11 Conferences Every Entrepreneur Should Attend in 2020
One of the best ways to boost your status as an entrepreneur is to go to the right entrepreneur conference. Conferences not only allow you to get insight from some of the field’s biggest names, they also afford you the opportunity to connect with people in the same boat as you. No one succeeds in business alone, and conferences are a great way to make valuable connections.
Over the past 10 years I’ve attended thousands of conferences. At one point, would sometimes attend three to four conferences a week. That all changed when I had my daughter. I then had less time to travel. It changed even more when my team started to grow from a two- or three-person team to a multi-company team with hundreds of different employees. I could no longer take off so many days to attend all these conferences. I had to whittle them down to the best conferences that drove the most amount of revenue. I wanted to limit myself to 12-18 conferences that really moved my bottom line.
Here are the top conferences every entrepreneur should attend in 2020 that will actually move their bottom line:
1. Startup Grind
February 11-12; Silicon Valley
Startup Grind’s annual global conference dedicates two days to relentless innovation and learning Date and location TBA
Mastermind Talks is an invitation-only event that is exactly what it sounds like: a venue for some of the world’s most dynamic innovators to share their insights. Just because the speakers are notable, however, doesn’t mean the conference has lost sight of its attendees — the intimate and congenial nature of Mastermind Talks ensures that downtime is minimal and networking opportunities plentiful.
3. EY Strategic Growth Forum
Date and location TBA
EY’s CEO-focused event may be invitation-only, but the Strategic Growth Forum hasn’t lost its forward-thinking mindset in the years since its founding. 2019’s speakers included Lindsey Vonn, Alex Morgan and Nicole Kidman — and 2020’s lineup is likely to be just as impressive. Each forum concludes with the awarding of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a fantastic ceremony that should inspire any attendee to keep pushing in the coming year.
4. The Montgomery Summit
March 4-5; Santa Monica, CA
The Montgomery Summit is an opportunity for cutting-edge leaders to connect and share insights they’ve gleaned from the front line of business. Attendance is offered date and location TBA
Possibly the business world’s flashiest conference, Worldz is an annual event focused on blurring the lines between innovation, recreation, and connection. By featuring speakers that run the gamut from Jonah Peretti to Shaquille O’Neal, Worldz guarantees that every attendee has the opportunity to hear from someone they can learn from. With its 2019 iteration featuring a complete transformation of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, Worldz 2020 is bound to leave a lasting impression.
6. FinCon
September 30-October 3; Long Beach, CA
Designed as a conference and community, FinCon brings together financial influencers, decision makers and brands. Throughout the conference and beyond, this community collaborates on the best methods to generate and share content that audiences can use to create financial freedom. FinCon has become the largest financial content conference in the world, drawing podcasters, influencers, bloggers, and financial experts to share their knowledge and exchange ideas. The conference agenda grows every year with additional panels, workshops and networking events.
7. OPLZA
Date and location TBA
Ontraport has become nearly ubiquitous in the business world, and OPLZA is the perfect opportunity to master your skills with the software. Tech isn’t the conference’s only focus, though — OPLZA is also an opportunity to get away and use the Ontraport platform as a way to think about how you can grow and evolve your business going forward.
8. BaEvents throughout the year in Mexico, Utah, Italy, and New Orleans
BaDate and location TBA
Deloitte’s Entrepreneur Summit is a unique, networking-focused event open to all entrepreneurs. Though the summit covers all bases of entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions (MA) is a particular focus of the event — making it a must-attend for anyone working in MA. Deloitte collects yearly, detailed conference feedback from its partner and attendees, ensuring that 2020’s event will be even more impactful than 2019’s.
10. SaaStr
March 10-12; San Jose, CA
SaaStr is for those founders, executives and investors involved in SaaS and the business cloud environment. This annual non-vendor SaaS conference provides three days of panel discussions, sessions, small group meetings, one-on-one mentoring sessions, networking and parties. As part of the three-day event, one entire day is devoted to pitches from venture capitalists. SaaStr is strictly about learning, business and professional development, and collaboration. Featured speakers include leaders of Airtable, Box, Github, Google Cloud, Zoom and more.
11. Financial Freedom Summit
May 1-3; St. Louis, MO
Every entrepreneur, regardless of their field or status, wants to achieve financial freedom at some point, and FinCon’s Financial Freedom Summit is geared towards giving you the tools you need to get there. Focusing on both business and personal finance, the event is designed to help everyone move to the next level of fiscal independence, regardless of where they’re at in their journey.
Entrepreneurs face new hurdles every day — ones that aren’t always easy to prepare for. By learning from the best and connecting with other leaders in your field, you can safeguard against what’s to come — and give your business a boost along the way.