Every year we scout around for the best learning and networking conferences for digital communications professionals across the breadth of our field: in technical communication, content strategy, content marketing, plain language, copywriting, UX, metadata, AI, Info 4.0, augmented reality and more.
We aim for a mix of events taking place on our recruitment homeground of Europe and also some major events in North America that you may find worth the trip. And we will be updating this list in the coming months, so please let us know if there are any great conferences you think we should add.
Throughout the year, we also report on many of the events here on the Firehead blog, or you can subscribe to Firehead to catch up on our digital comms and recruitment trends quarterly by email.
JANUARY
Omnichannel X, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 30 January-1 February 2019
How do you help organisations build strong personal relationships with their audience? Everyone plays a part, from writers and designers, to strategists and developers, across multiple touchpoints in the modern world. An event focusing on the omnichannel nature of communication and how to align content, design, governance and systems around the customer journey.
FEBRUARY
XML Prague, Czech Republic, 7-9 February 2019
#xmlprague
A conference on markup languages and data on the web, and the state of the XML union.
World IA Day, global, 23 February 2019A one-day annual celebration of all things IA, hosted by the Information Architecture Institute. Find one near you.
MARCH
An Event Apart, Seattle, US, 4-9 March 2019
A three-day conference with 17 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 across major cities in the US.
SXSW Interactive, Austin, US, 8-12 March 2019
#sxswi #sxsw
The world-famous web gathering takes place in Austin, Texas, as famous for the parties and networking as the learning opportunities.
Swedish Association of Technical Information (FTI) Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 12-13 March 2019
‘Information for Man and Machine’ is the theme of this year’s conference. Jörg Schmidt, Solution Architect at SDL, explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can help you create bi-directional multilingual content engagement, from content creation through translation and delivery.
The IA Conference, Orlando, US, 13-17 March 2019
#iac19
Formerly the IA Summit, this conference for professionals in information architecture and experience design offers two days of workshops and a three-day main programme that attracts the industry’s leading thinkers in IA, UXD and content strategy. The theme for 2019 is ‘Gateways: Legacy With Purpose’.
Documation, Paris, France, 19-21 March 2019
Now in its 25th year, Documation is an exhibition of information management and document processes. The three-day conference and workshop programme covers a broad spectrum including social listening, structured writing, archive management, automation, data privacy, content management through AI, interoperability and more.
Big Data Innovation Summit, London, UK, 20-21 March 2019
Design, develop and discuss your big data journey. 2019 topics include data mining, data science and advanced analytics.
Social Media Marketing World, San Diego, US, 20-22 March 2019
#SMMW19
With 5,000 marketers and creators, this is a mega-conference, organised by the Social Media Examiner. Virtual tickets are also on offer, giving access to recordings of every session.
GALA 2019, Munich, Germany, 24-27 March 2019
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) Language of Business conferences brings together the translation and localisation community to exchange ideas and information, discuss and debate best practices, and drive progress for the industry as a whole.
APRIL
Digital Media Europe, Vienna, Austria, 1-2 April 2019
#dme19
This year the theme is ‘digital subscriptions and new ad experiences’ for loyal/logged-in users. DME is a conference that focuses on best practices for growing digital revenue. Key topics are: engagement and retention, product and UX, marketing optimisation, advertising models for subscribers, and video revenue revisited.
UnGagged London, London, UK, 1-3 April 2019
SEO and digital marketing tactics are discussed across a two-day conference with more intensive masterclasses on the last day. It promises ‘actionable methods, unfiltered advice and real-world digital marketing concepts through practical step-by-step sessions’.
ContentTECH, San Diego, US, 8-10 April 2019
Formerly the Intelligent Content Conference (ICC), the ContentTECH Summit is focused on how technology can create, manage, deliver, and scale enterprise content and marketing to customers. Talks from practitioners and experts in content technology and marketing strategy, including Robert Rose of the CMI, Megan Golden of LinkedIn and headliner, the musician Henry Rollins.
Information Energy, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 11-12 April 2019
How do we empower emerging technologies with information? How do machines and humans work together? Information Energy, organised by tcworld GmbH and the Information 4.0 Consortium, explores the relationship between information and technology, covering themes such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), Information 4.0 and semantic AI.
