The Ultimate Guide to Conferences for Creatives

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UPDATE: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I've put a pause on updating my creative conferences list for now, as my original intention was to focus on in-person conferences only, rather than virtual events. Now that things have changed for the foreseeable future, I'm trying to determine how and if to include online events. It was already quite time-consuming to keep this list up-to-date, and virtual events are much more numerous. In the mean time, I encourage you to check out the websites of the events listed below to see if they’ve announced virtual versions of their events. Stay tuned, and stay healthy!

Meeting other creatives face-to-face at conferences, workshops and events has been absolutely crucial for growing my business over the years. I remember going to one of my first creative conferences in 2007 in Pittsburgh. It was called Craft Congress, and it was a gathering of craft show organizers from across the country. I met people there that I still keep in touch with to this day. (The photo above of me in costume is from a Golden Girls themed party at Craftcation: Business & Makers Conference, one of my favorite conferences I've attended and spoken at!)

When I first started this directory of creative conferences back in 2016, I was looking for other conferences and events to check out and speak at.

 
 

I found plenty of roundups for business and marketing conferences, but I couldn’t find one that comprehensively listed the types of creative conferences that I was looking for at the time. So I decided to create one!

What I mean by “creative conference”

I’m taking a pretty broad approach to what it means to be a “creative conference,” which is why I’m including events like Dragoncon, which I attended for many years (I even spoke at their Electronic Frontiers Forums!) and which is full of INCREDIBLY creative people. While there are plenty of great online events, like virtual summits and online conferences, I’ve focused on live, in-person conferences & events for this directory.

I also steered clear of many traditional business and digital marketing industry events for this roundup, but I included a few bigger conferences that are known for incredible speakers and amazing content. (Here’s a great directory of business and marketing conferences if you’re interested. And if you’re into zines and small press publishing, check out this list of zine events.)

Most events listed here are geared towards individual creative entrepreneurs, artists, bloggers, designers, infopreneurs and crafters. I’ve included the primary target audience for each conference below.

The majority of these events are based in the United States, but if you live anywhere in the world and know of a creative entrepreneur conference that should be on this list, please contact me and let me know!

Creative Conferences 2020

February 2020

March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

June 2020

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

 

Creative Conferences 2021

January 2021

  • Creativation // January 14-18, 2021 // Phoenix, Arizona // creative industry professionals

 

Looking for a speaker or emcee for your event?

I have decades of experience performing on stages of all shapes and sizes, across the United States. I specialize in bringing plenty of energy, fun, and entertainment to my role as a conference keynote speaker.

 
 

I can also serve as a conference emcee, dance party hype girl, karaoke host, panel moderator, or drag performer. (Costumes optional.) Learn more here.

Best creative conferences?

Want to know more about my favorite creative conferences, including the ones I’ve attended and/or spoken at? Listen to Episode 013 of my podcast, Badass Creatives:

Drop me a note and let me know which conferences for creatives you’ve personally attended or hope to attend. In your opinion, which creative conferences are the best?

I’ll continue to update this list as more creativity conferences are announced, so please contact me if you know of a conference that should be here!