Find your ideal professional development opportunity here in our roundup of 2018 events for digital communications professionals. We’ve listed all the conferences and expos that may be relevant to your interests over the next couple of months and we’ll be adding to this list in the coming weeks.
Many of the events listed take place on our recruitment homeground of Europe, focusing on our key recruitment areas: technical communication, content strategy and marketing, copywriting, UX, metadata, AI, augmented reality and more.
We cover many of the conferences listed below on the Firehead blog, or you can subscribe to Firehead to catch up on digital comms and recruitment trends quarterly by email.
Did we miss any great conferences? Let us know in the comments. Thanks!
MARCH
Social Media Marketing World, San Diego, US, 28 Feb-2 March 2018
#SMMW18
With 5,000 marketers and creators, this is a mega-conference, organised by the Social Media Examiner.
Mobile Trends Conference, Krakow, Poland, 1-2 March 2018
#mtc2018
Now in its 7th year, Poland’s biggest IT conference is dedicated to mobile techniques, technologies and marketing with 450 attendees and more than 25 presentations.
SXSW Interactive, Austin, US, 9-13 March 2018
#sxswi #sxsw
One of the biggest and best web gatherings in the world takes place in Austin, Texas, each year. Buy a badge for Interactive section or take in the SXSW film and music festivals as well as technologies converge.
Intelligent Content, Las Vegas, US, 20-22 March 2018
#intelcontent
The Intelligent Content Conference (ICC) is the one content strategy event specifically designed for marketing practitioners. It is now in its 10th year and focuses on how to plan, create, and deliver strategic content.
Big Data Innovation Summit, London, UK, 21-22 March 2018
#datainnovators
Design, develop and discuss your big data journey. The 2018 schedule will bring together executives from the data community for two days of keynotes, panel sessions, discussions and networking.
IA Summit, Chicago, US, 21-25 March 2018#iasummit
This will be the 19th IA Summit for professionals in information architecture and experience design. It offers two days of workshops and a three-day main programme that attracts the industry’s leading thinkers in IA, UXD and content strategy.
APRIL
An Event Apart, Seattle, US, 2-4 April 2018
A three-day conference with 18 sessions and a focus on digital design, content, code and UX. The Seattle conference kicks off the first of six events that take place throughout the year and across major cities in the US.
Digital Media Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark, 10-11 April 2018
#dme18
With a theme of ‘mastering the logged-in economy’, DME is a conference that puts the focus on digital revenue. Key topics include: digital reader revenue, innovation culture, platform monetisation strategies and the digital ad crisis.
TED 2018, Vancouver, Canada, 10-14 April 2018
The talk series which launched a thousand public speakers from the worlds of science, adventure, innovation, art to ‘share ideas that excite them’. Often overlaps with the world of communication and internet futures.
DMWF Expo Global, London, UK, 16-17 April 2018
#DMWF
A conference and expo of digital marketing technologies and strategy, featuring: digital strategy, brand recognition, ecommerce, influencer marketing, content marketing, data, analytics, personalization, automation, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and mobile marketing across two conference tracks.
Intra.NET Reloaded, Berlin, Germany, 18-20 April 2018
#intra_reloaded
Leading event for 400+ intranet professionals and internal comms teams to discuss the latest issues in intranets, the digital workplace and internal communications.
MAY
Adobe Digital Marketing Summit EMEA, London, UK, 3-4 May 2018
#AdobeSummit
A chance to connect with other digital marketing professionals and brush up on tools and trends in digital marketing. This year there are 140+ sessions across 10 tracks.
Beyond Tellerand, Dusseldorf, Germany, 7-9 May 2018
#btconf
Now in its eighth year, this conference gathers speakers on creative web design and development. What does the title mean? The exact translation for the sentence is: “Take a look beyond the edge of the plate”. BTconf also runs in Berlin in November.
STC Technical Communication Summit, Orlando, US, 20-23 May 2018
#STC18
STC’s 65th annual conference attracts more than 600 attendees and 40 exhibitors during a three-day period to discuss all things tech comm. The 2018 theme is ‘Communicate the Future’.
Confab Central, Minneapolis, US, 21-23 May 2018
#confabMN
Content strategy conference for strategists, UX designers, digital marketers and techcomm professionals with a workshop day and around 30 sessions covering the topics, trends and best practices shaping content strategy today.
SMX London, London, UK, 22-23 May 2018
#smx
Search Marketing Expo is a conference series by Search Engine Land, covering hot topics and latest thinking in the world of SEO, SEM and online marketing.
UXLx: User Experience Lisbon, Portugal, 22-25 May 2018
#uxlx
A user experience conference offering more than 20 practical workshops, 10 inspiring talks and networking with 500 attendees from 40 different countries.
Soap!, Krakow, Poland, 23-25 May 2018
Rahel Anne Bailie and Stefan Gentz were among the 2018 speakers line-up at this European content conference catering for techcomm professionals, content strategists and digital marketers.
Augmented Reality World Expo (AWE), Santa Clara, US, 30 May-1 June 2018
#awe2018
Now in its ninth year, AWE is the largest augmented and virtual reality event in the world bringing 5000 AR/VR professionals together to ‘make the world more interactive’.
JUNE
MadWorld, San Diego, US, 3-6 June 2018
#MadWorld2018
Technical communication and content strategy conference offering 40 sessions, 20 expert speakers and a network of attending technical writers, documentation managers and content strategists.
