2014 Marketing Conferences and Branding Conferences: Stay on Top of the Trends

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

[Updated 1/12/2014] Bookmark this page and check back regularly, as I am periodically updating it to add new 2014 marketing-related conferences & events as I become aware of them.

Last year, I published a list of 2013 Marketing Conferences for you to check out. It turned out to be one of my most viewed articles of the year, which made me realize marketers are always looking for marketing-related conferences to attend or follow.

So, here I provide a listing of marketing- and branding-related conferences planned for 2014 in the U.S.–a set of exciting professional gatherings with relevant and diverse content, perfect for motivating you and your marketing department to help drive success for your business in 2014, helping you stay abreast of current and expected trends in areas related to marketing, and providing opportunities for connecting with other ambitious business leaders.

Note: This listing is in no way comprehensive. There are many other important marketing events occurring during 2014.  Please feel free to comment on this post to provide info for any other marketing conferences, including dates and URLs, that readers should consider attending or following in 2014.

January 2014

New Media Expo – NMX 2014
January 4-6, 2014 | Las Vegas, NV
http://nmxlive.com/2014-lv/

The media world has changed a lot in recent years. Blogging, podcasting, web series and other online entertainment platforms have taken over. Where once they were a niche market, they are now standard forms of communication and even business. NMX celebrates them all, while connecting people involved in the industry with one another. Content Creation, Distribution, Monetization, and Networking. Plus the New Media Expo Trade Show.

Social Media Insider Summit
January 29-February 1, 2014 | South Seas Island Resort, FL
http://www.mediapost.com/socialmediainsidersummit/

Succeed right now in your social media marketing efforts. Hear case studies from leading brands who have been able to turn social media campaigns into results, how to be an always-on brand, what to do with all that data, plus the latest tips and tricks for running branded communities. Build relationships with top-tier brand marketers and industry innovators in social media.

AMA Leading the Marketing Planning Initiative
January 30-31, 2014 | San Francisco, CA
http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/2014_ts_Leading-the-Marketing-Planning-Initiative—San-Francisco.aspx

• How can you lead and influence the success of your organization’s marketing planning process?
• Who are your critical organization partners in planning, and how can you motivate their participation and cooperation?
• What is the current thinking on key elements of a marketing plan, and how and why is each element critical to the process?
• Where can you source information for the various parts of the plan?
• What should you leave in or leave out?
• How should you “package” the plan for upper-management and broad organizational buy-in and action?

ISBM Fundamentals of B2B Marketing: Building a Marketing Plan
January 30-31, 2014 | Pittsburgh, PA
http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/professional-development/business-to-business-marketing-a-201-overview

Built on significant B-to-B cases, this event provides a complete overview of the entire process, tools, and practice of business-to-business marketing. Following the ISBM “Value Delivery Framework,” this course begins with a foundation on understanding value: in your markets, in your customers, in your firm. Tools and techniques for quantifying the total value of an offering in a market, and pricing to value are introduced and illustrated with B-to-B case examples. It then moves to cover value based segmentation – approaches for selecting and targeting the most valuable customers for your firm. And… how to build offerings that serve their needs, and position your offerings distinctly from those of competitors. Communication and delivering value – approaches to Integrated Market Communications and Brand Management in business-to-business markets are part of the course. Managing business-to-business life cycles are covered: product lifecycles, customer lifecycle, market lifecycles.

February 2014

Social Media Strategies Summit
February 4-6, 2014 | Las Vegas, NV
http://socialmediastrategiessummit.com/las-vegas-2014.html

• Gain insights into what leading brands are doing within the social media space
• Meet valuable business contacts and network with leading industry experts
• Topics covered include: Social Media Strategy Development, Latest Social Media Management Tools, Social Marketing and Sales Strategies, Emerging Technologies and Social Media Innovations, Customer Engagement Strategies
• Tweet and engage with other attendees while you work – a truly social summit
• Keep up with industry trends

MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Summit
February 17-20, 2014 | Las Vegas, NV
http://www.meclabs.com/training/marketing-summit/email-summit-2014/overview

The world’s longest-running research-based email marketing event. A full slate of sessions aimed at overcoming your top email challenges with live optimization, case studies, quick-win clinics, bonus sessions, expert panels and more:

• Live Testing & Coaching Clinics: All attendees will participate in an email test, including treatment designs, test launch, results tracking and analysis. Take advantage of our unique one-on-one coaching clinics where you can receive a personal consultation and expert advice on your own email program, including new ideas, quick-win suggestions and more.
• Professional Certification Workshops: Email Messaging Certification, Lead Management Certification, Landing Page Optimization Certification
• Roundtable Discussions: Join your peers from around the world and subject-matter experts to discuss critical topics including what is and isn’t working email marketing today

Online Marketing Summit – Tech Marketing 360
February 18-20, 2014 | Dana Point, CA
http://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/

Discover the most current and cutting-edge innovations and strategies to drive marketing success. Topics include social, mobile, big data and analytics, content marketing, leadership, bridging the gap between traditional and digital, identifying the new decision maker, and more. Attend educational sessions across five tracks, hear inspirational keynotes, meet with top industry sponsors, and engage with your peers at special networking receptions.

