B2B Marketing Events not to miss in 2024 in the UK and USA

Would you like to meet other B2B marketers? Are you looking for advice on getting started with AI for marketing or implementing your ABM strategy?

EI’s research team put our tried and tested methods to the test to bring you our top picks from the UK and USA B2B marketing events space. We found 74 events from 54 suppliers and whittled this list down to the ones we like best. Here are our highlights:

The best B2B marketing events in the UK:

Some of the best events sit just under the radar, and it takes a conversation or a chance LinkedIn post to become aware of them. The Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit, run by the CIM, is just such an event. It’s an invite-only event exclusively for senior FS marketers and attracts the best of the City’s marketing prowess. This year’s event is planned for early May. EI is a founding member and proud sponsor. Previous events featured speakers from Deutsche Bank and CME Group. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch at [email protected].

Beyond this event, finding forums that are truly B2B is a challenge. Thank goodness, then, for the events run by Joel Harrison , Mitch Hole and the team at B2B Marketing . EI is attending B2B Ignite in 2024 (3rd July, London), and we’re excited to be part of this flagship B2B marketing forum. It’s a sizeable beast with over 500 attendees and 15 sponsors. The agendas are always well researched with leading b2b brands sharing specific marketing stories. This year Lois Smith , Field Marketing Leader at IBM is speaking on their AI journey and Lynzi Ashworth , Marketing Director, Aon is sharing the secret to brand tracking success. If you’re planning on attending, please let us know so we can connect onsite!

If budgets are tight, The Marketing Engagement Summit (25th September 2024), run by Engage Business Media, is cost-free for buy-side marketers to attend. It’s not exclusively B2B, but it does major on B2B. Previous years have featured speakers from top brands including EY’s Gillian Fitzgerald , EMEIA Director of Brand and Integrated GTM, Wipro’s European CMO David Keene , and Cushman & Wakefield’s European Head of Sales Enablement, Caroline Debenham . The agenda has had a strong slant towards ABM in the past, and usual ABM suspects - like 6sense - are among the sponsors.

We couldn’t leave the UK without profiling the Global ABM Conference, also by B2B Marketing (6th November, London). EI is a returning sponsor of this forum and we think it’s great! It’s the only event we found exclusively focused on ABM strategy and technology and is the place to come if you want to connect with other ABM marketers and suss out the latest ABM solutions. There were 300 attendees in 2023, with even more expected to attend in 2024 as ABM interest rockets sky high. Our Global MD Tony Jarvis spoke in 2023, as did Neil Berry , CapGemini’s global ABM lead, Rachael Bell , NTT’s VP ABM and Rhiannon Blackwell , PWC’s Global ABM Leader. It was a super line up, ably delivered by B2B Marketing’s super-producer Amy Garrod .

On the other side of the Atlantic, the B2B marketing conference space is very different, so we set our US team the challenge of showcasing the best events for marketers. EI’s Bostonian Frances Augustine put these gems forward:?

The best B2B marketing events in the USA:

The ANA’s Masters of B2B Marketing Conference (12-14 June, Florida) is the association’s flagship event, with 500+ attendees. The ANA is very well respected for hosting marketing discussions states-side. This is an exclusively B2B marketing discussion led by CMOs and marketing leaders from the likes of Mastercard, Oracle and EY. This year’s speakers include Don McGuire , CMO, Qualcomm - who we also saw onstage at #MWCbarcelona24 – and Lynn Teo , CMO, Northwestern Mutual. The audience is very senior, and sponsors include major brands like Google and LinkedIn. Put simply, it’s the US elite. The price tag to attend is hefty, but stack this against time spent at less high quality, less relevant forums and the value is obvious.

?A more accessible event for buy-side marketers is DemandGen’s B2B Marketing Exchange ?(1-3 October, Georgia and Feb ‘25, Arizona). This attracts a 500+ strong delegation of mid and senior level marketers from B2B firms. The agenda is focused on giving practical advice on everyday marketing challenges: in 2023 Neha Shah, Senior Director Product Marketing, Salesforce ran a session on defining stages in the B2B buyer journey and Brenda Wu , Global Campaign Manager, Palo Alto shared how they align their marketing strategy with their tech stack. If you’re looking for a technology partner, this is the place to find them, with over 60 sponsors present.

Finally, we draw your attention to the Digital Marketing for Financial Services conference series, run in NYC, Toronto, San Fran and Chicago by the Strategy Institute. In its 11th year, events in the series attract c.300 attendees, with marketing directors from major FS brands including CapStone and Sun Life attending. CMOs including Lindsey Ogan of Stride Bank, Tim Hines of AmTrav, and Karen McDermott of Vast.Bank all spoke last year on a wide range of topics including brand building, account acquisition strategies and MarTech. If you’re an FS marketer, you’ll definitely find something for you on the agenda, and get to meet peers with the same challenges.

Which events capture your attention for attending in 2024? We’d love to hear from you.

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EI provides event selection advice to marketers looking to reach niche B2B audiences. Our research is independent and unaffiliated. To find out more about how we can help you with your B2B events strategy, please email us at [email protected] for a no-strings-attached conversation.