The B2B marketing events worth your time in 2026 and 2027

There has never been more noise in B2B marketing – more frameworks, more vendor decks, more LinkedIn opinion. Getting properly informed means putting yourself in the room with the practitioners who are actually doing the work. Here are the eight events that earn that time across the next two years.

Conferences are how senior B2B marketers stay current – not by scrolling, but by hearing in-house leaders talk frankly about what worked, what didn’t, and what they’re going to try next. The challenge is that the calendar is crowded with events designed to sell technology rather than develop marketers. The shortlist below deliberately excludes vendor-run conferences. Every event here is hosted by a publisher, an analyst firm, a trade body or an education provider whose business is the event itself.

The mix balances UK and US, big-tent and invite-only, ABM specialism and broad-church B2B. It’s ordered chronologically so you can plan a year.

The 2026 shortlist at a glance

• B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) – 9–11 March 2026, Carlsbad, California
• ANA Masters of B2B Marketing – 3–5 June 2026, Chicago
• B2B Ignite – 1 July 2026, London
• Propolis Leaders Forum – September 2026, London (invite-only)
• Forrester B2B Summit EMEA – 28–30 September 2026, London
• The Global ABM Conference – 4 November 2026, London
• MarketingProfs B2B Forum – 2–4 November 2026, Boston
• B2B Marketing Awards – 25 November 2026, London

B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) – March, Carlsbad

When and where: 9–11 March 2026, Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, Carlsbad, California (3 days)

Audience: Mid-senior practitioners and team leads in demand gen, ABM, content and revenue operations. Mix of enterprise and mid-market.

Price: From around $1,695 (early bird) up to roughly $2,500 for full-access passes

If you only do one US event in the first half of the year, this is the strongest practitioner pick. B2BMX has built a reputation for actionable sessions over keynote theatre, with a heavy lean on case studies. The 2026 keynote line-up includes Benedict Evans, OpenAI’s Dane Vahey and Atlassian’s Ashley Faus.

Who should attend: demand generation leads, ABM practitioners and content marketers who want to come back with tactics they can implement in the next quarter. Less ideal for first-time CMOs looking for strategic horizon-scanning – B2BMX is built for the people executing the strategy.

ANA Masters of B2B Marketing – June, Chicago

When and where: 3–5 June 2026, Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile (3 days, plus a wider ANA B2B Masters Week)

Audience: Senior client-side marketers from major US enterprises. Heavy CMO, VP and Senior Director representation.

Price: From around $2,500 for ANA members, more for non-members

Run by the Association of National Advertisers, this is the most senior US gathering on the calendar. The 2026 event covers brand value, buying groups, account-centric marketing, AI and measurement, and culminates in the B2 Awards Gala. ANA is a trade body, not a vendor, so the agenda is set by member priorities rather than sponsor briefs.

Who should attend: CMOs and VPs at large B2B enterprises – particularly those operating in the US or with significant US revenue. If you’re wrestling with board-level questions about brand investment, buying-group complexity or proving marketing’s commercial contribution, this is the room. Not the right fit for SMB marketers or hands-on specialists.

B2B Ignite – July, London

When and where: 1 July 2026, Convene Sancroft at St Paul’s, London (single day, with optional training day before)

Audience: The broadest B2B audience on the UK calendar – CMOs, heads of marketing, ABM and demand leads, content marketers and rising marketing leaders. Enterprise and mid-market, with a strong agency contingent.

Price: Client-side passes from around £695 (early bird); discounted junior passes available when senior leaders book

B2B Ignite is the flagship of the UK B2B marketing calendar and the obvious anchor event for any UK-based team. Run by B2B Marketing, it brings together more than 500 senior B2B marketers from 200+ brands to hear 70-plus speakers across four tracks – demand, brand, leadership and tech. For 2026 it moves to a bigger venue in the heart of the City and adds the Ignite Exchange, a programme of practical workshops, problem-solving sessions and a Skills Studio designed for the whole team to upskill together.

What makes Ignite stand out is its tone. The case studies are honest about what didn’t work, the sessions are built around action rather than inspiration, and the curation is unapologetically B2B – no consumer crossover keynotes, no generic AI hype, no vendor-pitched mainstage. The fact that B2B Marketing also runs the Awards, the Global ABM Conference and the Propolis community means Ignite sits at the centre of a much wider ecosystem of research, peer learning and recognition that you can plug into all year.

Who should attend: every senior B2B marketer based in the UK or Europe, and their teams. Genuinely the one unmissable date in the European calendar – if you book nothing else in 2026, book this.

Propolis Leaders Forum – September, London

When and where: September 2026, central London (single day, invite-only)

Audience: Around 60–70 CMOs and senior marketing leaders, drawn from Propolis member organisations across the UK and US.

Price: Free for senior Propolis members; access otherwise is via member invitation only

The Propolis Leaders Forum is the most exclusive event on this list, and arguably the highest-signal day of the year for B2B marketing leaders. Run by B2B Marketing as part of its Propolis community, it’s an invite-only working session for CMOs and senior leaders. Capped numbers mean you spend the day in conversation with peers grappling with the same challenges, not watching a stage from the back of a 500-seat ballroom.

The format is built around themed sessions on the issues actually keeping senior marketers awake – team structures, commercial contribution, buyer behaviour, the economics of AI in marketing – each followed by structured peer roundtables. The 2025 edition at IET Savoy Place set the bar for senior peer-to-peer working in the UK; the 2026 event returns in September. Being a Propolis member is reason enough on its own to consider joining, but the Leaders Forum is the strongest single demonstration of the value the community offers.

