Top Events for Marketing Professionals You Don’t Want to Miss

21% of the average B2B marketing budgets are allocated to trade shows.

That’s a huge chunk of your marketing budget!

That means it’s even more important that you are choosing the right trade shows to attend/exhibit at.

If you have read my Supercharge Your Trade Show Marketing Tactics series, then you are familiar with the first step of the 5 step process: choose your trade show.

2018 is just around the corner and if you haven’t thought about what trade shows you are going to attend/exhibit at, now is the time!

We take a look at the top trade shows in the USA for marketing professionals based off of highly ranked websites on Google.

Let’s get started!

What’s a Top Trade Show?

How we rate a “top trade show” will be based on the highest ranked websites that offer top trending trade shows on Google, in “incognito”.

Basically, it’s Google’s idea of what the best trade show directory websites are.

For individual trade shows, we asked our Google+ community what you thought was most important of a trade show. Here are the results:

We understand the size of the expo floor and and overall feedback of the event is important, but not as important as show attendance and exhibitor participation.

We rank the top shows based off of:

1. Show attendance
2. Exhibitor participation
3. Overall Feedback
4. Square Footage of Expo

Every trade show will have a different goal and different target audience, so keep that in mind when thinking of what trade show is best for your company.

Although most of these events you will want to attend at the specific location, there are also a few events that are online!

It’s safe to say that these events cater to every budget.

Top Event Websites

It has to mean something if your website is ranked on the first page of Google’s search results.

Either you did something right, or you have a really awesome SEO guy making sure you are doing stuff right.

Either way, we salute you!

When I was searching for top events for this blog, I came across two websites multiple times for multiple industries.

This is important, as maybe you are looking for a different event in a different industry.

Let me tell you who they are and why I think they are trusted sources for planning out your exhibition / attendance plan for the following months.

Events in America

Well hello there, frequently visited website!

I am going to be honest with you and say that I have never heard of this website before.

However, this website came up four times for four industries in the top positions on a Google search!

This means something, people!

So, let’s give Events in America a look.

Overall, a simple website. Gives you a list of upcoming tradeshows, event highlights, venue insights (which I really like) and some advertising.

It’s a free website, but if you pay for a membership you will get perks like access to event contacts, be able to download / save event information, and may advertise your products and services.

Their list of upcoming trade shows isn’t so advanced. Looks like we have a choice of Health Care, Technology, Construction, Business, Education, and Agriculture.

I don’t see anything there about Real Estate, Technology, and/or Education.

Some of these are listed under “event industries” on their navigation bar, but not all of them.

But! They have this search bar in the middle of their homepage banner where we can type some industries in.

This is how we find our top trade shows!

And boy, do you find your top trade shows…

When searching “real estate”, there were 584 events found!

But wait, what is that? They also tell you how many were “past events” (479)!

This is super useful! We could either be looking at events for 2018 or events for the last few months of 2017.

• What I really like is that they give you so much information right there on the search results:
• Check boxes next to the events, so you can save them when you create an account
• City and state of the events
• Number of attendance for each show
• Dates of the events

Are you ready to know what my favorite part of this website is?

You can filter the search by the bullets listed above!

You can search for “real estate” and filter the results by “event name”, “location” , “attendance”, or “dates”.

What more could you need for in an event directory?

So, Events in America, simple yet well done. We will be talking about you later in this blog!

10times

My first question is: What does it mean?

The headliner on the website says “Find interesting trade shows & conferences to attend globally”.

So, that’s good. We’re at the right spot!

This website came up twice when searching for top trade shows in four different industries.

So, Google says it’s “A-Okay”.

Is anybody else still confused by the name?

Can’t find anything on their homepage. There is a small section at the footer that says “about us”.

Let’s give that a look!

Don’t see it, but they do call themselves a “freakishly amazing platform!”

Alright. I like it!

When coming across 10times’ homepage, we see featured events, popular cities, countries to browse, and collections (which I assume is how you can choose different industries).

If you scroll down more, you can see popular speakers, top networker, and top venues.

I really like the popular speakers to follow! There was a trade show just yesterday that I was going to attend just because I liked the presenters!

Just like most websites, their search bar on the homepage proves to be effective!

I searched “real estate” and used their navigation bar to the left of the webpage to zone in on USA events.

They have 164 upcoming events, and there is a way to filter it by next month, October, November, etc.

• This is what shows up on their search results:
• Date of the event and if it’s ongoing, ending today, etc.
• Name of the event
• City of location
• Popular speakers (yay!)
• And how many people are “following” the event

I find this website to be a bit more “busy” than the Events in America website, but I like how they have the popular speakers there. Something that Events in America doesn’t list.

Overall, a good website. Also handy if you are looking for global events!

The Good Stuff- Top Trade Shows in the USA

Now that we’ve explored our sources, let’s go shopping for the top trade shows in the USA!

Again, we will first look at the number 1 important aspect that the majority of you look for in a trade show: show attendance!

Then we will look at exhibitor participation, overall feedback of the expo, and size of the expo.

And remember, that for every company, goals of the trade show will be different.

Top Trade Show for Marketers

Along with what our two websites are mentioning as the top events for marketers, I am also going to throw in my two-cents!

I myself, am in marketing, and although I haven’t attended this event yet, it’s always been on my list of events to attend ever since I started social media marketing!

So, maybe not next year, maybe not the year after, but one of these years I will attend the Social Media Marketing World.

Social Media Marketing World

Okay, so maybe I’m a little biased because I LOVE social media marketing, but it still is a very large, very relevant event to attend for all marketing professionals.

