My top 5 of the best worldwide tech&marketing conferences
Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to attend a bunch of festivals and tech events on both sides of the Atlantic. I’ve experienced so many formats, such as big light & sound shows, festivals, trade shows, ski retreats and even a business conference designed by Cirque du Soleil. It’s wonderful how creative this space can be!
I’ve been not only to big, broad tech events but also to very “niche” conferences. For instance, did you know there is a conference for people who develop games on Facebook? Even more surprising, that it still exists? I’ve also attended “vendor conferences” featuring costly big-name speakers and carrying fancy names, like “Supernova” for Quantcast, “Connect” for Teradata, or “The Summit” for Adobe. I’ve also ended up in very technical conferences, where I sometimes found myself out of place. Back in the days, it was about things like SEO or programmatic; now it’s all about AI, blockchain or deep learning.
As I share all of those experiences on La Lettre de Petit Web, and also by speaking about them at internal events for our clients, I’m more and more frequently asked questions like: “What event should I attend?”, “Is this conference really worth it?” And of course, the classic “What is the next SXSW?”…
Some events I’d have recommended unconditionally in the past are now defunct (RIP LeWeb, you’ll always be the best for me) or have lost what made them so special (hello Web Summit…).
Fortunately, many of them manage to stay consistent in the value they provide to their ecosystem.
From Amsterdam to Austin, Paris, Cannes or Helsinki, here are my absolute best 5 events to attend, at least once in your lifetime, if you’re working in anything related to marketing, tech, entrepreneurship and so on.
Precision: when I say “best,” I mean in terms of content, but also networking opportunities and general experience.
1. SXSW, Austin, Texas
This is by far my number one event: I’ve been there for the past 7 years. Sure, it’s nothing like in the “good old days,” when Twitter, but also Tinder, Foursquare or Meerkat (Facebook Live’s ancestor) emerged there, taking advantage of this incredible gathering of tens of thousands of tech enthusiasts and early-adopters to launch.
Since then, SXSW has turned into a pop-culture event, where the music, video and digital industries are literally mixing up. You can see by yourself the battle of the content kings to get your attention, everywhere in the city. While in events like CES, you look at the products that will be on the shelves in a short period of time, the innovations you get to see in Austin are much more forward-looking and serve as a starting point for a reflection on the impact of tech in our daily lives.
Plus, for us European, it’s a great opportunity to get, in just a few days, a “shot” of innovation and an update on everything that is buzzing not only on the West but also, the East coast. Whether it is a cool new “digital native” brand, a new TV show made by Amazon or Netflix, or an upcoming tech trend. For instance, that’s where I experienced first VR with Oculus Rift, just a few weeks before the company got acquired by Facebook, back in 2014. At that time, I’d never heard of them. And it’s been the same for things as diverse as The Handmade Tales, Frank & Oak, Away, Casper, Miyubi, Bark& co or Levi’s connected jacket, to name a few of my discoveries from the past years.
It’s always tricky to pick the right option between the hundreds of panels, workshops, meetup, keynotes or demos that happen all over the city. So plan a lot. But be open and don’t hesitate to change your plan on the spot. Talk to people while lining up for a conference. And go out: parties (even those hosted by porn/VR startups), pool-side brunches and meetups are a great way to create random connections.
2. Slush, Helsinki, Finland
“Nobody in their right mind would come to Helsinki in November, except you, badass”: that’s how Slush welcomes. For sure, the end of November is the worst time to go to Finland, since the night starts at 3 pm. Anyway, every year, more and more people come to see by themselves what this Finnish event is. Last year, for instance, a full flight had been set up by Finnair to connect Silicon Valley to Helsinki.
The most surprising thing (apart from how committed the 2500+ young volunteers doing the organization are) is the setting of the space. Imagine a big warehouse in the dark (you even have an app to geo-localize and guide you), with 5 huge scenes, with fire and steam, or made with tens of thousands of cobblestones. The last evening, all of this is turned into a big party space.
The content is excellent and diverse, from agritech to sextech or foodtech. The speakers — entrepreneurs, VCs or crowned heads — talk sincerely, focusing on giving valuable advice to the audience. Even more valuable is the ecosystem that Slush has created over the years. It’s truly an international event, with startups coming from Africa, Russia or Asia. The topics covered are wide. For instance, in 2016, a French startup won the pitch session: Cybel Angel, in the field of cyber-security. Two other French startups got selected in the Top100: Woodoo, in the construction industry, and V-Cult, a VR-company. You can’t be more diverse.
3. Cannes Lions, Cannes, France
It’s in France, oui, but it’s the most American event you’ll find. It’s even more significant than the film festival in terms of revenues for the city (it’s not a surprise, the advertising industry is richer than the movie industry). What was once the “festival international du film publicitaire” perfectly managed its pivot to a “the festival of creativity”, gathering the ad executives of the world, but also tech, media and content guys (and girls).
Last years’ line-up of speakers includes Kim Kardashian, Christine Lagarde, Dita Von Teese, Halle Berry, Lang Lang. what an extensive understanding of “creativity”! Sadly, most of the “big name” only serve as faire-valoir to the media, adtech or advertising company that invited them to share the scene with them. Sometimes, you could get great surprises, with less-known speakers. Don’t even count on the daily award ceremonies to get your shot of creativity. It’s an endless succession of statuettes’ distribution, and most of the cases featured are reduced to a few seconds. To really see the best of creativity, you should head to the basement of the Palais, where all the cases that made it to the shortlists are showcased.
