The marketing conferences worth the flight. Dates, cost, and who each is really for, 2026 and 2027.

Most marketing conferences are overpriced networking with a keynote attached. A handful are worth the flight. This is the shortlist of the ones genuinely worth attending in 2026 and 2027, with real dates, locations, and what each is really for. I update it every few months, so the past events drop off and the new ones get added.

I used to keep this as a list of growth marketing conferences. Honestly, growth marketing as its own track has mostly folded back into plain marketing, and the few growth-branded events have thinned out or rebranded. So this is the broader version now: the marketing conferences worth your time, across SEO, content, social, B2B, and growth.

A quick way to read this: go for the conversations, not the talks. Most talk content ends up online within weeks. The value is the people you meet and the relationships you start, so pick the room with the right people in it, not the flashiest lineup. Conferences grouped by lane below.

The big ones

UNBOUND (formerly INBOUND)

HubSpot's mega-conference, rebranded from INBOUND this year. Huge, polished, equal parts marketing, sales, and AI-keynote spectacle. Go for the scale and the hallway track, not the deep tactics.

Web Summit

Not a marketing conference exactly. It is the largest tech conference in the world, north of 70,000 people, but the marketing and growth track is real and the networking is unmatched. Overwhelming by design.

OMR Festival

Europe's biggest marketing festival, somewhere between a conference and a music festival, expanding to three days in 2027. German-heavy but increasingly international.

DMEXCO

The big European digital-marketing and adtech expo. More trade show than intimate, but if you want the state of martech and adtech in one room, this is it.

SEO and search

BrightonSEO

The SEO community's flagship, and the best value on this list. Free single-day tickets exist and the talks are genuinely practical. There is a San Diego edition (September 15-16, 2026) and MeasureFest runs alongside it for the analytics crowd.

MozCon

Moz retired the old multi-day Seattle event. It is single-day city editions now, starting with New York. Smaller and cheaper than it was, still a solid SEO day. Check the site for the next city.

SMX Advanced Europe

Experts-only search marketing, no beginner tracks. If you already do SEO and SEM for a living and want the advanced room, this is the one. There is an SMX Munich edition in spring too.

WTSFest (Women in Tech SEO)

A sharp, community-run SEO festival that travels, and is open to everyone. Consistently strong, practical speakers and a warmer room than most.

The best part of a conference, without the flight

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Content, social, and email

Content Marketing World

The content marketing flagship, now in Denver under Informa. Broad and a little corporate, but the best single place to take a content team.

Social Media Marketing World

The big social-and-creator marketing event, with a virtual pass if you cannot fly to Anaheim. Tactical and heavy on organic social.

Advanced Email Conference

A rare email-only conference for the people who still know email is where the money is. Small, specialist, and Manchester-based.

B2B, product marketing, and AI

MarketingProfs B2B Forum

The B2B marketer's conference. Practical, not vendor-heavy, and the right size to genuinely meet people. If your buyers are businesses, this is your room.

B2B Marketing Exchange

A bigger, demand-gen-and-ABM-flavored B2B event at a Carlsbad resort. Registration runs on a waitlist, so plan ahead.

Product Marketing Summit

The Product Marketing Alliance's event for PMMs, with editions in several cities. London closes out 2026. Niche, but the best gathering of its kind.

MAICON

The marketing-and-AI conference, run by the Marketing AI Institute. The most focused place to get past the hype and into what AI actually changes in a marketing org.

Growth and startup marketing

A quick word on growth marketing conferences, since that is what this list used to be. The growth-marketing-as-its-own-thing era has mostly folded back into plain marketing, and several growth-branded events folded or rebranded. Here is what is genuinely left, plus the startup events where the growth crowd still shows up.

Growth Minded Superheroes (formerly Growth Marketing Summit)

The closest thing left to a dedicated growth marketing conference. It rebranded from Growth Marketing Summit and pushed its next edition to 2027, in Frankfurt. Tactical and experimentation-led.

Turing Fest

An Edinburgh cross-functional conference for startups, with strong growth, product, and marketing tracks. One of the best in the UK for founders and early teams.

SaaStr Annual

Not a marketing conference, but the biggest SaaS founder and go-to-market gathering, and the growth content is genuinely useful if you sell software. There is a London edition too.

Affiliate World Europe

The performance-and-affiliate marketing world, Budapest edition. Aggressive and media-buying-heavy, and not for everyone, but unmatched if paid acquisition is your game.

Can't make it to a conference?

Here is the thing most conference-goers admit on the flight home: the talks were fine, but the real value was three conversations they could not have had anywhere else. You do not need a $1,500 ticket and a hotel to get those. On GrowthMentor you can book a 1:1 with a vetted marketer or operator who has already solved the thing in front of you, this week, for the cost of a membership rather than a flight.

The hallway track, year-round. A different vetted marketer for each thing on your plate, every call included.

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Vassilena Valchanova

SEO and content · Tue 10:00

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Michael Taylor

Paid acquisition · Tue 1:00

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Kosta Panagoulias

Positioning and messaging · Wed 9:30

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Tina Louise

First marketing hire · Thu 11:00

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Daniel Johnson

Go-to-market · Fri 2:00

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And if you want the ongoing version of a conference's community, that is what online communities are for. We keep current lists of the best marketing communities and the best founder communities.

Marketers who'd rather talk than wait for a conference

The best part of any conference
is the conversations.

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