Top 20 Sales Conferences of 2020 That Haven’t Been Cancelled in Corona Times

Top sales conferences of 2020 suffered bigly (it’s been added to dictionaries, right?), just as the entire world did this year.

Some sales training conferences are more alive than others. Some keep postponing their events. Some decide to take advantage of the situation and go digital, turning Google’s attention to their website as a super authoritative domain able to attract tens of thousands of users glued to screens for days.

The sales and marketing conference industry is finding its way as it goes. As we all do, after all. 

With all the top management working from home, getting a keynote speaker of value for the audience is indeed a click away. 

There are a few amazing free sales conferences that you can watch from home, that used to cost thousands of dollars to attend in the offline format!

Here are the top 20 sales conferences that haven’t been canceled in the era of corona: 

OutBound 2020

11-14 August | Atlanta, USA | Georgia World Congress Center 

Pricing: Regular $699 | Elite $999 | VIP $1697

The slogan of the conference “Prospecting. Pipeline. Productivity” sure resonates with the sales professionals world over. First held in 2017, this is their 4th conference. The early bird tickets are sold out.

Amy Franko, the author of the Modern Seller, Art Sobczak, the author of Smart Selling, How to sell more in less time with no rejection, Mark Hunter, the author of High-Profit Selling & High-Profit Prospecting are just a few of the extensive lineup of speakers of the OutBound conference 2020.

TRACTION

5-6 August | Vancouver, Canada | Westin Bayshore

Pricing: Early Bird (ends Apr 30) CA$555.88 | General Admission CA$ 880.34

This sales conference has been held since 2015 in 2 locations: Vancouver and San Francisco.

While 2020 speaker lineup is not currently revealed on the website (as of Apr 2020), the past speakers may be indicative for an inquisitive mind and included: Jeff Lawson CEO of Twilio, Kathryn Petralia, President of Kabbage, Justin Kan, CEO of Atrium, Julia Hartz, President of Eventbrite.

With another one and a half months to go until the event, the site does not yet feature any cancellation or postponement or shift from the offline format to the online one.

Sales Enablement Society [SES] Annual Conference

23-25 September | Atlanta, Georgia, United States | Westin Buckhead Atlanta

This non-profit organization was founded in 2016 and it held the first conference in 2017. If the 2020 event will be held, it’s going to be the 4th SES Conference. 

No pricing details or speaker lineup is yet available on the website page, but there are wrap-ups available for the conferences of 2019 and 2018 if you are curious to check out the level of the event before venturing to book a ticket.

Unleash 20 [Outreach]

4-7 May | Virtual Summit

Pricing: free

This is indeed going to happen – online! The calls are made.

Even though there are not many profits to be made in the online version, the benefits of the digital engagement of thousands of viewers with the conference content are yet to be ascertained. Google takes all those signs very seriously and COVID makes the attendance as easy as a 3 line sign up.

Speakers include senior managers from Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups, like Amazon, Tableau, LinkedIn Forrester research, SalesHacker, AT&T, GitHub, and many others.

It’s a no-brainer. It’s free, just pick your top webinars and speeches and reserve your virtual seat.

INBOUND 2020 [HubSpot]

18-21 August | Boston, MA, USA | The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

Pricing: Community pass $99 | All-access Pass: 1 day $599; 4 days 999* | Power pass 4 days $1499* | * early bird price ends 16 May 2020

InBound is massive, OK. With 26K attended in 2019 and 400K followers and subscribers, they sound like a big fish in the sales conference pond.  

You get all the reassurance you need; they know it’s about networking as much as it’s about the knowledge. So the hosts party and do comedy shows as part of the experience. 

Seismic Shift [Seismic]

5-7 November 2020 | Carlsbad, CA

Pricing: $1200

Positioned as a top sales enablement conference and an event for industry pioneers, the Seismic shift deserves the attention of all those on revenue management positions, sales ops, and sales enablement. 

2020 Toronto CIO Executive Leadership Summit

3 June 2020 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Omni King Edward Hotel

HMG strategy organizes similar events world over and this one is to take place in Canada.

