Mark Schaefer, with others to be announced in the lead-up to the event.
True Influence Spring Summit — #TrueInfluenceSummit
When: April 14, 2021
Theme: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in B2B
About: The 2021 True Influence Spring Summit focuses on the increasing role and power of AI in business marketing and sales, and features speakers including Jay Leno and experts from Google, Microsoft, SAP, and Forrester.
LeadsCon 2021 — #LeadsCon2021
When: April 14-16, 2021
Theme: Lead Generation
About: As its name implies, LeadsCon 2021 focuses on the lead generation side of business marketing, and features speakers such as last year’s presenters from SAP, Google, and Microsoft Advertising.
The Gathering Marketing Summit — #TheGatheringSummit
When: April 19-21, 2021
Where: Hybrid (Live + Virtual), Banff, Canada
Theme: Creating Cult-Like Branding
About: The Gathering Marketing Summit explores how some of the bravest brands deliver marketing, build culture and connect with customers in ways that don’t just get them to buy, but to buy in, featuring leading speakers from Netflix, Peleton, and others.
Adobe Summit — #AdobeSummit
When: April 27-28, 2021
Theme: Digital Experience
About: Adobe Summit is a free virtual event this year, exploring the re-imagining of customer experiences with leaders in marketing automation, advertising, commerce and analytics, and feature speakers including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, Intuit, Best Buy’s Hubert Joly and many others.
Content Marketing Conference — #CMC21
When: April 27-29, 2021
Theme: Content Marketing
About: For 2021’s online event, Content Marketing Conference offers marketers actionable content marketing tools and tactics to humanize your brand, with top speakers including our CEO Lee Odden, as well as Tamsen Webster, HubSpot’s Matthew Barby, Ceros’ Ryan Brown and many others.
MAY
B2B Summit North America — #ForrB2BSummit
When: May 3-6, 2021
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: Formerly Sirius Decisions Summit, Forrester’s B2B Summit North America live virtual experience for 2021 enables B2B sales, marketing and product leaders to learn how to drive growth and energize their business, and features top industry speakers.
C3 Conference — #C3NY
When: May 11-12, 2021
Where: New York City
Theme: Brand Marketing
About: Conductor’s C3 conference embodies professional marketers who connect, collaborate, and commit, and features top speakers to be announced.
Brand ManageCamp — #BMCVegas
When: May 18-20, 2021
Theme: Brand Management
About: Brand ManageCamp’s first-ever all virtual conference explores the insights, tools, strategy and leadership inspiration to drive new brand growth, featuring a lineup a speakersincluding Amisha Gandhi of Tipalti, Erich Joachimsthaler of Vivaldi and others.
Tech Leadership Summit — #TechLeadershipSummit
When: March 23-26, 2021
Theme: New Business Technology Marketing and Leadership
About: The two-day Tech Leadership Summit event digs into new technology strategies for new businesses, with a focus on expanding broadcasting technology, with speakers to be announced.
Influencer Marketing Show — #IMSNYC21
When: May, 2021 / TBA
Where: Manhatten, New York City
Theme: Influencer Marketing
About: The 2021 Influencer Marketing Show event focuses on the future of influencer marketing for brands, to ensure they navigate their way through the planning, execution, and measurement of smart influencer campaigns. An impressive roster of speakers and exact date is set to be announced.
JUNE
B2B Marketing Ignite USA — #IgniteB2B
When: June 2-3, 2021
Theme: Marketing
About: B2B Marketing Ignite took its popular London B2B marketing event to the U.S. in 2020, and for 2021 it moves online, focusing on fresh and inspiring thinking and featuring leading speakers including SAP’s Michael Brenner, Amazon Web Service’s Darrell Alfonso, Survey Monkey’s Leela Srinivasan and others.
Growth Hackers 2021 — #GHConf21
When: June 3, 2021
Where: San Francisco, CA.
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: Growth Hackers 2021 is expected to take place in-person, exploring the next generation of growth tactics and the leaders building those tactics, featuring top speakers to be announced.