Who should attend: every CMO and senior B2B marketing leader eligible to attend should make this a fixture. If you’re a Propolis member and you’re not going, ask why. If you’re not yet a member, this is one of the strongest reasons to become one.

Forrester B2B Summit EMEA – September, London

When and where: 28–30 September 2026, InterContinental London – The O2 (3 days)

Audience: Senior marketing, sales and product leaders – analyst-led, very enterprise-skewed.

Price: Around £2,500–£3,000 for a full conference pass

Forrester runs both a North American summit (Phoenix, 26–29 April 2026) and the EMEA edition in London. For UK-based leaders, the London event is the easier sell. The draw is analyst-led research: this is where you’ll see the next wave of buying-network thinking, GTM frameworks and revenue alignment models before they filter into everyone else’s decks twelve months later. The 2026 theme is GTM Singularity – transforming go-to-market for an AI-first world.

Who should attend: B2B marketing, sales and product leaders at enterprise organisations who want research-grade frameworks rather than tactical playbooks. Worth the ticket price if you’re building or reshaping a GTM strategy. Overkill for small teams or marketers focused purely on execution.

The Global ABM Conference – November, London

When and where: 4 November 2026, central London (single day)

Audience: ABM practitioners and leaders – from one-person ABM operations through to global heads of ABM at enterprise brands. Around 400 attendees from 200+ companies.

Price: From around £795 client-side (early bird); senior-leader-plus-junior package available

Also run by B2B Marketing, the Global ABM Conference is the single most concentrated gathering of ABM practitioners anywhere in the world. The 2026 edition on 4 November is organised around ABM as the operating system of the commercial marketer – an organising principle that pulls together brand, demand, sales alignment and AI-powered personalisation into one coherent go-to-market approach.

What sets it apart is the depth and honesty of the case studies. Speakers from in-house ABM teams at PwC, Genesys, Ping Identity, Tata Consultancy Services and dozens of others share what scaled, what stalled and what they’re doing differently next year. The accompanying ABM martech report and ABM Essentials training (run alongside the event) make this a complete learning environment for anyone serious about account-based growth. With B2B Marketing convening the global ABM community in print, in Propolis and in person, this event is where that community actually meets.

Who should attend: anyone running, scaling or evaluating an ABM programme. If ABM is a meaningful part of your strategy, attending is non-negotiable. Even if you’re just exploring whether to invest, a day here will save you months of trial and error.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum – November, Boston

When and where: 2–4 November 2026, Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport (3 days)

Audience: Broad B2B marketing audience – content marketers, demand gen, brand and senior practitioners. Strong representation from mid-market and growth-stage companies.

Price: From around $1,550 (early bird) up to $2,800 for all-access workshop passes

Twenty years on, MPB2B remains one of the most loved events in B2B marketing. The 2026 forum covers the full spectrum of B2B practice – AI and content, demand generation, measurement, brand, leadership, storytelling – with workshops on the third day for all-access pass holders. The attendee-to-sponsor ratio stays refreshingly high, the closing keynote is genuinely memorable, and the community atmosphere is something attendees come back for year after year.

Who should attend: US-based B2B practitioners and team leads, particularly those in content, demand and brand roles. Excellent for marketers who want a mix of tactical learning and peer community. Less suited to CMOs looking purely for strategic peer-to-peer time – ANA Masters is the better fit there.

B2B Marketing Awards – November, London

When and where: 25 November 2026, Old Billingsgate, London (evening)

Audience: The full UK B2B marketing community – CMOs, marketing teams, agency leaders and the in-house teams whose campaigns are up for recognition. The biggest single gathering of B2B marketing people in the UK calendar.

Price: Table packages typically £4,000–£8,000 depending on size and position; individual seats available subject to availability

The B2B Marketing Awards are the gold standard for B2B marketing recognition, and the ceremony itself is the biggest night in the UK B2B calendar. Now in its 22nd year, the awards span campaign mechanics, brand, growth, audiences, teams and the Grand Prix for the year’s most outstanding work. Judging is done in two rigorous stages by senior client-side marketers and industry experts – winning genuinely means something.

Beyond the trophies, the ceremony is the single best networking night of the year. Old Billingsgate fills with the people behind the campaigns you’ve admired all year, and the conversations between courses are often more valuable than a day-long conference. Even if your team isn’t shortlisted, attending is a fast track to seeing the work that’s setting the bar in B2B – and meeting the people doing it.

Who should attend: every senior UK B2B marketer should be in the room. Bring your team if you can: there is no better way to inspire them, celebrate them and show them what excellence looks like in this industry.

How to build your calendar

Few teams will attend all eight, and you shouldn’t try. For a UK-anchored portfolio, Ignite in July, the Global ABM Conference in November and the Awards three weeks later cover the bulk of what you need – add the Propolis Leaders Forum if you’re a member, and one US trip (B2BMX in March for tactical, ANA Masters in June for senior). For US-anchored teams, lead with MPB2B and ANA Masters, then pick one European trip – Ignite if you want breadth, the Global ABM Conference if you want depth.

Most 2027 dates will be confirmed shortly after each 2026 event closes. The London hotel rates around Awards week and Ignite go first, so book travel as soon as dates land.