Intra.NET Reloaded, Berlin, Germany, 11-12 April 2019
#intra_reloaded
The 8th Intra.NET Reloaded Berlin brings more than 400 intranet professionals and internal comms teams together to discuss the latest issues in intranets, the digital workplace and internal communications. The theme for this year is ‘Defining the Future of the Digital Workplace.’ Also check out the London event in September.
MadWorld, San Diego, US, 14-17 April 2019
#MadWorld2019
Technical communication and content strategy conference offering 40 sessions, a new pre-conference workshop, eight advanced workshops, 20-plus expert speakers, a technical support lounge, and a network of attending technical writers, documentation managers and content strategists.
TED 2019, Vancouver, Canada, 15-19 April 2019
The talk series which launched a thousand public speakers from the worlds of science, adventure, innovation, art to ‘share ideas that excite them’.
Confab Central, Minneapolis, US, 23-26 April 2019
#confabMN
Content strategy conference for strategists, UX designers, digital marketers and techcomm professionals with two workshop days and two main conference days. It covers topics, trends and best practices in content strategy, from UX to storytelling, accessibility to structure.
AI & Big Data Expo, London, UK, 25-26 April 2019
The London event of this global showcase brings together more than 4,000 visitors over the two days and offers six dedicated AI/big data tracks: enterprise AI & digital transformation, data analytics for AI & IoT, big data strategies, AI and the consumer, developing AI technologies and big data for industry. There is also an Amsterdam event in mid-June.
MAY
CHI, Glasgow, Scotland, 4-9 May 2019
As AI becomes embedded in how humans do things, interactive tech is becoming more of a focus for academics and practitioners alike. The ACM CHI conference on human factors in computing systems is all about human-computer interaction, and investigating new and creative ways for people to interact.
STC Technical Communication Summit, Denver, US, 5-8 May 2019
#STC19
The STC Summit celebrates its 66th anniversary in 2019. It attracts more than 600 attendees and 40 exhibitors during a three-day period to discuss all things tech comm. The conference track offers talks on content design and delivery, tools and technologies, training development and delivery, project management, leadership, and career development.
COMtecnica, Rimini, Italy, May, 7-8 May 2019
Making information intelligent is one of the key aspects in the time of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT). This conference, organised in collaboration with Tekom Europe, looks at the processes and technologies in techcomm and intelligent information with a particular focus on latest trends and needs – and how companies can start to adapt to these new requirements.
Beyond Tellerand, Dusseldorf, Germany, 13-15 May 2019
#btconf
Now in its ninth year, this conference gathers speakers on creative web design and development. The translation for Beyond Tellerand is: “Take a look beyond the edge of the plate” – or maybe think outside of the box. BTconf also runs in Berlin in November; an event in Munich is also being planned.
UA Reloaded, St Leon-Rot, Germany, 15-16 May 2019
Tekom and SAP software’s conference invites user assistance architects, technical communicators and video producers to see the latest options in UA: from video documentation to machine learning to virtual reality. It promises to go beyond the classic portfolio of technical communication, to deal with what user assistance could disruptively change in the future.
Adobe Digital Marketing Summit EMEA, London, UK, 15-16 May 2019
#AdobeSummit
A chance to connect with other digital marketing professionals and brush up on tools and trends in digital marketing and digital experiences for customers. This year there are 120+ sessions across 12 tracks.
SMX London, London, UK, 21-22 May 2019
#smx
Search Marketing Expo is a conference series by Search Engine Land, offering attendees three days of SEO, SEM and online marketing sessions, with plenty of takeaway tips and techniques to improve your search marketing.
UXLx: User Experience Lisbon, Portugal, 21-24 May 2019
#uxlx
A popular user experience conference offering four days of talks and workshops on trends and the practical applications of UX.
DMWF Global, London, UK, 23-24 May 2019
#DMWF
More than 1200 senior managers and 100-plus speakers from global brands attend this Digital Marketing World Forum event. Expect talks and trend briefings on digital marketing technologies, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, influencer marketing, UX, CX, eCommerce, content marketing, data, analytics, and mobile.