This sales management conference managed to attract an impressive lineup of keynote speakers from Metrolinx, Alorica, CIBC, and Blockchain research institute.

Institute for Sales Transformation

5-6 November 2020 | Miami, Florida, USA | Kovens Conference center

Pricing: Seller rate: $95 | Consultant rate $195 | Solution provider rate $995

iST Sales Lives Miami claims on its website that users “won’t find a better concentration of sales best practices on the planet.” There is some work to be done to reach the gap between reality and the announcement though.

The agenda has no indication of speakers at this point apart from the organizers and partners, so the C-level sales executives are still to be given more definition in the next half a year the conference kicks off in November.

The agenda covers topics like social selling, the future of sales beyond 2020, and stages of the deal.

Social media is still work in progress too with only Instagram featuring more than 10 fans, unlike Twitter and Facebook. The event is second after the first inaugural attempt in 2019, it appears.

It may be a good opportunity to reach out to the South Florida sales tribe for sponsors and partners, should the COVID situation allow the event to proceed and should the organizers invest enough time to attract speakers as great as they intend.

sales conferences coronavirus

Dreamforce [Salesforce]

9-12 November 2020 | San Francisco, USA 

Pricing: Sign up to be notified when registration opens.

Not too much is happening as of yet on the website and most of its segments still point to 2019. With dates as late in the year as the end of autumn, the likelihood is that DreamForce is going to be as big as ever is pretty solid.

With SalesForce, one of the top CRMs in the world behind the concept, there is no doubt the speakers are going to be stellar and insightful, the venue top-notch, and the agenda worth listening to from A to Z.

The tickets are not available yet, but you can sign up to be notified when they go on sale.

TOPO Summit

26-27 August 2020 | San Francisco, USA | The Embarcadero

Pricing: Regular Pass: $1395 | Regular Team Pack: $999

Keynote speakers from Sisco, Slack, Alpha Sence, Sumo Logic, Fujitsu

With just two months to go the organizing committee is still looking to hold the event at the end of August. The dates are already a postponement from the initial dates of the conference and with the COVID-19 situation in the USA it looks like another shift of the dates is a possibility.

This Top sales summit of 2020, coincidentally called TOPO is a pretty big deal in the industry. It usually attracts 2K attendees and 65+ speakers.

The heavy-weight speaker lineup includes senior managers from Cisco, Slack, FinancialForce, GumGum, and Sumo Logic among others.

NTCA Marketing + Sales Conference

3-5 May 2020 | Phoenix, AZ, USA | Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort

Pricing: Member: $849 | Non-member: $1199

There is no sign of the agenda for the 2020 sales conference yet, but there is an agenda and speakers presented for 2018 and 2019 for those curious to gain insight into the level of speakers.

For example, 2019 has keynote presenters from Chatterkick (Social media agency from Iowa), Friespring, Root+River.

Sirius Decisions Summit [now virtual]

4-7 May 2020 | Live Virtual Experience

Pricing: Client: $2 695 | Non-client: $2 895 [it does look though, that the price has not been updated since the event went virtual].

Sirius Decisions, now part of the Forrester Research, decided to turn the conference into the virtual event. It is not unknown if the price of almost 3K is outdated or oversight from the committee and will be changed in the later periods.

120 live streaming sessions, 10+ keynote speakers [incl. Brene Brown of the University of Houston], 15 customer success stories, and interactive marketplace are being prepared to keep the online experience as immersive as possible. If you are looking for a b2b sales conference 2020 – you may want to check out this one closely.

HyperGrowth 2020 by Drift

14 September 2020 | London, UK | Old Billingsgate

Pricing: Early Bird till 1st June £199 | General £499 | VIP £599

HyperGrowth usually takes place in 3 locations: London, San Fran, and Boston. 2020 only has London so far announced. The sales conferences managed to gather 10K attended in between all 3 locations for 3 years, so the drive is there.

Keynote speakers 2020 include David Meerman Scott from Wall Street Journal, Kubi Springer, and Huib Van Bockel, former CMO Red Bull Europe.

