There may only be a few months left in 2018, but it’s not too late to attend a career-boosting event! If you live in Europe, you’ve got a great selection of conferences to choose from.
Attending an industry event is a great way to expand your mind and your network simultaneously. You get a crash course on ways to elevate your current strategies and might even get introduced to entirely new ways of thinking! The energetic atmosphere and motivation that comes from conferences and forums just can’t be beat.
It’s budget season and one of the biggest mistakes SaaS companies make is not investing in personal development for their employees. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about how you and your team can incorporate more growth opportunities into the next few months and the next fiscal year. Here are five Europe-based events that you can’t afford to miss.
Pulse Europe 2018
7-9 November
Olympia London | London
Click here for the event website.
Customer Success is a rapidly-growing discipline and Pulse Europe is the place to learn fresh strategies. With a wide variety of tracks, this learning and networking event has valuable content for practitioners to executives and everyone in between. Pulse Europe is the only event of its kind for Customer Success professionals and offers the rare opportunity to meet with peers and hear from thought leaders who are literally building CS from the ground up.
Why you can’t miss Pulse Europe
Customer Success is a young discipline but is already becoming a necessary part of modern businesses. Whether you’re a legacy company looking to stay competitive, or a start-up interested in creating a solid foundation, Pulse Europe needs to be on your list. This year’s Pulse Europe agenda includes hot topics like scaling Customer Success and delivering company-wide CS. Pulse Europe also offers an educational component in the form of Pulse Academy Live. Taking place the day before Pulse Europe, PAL provides three tracks for new CSMs, advanced practitioners, and Gainsight users. And, we might be biased, but the afterparties are pretty rad too!
SaaStock 2018
15-17 October
Dublin
Click here for the event website.
SaaStock is a three-day conference that brings together over 3000 attendees to learn, connect, and grow. The SaaStock experience offers tailored programs for investors, startups, and founders. Tactical boot camps, workshops, and over 120 sessions will add practical strategies to your SaaS playbook. In between sessions, you’ll have the chance to network, demo, and even make deals. If you’re a SaaS leader looking to take your business to the next level, you can’t miss SaaStock.
Why you can’t miss SaaStock 2018
The SaaS transformation in Europe is happening rapidly, but some might argue that we’ve just scratched the surface. SaaStock provides a platform for leaders of the SaaS movement to tell their journey, share best practices, and pave the way for other attendees to continue blazing the trail. It’s also one of the rare times you’ll have 3,000 decision-makers under one roof, so you can spread the word about your business while learning what else is out in this growing marketplace.
Data Protection World Forum (DPWF) 2018
20-21 November
ExCel London | London
Click here for the event website.
Data protection and privacy is an important topic spanning across all industries and the inaugural DPWF will provide a place for industry professionals to learn and make connections. Data protection is a top-down initiative, so it’s imperative that leaders create a positive data culture. The sessions and panel discussions in The Keynote Conference will provide in-depth, interactive presentations on the latest data protection and privacy issues we’re facing today. There are two other concurrent conferences offered in the forum, The Governance, Risk & Compliance Conference and The Public Sector Conference, intended for compliance and public sector professionals.
Why you can’t miss Data Protection World Forum
2018 was a big year for data protection and privacy not just in Europe but worldwide (GDPR-mageddon, anyone?). DPWF has subject matter applicable to all levels, from C-suite members to senior-level IT professionals to industry practitioners. The topics of this event tackle the industry’s hottest topics like personal data governance, creating a single source of truth to better manage risk, GDPR health checks, and more. There will also be discussions on Brexit and thoughts on the future between the UK and EU.
Open Source Summit (OSSEU) 2018
22-24 October
Edinburgh International Conference Centre | Edinburgh
Click here for the event website.
Open Source Summit Europe is the leading conference for developers, architects, industry leaders, and other open source enthusiasts. Hosted by The Linux Foundation, this event is built to help the community collaborate, share information, and learn about the latest technologies to gain a competitive advantage. This three-day conference hosts a variety of attendees from some of the biggest names in the biz including Intel, Microsoft, IBM, AWS, SUSE, and much more. Keynote speakers include Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation, Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux & Git, and Dirk Hohndel, VP and Chief Open Source Officer at VMware.
Why you can’t miss OSSEU
Open source communities are distributed and virtual, so this is a great opportunity to meet face to face. This year, over 25,000 attendees are expected, representing 45,000+ organizations from over 85 countries. Linux Foundation events are the best place to see the future of software trends, recruit promising individuals, and showcase and view influential technologies and services in the open source industry.
Jam 2018
1-2 November
Hawker House | London
Click here for the event website.
If you’re involved in product building, Jam is the place to be. This event pairs a day-long conference with a day of workshops so you can be both inspired and prepared to take your business to the next level. Jam is in their fourth year and will be a hub for over 600 product people to learn and collaborate together.
Why you can’t miss Jam 2018
This year’s Day One of Jam features stories from product managers and executives from companies like Netflix, Uber, Thread, and The Telegraph. The second day provides hands-on tools and techniques that will empower you and your team. Learn how to advance your career, use essential tools like Sketch, and much more. The event, taking place at the iconic street food venue, Hawker House, boasts a rockin’ afterparty and a menu of tasty meals and snacks with veggie options available!
Justifying your trip and making a case
Now that you’ve got a few events to add to your diary, it’s time to convince your leadership team.
Step One: Take a look at the event agenda to see exactly what the events are offering. Do any of the topics align with your current initiatives? Are there any that you’re particularly passionate about that could be relevant for the future of your company? Most often, you can connect with a representative from an industry event and they can help you even further with hand-picking certain sessions that fit your needs.
Step Two: Attending a conference is a great way to generate content for your company’s blog or social sites! Offer to bring back notes for your teammates and your content team so they can share your findings on a larger scale and create some online buzz. Or better yet, write up a post on your way back! Here are some examples that we’ve done in the past:
Leaving Las Vegas: 6 Takeaways from Technology Services World
What I Learned from CCO Summit Europe
Step Three: Research how much money will be required for your trip. You want to do as much of the work as you can so all your leadership team has to do is sign off. Be sure to include the cost of transportation, hotels, meals, event registration (and what is included, i.e. meals, slides, session recordings, etc.), and any additional offerings that you think will be valuable. If money is tight, be flexible; offer to ride-share, share rooms, or seek out additional discounts.
Step Four: Compile your case into a clear, thoughtful email. Include all of the research you did in the previous steps and send it to the appropriate decision-makers. Good luck!
