The seventh annual crowdsourced list of must-attend events.
Large industry conferences. Annual association meetings. Intimate, curated gatherings: The range of professional events already filling up the 2025 calendar is astounding.
Even in — or especially in — a digitally connected world, live conferences and gatherings offer important opportunities to deepen relationships and encounter new ideas. Whether through spontaneous hallway conversations, thought-provoking sessions, or structured networking opportunities, these events offer participants the chance to step beyond their daily routines and engage with the broader currents shaping their fields.
At Luminary Labs, we relish opportunities to connect with clients and partners in the field and we love to know where these leaders and innovators are spending time.
Each winter, we survey our team and extended network to compile a list of must-attend conferences and events for the year ahead. In our seventh annual list we’ve highlighted over 150 compelling events across our focus areas and topics of interest.
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, connect with us on LinkedIn and let us know where you’ll be this year.
Future of work and education
- AASA (School Superintendents Association) National Conference on Education
- ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) CareerTech Vision
- ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) National Work-based Learning Conference
- ACTER’s CTE Research and Professional Development Conference*
- American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Annual Meeting
- American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting
- Anthology Together
- ASU+GSV Summit
- Aurora Institute Symposium
- Charter Workplace Summit
- Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) National Conference
- Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
- Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Annual Conference
- Culturati Summit
- EdTech Week
- EdTech World Forum
- Future of Work USA
- Grantmakers for Education Annual Conference
- Innovative Schools Summit
- Institute for Education Innovation
- ISTELive (International Society for Technology in Education)
- JFF Horizons
- Leading with AI: A Charter Summit
- Learning Ideas Conference
- National Conference on Science Education
- National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS) Professional Conference
- National Forum to Advance Rural Education
- National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Conference and Expo
- National Summit on Improvement in Education 2025 (formerly Carnegie Summit)
- National STEM Festival
- NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference
- NSBA (National School Boards Association) Annual Conference
- Quality Assurance Symposium (AAQEP Annual Meeting)
- Skills Summit (National Skills Coalition)
- Stanford AI+Education Summit
- Space Exploration Educators Conference
- SXSW EDU
- TRETC (Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference)
Future of health
- ACHE 2025 Congress
- Ai-Med Global Summit*
- ATA Nexus
- Behavioral Health Tech Conference
- BioFuture Healthcare and Technology Conference
- The Digital Benefits Conference — BenCon
- Civitas Networks for Health Annual Conference
- Check Up by Google Health*
- The Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA) annual meeting*
- Digital Health & AI Innovation Summit
- Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit (DHIS East)
- Digital Health Summit NY
- FIERCE Biotech Summit
- Frontiers Health
- HealthTech ConX*
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Health Conference
- Health Datapalooza*
- HLTH
- Integrative Healthcare Symposium
- International Forum on Quality and Safety Healthcare
- J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
- Lake Nona Impact Forum
- LogiMed
- MED-PR
- Mental Health America Conference
- Milken Institute Future of Health Summit
- National Human Services Summit (APHSA)
- Open Innovation In Life Sciences*
- NextMed Health
- Rare Disease Summit
- Rock Health Summit
- SCOPE Summit for Clinical Ops Executives
- Society for Public Health Education Annual Conference
- STAT Summit
- SXSW Health & MedTech
- VHA Innovation Experience (iEX)
- ViVE
- World Health Summit
- World Vaccine Congress
- Young Health Leader Summit
Scientific discovery
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting 2025
- American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Meeting
- Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Annual Meeting
- BIO International Convention
- Bloom
- CNS Summit (Collaborating for Novel Solutions)
- CubeSat Developers Workshop
- Falling Walls Science Summit
- ID Week (Infectious Diseases Society of America)
- IEEE Aerospace Conference
- International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
- International Conference on Neurology and Neurological Disorders
- Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) Annual Symposium: Scientific Foundation Models
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Regulatory Information Conference
- Open Science Conference and EOSC Symposium
- Science Summit at UN General Assembly*
- Small Satellite Conference
- Space Economy Summit
- Space Symposium
- Space Tech Expo
- STAT Breakthrough Summit
- SynBioBeta Global Synthetic Biology Conference
- University of Arizona Science of Consciousness Conference
Infrastructure
- America’s SBDC Annual Conference
- ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit
- BloombergNEF Summit
- BuiltWorlds Innovating Building Materials and Supply Chain Conference
- Circularity
- Climate Week NYC
- DERVOS — ”the Davos of distributed energy resources”
- DistribuTECH International
- Green Schools Conference
- Infra4Dev Conference (World Bank)
- International Conference on Healthy Buildings
- MIT Energy Conference
- NASEM Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting
- National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) and the Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) Washington Conference
- National Planning Conference (American Planning Association)
- Pacific Conference for Development Economics
- Smart Cities Connect Conference
- Smart City Expo USA
- Smart Growth America’s Equity Summit
- Smart City Expo World Congress
- UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30)
- Urban Tech Forward
- Urban Tech Summit*
- VERGE Climate Tech Event
- Vision Zero Cities Conference*
Futurism, technology, and innovation
- AI4 Conference
- AIGA Design Conference
- Aspen Ideas Festival
- Atlantic Festival
- CES
- Code for America Summit
- Databricks Data + AI Summit
- Design Thinkers
- EmTechAI (MIT Technology Review)
- Fast Company Innovation Festival
- FormFest by Code for America*
- The Future of Everything Festival (Wall Street Journal)
- FWD50
- Goals House
- Government Service Delivery (formerly GovernmentDX)
- International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Innovation Conference
- Milken Institute Global Conference
- National Cyber Summit
- New Yorker Festival
- NYCxDESIGN Festival
- Tech Week
- VentureWell Innovation in Action (VIA) Summit (formerly OPEN Conference)
- Penrose*
- Public Interest Technology University Network Summit*
- Service Design Network Global Conference*
- SOCAP Global
- Solve at MIT
- SXSW
- Transform
- World Open Innovation Conference
- World Usability Congress
* At time of publication, some annual events included on this list have not announced their 2025 dates. We’ve flagged those entries with an asterisk.