2014 ANA Brand Masters Conference
February 26-28, 2014 | Hollywood, FL
http://www.ana.net/conference/show/id/BIC-MAR14

Will bring together leading CMOs and marketing thought leaders to share inspirational approaches to brand building that drive sales, profitability, and return on investment. Top marketers and industry experts will reveal how they navigate through customer insights, data analytics and technology to engage customers and grow their business. You will also have the opportunity to network with your peers and walk away with actionable tips to take back to your organization.

March 2014

AMA Analytics with Purpose: Behavioral Insight to Advantage
March 2-4, 2014 | Coronado, CA
http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/analytics-with-purpose-II.aspx

Analytics with Purpose will discuss not only Big Data, analytics and where it’s going, but more importantly, to reveal how leading practitioners are making data actionable for uncovering behavioral insights that lead to business advantage.

• Making Social Media Actionable
• Web Analytics
• Online and Field Experiments
• Marketing Analytics Essentials
• Using Big Data to Tell a Story
• Text Analytics
• Own, Paid and Earned Media

BRITE ’14 Conference: Brands, Innovation, Technology
March 3-4, 2014 | Columbia University, New York City
http://www.briteconference.com/BRITE14/

BRITE provides attendees with engaging presentations that will stimulate their thinking when they return to the office to work on strengthening their own brands. Our speakers come equipped with inspiring stories, creative content, and universal insights that show how innovative strategies and tactics can help build all kinds of brands, whether they are people, places, products, services or ideas.

SMX West – Search Marketing Expo
March 11-13, 2014 | San Jose, CA
http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/

SMX West content is so compelling, you’ll want to implement what you’ve learned before leaving the conference. Dramatically increase the number of people who come to your site with ROI enhancing paid search advertising and search engine optimization techniques and best practices. Personalize your SMX West experience. Attend any of the more than 50 sessions and keynotes that suit your needs and maximize your investment. There are sessions just for you – whether you’re new to search or an experienced internet marketer, employed at a Fortune 500 company or run your own business or agency.

Loyalty360 Loyalty Expo
March 17-19, 2014 | Orlando, FL
http://loyaltyexpo.com/

Presented by Loyalty 360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association, Loyalty Expo is a true Voice of the Customer-driven, best practice-focused customer loyalty and reward conference. By attending, you’ll have the opportunity to network with hundreds of your fellow marketers and hear how they are reaching their customer relationship-building goals. Market leaders will be sharing their experiences and insights on customer retention strategies and trends. Attendees will leave Loyalty Expo with an understanding of new research, technologies and solutions to aid their organizations on the customer loyalty journey.

Social Media Marketing World
March 26-28, 2014 | San Diego, CA
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/

Join 2,000 fellow marketers at the mega-conference designed to inspire and empower you with social media marketing ideas—brought to you by Social Media Examiner. This is a historic opportunity for you to connect face-to-face with the top social media marketing experts while breaking bread with like-minded peers from around the globe. You’ll pick from 60+ expert-led sessions covering social media tactics to content creation to social strategy. Plus, hear from many top brands.

April 2014

eM14: eMarketing Association Conference
April 15-16, 2014 | San Francisco, CA
http://emarketingassociation.com/events/em14/

Every year for the last decade one of the most valuable conferences for marketing professionals has been the eMarketing Association SFO conference. If you are looking to learn, network and share best practices, this is the conference for you. For 2014 the eM14 conference will be better than it has ever been with top speakers from the Social Media, Analytics, Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing ecosystem.

FUSE 2014 – Brand Strategy and Design
April 15-17, 2014 | Chicago, IL
http://www.iirusa.com/fuse/fuse-home.xml

“One Collective Voice.” The world’s most respected conference in the brand strategy and design community, FUSE explores design as a strategic lever and invaluable asset in building better brands and more meaningful relationships with consumers. Lauding a more collaborative approach to building brands, and uniting design bests and brand geniuses, we’re curating stories about fusing strategy and design to ignite brand passion and growth.

