If you own a digital agency or you work for one then attending a conference in 2023 is the best bang for your buck way to pick up new strategies, make connections, and keep current with the latest trends.
2023 offers you a ton of conferences digital agency owners and creatives can benefit from:
- Communicating with Gen Z
- Influencer Marketing Campaigns
- Social Media Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Video Editing & Production
- Lead Generation
- Online Ads
- Brand Reputation
- Digital strategy
As an agency owner who wants to up your game and increase profitability, you can find a ton of multi-day events specific to your problems. Creatives often wind up running a company and hiring a project management team quite quickly. University courses don’t keep pace with the rapid pace of change in the social media marketing world. Marketing conferences are the name of the game.
The Best Agency Conferences For You?
These marketing conferences are a perfect way to gain new ideas and insights quickly and supercharge your agency growth. Marketing industry business owners gather to discuss digital marketing best practices for content marketing and have way more networking opportunities and exchange more innovations freely with other owners than you would get elsewhere. They don’t cost tens of thousands of dollars and they don’t take up years of your life. In most cases, the right event provides rocket fuel to your agency business with a combination of shared enthusiasm and innovations being an inspiration to so many attendees. Really, if you can get to the right conference for you, you’re basically pouring rocket fuel directly into your business.
Here’s a list of the best agency conferences in 2023:
Social Media Strategies Summit | Feb. 21-24 | Virtual | $649 (until Feb. 21) – $749
The Social Media Strategies Summit is a marketing event for senior marketing professionals. You learn top strategies for growing your brand across multiple social media platforms. You also meet the people who run influencer and social media marketing campaigns at some of the world’s largest brands. If your agency works with large brands, this prestigious event is for you.
Keynote features speakers such as:
-
Maya Wasserman – Marketing Director, Sony Electronics
-
Krista Jasso – Social Insights Manager, Nascar
-
Haley Buckingham – Influencer Marketing Lead, Nasdaq
Check out Social Media Strategies’ two other virtual events; Public Agencies & Government, May 17-18, and First Responders, Apr. 12-13.
Find out more about this Social Media Marketing conference on their website.
Social Media Marketing World | Mar. 13-15 | San Diego, USA | $497-$1997
This is a premier digital marketing event for agencies that work with content creators and small to mid-sized brands. Expect talks on how to improve and grow your YouTube channel, repurpose your content, and use other platforms like Instagram and TikTok to expand your reach and audience.
SMMW focuses on four primary areas of content: Social Strategy, Content Marketing, Organic Social Marketing, and Paid Social Marketing. Their all-access pass includes a video recording of every session in case you miss one.
Key speakers include:
- Derral Eves – YouTube expert and advisor to Mr. Beast
- Mari Smith – the Queen of Facebook
- Millie Adrian – Instagram marketing pro
Learn more about Social Media Marketing World and why it’s one of the premier conferences on this list here.
Youth Marketing Strategy | Mar. 22-23 | New York, USA | $500-$1000
Think you might need to learn how Gen Z thinks? Get an insight to their behaviour to improve how you communicate with them. Youth Marketing Strategy can give you the insights you need to adapt your brand strategy and find success with younger audiences. If you help clients market themselves to younger audiences, attend this premier digital marketing conference to keep your messaging with, or even ahead of current marketing leaders.
Prefer to attend in England? Check out Youth Marketing Strategy London, running Jun. 7-8.
Digital Summit | Mar. 29-30 | Phoenix, USA | $895
Digital Summit Phoenix offers two days of cutting-edge marketing tactics from leading experts for digital marketers. The summit covers all areas of digital marketing. Topics include Social Media, SEO, Content, Branding, Lead Gen, Data Analytics, Email, and Emerging Tech.
2023 speakers include:
- Brian Solis – Digital Anthropologist, Futurist, 8x Best-selling author
- David Sosna – Emmy Award-Winning Senior Content Producer – Phoenix Suns
- Kate DiLeo – Chief Branding Architect – Kate DiLeo Branding
- Patrick Buchanan – VP Marketing – Good American
Digital Summit is running in person digital marketing events in eight US cities in 2023. Learn more here.