Digital Sales World West Coast

30 November – 2 December 2020 | Hartford, CT, USA | Connecticut Convention Center

Pricing: Community Pass $399 | All-access pass $1 699 | VIP experience $2 199

Being held at the very end of autumn, this conference still stands strong in terms of selling tickets for an offline experience.

The event is a good opportunity for sales, marketing and leadership teams to attend. Keynote speakers include Marcus Sheridan, the author of They ask,  you answer; Liz Moorehead if Impact. Spotlight speakers feature Tyler Lessard of Vidyard and Megan Keaney Anderson, VP of Marketing, HubSpot.

REACH. 2020 (G2)

29-30 September 

The official website has virtually no information at all on the 2020 event’s agenda or speakers, but it does offer a 2019 video recap to watch as a teaser of what maybe – or maybe not – coming in 2020.

Sales Hacker Success Summit

9-13 December | Virtual event

Pricing: free

If you are looking into an event full of deliciously revenue-making sales advice from the industry’s top people, this is it. 5 days of non-stop sales best practices free of charge from the comfort of your home.

There are 41 speakers across 8 categories, and they all bring the sales acumen from companies like The Bridge Group, MailShake, Sales DNA, The Sales Rebellion, Outreach, DealPoint, Sales BQ, Oracle, and others.

Alexander Group Sales Executive Forum

18-20 November 2020 | Palm Beach, FL, USA | The Breakers

Pricing: Super Early till May 15 $3 395 | Early Till July 7th $3595 | Regular: $3995

3 days in November soaking all that sales wisdom in with short breaks to the beaches of Florida. 

The executive forum targets C-level leadership & presidents as well as Revenue and commercial teams. It includes extensive networking opportunities with a golf tournament and casino night on the agenda, spicing up multiple executive panels, focus sessions, sales training seminars, and interactive think tanks.

Sales Success Summit

12-13 October 2020 | Austin, Tx, USA | Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theater

Pricing: From $999 to $1699 with early bird discounts decreasing every month

These people know something about sales, as the website’s hero image is an offer to exchange your email for access to one of the videos of choice from the 2019 sales conference. This is also a way to keep updated of any changes, so you might want to kill 2 flies in one slap there.

No agenda is yet available on the website for the 2020 event. The auditorium can only house 198 people at a time, so this is a good occasion for a local sales community to come together.

Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference

6-8 October 2020 | Las Vegas, NV, USA | The Cosmopolitan

Pricing: Early Bird $2975 ends 4 August | Standard price $3400 | Public sector $2800

The event aims to gather 700+ attendees under one roof and the big letters read: “Prepared to be inspired”.

Agenda of the sales conference of 2020 raises issues dear to every sales heart out there: 

  • Account planning and management 
  • Sales development and team design
  • Leading and managing sales enablement

Ops Stars by Lean Data

10 -11 November 2020 | San Francisco, USA | The Mint

Pricing: NA

An absolute star that shines bright on the sky of the best sales conferences in 2020. Gathering 2500+ attendees in The legendary San Francisco Mint, this event is a must-attend for many who is somebody in the industry or for those aspiring to become somebody sooner rather than later. 

Keynote speakers of this top sales conference 2020 include Robin Ritenour, Global Head of Business Development, People. Ai; Corinne Sklar, CMO of IBM iX, Rashmi Vittal, CMO of Conversica.

Best sales conferences of the viral 2020: offline, online, and still kicking

Life as we know it changes. At this point in history, at the end of April 2020, there is still hope that some of the sales & marketing conferences will take place live, physically with attendees sitting in the chairs in conference halls.

On the other hand, to strengthen your domain rankings there is no better way than making thousands of users engage with your website for a prolonged period of time. So this is an opportunity to make your website gain weight in terms of SEO too.

If you are a sales professional interested in the subject of sales industry events, you might want to see how Nimble CRM may help you gain new skills and reach new heights in your profession. It’s free for 2 weeks’ trial and only needs your email to start!

Start learning new ways of bonding with your customer now, attend a conference later still.