Conferences, particularly IBM ones, are a good way to get access to many clients at once. Sometimes it’s just getting intros, brief conversations and future contacts, though that’s valuable too.
Most useful is to team with Offering Managers, Sales, etc to get input from clients on what they like about the product today and what they’d like to see. Designers bring rigor to these input exercises.
It is helpful to demo something new as an immediate value to users. I’ve found that clients appreciated knowing that you’ll take their (prioritized) input to help improve future versions. Though you really have to follow through and use that research to make the improvements! If clients give you their time and don’t see any changes, they’re not likely to keep providing input.