If you are in the midst of the whirlwind cloud-based software market known as SaaS, I am willing to bet you’ve pondered (more than once) Which SaaS conferences should I attend this year?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
With the world-wide cloud market jumping 17.3% to $206.2 billion in 2019, you have to find the right conference(s) that help you compete in this booming market.
Whether that means high-octane speakers and fast-paced networking or hands-on education and mentorship, you can find the perfect fit in the list below.
Each description includes event size, speaker examples, content areas and cost, so you can plan the optimal 2019 schedule.
Moz Con (Seattle, WA)
July 15 – 17, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: 1000+
# Exhibitors: 200
Attendee Cost: $799 – $1299
moz.com/mozcon
Organized by the marketing innovators at Moz.com, Moz Con tackles SEO, brand development, conversion rate optimization (CRO), mobile, analytics, customer experience, content marketing and more. Session topics include “The Problem with Content and How We Fix It,” “Machine Learning for SEO” and “Lies, Damned Lies and Analytics.”
This conference targets experienced marketers, and it’s full of actionable advice for increasing conversion and customer retention. Speakers include Ashley Greene, CEO of Instratify, Dana DiTomaso, President and Partner at Kick Point, and Michael King, managing director of iPullRank.
As one of the industry’s best innovators, Moz uses the conference to share inside information about the online marketing world and coming trends. It’s a medium-sized event, but they plan a pub crawl and bowling/karaoke party to stir up some fun networking opportunities.
SaaStock West Coast (San Francisco, CA)
September 10-11, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 400+
# Exhibitors: 14+
Attendee Cost: $299 – $899
saastock.com
If you have missed the SaasStock East Coast conference, here is another one of their conferences, this time on the west coast to gain insight and build connections that can help take your business from $10k-$10M ARR. SaasStock West Coast promises 20 hours of interactive and relatable content to scale your business and transform KPI.
The conference will showcase 14+ exhibitors and notable speakers from SurveyMonkey, Storm Ventures, WalkMe, Gainsight, Profitwell, and more. Topics of discussion include growth marketing, scaling saas, sales, leadership, revenue models, etc.
Use promo code BAYLEAFDIGITAL-30 to take 30% off all tickets to SaaStock West Coast.
Business Of Software (Boston, MA)
Sep 16 – 18, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: NA
# Exhibitors: NA
Attendee Cost: $1550 – $1800
businessofsoftware.org
Business Of Software is a 3 day conference that focuces of anything from marketing to leadership. Here you can learn about scaling up your SaaS business or other software businesses and interact with some of the world’s smartest software entrepreneurs.
BoS encourages entrepreneurs to listen and learn from one another, help each other through their business challenges. This conference is for all decision makers of an organisation from Founders, CEOs, CTOs, COOs, Product Managers and Directors.
This year’s speakers include Teresa Torres (Product Discovery Coach, Product Talk), Alex Osterwalder (CEO/Founder, Strategyzer), April Dunford (Founder, Ambient Strategy) and many more.
For those of you who cannot make it to the conference in Boston, Business Of Software is conducting the same conference in Cambridge, UK. Here are the details.
April 12 – 13, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 200+
# Exhibitors: NA
Attendee Cost: $1030 – $1580
businessofsoftware.eu
Ascent Conference (Manhattan, NY)
October 7 – 8, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 3000
# Exhibitors: 300
Attendee Cost: $195 – $1895
(USE PROMO CODE BayLeaf20 to receive 20% OFF REGISTRATION)
ascentconf.com
While many SaaS conferences can be found on the West Coast, Ascent is a two-day conference in New York that brings together the East Coast tech community under one roof. The SaaS oriented show focuses on creating an experience for the industry through learning, collaborating, building relationships, education and networking that accelerates innovation.
Ascent has categorized its conference into Startup Grad School, VC & Investing, Growth & Marketing and SaaS summit.
Last year, Ascent had some influential speakers grace the stage including Kathryn Minshew (Co-founder & CEO of Muse), Kenneth Lin (Founder & CEO of Credit Karma), Ryan Howard (MLB Allstar & Venture Capitalist at Seventy Six Capital), and many more.
This SaaS conference will provide tons of networking and learning opportunities with hundreds of SaaS entrepreneurs, investors, and executives on the East Coast.
If you decided Ascent Conference is the SaaS Conference you want to attend, be sure to use promo code BayLeaf20 to get 20% off your ticket.
SaaS Conferences That Already Happened in 2019
(Look For Them in 2020)
SaaStr (San Jose, CA) –
Missed It? We were there, read our recap…
February 5 – 7, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: 15,000+
# Exhibitors: 200
Attendee Cost: $599 – $1799
saastrannual.com
Claiming to be the largest SaaS conference in the world and featuring 300 speakers, SaaStr reigns as the go-to conference for the industry. With high attendance numbers, they emphasize sharing ideas between those who’ve made it and those on their way.
