Luminary Labs’ fourth annual list of crowdsourced conferences
Over the past two years, the way we gather has radically shifted. Fully virtual events removed geographic barriers and made conferences more accessible, diverse, and inclusive. But online convenings — and the tentative return to in-person events — have also helped us realize everything we’ve missed about gathering in the same place.
Luminary Labs conducted a survey from February 3-16, 2022, to crowdsource a list of the year’s most anticipated events. We also wanted to track shifting attitudes toward attending events. A majority of respondents plan to attend both in-person and virtual events this year, and a sizable percentage plan to only attend in-person events. Last year, half of respondents to our 2021 survey told us they planned to exclusively attend virtual events — but this year, no one said they would only attend virtual events.
Anecdotally, we’ve heard that even people who were happy to take a break from conferences in 2020 are once again eager to bump elbows with strangers and make small talk in a convention center hallway. One survey respondent told us that in-person conferences have actually been better during the pandemic because only the people who want to be there make an effort to attend.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the reasons to attend a conference are evergreen. As in past years, most people are in it for the networking. Learning is another top goal, followed by gathering competitive or industry intelligence and making deals or partnerships. For startups, in particular, meeting new people and making connections within an industry can be critical.
Our annual list of crowdsourced conferences, now in its fourth year, is organized around Luminary Labs’ focus areas, with an additional category for events that offer broader coverage of topics across futurism, technology, and innovation, including open innovation.
Where do you go to expand your network or find inspiration for your next big idea? If you don’t see your favorite event on this list, email editor@luminary-labs.com to let us know where you’ll be this year.
Future of work and education
- AASA’s National Conference on Education
- ACTE’s CareerTech Vision
- American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) Conference
- American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Annual Meeting
- Anthology Together
- ASU+GSV Summit
- Chief Information Systems Officer’s Association (CISOA) Technology Summit
- Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) National Conference
- Culturati Summit
- EmTech Next (MIT Technology Review)
- IMS Digital Credentials Summit
- JFF Horizons
- Nation of Makers Conference (NOMCON)
- Quality Assurance Symposium (AAQEP)
- Re-Imagining Education Conference
- SXSW EDU
Future of health
- AIMed Global Summit
- AMCP (Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy) Annual Conference
- Elevate PX (Patient Experience)
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
- HLTH
- Integrative Healthcare Symposium
- International Forum on Quality and Safety Healthcare
- JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
- LogiMed
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Annual Meeting
- Rock Health Summit
- The Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health Annual Conference
- ViVE (from HLTH and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives)
Scientific discovery
- Built With Biology (formerly SynBioBeta)
- CNS Summit (Collaborating for Novel Solutions)
- Cultured Meat Symposium
- Experimental Biology
- Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Conference
- ID Week (Infectious Diseases Society of America)
- International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases
- International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and other Tick-borne diseases (ICLB)
- International Conference on Neurology and Neurological Disorders
- LymeMIND
- World Congress of Neurology
Infrastructure
- Feminist Geography Conference
- Future of Cities Summit (The Hill)
- Micromobility World
- Net Inclusion (National Digital Inclusion Alliance)
- Psychology and Economics of Poverty Convening
- Smart Cities Connect Conference
- The Pacific Conference for Development Economics
- Urban Tech Summit
Futurism, technology, and innovation
- Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity (World Economic Forum)
- Anticipation Conference
- Aspen Ideas Festival
- Code for America Summit
- Coro New York Leadership Conference
- CyberSecure (MIT Technology Review)
- EmTech Digital (MIT Technology Review)
- Fast Company Innovation Festival
- Futures Festival
- Global Technology Governance Summit (World Economic Forum)
- International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Innovation Conference
- Mozilla Festival
- National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) Data Conference
- News Product Alliance Summit
- Open and User Innovation (OUI) Conference
- Power Summit
- SOCAP Global
- Solve at MIT
- SXSW
- The Future of Everything Festival (Wall Street Journal)
- We Are All Data People
- World Open Innovation Conference
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Photo by Jonas Kakaroto
