A lot of effort goes into running any form of business. No matter your industry or business model, gaining as much knowledge as you can about running a business in your industry is important for profitability and growth. In your quest for knowledge as an entrepreneur, one of the best strategies is to attend as many startup conferences as you possibly can.
Apart from the increased knowledge-base and helping you keep up with the latest trends in your industry, attending a startup conference also helps you network with like-minded individuals, finding partners and even investors for your business.
Most conferences take keynote speeches and classes from industry authorities and successful CEOs whose story you will find quite valuable to your journey.
Needless to say, attending conferences is of utmost importance and it could be a saas conference as well. We have curated a list of some of the most popular startup conferences in the United States. This should make it easier for you to find the one that suits your needs the most near you.
So, without further ado, here’s a must-attend startup conference list with 40 conferences held in the US.
1) Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
Last Held: January 8-11
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
CES is arguably one of the biggest trade shows around dedicated mainly for startups in the consumer electronics business. The conference provides a platform to showcase innovative technologies in the consumer electronics industries. Organized by the Consumer Technology Association, CES has been around for more than 50 years. The last edition had more than 180 thousand attendees. The next event is already scheduled for Jan 7-10, 2020.
2) GrowthHackers Conference
Last held February,
Location: San Diego, California, USA
As the name suggests the GrowthHackers Conference is all about growth hacking for startups in all industries. It is a full-day event targeted at entrepreneurs and professionals that are looking to break boundaries in innovative growth in their industries. The conference has both growth-stage startups as well as big corporations in attendance. The 2020 event is already scheduled for June 4, 2020.
3) The Linux Foundation Open Source Leadership Summit
Last held March 12-14,
Location Half Moon Bay, CA
The Linux Foundation open source leadership summit is a forum for leaders and innovators in the open-source software industry. The conference provides a platform for new and renowned brands to discuss transformations in open source technologies and formulate how to manage shared technology investments collaboratively.
4) SaaStr Annual
Last held: February 5-7
Location: San Jose, California, USA
This conference is the largest gathering of startups operating with the B2B model of business. It is a non-vendor SaaS event and what this means is that all content is non-commercial and there are no panels. Every session at the SaaStr Annual conference is designed specifically to help you gain valuable knowledge to grow your startup.
5) Google Startup Grind for Entrepreneurs
Last held February 12-13
Location: Silicon Valley, California, USA
The Google Startup Grind is a conference for partners, investors and startups in the Google community to connect and share valuable inspiration and education. The conference allows attendees to meet with some of the most brilliant tech minds. The startup grind runs for 2 days and has over 10,000 great minds in attendance every year with more than 100 sessions and events.
6) Digital Marketing Innovation Summit
Last held: February 12-13
Location: New York, USA
DMI Summit is all about innovation in the digital marketing industry which means it is relevant for all startups in this age and time. It covers a wide range of topics bordering on major industry trends and issues, digital content marketing strategies, growth marketing SEO trends and a long list of others. One of the main goals of this conference is to help startups gain the required knowledge for scaling an ever-evolving digital landscape.
7) Adobe Summit
Last held: March 26-28
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Adobe Summit is a yearly conference aimed at building experts in business experts that have the right tools, strategies, and insights needed to ensure truly satisfactory customer experience and to learn about the latest trends in managing customer experience across various industries. The 2019 conference featured over 300 sessions and labs covering a wide range of topics as it relates to customer experience management across various niches and industries.
8) Empire Startups Fintech Conference New York
Last held: April 3
Location New York, NY
This conference is for startups that are looking to set new trails in the payments industry, blockchain, real estate, insurance technology and so on. The conference attracts hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors in the Fintech industry as well as service providers and startup accelerators.
9) MicroConf
Last held: March 24-28
Location Las Vegas, NV
MicroConf is a conference mainly for self-funded software entrepreneurs. The two-day conference is for those who have launched already or aspiring to launch their startup without funding from venture capitalists.
10) Digital Summit
Last held: various dates
Location: all over the US
The Digital Summit is held in various locations including Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles and up to 16 other locations all over the US and is targeted at startups in the digital marketing landscape. Major industry players like Facebook, BuzzFeed, Microsoft and Amazon
11) Customer Success Summit
Last held: March,
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
CSS is a premier customer success conference where visionaries, leaders, and innovative entrepreneurs come together to discuss groundbreaking customer success initiatives. The focus of this conference is to help startups discover how they can boost the impact of customer success, improve customer engagement and discover the latest trends in customer relationships.
12) Startup World Cup
Last Held: April 24
Location Los Angeles, CA
The Startup World Cup is more than just a conference for budding companies. It is a global event where startups from all over the world converge to battle for a grand prize of $1 million in investment for their company. It also provides an avenue for meeting industry experts and network with investors and possibly broker new deals.