Speakers include Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, and Elisa Steele, CEO of Namely. Topics from 2018 included “How to Build Customer Loyalty with Subject Matter Expertise,” “Wildly Profitable Events With Splash, MovableInk, Apptus, Appboy & Saleforce Marketing Cloud” and “How to Sell and Market to 10,000 SMBs – On Two Continents at the Same Time.”
While it’s a big event, they facilitate in-depth conversations with over 1000 small group discussions, 1-1 meetings, and ask-me-anything sessions with SaaS-experienced VPs.
Quality speakers and topics attract industry leaders; 43% of Pulse attendees are C-level executives. So if you’re looking to be the next unicorn and want to find out how the current unicorns did it, this is the place for you.
Mobile Growth Summit (San Francisco, CA)
February 13-14, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 1500+
# Exhibitors: 100+
Attendee Cost: $395-$1995
mobilegrowthsummit.com
For marketers that support a mobile product, the Mobile Growth Summit specializes in user acquisition, monetization, retention, engagement, and data analytics. Speakers include Andreas Gross, Director of Product at Reddit, Michael Brooks, SVP of Revenue at WeatherBug, and Melissa Lertsmitivanta, Senior Manager of Mobile at Realtor.com.
Speakers will be sharing hard data to help you create and refine mobile strategy. Plus, you can attend workshops to expand your skillset.
70% of the attendees come from non-gaming industries so there’s plenty of content for all flavors of mobile apps.
DX3 (Toronto, Canada)
March 6-7, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 13800+
# Exhibitors: 50+
Attendee Cost: $495 – $1145
dx3canada.com
DX3 brings digital marketers and retailers together in Toronto for networking, great speakers and education. Speakers include Alok Gupta, Director of Data Science at Lyft, Drew Green, CEO of Indochino, and Jennie Baik, CEO and co-founder of Orchard Mile.
It offers a wide selection of events including key notes, deep dive sessions, workshops and lab demonstrations on topics. Past speakers have addressed maximizing the impact of marketing, demystifying AI and building better campaigns on Twitter.
As Matt Di Paola with Sid Lee puts it, “There’s a lot of conferences that talk about innovations, or talk about what’s happening in the space, but they don’t show it. That’s what I’ve always loved about Dx3, is that it’s applied innovations.”
SXSW (Austin, TX)
March 9-17, 2019 (9 days)
# Attendees: 75,000+
# Exhibitors: 735
Attendee Cost: $395 – $1250
sxsw.com
South by Southwest (SXSW) already has the reputation as the biggest marketing and technology party in the country, but there’s no better way to find your inspiration and kick networking into high gear.
While the top industry represented is marketing and advertising, people from tech, music and film also attend, encouraging cross-pollination between industries and helping creative people find new avenues to explore. Session tracks address brands and marketing, design, intelligence future and virtual reality/augmented reality, among many others.
Speakers include Joanna Shields, CEO of BenevolentAI, Bjarke Ingels, designer and founder of the Bjarke Ingels Group, and Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy.
The event is known for stand-out parties, concerts and group yoga, but if you want a quiet place for brainstorming and conversation with new connections, the conference provides topic-focused Meet Ups and attendee lounges.
Adobe Summit (Las Vegas, NV)
March 26-28, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: 12,000
# Exhibitors: 100+
Attendee Cost: $1495 – $1895
summit.adobe.com/na
Adobe Summit is the perfect event for learning how to create branded customer experiences from global leaders like Virgin and Coca-Cola. Past speakers include Sir Richard Branson, David Godsman of Coca-Cola and Melissa Selcher of LinkedIn.
Nine tracks and over 300 sessions cover analytics, customer experience design, content management, omnichannel marketing, personalization and more. Past sessions included “Key Trends in Digital Experience Innovations” and “Manage a Sophisticated Multilingual Campaign with a Content-First Approach.”
As expected there’s plenty of content around Adobe products, but speakers emphasize company success stories and practical takeaways. Technical experts also lead 90 minute labs to get hands-on with experience marketing tools.
CXL Live (Austin, TX)
March 27-29, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: 400+
# Exhibitors: None
Attendee Cost: TBD
conversionxl.com/live
CXL live focuses on innovation and experimentation in growth marketing and customer conversion. It addresses topics like conversion optimization, online experimentation, digital psychology and analytics.
It’s a very small conference held at Horseshoe Bay Resort, a remote location where attendees can unplug, relax and find new ways to grow business. Past session topics include “What Works in Email Marketing Right Now,” “How to 10X Growth by Optimizing Customer Marketing & Retention” and “Demystifying AI for Marketers.”