May 2014

The Un-Conference: 360° of Brand Strategy for a Changing World
May 6-7, 2014 | Miami Beach, FL
http://www.theblakeproject.com/un-conference/360-brand-strategy-changing-world-miami-2014/

The Blake Project and Branding Strategy Insider have designed a brand education experience unlike any you have ever attended. It’s not the typical conference format of talking heads and distance between you and the experts. The walls are down. There are no podiums or stages. The hierarchy is eliminated. These two days are interactive working days where you will take a deep-dive immersion on the most important aspects of creating innovative brand-building strategies – all presented in a unique and competitive-learning environment where the uniform is jeans. You will work side-by side with your pre-selected teammates. You will get to know them, learn from and with them. Through a blend of unique simulations, engaging and fun ‘Brandingo’ game elements and exercises, you will make critical decisions that result in consequences for your team, while gaining valuable insights you can take-away to aid and inspire you in building the future value of your brands.

BMA14 Global Conference
May 28-30, 2014 | Chicago, IL
http://www.marketing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=6055#.UtKnh_RDuWM

Glean and take back actionable insights on the latest in B2B marketing thinking, trends, best practices, success stories, technology and tools and more. Over the past five years, BMA’s global conference has become the largest annual b2b marketing event anywhere in the world. Here are just some of the dozens of highly relevant topics BMA14 will address:

• Global media and social media trends
• Latest trends in content marketing
• Comparison of competing marketing automation systems
• Consensus b2b buying trends
• New research on the emotions behind b2b buying
• Effective brand positioning and messaging
• Excelling at sales messaging and enablement

June 2014

SMX Advanced – Search Marketing Expo
Jume 10-11, 2014 | Seattle, WA
http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/

SMX Advanced is the only search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers. Sessions are fast-paced, Q&A-packed, frequently controversial, always informative…and don’t stop to cover the basics. Fluent in search engine marketing? Come to SMX Advanced and engage with others who speak your native language. And there will be plenty of learning and sharing. The most accomplished search marketers in the world will present cutting edge tips for driving traffic and increasing conversions from paid search advertising, SEO, social media marketing, and more.

July 2014

Marketing World 2014
July 14-17, 2014 | Boston, MA
http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/summits-details.pag?eventid=281436906

A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange. An unbeatable opportunity to spark killer new ideas and next strategies, and a great forum to find out what others are doing to keep their companies ahead of the game and grow their business. Whether you are looking for education from
industry leaders, intimate networking opportunities with your peers, or new ideas to bring back to the office, this event offers something for everyone! Learn from industry leaders about what current strategies are working, and what’s not! The content is expressly relevant to your 12-18 month business needs.

September 2014

Content Marketing World 2014
September 8-11, 2014 | Cleveland, OH
http://contentmarketingworld.com/

The largest content marketing event on the planet, produced by the Content Marketing Institute. Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry. You will leave with all the materials you need to take a content strategy back to your team – and – to implement a content marketing plan that will grow your business and engage your audience.

October 2014

DMA2014: The Global Event for Data-Driven Marketers
October 25-30, 2014 | San Diego, CA
http://dma14.org/

DMA2014 will give you a 360° view of data-driven marketing by providing you with:

• Inspiring ideas from our Keynote Speakers and Thought Leadership Series leaders
• Special programs like, Master Class, Spotlight, Fast Forward, Market Intelligence Modules, B2B Symposium, Nonprofit Day, Spotlight on Privacy and Strategic Summit
• Insights from case studies on global data-driven marketing best practices from business visionaries, top brands, and small business executives
• Ask the Experts Roundtables, where you can discuss the issues at hand and you’ll be able to share your experiences and get personal advice too
• 1:1 Guru sessions, where you’ll get the advice you need. Our Gurus are at the top of their fields and would normally charge thousands for the consultation you can get for free
• Specialty Pavilions, that provide you with a more in-depth look at what the most innovative companies are doing today – and planning for tomorrow
• Grand exhibit hall that is packed with the latest technologies, solutions, products and services from some of the most respected names in the marketing world.

The Market Research Event: Connecting the Best in Insights From Around the World
October 20-22, 2014 | Boca Raton, FL
http://www.iirusa.com/research/event-home.xml

TMRE delivers more proven value than any other event of its kind. The annual meeting place for career researchers. Budgets are precious. Spend smarter with TMRE – the brand that delivers NEW value every year…making it the best investment for the future of both yourself and your company.

Note: This listing is in no way comprehensive. There are many other important marketing events occurring during 2014.  Please feel free to comment on this post to provide info for any other marketing conferences, including dates and URLs, that readers should consider attending or following in 2014.