But sometimes, it’s a great idea to leave the desk and socialize with other human beings—ideally on your employer’s dime 😉
Conferences are a great excuse to hang out with other content marketers, talk shop, learn some new tricks, and learn how to do less work today with generative AI.
Without further ado, here are the biggest and best content marketing conferences happening throughout 2026.
| Conference | When | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Content Jam | April 22-23 | Chicago, USA |
| CopyCon | April 24 | Online |
| Social Media Marketing World | April 28-30 | Anaheim, USA |
| Ahrefs Evolve Singapore ⭐ | May 14 | Singapore |
| VidCon | June 25-27 | Anaheim, USA |
| Creator Economy Live East | July 28-29 | New York City, USA |
| Podcast Movement | September (dates TBA) | New York City, USA |
| INBOUND | September 16-18 | Boston, USA |
| STORY | October 1-2 | Nashville, USA |
| Content Marketing World | October 5-7 | Denver, USA |
| Ahrefs Evolve San Diego ⭐ | October 12-13 | San Diego, USA |
| LavaCon | October 25-28 | Charlotte, USA |
Date: April 22-23
Location: Chicago, USA
Ticket Prices: From $395
Website: https://www.contentjam.com/
Notable Speakers: Andy Crestodina (Orbit Media), Talia Wolf (Getuplift), Liza Adams (GrowthPath Partners), Pam Didner (B2B Marketing), Karine Abbou (GEO Architect)
Andy Crestodina created Content Jam because he was tired of conferences where you couldn’t get near the speakers. Here, the speaker-to-attendee ratio is deliberately small—you’re having dinner conversations with people whose blogs you’ve been reading for years.
Day 1 is the AI Search Masterclass, where you’ll actually learn how to optimize for the way people are searching now (not three years ago). Day 2 is the main conference, packed with tactical sessions that assume you’re not a beginner.
And the afterparty? People fly in from other continents for this two-day event. That should tell you something.
Date: April 24
Location: Online
Ticket Prices: From £149
Website: https://www.copywritingconference.com/
Notable Speakers: Kristy Martino, Harriet Meyer, Lauren Pope, David McGuire
The copywriting conference goes fully virtual for 2026 with a provocative theme: “AI vs Humanity.” ProCopywriters brings together commercial writers to tackle the big questions: how do we stay relevant? How do we use AI without losing our souls?
CPD-certified sessions mean it counts toward professional development. Early bird ends February 28, and Pro members save even more.
Date: April 28–30
Location: Anaheim, USA
Ticket Prices: From $1,447
Website: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/
Notable Speakers: Michael Stelzner, Shannon McKinstrie, Dr. Nici Sweaney, Pat Flynn
Social Media Examiner has spent 13 years perfecting this conference, and it shows. They take their “100% pitch-free guarantee” seriously and enforce it ruthlessly. Every speaker is there to teach, not to sell.
The new Anaheim venue gives them more space for AI Business World, which is essentially a second conference included in your ticket. With 1,900+ attendees, it’s big enough to have incredible speakers and diverse perspectives, but small enough that you’ll keep running into the same people and building real relationships.
The virtual pass gives you 18 months of recording access, so if you can’t make it in person, you’re still getting massive value.
Date: May 14
Location: Singapore
Ticket Prices: From $339
Website: https://ahrefsevolve.com/singapore/
Notable Speakers: Tim Soulo (Ahrefs), Sasha Gusain (Canva), Dan Petrovic (DEJAN), James Norquay (Prosperity Media), Charlotte Ang (TrafficBees)
We’re bringing Evolve to Singapore for one incredible day of SEO deep-dives. If you’re in the APAC region and want to connect with the Ahrefs team in person, this is your chance. Our CMO Tim Soulo will be there, along with some of the brightest minds in regional SEO.
What makes Evolve different? We obsess over the details: the speaker lineup, the venue, the flow of the day, even the coffee. It’s intimate by design (we want actual conversations, not just name tags passing by), and every session is built around one question: what will help you rank better tomorrow?
Whether you’re running an agency, building a startup, or leading content strategy in-house, you’ll leave with tactics you can implement immediately, and probably a few new friends who speak your language.
Date: June 25–27
Location: Anaheim, USA
Ticket Prices: From $159
Website: https://www.vidcon.com/anaheim/
Notable Speakers: Jasmin & James, Anthpo, Emmy Combs, MeganPlays, DangMattSmith, Brave Wilderness, Law By Mike
Fifteen years in, VidCon is still the place where the creator economy makes sense. Three separate experiences run simultaneously: Community (for fans who want to meet their favorite creators), Creator (for people building channels and learning the craft), and Pro/Industry (for brands, agencies, and platforms figuring out creator partnerships).