So, why is Cannes Lions #3 in my list? Because most of the show is outside the Palais des Festivals, on yachts, beaches, villa and hotels suites, where Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify and any company related to advertising try to emerge and demonstrate their strength on the market. They throw parties (where it’s more or less easy to get invited, depending on the ‘hype’ surrounding the host), run their own panels and keynotes, and above all, multiple business meetings. For instance, the Google Beach is open to every attendee of the festival: between a drink and a swim, you can hear great talks. What’s best than combining the charms of the French Riviera with inspiration and business?
Will the event last, as several advertising networks are starting to phase out involvement in Cannes? My bet is definitely “yes!”. The new players of the advertising world are coming. Amazon, Alibaba, and Accenture have already started to invest in the event, giving it an even wider spectrum. As we say in France, “la nature a horreur du vide”.
4. TNW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
If you’re lucky enough to get to Amsterdam for TNW, you’ll sure notice a difference from the regular conferences, in terms of content quality. Most of the speakers (even the big names) are providing interesting and insightful talks; they are not just used as a tool to sell more tickets. The reason: TNW is organized by a media company, The Next Web, which definitely knows about good content.
In 2017, for instance, they had great talks from Ryan Hoover (Product Hunt), Nir Eyal (Hooked), Emily Weiss (Glossier), Piera Gelardi (Refinery29), James Williams (Time Well Spent), and Chase Jarvis (CreativeLive) to name only a few. The good news: all the talks are now online, available for catch up on The Next Web Youtube channel.
Another great format I’ve only seen at TNW (so far… Web Summit tried to copy it, but never managed to get it), is intimate “afterworks”, where you get the chance to have a drink with one of the speakers, with 10 other attendees. I experienced it with Mike Quiqley, the CMO of Niantic Inc., the maker of Pokemon Go. It was even better than I expected since Mike was very willing to share figures and his insights as the marketer of one of the fastest worldwide success of the recent years. As a journalist, I can have access to this kind of high-profile individuals, but what was particular this time was his openness — everything was “off the records”: it’s great that anyone participating at the event gets this chance.
Also, the festival is designed like an open-air festival, with tents, food trucks and beer gardens, to maximize networking. This is a good idea when the weather is nice, but otherwise, like in 2017, it gets muddy and cold. Also, for the last edition, the organizers seemed to have been victims of their own success, with people lining up to get their badges or to save a seat into way too small conference rooms.
For sure, they’ve learned the lesson, and has started taking actions for their next edition, like establishing an attendee cap of 15,000 participants, or selling “priority access” passes. For some, it’s bad news. But it’s also the only way to keep being “the most intimate tech conference on the planet” that TNW claims to be.
5. Vivatechnology, Paris, France
Following LeWeb’s end, Paris was missing a big tech event with a worldwide appeal… and here comes VivaTechnology, or, in short, Vivatech, backed by Les Echos (luxury giant LVMH’s media division) and Publicis. For three days, people from the US, Europe, and China — but to be honest, mostly from France — gather in Paris to discuss innovation. It’s also a fantastic opportunity for French corporate companies, from AirFrance to AXA, Carrefour or Sanofi to demonstrate their innovation power, along with Facebook, Google or Alibaba…with one particularity: on each of their exhibition spaces, each big CAC40 company hosts a pool of startups they collaborate (or sometimes not) with.
For the detractors of the event, it is the perfect illustration of how dependent the French startup scene is on big companies. It can also be seen as an opportunity for aging industrial giants to practice a gigantic PR “startup-washing” campaign. Spending money in that kind of costly demonstration rather than actively investing in their transformation, as the average CAC40 company is more than a hundred years old.
BUT for the 6,000 startups involved in the event, it is a unique opportunity to get exposure, for free. In a few days, they can create valuable connections with investors, corporate clients, and even the general public, since the last day is open to anyone, not just professionals. And for the 60,000+ attendees, it’s a great way to “touch” innovation, from connected cars to drones or AI-powered tools. Even my own mother wished to go to Vivatech. Maybe next year?
Those five events are quite generalist and appeal to a diverse and curious-minded crowd. Depending on your topic of interest, you’ll find, of course, the more relevant place for networking, doing business or get insights.
For instance, if your focus is the French market and you work in e-commerce, there is no doubt you should go to E-Commerce One-to-One in Monaco. Same for Data Marketing with iMedia Brand Summit in Biarritz. And in Advertising and Communication, pick one between Cristal Festival in Courchevel or Les Napoléons in Arles or Val d’Isère, depending on how deep your company’s pockets are.
If you want more international events, go to DMexco in Cologne for AdTech, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for anything related to mobile and telcos, CES in Las Vegas for hardware, or NRF Retail Big Show in New York City for retail and e-commerce. They are the usual suspects, and you won’t be disappointed.
But attending one of my best five events above is the guarantee to get “wowed” and learn something new, in any fields of the so-called “digital revolution”. By the way, this will be my last piece of advice if you want to make the most of Slush, SXSW, TNW, Cannes Lions or Vivatech: don’t go only (or even don’t go at all) to panels and conferences related to your domain of expertise, but take advantage of the fantastic gathering of great minds to explore new topics.