Augmented Reality World Expo (AWE), Santa Clara, US, 29-31 May 2019
#awe2019
The 10thannual AWE is the largest XR (augmented, virtual and mixed reality) event in the world bringing 6000 attendees, 400 speakers and 250 exhibitors together to ‘make the world more interactive’.
JUNE
Evolution of TC, Sofia, Bulgaria, 4-5 June 2019
Check out the latest innovations in software documentation at this annual gathering of technical communicators information developers, technical editors and translators who mainly have a software background. It is apparently the only techcomm conference in south-eastern Europe and is organized by tcworld GmbH in cooperation with tekom Bulgaria.
Soap!, Krakow, Poland, 5-7 June 2019
Techcomm leaders 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. This year it is looking at how content, which has long been treated as human readable only, is becoming more machine friendly with ‘content as code’.
TOTh 2019, Chambéry, France, 6-7 June 2019
TOTh stands for Terminology & Ontology: Theories and applications, and this event brings together researchers, professionals and anyone interested in language and knowledge engineering. It is preceded by two days of training session on ontology for terminology.
Creative ProWeek, featuring PePcon, Seattle, US, 10-14 June 2019
CreativePro Week offers multiple conferences focused on ‘how tos’ Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft PowerPoint, and other creative tools for those working in print or digital publishing.
The AI Summit, London, UK, 11-13 June, 2019
This massive expo and conference, aimed at the business world and featuring 400 speakers and 15,000 attendees, is the flagship event for London Tech Week 2019. It may be too general for content professionals but it is positioning itself as a catalyst for business transformation so could be useful to those who work with brands.
LOCWorld40, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-13 June 2019
LocWorld offers several conferences for international business, translation, localisation and global website management, and this is the European option. If you’re responsible for communicating across the boundaries of language and culture in your business, put it in the diary. The theme for 2019 is Go Global, Be Global.
eTail Europe 2019, London, UK, 18-19 June 2019
An omnichannel and retail eCommerce event, featuring speakers from big brands and high street names, and covering personalisation, customer retention and engagement, driving conversions, omnichannel experiences and more.
JULY
MozCon, Seattle, US, 15-17 July 2019
Advice from industry leaders in SEO featuring sessions on SEO, growth marketing, the mobile landscape, analytics, content marketing and more.
AUGUST
Conex: The Content Experience, Toronto, Canada, 20-22 August 2019
A marketing conference where digital and content professionals come together to learn more about content at every stage of the buyer journey.
SEPTEMBER
Content Marketing World, Cleveland, US, 3-6 September 2019
#cmworld
Huge content marketing conference (4000+ attendees, 225 speakers), organised by the Content Marketing Institute. There are 120 sessions and workshops covering strategy, storytelling, ROI, demand generation, AI and more. Expect a cool celebrity keynote speaker (it was Tina Fey last year).
Technical Communication UK, Kenilworth, UK, 10-12 September 2019
#tcuk #tcuk19
The annual TCUK conference is the leading event for technical communicators in the UK. The theme for the 2019 event is ‘10’ to celebrate the 10thanniversary of TCUK.
Write the Docs, Prague, Czech Republic, 15-17 September 2019
Write the Docs events brings everyone who writes the docs together in the same room – programmers, tech writers, support, designers, developer advocates – to talk software, tech writing and information delivery. Around 300 techcomm professionals can attend this three-day event exploring the art and science of documentation.
Nordic TechKomm, Copenhagen, Denmark, 25-26 September 2019
A two-day event, in association with Tekom Europe, on techcomm industry trends, best practices and networking opportunities. It is aimed at technical writers, information and UX designers, technical communication managers and content architects.
DMWF Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 25-26 September 2019
#DMWF
A showcase of digital marketing technologies and strategy. Catch up on the latest trends in digital marketing technologies, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, influencer marketing, UX, CX, eCommerce, content marketing, data, analytics, and mobile.
PLAIN, Oslo, Norway, 25-27 September 2019
#PLAIN2019
PLAIN’s 12th international plain language conference is back with the theme is ‘Clear communication – clear results’. The event is not just for plain language professionals but also those from fields such as information design, marketing, corporate communications, technical writing and usability.