If you’re on the business side, the Pro Pass is where deals actually happen: pre-qualified 1:1 meetings, think tanks with platform reps, and case studies from brands who’ve cracked the creator code. New for 2026: expanded Gaming Zone, Sports Court, and a Live Podcast Studio, because the lines between content types keep blurring.
The featured creator list keeps growing (Jasmin & James, Anthpo, MeganPlays, Brave Wilderness), but this isn’t just about autographs; it’s about understanding where digital content is heading.
Date: July 28-29
Location: New York City, USA
Ticket Prices: TBA
Website: https://creatoreconomylive.com/
Notable Speakers: TBA
Filling the void left by Creator Economy Expo, this event brings 50+ speakers from Disney, SHEIN, OLAPLEX, and FOX Entertainment to talk real creator business. The NYC edition follows the same model as Vegas and Manchester: free passes for the first 500 brand attendees. If you’re a brand trying to crack the creator economy code, this is where you start.
Date: September (exact dates TBA)
Location: New York City, USA
Ticket Prices: TBA
Website: https://podcastmovement.com/
Notable Speakers: TBA
This is THE annual gathering where the podcast industry comes together. This isn’t amateur hour; you’re learning from people running shows with millions of downloads, networks with dozens of shows, and monetization strategies that actually work.
Whether you’re trying to figure out dynamic ad insertion, build a Patreon strategy, or just get your first 100 subscribers, there’s a track for you.
Four days lets you go deep, make real connections, and actually implement what you’re learning between sessions. The hallway conversations alone are worth the trip.
Date: September 16–18
Location: Boston, USA
Ticket Prices: From $1,199
Website: https://www.inbound.com/
Notable Speakers: TBA
INBOUND is coming home to Boston where it all started in 2011, and you can feel the energy in how they’re planning 2026.
Eleven stages, 200+ speakers, people from 150+ countries, and that unmistakable HubSpot energy that makes you actually excited about Monday morning. The size could be overwhelming, but they’ve perfected the logistics over 15 years.
You’ll ping-pong between tactical sessions on AI agents and marketing automation, inspirational keynotes that remind you why you got into this industry, and hallway conversations that turn into real partnerships.
Date: October 1–2
Location: Nashville, USA
Ticket Prices: From $797
Website: https://istoria.com/story/
Notable Speakers: TBA
If you’re tired of tactical marketing conferences and want to connect with your why, STORY is calling your name. This Nashville gathering brings together purpose-driven creators and leaders who believe stories shape culture. It’s part conference, part revival meeting, part creative retreat.
Come to remember why you got into this game in the first place.
Date: October 5–7
Location: Denver, USA
Ticket Prices: From $1,349
Website: https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/
Notable Speakers: TBA
Content Marketing Institute’s flagship event is moving to Denver, and this marks a new chapter for the industry’s defining conference. 3,400+ content marketers from 50+ countries, 100+ speakers, 120+ sessions.
Yes, the scale is massive, but somehow CMI makes it feel accessible. You’ll see old friends, make new ones, and leave with a notebook full of ideas that’ll shape your strategy for the next year.
Date: October 12-13
Location: San Diego, USA
Ticket Prices: From $899
Website: https://ahrefsevolve.com/
Notable Speakers: TBA
Look, we could fill a conference center with 5,000 people. We don’t. Evolve is intentionally kept at 500 attendees because we believe the magic happens in smaller rooms where you can actually hear the speaker breathe, where you ask a question and get a real answer, where you grab coffee with Lily Ray or Cyrus Shepard and talk shop for 20 minutes.
We spend months curating the speaker lineup—actual practitioners sharing what’s working right now in the trenches. The production quality? Yeah, we’re a bit extra about that. We care about this stuff because we want you leaving inspired, not exhausted.
Date: October 25-28
Location: Charlotte, USA
Ticket Prices: From $2,450
Website: https://www.lavacon.org/
Notable Speakers: Keith Boyd (Microsoft), Maria Romanovsky (TikTok), Jessica Reed (Adobe), Erik Bremer (Dell), Karen Brothers (3M), Amber Craig (Salesforce)
LavaCon is 24 years old and still the enterprise content strategy conference. Yes, there are comfort llamas. Yes, it’s playful. But don’t mistake fun for fluff; these are serious content ops pros from Microsoft, Adobe, LinkedIn, and AWS talking about how to actually implement AI without destroying your content team.
The 2026 theme says it all: “Beyond Proof of Concept.” BOGO registration ends March 1, so grab a colleague!
Final thoughts
I’ve focused this list solely on in-person, content-specific conferences, but there are a ton of content-adjacent (and even online events) happening throughout the year. For example, MarketingProfs’ B2B Forum will be held in Boston, USA from November 2-4.
Heading to a content conference that I haven’t covered? Share your recommendation with me on LinkedIn.