Ad World Conference | Mar. 29-30 | Virtual | $799-$999
At Ad World Conference, you’ll learn the strategies, systems, and insider secrets used by the top advertising experts across every major marketing channel. Advertising Agencies should network at this event to keep up with the latest industry news and trends.
The speaker lineup includes speakers from Google, Meta, Twitter, Samsung, and more, here’s a peak at a few of the speakers you’ll learn from in 2023:
- Seth Godin – Akimbo
- Sofia Hernandez – Global Head of Business Marketing, TikTok
- Antonis Kocheilas – Global CEO, Ogilvy Advertising
Ad World Conference features eight learning tracks. Click here to learn more about the conference.
Content Marketing Summit Asia | Multiple Dates, Locations, & Prices
The rapid rise of digital media and the growing power of social media has altered content marketing in unexpected ways. CMS Asia aims to bring the entire ecosystem up to speed with the current evolution in content marketing.
Learn more about the two currently scheduled content marketing conferences below:
South Asia | Apr. 19 | Mumbai, India | INR $4,999-$9,999
South East Asia | July – TBA | Singapore | SGD $199-$499
NAB Show | Apr. 15-19 | Las Vegas, USA | Price Varies – See Below
Check out NAB Show’s centennial event in 2023. Attend the main media conference, their massive video expo, and a smattering of other specialized conferences, workshops, and courses.
NAB Show Conference | Apr. 15-19 | $499-$799
At the NAB Show Conference, you can choose between three learning tracks:
- Create – for video editors, video content creators, producers, and streamers
- Connect – for engineers, technologists, coders, and implementors
- Capitalize – for advertisers, marketers, broadcast executives, analysts, and agency leaders
In addition, they offer specialized conferences such as:
Visual Storytelling Conference | Apr. 14-15 | $299-$599
Post-Production World | Apr. 15-19 | $699-$1099
Remote Production Conference | Apr.16-17 | $399-$699
Focus On Leadership | Apr. 17 | $499-$899
If your agency provides video editing services, check out the ACE Editorial Workshop and Adobe and Apple certification courses.
Take a further look into NAB here.
Owners Summit | May 8-9 | New Orleans, USA | $999
The Owners Summit is an annual event by the Bureau Of Digital. It helps small to mid-sized agency owners build for the future and scale their businesses.
From workshops to keynotes and presentations, programming is focused on actionable takeaways—ideas and strategies to help you withstand business pressures, capitalize on emerging trends and build a sustainable growth strategy.
Key sessions include:
- Unapologetically Running A Creative Firm
- Building an Equitable Company
- Building a Resilient Agency Culture that Attracts, Retains, and Engages Top Talent
- The Pros and Cons of AI
Learn more about Owners Summit New Orleans 2023 here.
Build A Better Agency Summit | May 15-17 | Chicago, USA | $2195-2695
The Build A Better Agency Summit (BABA) helps small to mid-sized agency owners (under 100 employees) run their businesses better. BABA is a must attend event if you want your agency to develop better business opportunities and become more sustainable, scalable, and sellable.
BABA teaches best practices in project management, financial management, agency growth, and much more. The summit assumes you already know how to serve your clients well and instead focuses on improving your operation and growing your bottom line. Early bird pricing ends March 31st. Learn more about BABA here.
Mirren Live | May 16-17 | Kansas City & Virtual | $900-$1900
Mirren Live aims to help you see what’s ahead for the industry and understand what it means for your agency. Sixty innovators in and outside the industry will reveal their latest forecasts, growth plans, new business strategies, and more. If you’re an agency owner, attend to gain a unique insight into how other agencies inspire more creativity, drive organic growth, win new business, streamline operations, and retain their best talent.
Featured sessions include:
- 2023 + 2024 Industry Projections
- The New Pipeline for New Business
- How Agencies Are Now Using AI
- Selling Clients on Big Creative Ideas
- New Business Tools & Productivity Hacks
- Building a Flexible Resource & Talent Structure
Find out if Mirren Live is for you here.
Adweek Social Media Week | May 16-18 | New York, USA & Virtual | $200-$1299
This year’s Social Media Week takes a deep dive is your go to advertising conference on this list. Find out how marketers and ad agencies can effectively collaborate with creators to drive next-level engagement. Also covered; how to use innovative digital content to create communities marketers can engage with, grow, and monetize.
