For many people in the IT industry, remote work is a part of everyday life that they would not change for regular office visits. The pandemic resulted in even more people discovering that the lack of live interpersonal relationships does not have to negatively affect productivity, efficiency, and the delivery of great projects. Like the organization of work in teams, the nature of industry conferences has also changed due to the pandemic. Some of them have modified their formula, some have suspended their activities, there are new events, but there are also some that we are looking forward to in the traditional form of the events we remember before the pandemic. We love webinars and live broadcasts from remote events, but many people miss those new doses of inspiration, knowledge, and observations related to various sectors of the world of web technology obtained during meetings with people in large exhibition halls. We checked the current situation with our favorite conferences. See where you can go on a trip in person and where online meetings are waiting!
Knowledge exchange, lectures by experts from around the world, a chance for networking, inspiration, and boost for action, which lasts for several months after returning home or after closing the browser window with the live broadcast. These are just some of the advantages of participating in industry conferences. It is worth investing in them because they develop soft and hard competencies, and also enable meeting interesting people from the industry. The ones we have selected here are, of course, only a small part of the great events that take place all over the world. Be sure to let us know in the comments if we have omitted any events that you think are a must-have. Who knows, maybe together we will be able to create a periodically refreshed article that will serve as a compass for programming, e-commerce, and new technology enthusiasts looking for new experiences?
In the meantime, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with our first picks. We missed those organized live in the form of meetings during the lockdown and we hope that there will be opportunities to visit them again soon. We have looked through many official websites of the conference and in many cases, we already know the dates of the next editions. It is also worth taking an interest in online events, which have recently appeared a lot. There are also those that are currently in abeyance or events that we have recently discovered and we are following with interest the related announcements. There is a lot to choose from and we hope that all the announcements will take place as planned.
Web Summit
Bloomberg called Web Summit "Davos for Geeks" for good reason. It is one of the largest technology conferences in the world, and its reach is evidenced by the fact that even people outside our industry often know it. It was forced online in 2020 due to the pandemic. This year, the conference returned to Lisbon from 1-4 November. Only those who had recovered from coronavirus were fully vaccinated or tested negative could be admitted. Representatives of such giants as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft appeared on the spot. The conference discussed not only innovation but also the most important issues that the world is facing: carbon neutrality, climate change, digital security, and cryptocurrencies, as well as international tax justice. We are glad that Web Summit is back in the form we all know. Pre-subscriptions for Web Summit 2022 have already started, and since this year's edition was sold out, it is worth hurrying.
App Builders
One of those who decided to face the adversities caused by the pandemic in 2020 were the organizers of the App Builders conference taking place in Switzerland. The event devoted to iOS applications took place, this time, in a virtual format. Here are some of the lectures that you could attend: "Building a Realtime video processor with Swift and Metal", "Small team. Big Open Source.", "Getting Started with Combine", "Property Wrappers or How Swift decided to become Java", "Practical machine learning for iOS apps" and many more. Interestingly, all the talks from App Builders 2020 are available today on the Swiss Mobile Developers Association's YouTube channel. There is a lot of valuable content that is worth checking - which is, importantly, made available completely for free. Unfortunately, there is also some sad news. Although the next edition of the conference was announced in May 2020, the App Builders communication channels have been quiet since November 2020. However, we sincerely hope that the organizers will return in 2022 and we keep our fingers crossed for them!
Check this video out in order to know more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf-KOD_5UHU
Israel Mobile Summit
The Israel Mobile Summit was also an event that did not take place in the traditional form of a conference in 2020 and 2021. This is one of the most famous events in EMEA related to mobile apps, games, and adtech, as well as the biggest mobile event in Israel! Every year, the conference offered lots of networking opportunities, as well as many panels, innovation showcases, speeches by leading international publishers, and keynotes from senior speakers. There was also a contest of the best Israeli mobile apps. At the moment, we do not know if the Israel Mobile Summit will return, and if so, in what form. The organizers focused on another event, i.e. Hamburg Mobile Summit LIVE 2021. The conference focused on topics such as spanning mobile innovation, monetization, development and games, a mobile startup competition and a presentation of promising startups and technologies that took place in a virtual form. And here, as in the case of App Builders, you can use the valuable knowledge of the speakers completely for free, because all the speeches are available on YouTube.
Check this video out in order to know more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-niN0vnVqJo
Sellers Summit
A 2-day e-commerce workshop has been announced for 2022, which is definitely worth getting interested in. Sellers Summit is announced as an event that is to not only inspire but, primarily, to allow you to gain valuable and practical knowledge that helps you earn more on e-commerce businesses. The organizers provide space for testing strategies and asking questions during the conference, which is to be guaranteed by small and intimate groups in which workshop participants will work. Sellers Summit offers two tracks that will cover both Amazon and selling on your own e-commerce store. There will also be a special private mastermind for experienced sellers making at least $250,000 or $1,000,000 in revenues. The event will take place next year on 4-6 May in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. All details about the conference can be found on the Sellers Summit website.
eTail Europe
Another very important conference that we are all waiting for is eTail Europe, an event devoted to omnichannel and e-commerce, created for European retail innovators. On the organizer's website, you can already find the date of next year's edition, i.e. 25-26 April. The indicated location is London, so there are hints that there will eventually be an opportunity to meet there live. Due to the pandemic, the eTail Europe organizers also reached for remote solutions, and this year we had the opportunity to participate in their Virtual Event, which was organized online for free. The participants of the lecture could learn how to accelerate their digital transformation with proven strategies. There was also a timely topic, i.e. online marketing activities in the post-COVID world. In this case, however, no recordings of the speeches were made available. However, we hope that soon we will get to know the exact agenda and speakers of eTail Europe 2022, and the conference will be held in London as planned.
SaaStock
The community of SaaS professionals should pay attention to virtual events organized by SaaStock. This year, the Online SaaStock EMEA brought together B2B SaaS founders, executives, and investors across EMEA for intensive knowledge and networking. Further events are planned for spring and summer 2022: SaaStock REMOTE, Online SaaStock LatAm, and Online SaaStock APAC. In this case, it will be an ideal way to acquire know-how and build a pipeline for those who do not necessarily love the atmosphere of events taking place in large exhibition spaces. But who knows - maybe in 2022 SaaStock will surprise us with a conference where you can appear in person.
Paris Retail Week
The pandemic did not disturb the plans of the organizers of the Paris Retail Week. The 7th edition of the retailing ecosystems event covered topics such as data, agile customer experience, new payments experience, B2B marketing, marketing innovation, marketplaces, logistics, and omnichannel commerce. Of course, there were professional workshops, 600 different exhibitors, and awards. The event was also a chance to meet new partners and customers. This is a must for all retail and e-commerce professionals. The next edition of the event has already been announced for September 2022. The organizers announce 3 days of events to discover the sector's latest news, trends, and innovations, meeting solution providers working in commercial real estate, store fittings, and layouts. In addition to online retail, there will also be traditional retail, so even entrepreneurs who do not operate in the e-commerce area should find something for themselves.
Do you know events, fairs, or conferences intended for people operating in the areas of digital transformation, e-commerce, new technologies, and web solutions, which were not mentioned above? Let us know, we will be happy to supplement our list in the next installments of this series.
