While many marketing industry events this Summer will stay all-virtual, an increasing number of Fall events are taking a hybrid approach as some parts of the world begin to ease social distancing protocols.
This presents an exciting opportunity for marketers to return to their dearly missed in-person conferences—hugs for everyone who’s comfortable!—while also enabling those who prefer to stay distanced to enjoy the event experience, regardless of where they’re based.
To help you plan your marketing conference strategy through the end of 2021, we’ve collected the must-attend marketing events for the second half of 2021. And if you’re using this post to help build your company’s event strategy, check out these posts to learn what type of event participation type you should pursue and how to make the digital event experience engaging for your audience.
Our Must-Attend Marketing Events for the Second Half of 2021
June
B2B Next-Level ABM (June 7-10, Virtual)
Although Demand Gen Report canceled its annual B2B Marketing Exchange live event, the team will host #B2BMX: Next-Level ABM. The event will provide a playbook for breaking through to your customers across channels. Those new to account-based marketing and seasoned pros alike will learn hot takes, tips, and case study examples to help them finetune their strategy.
Advanced Search Summit (June 9-11, Napa, CA, In-Person Only)
This two-day event in beautiful Napa Valley is an educational conference that will give you the skills, tools, and techniques needed to be a successful digital marketer. Topics span from how to set up and scale your SEO organization, link building best practices, how to dominate e-commerce in 2021, and more.
Podfest (June 10-13, Orlando, FL, In-Person Only)
This event is geared toward content creators interested in audio, video, and new media technologies. The conference spans everything from podcast or video series creation and launches to ways that you can monetize this content and navigate the leading social platforms with video and audio in mind.
July
MozCon (July 12-14, Virtual)
“Not your typical marketing conference,” MozCon is hosted by, you guessed it, Moz, the popular SEO toolset provider. MozCon tackles everything dealing with SEO, mobile, conversion optimization, local search, and more, and you don’t have to be a Moz customer to attend.
ANA Digital and Social Media Conference (July 19-21, Carlsbad, CA, Hybrid)
This annual event hosted by the ANA focuses on digital and social media strategies. Leaders from top brands will explain how the pandemic and various social justice topics from 2020 have changed consumer expectations. Marketers will learn how channel optimization, influencer marketing, digital transformation, and more can be used to develop a successful marketing strategy to meet these evolving customer needs.
September
Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) (September 13-14, Virtual)
Artificial intelligence is (and has remained) a hot topic across industries, and this event is designed to help marketing leaders understand AI, educate their teams, and begin implementing AI into their campaigns.
The Social Shake-Up (September 22-23, Atlanta, GA, Hybrid)
This event is all about how you can use social media to “shake up” your brand and drive engagement with employees and customers. Speakers will share out-of-the-ordinary examples of how they achieved social media success, with topics ranging from integrated communications and customer experience to channel-specific guidance and video and audio content.
Content Marketing World (Sept. 28-Oct. 1, Cleveland, OH, Hybrid)
We’re huge fans of Content Marketing Institute and its incredible set of resources for marketers (which means we’re biased), but Content Marketing World is widely regarded as the marketing industry event to attend each year. Our agency founder Erika Heald will be at the conference to present a session on how to conduct a social media audit that helps your community thrive. Hear more about her session and book your ticket today. Will we see you in Cleveland?
October
HubSpot INBOUND (October 12-14, Virtual)
HubSpot’s annual INBOUND will virtually gather thousands of marketing, sales, and service industry pros to discuss the latest marketing best practices and trade tips on how to better reach audiences. You’ll learn everything from how to navigate the latest social media platform updates, how to boost your SEO strategy, ways to create better content, and more.
Strategic Marketing 2021 (October 12-13, Virtual)
Reuters’ Strategic Marketing 2021 virtual event will discuss the impact that brands have on society and ways that marketers can create real communities. Topics will include the impact of marketing on human perception, how to create a full-funnel strategy, how to optimize your MarTech stack, and a range of social media-focused sessions to set your team up for success.
MarketingProfs B2B Forum (October 13-14, Virtual)
Each year, MarketingProfs hosts an impressive conference that covers everything B2B marketers need to know to succeed today, and well into the future. You can get an idea of what to expect from this past event agenda. Erika will be at this event, too, sharing how to craft B2B customer case studies that put your customer’s voice front and center.
LavaCon 2021 (October 24-27, Virtual)
Content professionals join LavaCon to share best practices, network with peers, and learn how to generate revenue using state-of-the-art content technologies. This year’s program will focus on how content can be created and shared across the enterprise, including sessions on how to create content at scale, trends in learning design, and the importance of inclusive language in content.
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