ContentTECH Summit — #ContentTECH
When: June 8-10, 2021
Theme: MarTech
About: Offer a focus on content, technology and strategy specifically for enterprise marketers, ContentTECH Summit’s 2021 digital event features top presenters to be announced, such as last year’s presentations from our CEO Lee Odden and others from Microsoft, AWeber, NewsCred and Forrester.
SMX Advanced 2021 — #SMX
When: June 15-16, 2021
Theme: Search & Social
About: SMX Advanced will be produced virtually for the first time in 2021, offering an in-depth look at the advanced tactical side of search and social media marketing, featuring an array of speakers to be announced.
JULY
MozCon Virtual — #MozCon
When: July 12-14, 2021
Theme: Search & Social
About: MozCon explores search marketing with tactical advice from industry-leading practitioners to be announced in the coming weeks, and the virtual edition also includes virtual hugs from Moz’s event Ringmaster, Roger Mozbot.
AUGUST
Engage Virtual Marketing Conference — #EngagePDX
When: August 5-6, 2021
Theme: Marketing Engagement / Search Marketing
About: The Engage Virtual Marketing Conference is a two-day event featuring speakers including Cisco’s Mellissa Jensen, Optmyzr’s Frederick Vallaeys, and others, held by non-profit SEMpdx and focusing on an array of digital marketing and search topics.
Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo — #GartnerSYM
When: August 17-19, 2021
Theme: Marketing Strategies and Leadership
About: Gartner’s virtual 2021 Marketing Symposium/Xpo will bring together marketing executives to explore navigating unprecedented changes, with a lineup of top speakers to be announced in the lead-up to the event.
SEPTEMBER
Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference — #MAICON21
When: September 13-14, 2021
Where: Virtual
Theme: Marketing Artificial Intelligence
About: All-virtual for 2021, the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) focuses on the successful use of AI in marketing, with a lineup of top speakers to be announced, along the lines of last year’s keynotes from Microsoft and Salesforce.
SaaStr Annual 2021 — #SaaStr
When: September 27-29, 2021
Where: Hybrid virtual and San Francisco, CA
Theme: Software as a Service (SaaS)
About: SaaStr Annual 2021 offers a cloud-focused business event bringing together B2B founders, executives and investors for the largest non-vendor SaaS conference, including speakers such as last year’s presenters from Adobe, Slack, Google Cloud, and Intuit.
Advertising Week New York — #AWNewYork
When: September 27-30, 2021
Where: New York City and virtual
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: For 2021 a hybrid Advertising Week New York event will serve as a worldwide gathering of marketing, advertising, technology and brand professionals, offering major speakers to be announced.
Content Marketing World — #CMWorld
When: September 28 – October 1, 2021
Where: Cleveland, OH. and virtual
Theme: Content Marketing
About: The theme for 2021’s Content Marketing World conference is connections, and the planned hybrid event is set to explore the best in content marketing to grow your business and inspire your audience, featuring top speakers to be announced in the lead-up to the event.
OCTOBER
Reuters Events’ Strategic Marketing 2021 — #ReutersEvents
When: October 12-13, 2021
Theme: Marketing
About: Reuters Events’ Strategic Marketing 2021 virtual event explores the move beyond marketing and the future of consumer-brand relationships, featuring an array of top strategic marketing speakers.
INBOUND 2021 — #INBOUND2021
When: October 12-14, 2021
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: INBOUND presents a digital experience for 2021, with some of the biggest names and brightest minds in sales and marketing and other industries, and offers speakers from firms including HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmest Shah, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi, Adobe CPO Scott Belsky and others.
The Influencer Marketing Show — #IMSLONDON21
When: October 21, 2021
Where: London, UK.
Theme: Influencer Marketing
About: An in-person event in London, The Influencer Marketing Show offers brands, agencies, content creators and technology platforms a full day on influencer marketing education and strategy, with top speakers to be announced.
Forbes Under 30 Summit — #ForbesUnder30
When: October, 2021 / TBA
Where: Detroit, MI.
Theme: Young Leaders
About: The 2021 Forbes Under 30 Summit, with the exact October date to be announced, focuses on young leaders, bringing together top under-30 leaders, founders and creators in technology, finance, philanthropy and other fields, with a lineup of speakers to be announced.