13) Martech
Last held: April 3-5
Location: San Jose, CA
This is a combo conference that brings together marketers in the tech industry. You could consider it a marketing conference for technologists or a tech conference for marketers as the case may be. In addition to marketing and tech, the conference also includes management as an important agenda.
14) Startup 425 Foundations
Last Held: March 27
Location: Bellevue, WA
Startup 425 is specifically for those with unique business ideas or looking to bring new products to the market. The conference is held twice in the year and it brings together business advisors, innovators, and new and established entrepreneurs to discuss major issues such as business planning, ideation, financing, marketing, and other issues in the startup life-cycle.
15) Content Marketing Conference
Last Held: April 16-19
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Content marketing conference draws participants involved in content marketing from various industries. At the event, attendees will be able to network with other content marketers. The conference also features masterclasses and workshops and allows participants to learn from renowned content marketing experts.
16) Future of Fintech
Last held: June 12-13
Location: New York, New York, USA
Organized by CB Insights, Future of Fintech conference is one of the largest gatherings of financial institutions and related fintech startups. Attendees to the event also include venture investors looking for new financial tech startups to invest in. The conference covers a wide range of topics especially the latest industry trends such as blockchain, insurance, wealth tech and so on.
17) MozCon
Last held: July 15-17
Location: Seattle, Washington
MozCon is hosted by the Moz, the SEO marketing giant. The conference is a gathering of forward-thinkers and key players to meet with like-minded individuals within and outside the marketing landscape with discussions focused on Growth marketing, SEO trends, insights and analytics and so on. Participants will also be able to get valuable tactical advice from industry experts. With the 2019 event over, the super-early event for 2020 Mozcon is already on sale.
18) Hypergrowth
To hold in: November
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Put together by Drift, Hypergrowth brings together key players and experts in various industries to discuss issues focused on personal and business growth for all types of businesses. It is a single-day self-improvement event and also provides an opportunity to connect with major forces in sales and marketing both now and in the future.
19) Tiecon
Last held: May 10-11
Location: Santa Clara, CA
This tech-anchored start-up conference is focused on building an entrepreneurship spirit in attendees. Previous editions of the event have attracted up to 60,000 entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries of the world. The 2019 edition of the event was focused on the latest innovations in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, digital health and many more.
20) ScaleUp Summit
Last held: Spring, May 21-22
Location: Atlanta, GA
The main goals of the ScaleUp summit are to help entrepreneurs grow their companies and provide winning strategies for building capacity, and learn valuable skills in marketing, business operations, finance, sales and so on. Over 2 days, the conference will feature sessions anchored by industry leaders, award-winning authors, coaches, and business executives and other industry leaders.
21) HustleCon
Last held: June TBA
Location: Oakland, CA
This one-day conference will proof insightful for budding entrepreneurs interested in learning from the success stories of others. This event hosts some of the most successful founders from various industries as they share the story behind their biggest losses and ultimate wins.
22) Velocity
Last held: June 10-13
Location: San Jose, CA
The O’Reilly Velocity Conference will help entrepreneurs get a deeper understanding of an ever-changing cloud services industry and its applications for their business benefits. Attendees will learn new valuable skills, and get a deeper understanding of new opportunities and technologies while connecting with peers and sharing ideas and insights.
23) Adobe 99U Conference
Last held: May 8-10
Location: New York City, NY
The next edition of this conference scheduled for June 2020 will be the 12th of its kind. The 2-days event typically features keynote talks from industry leaders offering pragmatic and practical insights applicable in all creative sectors and every industry possible with the ultimate goal of helping to bring more humanity to business and technology for a brighter tomorrow.
24) Consensus
Last Held: May 13-15
Location: New York City, New York
The consensus is organized by Coindesk and is mainly for startups that are blockchain and cryptocurrency-based. The last edition of the event hosted more than 8,500 attendees. Over 250 speakers from the hottest startups were also in attendance with lots of opportunities for participants to network with like-minds in business and technology.
25) Next-Gen Summit
Last held: June 7-9
Location: New York City, New York
The Next Gen Summit is targetted at Millenials in business as the next generation of talented entrepreneurs. NextGen is an invitation-only conference and attendees can be sure of a truly personalized experience with direct close-up access to investors, mentors, and executives from various organizations of interest.
26) Funnel Hacking Live
Last held: February 19-23
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
A great sales funnel is the heart of any effective e-commerce strategy and this is what the Funnel hacking conference focuses on. The event aims to help young business owners to hear from online marketing and learn new ways and strategies to up their game in creating funnels that will boost their reach and overall ROI.
27) Social Media Marketing World
Last held: March 20-22
Location: San Diego, California
The Social Media Marketing World conference is a place for startups to learn and earn valuable skills that will help them leverage the social media marketing landscape to push business growth. The last edition of the conference featured more than 100 speakers, several addresses, breakout session and various learning tracks for a truly optimum learning experience for attendees at the conference.