Intra.NET Reloaded, London, UK, 26-27 September 2019
#intra_reloaded
The intra.NET Reloaded London event is for anyone involved in intranet, digital workplace and internal communications. The theme for this year is ‘Defining the Future of the Digital Workplace.’
EuroIA, Riga, Latvia, 26-28 September 2019
#euroIA
Europe’s 15th annual information architecture/user experience event features presentations, panels and plenty of networking opportunities for IAs and UX designers.
OCTOBER
Connected Data London, London, UK, 3-4 October 2019
Billed as a ‘conference for those who use the relationships, meaning and context in data to achieve great things’. Speakers are from across business and academia, including Yoast, Uber, Microsoft AI, GSK, Mozilla and more, covering topics such as knowledge graphs and graph databases, AI and machine learning, linked data and semantic technology.
MadWorld, Dublin, Ireland, 8-11 October 2019
The techcomm and content strategy conference (see April) comes to Ireland offering 20 main conference sessions, eight advanced workshops, a technical support lounge for one-on-one support, plus hosted networking events.
Copywriting Conference, London, UK, 11 October 2019
ProCopywriters annual gathering of 200 or so copywriters is dedicated to commercial writing. Expect a mix of talks, breakout sessions and networking to help you supercharge your copy.
The Artificial Intelligence Conference, London, UK, 14-17 October 2019
Presented by O’Reilly and Intel AI, this event explores the opportunities in applied AI. Here you can learn about the latest in machine and deep learning – from bots and agents to voice and IoT interfaces –and how to implement AI in real-world projects and business transformation.
B2B Marketing Forum, Washington DC, US, 16-18 October 2019
MarketingProfs run this three-day event sharing the latest trends in B2B marketing – now celebrating its 12th year. It offers 60-plus sessions, three keynotes, networking, and ‘off-the-clock antics’!
LavaCon, Portland, US, 27-30 October 2019
#lavacon
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. Speakers from Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google and more are already lined up with the aim of ‘Creating unified content experiences’.
NOVEMBER
Taxonomy Boot Camp, Washington DC, USA, 4-5 November 2019
Great content experiences need great foundations, and that starts with a good, solid taxonomy for your content, one that can support latest trends in personalisation to machine learning. Expect case studies, practical sessions on taxonomy tools and methods, and cutting-edge developments in the field at this event.
Velocity, Berlin, Germany, 4-7 November 2019
O’Reilly’s European conference shifts to Berlin this year. This is where systems engineers, developers, sys admins, security, operations, site reliability engineers and managers come to explore topics from cloud infrastructure to dev ops to emerging tech (machine learning, AI, blockchain).
Boye Aarhus 19, Aarhus, Denmark, 4-7 November 2019
Now in its 15th year, this three-day event has been rebranded as ‘The digital leadership conference’. Expect keynotes, talks, sprints and networking around topics such as content strategy, UX, intranet, the digital workplace and tech trends.
Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal, 4-7 November 2019
Web Summit offers 24 conference tracks in one big event, each with their own stage, schedule, exhibition area, workshops and networking events. For example, more than 10,000 digital marketers attended PandaConf, a marketing conference within Web Summit, while Content Makers serves content creators.
TC World and Tekom, Stuttgart, Germany, 12-14 November 2019
#tekom #tcworld
The TCWorld conference and the Tekom fair is the largest global event and marketplace for technical communication, and also runs a number of other events throughout the year. Topics include: content strategies, content design and standardisation, user-friendly information products, translation and localisation, quality assurance and information logistics.
Big Data LDN, London, UK, 13-14 November 2019
A free-to-attend conference and exhibition, hosting leading data and analytics experts and featuring real-world use-cases and panel debates on data-driven strategies.
Beyond Tellerand, Berlin, Germany, 13-16 November 2019
#btconf
Now in its ninth year, this conference gathers speakers on creative web design and development. The translation for Beyond Tellerand is: “Take a look beyond the edge of the plate” – or maybe think outside of the box.
Image (CC): Claude_Star/Pixabay
