Nobody needs another branded keychain. But they do need authentic, in-person connections, real stories, and opportunities to build their personal brand—which is where these marketing conferences come in!
There's a million and one generic conferences out there for B2B, or sales, or real estate.
There are also niche conferences, like those for knitters or craft brewers.
Some of these are undoubtedly organized and great, while others mimic the flaming disaster of the Fyre Festival.
But, attending and speaking at these events can be a great way to build up your personal brand and get in front of customers in your industry.
The alternative? Attending and awkwardly standing in the corner hoping someone will come say hi to you.
That’s why we put together our battle-tested, expert-recommended list of marketing events to attend in 2025 (based on 2024 plans.)
Why attend (or speak at) a marketing conference?
There are five great reasons to attend a marketing conference in this digital day and age.
In-person networking just hits different.
The truth is, people are zoomed out. Conferences are a perfect place to strengthen bonds with teammates, meet possible future colleagues, and make a name for yourself—in person, where you can actually build a solid connection with people.
Plus, if you’re able to pre-plan meetups with folks you know or have only worked with online previously—bonus points.
Your work deserves a stage.
How often do you get to summarize all the hard work you’ve been doing, the insights you’ve been creating, and the kudos you’ve been collecting?
Speaking at a conference can elevate your personal brand and help you see your worth simultaneously (which is important when it comes to finding jobs, clients, or unlocking other opportunities).
Our expert tip? Don’t overthink the topic. You can use webinars that you’ve run as a testing ground for what resonates with your audience—and repurpose it for a big stage.
Free stuff is fun.
There’s not much more to this. Enjoy the hotels, the food, and the swag. If your company has a budget for this, use it—it’s part of your salary.
Lessons straight from the horse’s mouth.
Whether speakers are hand-picked or applied, there’s so much value in hearing real-life-play-by-plays from industry leaders who have stories to share about campaigns that went sideways, launches that blew people away, and things you could do different or better than then.
At the very least your creativity wheel will start clicking.
Network with new people.
Introvert, extrovert, neurodivergent or not—conferences should offer plenty of opportunities to meet marketers from different companies, areas of the world, and interests… in different ways.
The best conferences create intimate but structured places to connect with those who are interested in the same things—whether that’s PPC, brand marketing, craft beer, or public speaking.
7 Marketing Conferences that will be worth your time in 2025
We’ll start with end of the year conferences for 2024, and then update the post as conferences get announced for 2025. It’s fair to expect similar timing for recurring conferences in 2025!
1. EXL (formerly CXL Live) by Speero + Kameleoon
“Conferences can be great, but most people don’t go for Powerpoint presentations.” The folks organizing EXL (which started as CXL by Peep Laja, CEO of Wynter) are all about undoing typical conference experiences—and doubling down on authentic connections.
Date: October 9-11, 2024
Location: Austin, Texas
Topics covered: Advanced topics on conversion rate optimization and experimentation, like CX testing, AI, personalization, and data-privacy.
Who should attend: Growth marketers, conversion optimization folks, experimenters and A/B testers of all shapes and sizes (performance marketers, copywriters, and UX folks welcome).
What sets it apart: a “practitioner-focused” agenda for a half-conference, half-networking event. No conference rooms, hand-picked meetings, and an outside-first event.
Cost: Starts at $900 USD for individuals.
Apply to speak: Speakers are hand-picked for this event!
2. SparkTogether by Sparktoro
Featuring speakers like Ann Handley, Michael King (iPullRank), and our very own Sarah Stockdale, SparkTogether is about telling stories that resonate, sharing real experiences, and real numbers. SparkTogether is unrecorded and live—which ensures that your presence is focused on the people doing the telling.
Date: October 21-23, 2024
Location: Seattle, Washington
Topics covered: “You'll hear from agency owners who fell into pits of unprofitability and nearly shuttered their practice. You'll learn about in-house marketers who took dying companies to industry-leading growth rates with a single campaign. You'll experience the emotional rollercoasters of campaigns that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and the occasional few who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” (But the schedule is still incoming!)
Who should attend: Writers and marketers, both T-shaped, specialized, and otherwise.
What sets it apart: The “OG” story-focused marketing event. Tell-all sagas. Real numbers. No recordings.
Cost: $450 USD
Apply to speak: Speakers are hand-picked—so getting on the radar of Amanda Natividad or Rand Fishkin might help.
3. Content Marketing World by Content Marketing Institute
In its 14th year, CMW is the largest content marketing event out there—which is something to appreciate. CMW is run by the Content Marketing Institute and hella trustworthy in that regard, and probably has some of the biggest variety of topics out there. If you want to be able to bounce around different topics and see how different companies tackle content marketing, this is the place.
Date: October 8, 2024
Location: San Diego, California
Topics covered: Strategy, optimization, team building, tech tools, and AI transformation—amongst a million others.
Who should attend: Content writers, marketers, social media managers, and more.