Although a large amount of the event’s focus is on social media, they also discuss blogging, vlogging, and podcasts!

If I remember my studies correctly, those all have a large part to do with marketing in general!

With the event having over 5,000 attendees, it is one of the largest events purely focused for marketing professionals.

As this is a conference, the exhibitor participation here is not so relevant, but the networking events are!

They have a Networking Plaza, Networking Embassy, and Networking Ambassadors all to make sure you meet and connect with the right marketers!

I can see this event being a great place to find the right marketing influencers, learn trends and updates in the social media marketing world, and connect with leaders all in the industry.

Recent feedback from the event was:

“This was honestly the best conference I’ve attended in my professional life,” said attendee Laura Kaslow.

And since you all know that I love presenters, some of the most famous social media marketing leaders will be presenting at this event, such as:

• Guy Kawasaki
• Michael Stelzner
• Mari Smith
• Jay Baer

With it being at the San Diego Convention Center, the square footage of the halls would sure be big enough to accommodate many attendees!

It is an event not to miss, for sure!

CMWorld 2017- Content Marketing World

Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry.

This is a global event that takes place in Cleveland, Ohio with around 4,000 attendees!

It is the ideal event for marketing professionals.

It has over 80 sessions and workshops presented by the leading brand marketers from around the world covering strategy, integration, measurement, and new ideas.

This is a great event to network with global leaders in your industry and to learn what is happening in the world.

Some of the presenters will include:

• Linda Boff
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Casey Neistat

If the presenters, sessions, and workshops aren’t enough to dazzle you, what about a party?

They host a CMWorld Retro Dance Party on the Wednesday of the event!

You gotta love a good party!

Have some fun, network, learn, and party at Content Marketing World!

2017 SAAC Convention & Expo- Specialty Advertising Association of California

You know what’s great about this event? We will be there!

But you should know, this event is only open to Members of SAAC, PPAI, SAGE or Distributors of promotional products. It’s closed to the general public and end-users.

This is a great event if you are in our industry!

SAAC has about 2,000 attendees and Paul Bellantone, PPAI President and CEO, will host a special keynote!

If you are going, let us know! We’ll make sure to meet with you there.

Digital Summit

The Digital Summit hosts the latest tips, strategies, and best practices on Content, Social, UX & Design, Email, Mobile, Video, SEO, and more!

Everything in one event, it’s every marketer’s dream!

This event is a little smaller, with 1,000 attendees, and located in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle. Keep in mind the number of attendees may change with the location.

If you’re looking for some awesome presentations and speakers, this is the event you will want to attend with over 40 sessions and topics!

And if you’re in marketing, these names should definitely ring a bell:

• Seth Godin
• Mark Cuban
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Ann Handley

I am sold just on this list of presenters!

The Digital Summit would be a great event to boost up your marketing knowledge and learn about from some of the best marketing professionals out there. Sign me up!

Online Events

If your marketing budget doesn’t include flights, hotels, and transportation for events, then perhaps an online event is the right event for you!

With technology at our fingertips everyday, this could be the best, most cost-effective way of learning new things in the marketing world.

As it’s online, there will be a few factors that we won’t be able to count anymore: amount of attendees, exhibitor participation, and square footage of the expo. But, this is okay!

You would think that networking at these events would be impossible, but there may be forums for these events where you can still connect with your industry.

LinkedIn and Content Marketing

Well, this is pretty specific as far as marketing goes.

But, if you aren’t on LinkedIn and you are a marketing professional, that is your first mistake!

LinkedIn is one of the best professional social media platforms and it’s highly relevant for B2B companies.

So, before you turn it down because it’s not detailed about SEO or email marketing, let’s take a closer look!

Richard Mills will lead this online event and discusses content creation in general, how to reach certain target audiences, social media marketing and much more!

He doesn’t discuss only LinkedIn marketing, but also Facebook, Twitter, and more social media platforms.

This would be a great event to increase your knowledge on social media marketing and how to create awesome content!

And let’s be honest, how to create awesome content should be part of everyone’s marketing career!

Improving Your Internet Search Results

I will give you three guesses what this event is about, but I think you will only need one!

This has to do with what I was talking about earlier- the mighty power of a Google search.

When the general public searches for a topic that your company can work with, you want your company to be listed on the first page of the search results.

In a study by Google most users found what they were looking for among the first two results and they never needed to go further down the page.

So the need to be on the first page of Google’s search results, and even in the first two listed results, is super important.

There is no quick way to do this, which is why this event will help. Only learning what you need to do with your website will improve your Google reputation.

Some areas that they will cover are:

• Most common search engine mistakes and how you can avoid them
• Adding punctuation to improve your search results
• What are the differences between surface web, the dark web and the deep web

Joe Rosner will lead this 60 minute event!

Yes, I know. Shortest event, ever!

But I’m sure every minute will be worth your time.

Attend this event if you are looking to broadening your marketing skills and diving deep into SEO!

What events are you going to attend?

So I have listed some top events from trade show and event websites that are highly ranked on Google search results!

I am betting that some of these you have never heard of, as I came across the same while writing this blog.

This is a good thing! I am hoping that exposing some of these events will give us something new to look into.

It doesn’t mean that these events are more important to attend than the ones you are already attending.

Every company has their own event goals that they want to get out of a certain show.

I am sure I have missed some very important marketing conferences, exhibitions, conventions that you love to attend.

Tell me, what are your favorite marketing events?