They carefully select speakers with hands-on experience, including Lukas Vermeer, Experiments at Booking.com, Nina Bayatti, Conversion Lead at ClassPath, and Eric Allen, Director of Onsite marketing at Ancestry.com. Speakers stay all three days so you can connect and learn from them 1-1.
LTV (New York, NY)
April 3-4, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 300+
# Exhibitors: None
Attendee Cost: $499 – $1999 (Get 10% Off Ticket with Promo Code BAYLEAF10)
ltvconf.com
LTV Conf brings SaaS entrepreneurs, founders, investors and SaaS enthusiasts under the same roof to discuss and collaborate on ideas that drive SaaS growth. The topics being covered this year include growing & scaling SaaS business, personalized marketing, hiring and retention in SaaS space and many more.
The speakers selected include Claire Suellentrop, co-founder of Forget The Funnel, Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit, Lauren Foundos, CEO of FORTE and many more. This is a small conference which makes networking with peers much easier. Head over to LTV if you are looking for an intimate setup to gain knowledge and network.
Want to knock a few bucks off your ticket price? Use promo code BAYLEAF10 at checkout.
CMC: Content Marketing Conference (Boston, MA)
April 16-19, 2019 (4 days)
# Attendees: 1000
# Exhibitors: 20
Attendee Cost: $649 – $1649
contentmarketingconference.com
SaaS marketers are always looking for ways to make content more effective and CMC focuses on how to do it. The sessions cover trendy topics such as personalization, artificial intelligence, and creating content that matters. CMC also provides several speakers and sessions demonstrating how to market successfully with humor.
As a smaller conference, there’s more chance to connect with experts in the creative world. Speakers planned for 2019 include Ann Handley of MarketingProfs, Nadya Khoja of Venngage, and Margaret Magnarelli of Monster.
CMC also offers workshop sessions on topics like video marketing, content that gets your point across fast, brand-driven messages and CRO.
Modern SaaS Finance Summit (New York, NY)
May 16, 2019 (1 day)
# Attendees: 250
# Exhibitors: 5
Attendee Cost: Free
sageintacct.com/events/modern-saas-finance-summit-new-york-city
This year’s Sage Intacct conference brings together industry-leading peers to share the top 5 strategies to support high growth SaaS and subscription businesses. Learn best practices to automate subscription billing, forecast critical growth metrics, and scale commercial and renewal models.
Designed for CFOs, Controllers, Revenue Operations and Finance Leaders, Sage conference consists of a panel discussion on How to Grow to $100M with Vista Equity and JMI Equity , interactive workshop led by White Ops, Stack Overflow on how to Build Your Financial Forecast and dynamic session on New Growth Metrics to Prove Your Business Mode led by David Spitz, author of the annual Key Bank Capital Markets SaaS Survey.
The networking event with NY Start-up Finance Professionals highlights the many benefits of joining the local SaaS finance community. So if you are interested in networking with SaaS finance peers, Sage Intacct is the place to be. And let’s not forget, it’s a free entry!
Pulse (San Francisco, CA)
May 20-23, 2019 (3 days)
# Attendees: 5000+
# Exhibitors: 100+
Attendee Cost: $308 – $922
gainsight.com/pulse/2019
Presented by Gainsight, Pulse focuses on making people successful with your product across the entire customer journey. In 2018, speakers included key SaaS industry leaders, such as Lincoln Murphy, a leading SaaS consultant, John Jester, VP of Worldwide Customer Success at Microsoft, and Jessica Lin, co-founder of Work-Bench.
Past session topics included driving adoption of customer success (CS) tools, case studies from companies like VMware and Tanium, and scaling for customer growth.
If you’re looking to learn, they also offer the Pulse Academy, in depth courses on everything from CS fundamentals to an advanced roundtable for brainstorming and sharing key insights.
SaaStock East Coast (New York, NY)
June 04-05, 2019 (2 days)
# Attendees: 400+
# Exhibitors: 34+
Attendee Cost: $699 – $999
saastock.com
This event provides the occasion to connect with and learn from SaaS founders and executives. In addition, SaaStock will also showcase more than 20 startup exhibitors, offering them an opportunity to gain visibility as they attend workshops and meet with investors.
A wide range of SaaS related topics will be presented, including sales, marketing, and customer success. Also look for opportunities to learn about funding, meet with investors, attend interactive workshops, and network with SaaS leaders.
Use promo code BAYLEAFDIGITAL-30 to take 30% off all tickets to SaaStock East Coast.
Did We Miss One?
Is there a SaaS Conference in 2019 that should be on this list?
Tell us about it in the comments below. Be sure to provide the URL and your contact information.
Our editorial team will review it and if we agree it’s a fit, we’ll be sure to add it to the list.
