Tom Merritt recommends his picks for the five tech conferences to attend this year.
Conferences are back, and there are lots to choose from. Whether you’re attending virtually, or excited to hang out in person, there’s a place for you to network, learn and more.
While the right conference is often a niche for your specialty, there are several that almost anyone can benefit from. Here are my personal picks for the top five conferences coming in 2022.
- Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference, June 6-10, online. There’s hardly an enterprise that doesn’t touch Apple tech somewhere. Apple provides this yearly academy in developing and managing its products, and the keynote is always good for some major OS announcements and occasionally a surprise or two.
- Black Hat, August 6-11, and DEF CON, August 11-14. These events are happening back to back as they always do in Las Vegas. You get the hacker and professional side of security, and they often mix across the two shows. Turn off your cell phone, secure your laptop and dive in.
- TNW Conference, June 16-17 in Amsterdam. There are lots of publications that put together shows for startups to show off. The Next Web is an interesting one because of its focus on future tech: You’ll see a lot of innovative thinking here.
- IoT World and the AI Summit are moving in together at the Austin Convention Center November 2-3. If you’re digitally transforming, you will be among friends.
- IFA Berlin is arguably the CES of Europe. You’ll get an excellent and very large cross-section of world tech starting September 2nd this year. And though CES itself is technically next year, it comes back to Las Vegas on January 5, 2023.
If one of these gets you excited, I hope you can make it. And if I’m going too, be sure to say hi! Of course, there are well more than 5 conferences happening, so to find more, read our list of all major 2022 tech conferences.
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