NOVEMBER
AI Summit Silicon Valley — #AISummit
When: November 3-4, 2021
Where: Santa Clara, CA.
Theme: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
About: Expected to take place in-personal, the 2021 version of AI Summit Silicon Valley presents all things artificial intelligence for business marketers, and includes leading speakers from AT&T, Xerox, HPE, IBM Services, Microsoft, Google and more.
B2B Marketing virtual ABM Conference — #B2BMarketingABM
When: November, 2021 TBA
Theme: Account-Based Marketing (ABM) in B2B Marketing
About: With an exact date in November, 2021 to be announced, the B2B Marketing virtual ABM Conference is aimed at a deep-dive into the world of ABM for B2B marketers, with four content streams and two days of learning on-tap, and speakers from firms such as Dow Jones, Ericsson, and Panasonic.
DECEMBER / TBD / On-Demand / 2022
AdExchanger Industry Preview — #IP2021
When: On-Demand
Theme: MarTech
About: For 2021 AdExchanger’s Industry Preview is in podcast form, an annual global forum for marketing technology, focused on what to expect in MarTech this year, with featured speakers from Axios, IBM, Amazon and others.
The ABM Innovation Summit — #ABMSummit
When: TBD, 2021
Theme: Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
About: The ABM Innovation Summit explores account-based marketing’s role in B2B marketing and sales, with an eye towards the future. Last year’s event featured top speakers from firms including SAP, Salesforce, and Uberflip.
B2B Marketing Expo — #B2BMarketingExpoUSA
When: April 6-7, 2022
Where: Los Angeles, CA.
Theme: B2B Marketing
About: One of Europe’s top marketing events will bring its B2B Marketing Expo to California in 2022, expected to offer over 200 sessions, industry awards, and keynotes from top speakers from the American Marketing Association, EMRG, and others.
Social Media Marketing World — #SMMW22
When: March 14-16, 2022
Where: San Diego, CA.
Theme: Social Media
About: Social Media Marketing World has postponed its 2021 event and planning for an in-person conference in 2022, with a deep-dive into social media marketing focusing on new ideas and quality networking opportunities, including top presenters.
Pubcon — #Pubcon
When: TBD
Theme: Search & Social
About: Now in its 21st year, Pubcon explores search and social marketing with a wide variety of subject tracks, often including a pre-conference training day.
SearchLove 2021 — #SearchLove
When: TBD
Theme: Search Marketing
About: SearchLove provides a multi-day event focusing on search marketing for in-house and agency search engine optimizers, business owners, marketing managers and more, with events in New York, London, and San Diego, presently postponed due to the pandemic.
Digital Sales & Marketing World 2021 — #DSMW2021
When: TBD, late 2021
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: Digital Sales & Marketing World provides a focus on aligning sales, marketing and leadership for digital success, and has featured top speakers from MarketingProfs, Vidyard and others. The conference expects to announce a 2021 event for late in the year.
DigiMarCon Midwest — #DigiMarCon
When: June 9-10, 2022
Where: Chicago, IL. and online
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: Now pushed out to 2022, the in-person or online DigiMarCon Midwest digital marketing conference offers up emerging strategies, the latest innovative technologies, and best practices to move your business to the next level, featuring top speakers to be announced.
Email Innovations Summit — #EISConf
When: TBD
Theme: Email Marketing
About: As its name implies, the Email Innovations Summit focuses on the email aspects of marketing, discussing the cutting edge of email marketing trends and featuring top speakers from leading firms to be announced.
B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange — #B2BSMX
When: TBD
Theme: Marketing & Sales
About: B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange brings together thought leaders in ABM, revenue marketing and demand generation, including an array of top speakers.
Take Your 2021 B2B Marketing Events To The Next Level
We hope you’ve found a number of new and useful virtual and hybrid B2B events to attend in 2021 on our list of 50, and that the networking and learning you’ll experience from either these conferences or the many others available will help you achieve new levels of B2B marketing success this year and beyond.
At TopRank Marketing we’ve explored the power of events for B2B marketers, especially those who incorporate influencer marketing, in a number of articles, and here are three to help you get the most from your 2020 B2B marketing events:
- 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