Creative ProWeek, featuring PePcon, New Orleans, US, 4-8 June 2018
CreativePro Week features PePcon, a conference focused on print and ePublishing, and multiple other conferences focused on ‘how tos’ in publishing software.
CMA Live, Edinburgh, Scotland, 6-7 June 2018
#CMAlive18
Chris Brogan and Ann Handley are the big names at this year’s CMA Live (formerly know as The Content Marketing Academy), in which world-leading marketing and business speakers gather to talk about achieving business growth.
UnGagged London, London, UK, 11-13 June 2018
#LDNTechWeek
SEO and digital marketing tactics are on the table at this headline event of London Technology Week (11-15 June).
eTail Europe 2017, London, UK, 19-21 June 2018
The event for eCommerce and multi-channel retailers, featuring speakers from Sainsburys Argos, Estee Lauder, House of Fraser, and other big names.
JULY
MozCon, Seattle, US, 9-11 July 2018
Advice from industry leaders in SEO, social media, community building, content marketing, brand development, CRO, analytics, and more.
AUGUST
Litmus Live, London, UK, 21 August 2018
Learn the latest in email marketing with sessions on everything from data-driven design to advanced personalisation, improved workflows, and more.
Conex: The Content Experience, Toronto, Canada, 20-22 August 2018
A marketing conference where digital and content professionals come together to learn more about every stage of the buyer journey.
SEPTEMBER
Content Marketing World, Cleveland, US, 4-7September2018
#cmworld
Huge content marketing conference (3500+ attendees), organised by the Content Marketing Institute. This year Tina Fey is the celebrity keynote speaker.
Write the Docs, Prague, Czech Republic, 9-11 September 2018
Write the Docs events are focused on software documentation systems, tech writing theory and information delivery. There is space for 300 techcomm professionals to join this three-day event in Europe to explore the art and science of documentation.
Intra.NET Reloaded, London, UK, 16-18 September2018
#intra_reloaded
The intra.NET Reloaded London event is for anyone involved in intranet, digital workplace and internal communications.
DMWF Expo Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 19-20 September 2018
#DMWF
A showcase of digital marketing technologies and strategy, including brand recognition, ecommerce, influencer marketing, content marketing, data, analytics, personalisation, automation, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and mobile marketing across two conference tracks.
Technical Communication UK, Daventry, UK, 25-27 September 2018
#tcuk #tcuk18
The annual TCUK conference is the leading event for technical communicators in the UK. The theme for the 2018 conference: The Pursuits of a Polymath.
EuroIA, Dublin, Ireland, 27-29 September 2018
#euroIA
Europe’s 14th annual information architecture/user experience summit features presentations, panels and plenty of networking opportunities for IAs and UX designers. The theme for 2018 is ‘Humanogy’– the symbiosis between humans and technology, and how we can harness it to make a real difference in the world.
OCTOBER
Copywriting Conference 2018, London, UK, 12 October 2018
ProCopywriters annual gathering of 200 or so copywriters and anyone who works with words, featuring a mix of talks, breakout sessions and networking. We went to this event last year and highly recommend it.
LavaCon New Orleans, US, 21-24 October 2018
#lavacon
Karen McGrane is the keynote speaker at this multi-day conference for content strategists, documentation managers, and marketing professionals. Founded in 2002, LavaCon has grown from its technical communication roots to include sessions on project management, content strategy, UX, social media, mobile devices and more.
Velocity, London, UK, 30 October-2 November 2018
O’Reilly’s European wing of three Velocity conferences taking place this year for web professionals working in web operations and performance.
NOVEMBER
Beyond Tellerand, Berlin, Germany, 5-8 November 2018
#btconf
Now in its eighth year, this conference gathers speakers on creative web design and development. What does the title mean? The exact translation for the sentence is: “Take a look beyond the edge of the plate”.
Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal, 5-8 November 2018
Web Summit is 20 conferences in one, each with their own stage, schedule, exhibition area, workshops and networking evening events. For example, more than 10,000 digital marketers attended PandaConf, their conference within Web Summit, in 2016, while Content Makers serves content creators.
J.Boye Aarhus 18, Aarhus, Denmark, 5-8 November 2018
The global knowledge-sharing community returns to Aarhus for the 14th time for a three-day event covering content strategy, UX, intranet, the digital workplace and tech trends you should know about.
TC World and Tekom, Stuttgart, Germany, 13-15 November 2018
#tekom #tcworld
The TCWorld conference and the Tekom fair is the largest global event and marketplace for technical communication.
B2B Marketing Forum, San Francisco, US, 13-16 November 2018
MarketingProfs run this three-day event sharing the latest trends in B2B marketing – now celebrating its 11th year.
Social Media Week London. London, UK, 14-16 November 2018
#SMWLDN
This year’s Social Media Week theme is Closer – and the intensifying conflict between individualism and community. This global event is hosted in 25+ cities, from Milan to Mexico City, Accra to Zurich, and attracts 75k attendees throughout the year.
Information Development World, Menlo Park, California, 27-29 November 2018
IDW is the conference for technical, marketing and product information managers, and anyone else responsible for managing the people, processes and technologies involved in creating customer experiences with content. The focus for 2018 is ‘Building a Modern Online Technical Resource Center’.
Image: (CC) TopherMcCulloch/Flickr
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