The speaker lineup for 2023 includes:
- Soyong Kang – CMO – eos
- Bashel Lewis – Social Strategist – Nielsen
- Sarita Nauth – Producer, Social Media Strategist, Influencer – VH1
Check out Social Media Week by Adweek here.
Brand Reputation Summit | May 23-24 | New York, USA | $975
This event focuses on social media marketing from a different angle. The conference teaches you how to safeguard your brand (or your clients). You can expect leading brand and agency experts to share trends, emerging strategies, and best practices across all three areas of brand reputation management:
- Crisis Management – Be ready with the right preparedness strategy and response plan when a crisis pops up
- Brand Reputation – Build and maintain a reputation of trust among customers, employees, and partners
- Brand Safety – Prevent messages, marketing, and content from damaging the brand by embracing ongoing risk mitigation processes
If you want to learn how to protect your brand (or your clients), click here for more information.
Influencer Marketing Show | Jun. 20-21 | New York, USA | $395-$1095
At the Influencer Marketing Show, you’ll find brands looking to learn about working with creators and influencers. The content is programmed purely for brands and retailers. If you attend, expect to walk away with actionable insight to maneuver through the planning, execution, and measurement of smart influencer marketing campaigns.
For more info, take a look at their website. There will also be a sister event in London, England, on October 26, 2023.
Influencer Marketing World | Jun. 21-22 | London, UK | GBP 449-999
Influencer Marketing World is for brands looking to grow through influencer marketing partnerships. Learn how to connect and collaborate with influencers of all sizes and execute successful influencer marketing campaigns.
Co-located with the Digital Marketing World Forum (13th annual edition), you can hop back and forth between events to build your custom schedule. Tickets include access to both conferences.
Learn more about Influencer Marketing World here.
Digital Marketing Conference World Forum | Jun. 21-22 | London, UK | GBP 449-999
The DMWF brings together the worldwide digital marketing community to tackle the challenges of our digital future.
This forward-thinking two-day event will explore the latest trends & strategies within Digital Marketing and cover Digital Marketing Technologies, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Influencer Marketing, UX, CX, eCommerce, Content Marketing, Data, Analytics, and Mobile.
DMWF is co-located with the first-ever Influencer Marketing World event. Passes include access to both events.
Learn more about DMWF here.
ANA Digital & Social Media Conference | Jul. 17-19 | California, USA & Virtual | $899-$1699
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Digital & Social Media Conference covers the changing digital media landscape, including social media, viral videos, content, and much more. This digital marketing conference looks at social media marketing as a tool for advertising.
ANA DSMC provides excellent opportunities to connect personally and engage in meaningful dialogue with other marketing & advertising professionals.
Check out The Association of National Advertisers’ two other yearly events:
ANA Masters of Marketing | Oct. 24-27 | Florida, USA – (ANA’s flagship event)
ANA Master of B2B Marketing | Jun. 5-7 | Florida, USA
Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards | Jul. 25-26 | Atlanta, USA | Price TBA
This event is for independent shops with fewer than 150 full-time employees. The two-day conference will include workshops, case studies, and candid talks exploring how to excel at client work, build a profitable agency, and cultivate an environment your employees enjoy.
The conference ends with its annual award show recognizing small agencies that have shown resiliency and excelled. If your goal is to become a seven figure agency, this event will allow you to rub shoulders with top agencies you can learn from.
Learn more about Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards here.
INBOUND | Sep. 6-8 | Boston, USA | $675-$1899
INBOUND is the baby of HubSpot, one of the internets most respected sources of marketing information. Inbound is now easily one of the best digital marketing conferences worldwide. INBOUND focuses on growth and marketing technology innovations to improve marketing performance. This three-day marketing summit brings together thought leaders from marketing, sales, customer success, and revenue operations from over 161 countries.
Any marketing agency will walk away with tips to improve its marketing efforts and performance measurement.
New to 2023, select sessions will be live-streamed for free on HubSpot’s YouTube channel. You can also rewatch specific sessions on their YT channel after the event.
Find the full details on Inbound here.
