You may be wondering whether you can justify the cost, the time away from work and the travel necessary to attend professional conferences. After all, we can easily stay in touch with people in our industries online. We collaborate and interact via social media and forums where we share ideas and learn from others, so why should we consider attending conferences?
Conferences and trade shows can be enormously beneficial for a number of reasons. Not least, simply stepping away from your desk and computer screen can help refresh your enthusiasm and interest in your work and industry. Meeting people you have interacted with online can be an enormous pleasure and lots of fun. You will gain some insight into who they are and their personalities which will help in future communications with them.
Conference presentations from engaging speakers on trends in your industry are a great way to learn, providing potentially valuable industry insight. In the customer success and customer experience arenas there is a constant flow of new platforms, tools and software products from numerous vendors and conferences give you the opportunity to meet them, check out their tools and services and speak to others who are using them.
And let’s not forget one of the most important aspects of professional conferences is the opportunity to socialise and have fun with others who do what you do and understand the challenges that you face on a daily basis. Many valuable connections and friendships have been made through socialising at conferences.
North America
MarTech San Jose California
Date: April 3rd – 5th 2019
Location: San Jose, CA
Since we are all increasingly relying on technology to support our customer success strategies and evaluate customer experience it makes sense to keep up with developments. MarTech conferences in both San Jose and Boston (later in the year) are focused on these valuable technologies. Speakers and sessions very much focus on the technical aspects of customer experience management. If you need to learn about tools, systems and processes that can help in your CX work then this is an essential conference to attend.
Customer SuccessCon
Date: April 8th 2019
Location: Boston, MA
This valuable conference is held in a number of locations: Boston, Denver, London, Seattle and Berkeley. At this conference you will learn how to work with your customers to develop opportunities and increase both productivity and profitability. You can learn how to charge your customers for your customer success services and find out how much it costs to setup a customer success team.
Pulse
Date: May 21st – 24th 2019
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Pulse is described as the biggest Customer Success learning and networking conference in the world. If you are able to attend just one conference this year then this is the one to choose. You can guarantee that you will leave with many great ideas and practical strategies that you will immediately want to make use of. The Pulse Academy is where both beginners and seasoned professionals can hone their skills and knowledge. And the legendary Pulse after-parties provide a great, informal atmosphere in which to make new friends and have fun.
Incite Customer Service Summit
Date: June 3rd – 4th 2019
Location: San Diego, CA
The 2019 Incite Customer Service Summit aims to provide industry leaders with the tools and strategies they need to promote customer service and exceed customer expectations. At this conference you will learn how to make use of new technologies to develop winning CX strategies. The 2019 line up of speakers includes senior executives from Amazon, Uber, Samsung, Starbucks and other well know, big brands.
CX NYC 2019
Date: June 11th – 12th 2019
Location: New York Hilton Midtown, New York
The Forrester CXNYC June event in New York promises to be inspiring and highly educational. With over 30 sessions from industry experts and Forrester analysts along with over 1300 leaders and influencers in customer experience, marketing, business, strategy and much more – this conference is a great opportunity to make valuable new connections and prepare yourself and your business for an uncertain future.
Customer Thermometer will have a booth at this show in New York – be sure to come along and see us!
Inbound
Date: September 3rd – 6th 2019
Location: Boston, MA
The Inbound conference is notable for the quality and authority of their speakers. Previously these have included Michelle Obama, Deepak Chopra, Beth Comstock and Shonda Rhimes. This is another 4 day conference which provides plenty of time to fully immerse yourself in the sessions and learning opportunities.
Digital Customer Experience Strategies Summit
Date: September 19th – 20th 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
2019 Will see the 5th annual Digital Customer Experience Strategies Summit in Chicago. This 2 day event is designed specifically for digital customer experience (DCX) practitioners with presentations from the top industry professionals. They say that this is the only event that brings together the latest trends in digital customer experience into a single summit. You will learn about the way the industry is developing so that you can remain at the forefront and take full advantage of emerging technologies.
Europe
Support Driven Expo: Europe
Date: April 1st – 2nd 2019
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
This conference brings together the SupportDriven community from Europe and beyond. This 2019 conference promises presentations from some of the best customer support professionals in the industry. It’s a multi-track event that you can tailor for your interests and needs. There are talks and workshops that will enable you to learn new skills and plenty of opportunities to share tips and tricks with other customer support professionals.
CX Marketing Summit 2019
Date: June 13th 2019
Location: London, UK
This is the 2nd annual event, following on from a very successful conference held in 2018. It promises to get right into the detail of the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing the digital marketing community. It provides the opportunity for CX professionals to gain insight into the latest tools, strategies and emerging techniques.
Customer Success Clinic
Date: 18th April 2019
Location: Bussum, Netherlands
The Customer Success Clinic event in Holland offers various sessions in which you can gain insight into current best practices, trends and how to optimise customer experience in your organisation. This event, organized by CraniumConnect, is run over just one day so its ideal for those who don’t have much time to spare.
Customer Contact Week Europe
Date: 9th – 12th September 2019.
Location: Amsterdam
The 3rd edition of European Customer Contact Week in September 2019 promises to blend new ideas and approaches with tried and tested fundamentals to provide true, future-proof strategies and actionable tactics. CCW Europe 2019 is where best practices for people, technology and processes come together to deliver world class service.
Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania
Customer Success Conference Israel
Date: April 1st – 2nd 2019
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel.
This conference from the Customer Success Association is heralded as “the first conference fully dedicated to the international and Israeli Customer Success scene.” The main objective of this conference is to provide attendees with practical tools and techniques for them to take away. It will cover local and international trends in Customer Success along with useful industry insights.
Forrester CX Singapore 2019
Date: August 28th 2019
Location: Singapore
This one day conference is promoting the need for an aggressive push for radical change in CX. It is suggested that CX performance has plateaued and disruptive innovation is needed to move things forward.
CEM Africa
Date: July 31st – August 1st 2019
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
The aim of the latest 2019 CEM Africa conference is to align African Customer Experience with global best practices. In order to ensure that time at the conference is well spent only practical examples and case studies are featured in workshop content. CEM Africa is where innovative CX solution providers can meet CX professionals, share ideas, solutions and valuable, practical strategies.
12th Annual Customer Experience Management Sydney
Date: May 27th – 28th 2019
Location: Sydney Australia
This event is described as the number 1 customer experience event in Australia and New Zealand. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet CX experts from various industries and brands including Accor Hotels, Australian Broadcasting Coorporation, Kiwibank and many more. The event promises to showcase the latest CX technological innovations as well as providing actionable strategies and techniques.