28) Summit LA19
To be held: November 8-11
Location: Downtown Los Angeles, California
Popularly dubbed as a Festival of ideas, the Summit LA is a conference that has a communal feel to it rather than being just another meeting for startups. With a focus on bringing together industry leaders, change-makers, creators in various industries and helping them to connect and share their ideas for a better future for their respective startups. The conference is 3-days of endless networking and learning and also includes extras like food, art, wellness classes among other interesting itineraries.
29) Ernst Young Strategic Growth Forum
To be held: November 13–17, 2019
Location: Palm Springs, California
This 4-days event is strictly by invitation and it is one of the most prestigious gatherings of CEOs, industry experts, top executives, investors, and business leaders. The conference schedule includes a broad spectrum of programs focused on supercharging company growth through inspiring stories from the biggest entrepreneurs. You can visit the conference website and request for an exclusive invitation.
30) Dreamforce
To be Held: November 19-22
Location: San Francisco, California
The Salesforce sponsored Dreamforce conference is open to both small and large businesses, and to entrepreneurs from all industries. The event features more than a thousand workshops over the course of 4 days and educative sessions aimed at helping you bring your business to the next level. It is not a complete business event though as there are parties and plenty of other opportunities to connect with other trailblazers in your industry and beyond.
31) LEND360
Last held: September 25-27
Location: Dallas, TX
LEND360 is an event that connects startups in the online lending industry. So if your business is related to any area of this industry, LEND360 is the platform to stay in touch with the latest trends, opportunities and vital information needed for business growth and transformation.
32) Crypto Invest Summit
To be held: October 15-16
Location: Los Angeles, California
CIS is a conference focused on blockchain technology investment and investors and business owners looking for interested investors can benefit from the networking opportunities offered by the presence of more than 2000 attendees. Additionally, there are several informative and educative sessions delivered by the brightest minds in the blockchain investment industries as well as one-on-one sessions as well.
33) SpiceWorld
Last held: September 23-25
Location: Austin, TX
SpiceWorld conference is a 3-day activity-packed conference mainly focused on how-to-sessions regarding the latest products and solutions in the IT business. Attendees will leave with some instructive tips for their business. The event also provides an opportunity to network with peers both within and outside your industry.
34) Entrepreneurs Cruise
Last held: July 7-14
Location: Orlando, FL
Entrepreneurs Cruise is more than just a conference for CEOs, it provides a relaxing atmosphere for CEOs and their teams to take a break from all the stress of running a business and rejuvenate their minds while networking with like minds in a new environment. The 2019 edition of this event is the 5th of its kind and was a 7 days cruise-ship experience on the Royal Caribbean ‘Harmony of the Seas’ Cruise Ship.
35) Open Source Software Conference
Last held: July 15–18
Location: Portland, OR
The O’Reilly Open Source Software Conference is an event designed to help you stay informed of the latest trends and key technologies that are shaping the business world especially as it relates to software development.
36) World Domination Summit
Last held: June 25 – July 1
Location: Portland, OR
For close to a decade, the WDS has been bringing together people from all over the United States and beyond to create an incredibly remarkable community aimed at helping each person pursue their dreams and equip them with the right tools to achieve them. The last edition drew participants from more than 40 countries of the world in addition to attendees from the US.
37) FinCon
Last held: September 4-7
Location Washington, DC
Washington DC hosted the most recent edition of FinCon which has more than 2000 finance media nerds, content creators in the personal finance industry in attendance as well as influencers and other stakeholders in the field. The conference is a platform to learn, build and collaborate.
38) ANA Chicago Nonprofit Conference
Last held: August 26-28
Location: Chicago, IL
If you run a start-up that relies on funds from donors, the ANA non-profit conference is the perfect event to meet with marketing and fundraising professionals to learn the most innovative fundraising ideas and insightful solution to your fundraising problem for an improved relationship with your donors.
39) INBOUND
Last held: September 3-6
Location: Boston, MA
For years, this annual event has been inspiring and educating hundreds of thousands of individuals in various industries and helping them grow their business better. More than just a conference INBOUND is a community of people with a passion for selling and inbound marketing. The next edition of the event is scheduled for August 2020 and will also hold in the same location. (Boston, MA)
40) The Linux Storage RISC-V Summit
Last held: April 4
Location: San Jose, CA
This conference is a more niche-specific event with a specific focus on researchers and subsystem maintainers and other individuals involved in mapping out strategies and developing tools for the improvement of the Linux filesystem. The solutions and system management products from this conference will shape the Kernel and Linux distribution for the next 2 to 4 years.
Conclusion
These are 40 of the most popular startup conferences in America. Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive; there may be other conferences that not covered in this rundown. However, these are some of the best ones around to help you network with other CEOs, meet investors and improve your overall knowledge to help you run your business successfully. You can find out more about each of them including the scheduled day for the next event by visiting the official website of the conference.