Traffic & Conversion Summit | Sep. 12-14 | San Diego, USA | $895 – $1595 Early Bird
Traffic & Conversion Summit is three full days of actionable, proven, strategic content from experts (and a few celebrities) that have been in your shoes and have turned their businesses into massive success stories. T&C Summit offers field-tested, proven tactics to increase traffic, conversions, online advertising, and sales.
Traffic & Conversion Summit features seven learning tracks: Growth Hacking, Social & Influencer Marketing, Digital Advertising, Content & SEO, Future of Marketing, Emails & Automation, and ECommerce & DTC.
2022 Keynote speakers included Logan Paul, Lisa Vanderpump, Leila & Alex Hormozi and Jocko Willink. 2023 speakers TBA.
Save $400 with promo code SEEYOUNEXTYEAR while it lasts. Learn more about attending T&C Summit in person or virtually here.
Owner Camp | Sep. 24-28 | Montreal, Canada | $3600
If you consider yourself a creative who has wound up running a business, you should check out Owner Camp. Owner Camp is a series of moderated, candid conversations. They are open, honest, and frank – and everyone participates.
Owner Camp teaches vital business skills and allows you to meet and converse with other agency owners going through the same things. If you are looking for agency management tips, head to Montreal and join Owner Camp 2023.
Registration includes accommodation and group meals. Learn more here.
Content Marketing World | Sep. 26-29 | Washington DC, USA | $799-$2899
No matter what role you play, from CEO to content creator and everyone in between, you’ll find ideas, inspiration, and practical tips to apply to your work at the Content Marketing World conference.
Discover the unparalleled opportunity to gain knowledge from over 100 experienced speakers, engage with a dynamic community of marketers, and equip yourself with the necessary tools to propel your future endeavors at Content Marketing World (aka the Content Marketing World conference). Embark on a transformative journey in Washington, D.C., where three eventful days await, filled to the brim with fresh insights and boundless inspiration.
This long running even is now one of the most long-established agency conferences and is now celebrating its thirteenth year. Content Marketing World is carefully curated by the Content Marketing Institute, unites visionaries in marketing, accomplished content creators, skilled communication specialists, esteemed agencies, and innovative professionals hailing from various corners of the globe.
Content Marketing World is a 3-day event where you’ll learn:
-
How to design and document a content marketing strategy
-
How to deliver the content your audience expects in original ways
-
Why content creation is only a fraction of the puzzle and where you should focus most of your time
-
How to accurately measure your content’s ROI
-
How to prepare for the future of content marketing
Find out more about why you should head toContent Marketing World here.
DigiMarCon | Various Dates, Locations, and Prices
DigiMarCon is the world’s most extensive digital marketing, media, and advertising conference series. Attendees learn how to develop their audience and build traffic, create brand awareness, improve customer service, and develop better use of digital tools internally to drive better results.
DigiMarCon events are scheduled for 40 cities and 18 countries this year. Find out where you can catch an in-person or virtual event in 2023 here.
Digital Summit | USA, Various Dates & Locations | $895
Digital Summit is one of the leading marketing conference series in North America. In 2023, they are running eight events in the United States. Learn cutting-edge digital marketing tactics and strategies from leading industry experts.
Covered topics include SEO, Content, Email, Branding Data Analytics, Lead Gen, Social Media, and Emerging Tech.
Some of this year’s featured speakers include:
- Seth Godin – Best Selling Author
- Beverly Jackson – VP of Brand and Product Marketing, Zillow
- Tyria Saul – Product Marketing Manager, Google
Catch them in 2023 in these 8 US Cities:
Phoenix, AZ | Mar. 29-30
Washington, DC | Apr. 18-19
Atlanta, GA | June 15-16
Denver, CO | June 27-28
Minneapolis, MN | Aug. 16-17
Detroit, OH | Sep. 19-20
Philadelphia, PN | Oct. 16-17
Raleigh, NC | Nov. 13-14
Check out the full lineup to learn more here.
The Bottom Line
If you own or work at a creative agency, you have a ton of agency conferences to consider attending in 2023. Whether you want to make more money, attract and retain top talent, prepare for the future, or become the agency clients rave about, there’s a conference to help you achieve your goals.
Check out the links below to learn about specialized conferences in 2023 you might also enjoy attending.