What sets it apart: The size of the conference and how long it’s been running!
Cost: Starting at $1,699 USD for the main conference, and up to $2,749 for all access.
Apply to speak: Call for speakers for 2025 will open tentatively in February 2025. Apply to speak here!
4. INBOUND by Hubspot
Look: INBOUND is massive. But it’s also massively valuable. If you live anywhere in the space between marketing or sales—or have no issues striking up conversations with conference-goers yourself and putting yourself out there—this is the place to be.
Date: September 18-20, 2024
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Topics covered: Latest trends and tactics in marketing, sales, and AI.
Who should attend: Everyone and anyone from founders to content strategists to product marketers and RevOps specialists.
What sets it apart: You’ll find everything you need here in terms of education—both general and special track-based sessions, with group-based networking options.
Cost: Starts at $675 all the way to $1,899 USD for a VIP pass.
Apply to speak: Speaking applications for INBOUND 2025 open at the start of the year. Sign up to the newsletter at inbound.com to find out when the call for speakers opens!
5. MozCon by Moz
Our favourite copywriters and business owners swear by MozCon as the key to the start of their business exploding. That in itself should be enough to get you ready to go. While this event has already passed for 2024, we decided to keep it on the list so that you have it on your radar for next year.
Date: June 3-4, 2024 (next June 2025?)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Topics covered: The future of digital marketing, SEO, analytics, content, and branding.
Who should attend: SEOs, marketers, leaders, and UX folks.
What sets it apart: It’s run by Moz, which automatically makes it a digital marketing powerhouse of a conference. Also, lunchtime networking groups!
Cost: Early bird pricing starts at $899 for in-person tickets.
Apply to speak: Subscribe to their email list to find out when speaker applications open for 2025.
6. Women in Tech SEO Fest
#WTSFest is a one-day conference featuring 10 topics, and 10 speakers, and comes highly recommended by our SEO colleagues. There’s going to be dates and locations for the United States announced shortly!
Date and Location: February 20, 2025 in London, England
Date and Location: April 3, 2025 in Portland, Oregon, USA
Date and Location: June 13, 2025 in Berlin, Germany
Topics covered: WTSFest divides their talks into Analyse, Advance, Innovate, and Empower, and topics depend on the event.
Who should attend: Women in tech, SEO, or similar.
What sets it apart: WTSFest keeps their ticket prices as accessible as possible, have scholarships, pay their speakers, vendors, and suppliers, and offer lower-priced post-event recordings for cheaper! Equity FTW.
Cost: Early bird tickets are $299 USD, going up to $399 full-price.
Apply to speak: Submit your application here.
Pitches closing:
- October 1st for London
- November 1st for Portland
- December 1st for Berlin
7. Toast Summit
Toast is flipping the hiring dynamic in favor of women in tech—so, first, HURRAH—and second, HURRAH. 2024 marks their second conference (which means 2025 will be their third!) and if they do everything like they do each thing… it’s bound to be a great, authentic, and memorable time.
Date: September 19-20, 2024
Location: Calgary, Canada
Topics covered: Venture capital, women entrepreneurs, and leadership in the tech sector.
Who should attend: Aspiring entrepreneurs, tech professionals, or those simply passionate about advancing gender equality in tech.
What sets it apart: This is tech with a little bit of social justice on the side. Based on how many marketers work (and have been affected) in tech, this would be a fantastic event to attend to build connections in the tech industry and find like-minded friends. Also, childcare lounge. Also, an anti-stimulation lounge (a neurodivergent-friendly conference, what!!!).
Cost: $250 CAD + taxes!
Apply to speak: Join the email list at the bottom of this page.
A short list of honorable mentions
There’s a million and one specialized conferences you may be interested in for various reasons:
- Career changes or shifts
- Stretch goals
- Networking purposes
- Finding new clients for freelance work
- And more!
One of our faves that’s not quite a marketing conference, but a fabulous event nonetheless?
Fuckup Nights Toronto (or Global)
Fuckup Nights Toronto is a speaker series and community that shares stories of professional failure. Failure is a part of any success story, but we don't talk about it enough. What FUN does is break down stigmas around failure—and make you feel better about being human.
Here are some other, specialized marketing (and near-marketing) events for different disciplines and industries:
- For social media marketers, International Social Summit
- For designers: AIGA
- For product people: Lenny and Friends Summit or Product-Led Summit
- For marketing operations: MOps-Apalooza or LeadsCon
- For email marketers: MailCon
- For marketing researchers and executives: Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo
- For creative freelancers or small business owners: The Failure Ball
- For revenue operations: RevOps Alliance or RevCon
- For eCommerce: eTail East or Lead Generation World
And remember: there’s no right way to network.
Go out there, find something that excites you, and put yourself out there in an authentic way. You’ll find your people.
And if you don’t: join us in the Growclass Certification—in our completely unbiased opinion, the best growth marketing community (with sporadic events) that there ever was.
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