Must-Attend Engineering Conferences in 2022 & 2023

If you’re looking to stay up to date with the latest trends in your field, attending conferences is the way to go! Many in-person, hybrid, and virtual conferences will return in 2022 and 2023.

At these events, you’ll be able to hear from world-class keynote speakers and executives. You’ll also have the opportunity to participate in Q&A sessions, broaden your knowledge, and engage with like-minded peers from other companies across the globe. Additionally, attending conferences will help you gather knowledge that you can bring back to your team!

Let’s take a look at what popular engineering conferences you can attend this year and next. 

• What happens at engineering conferences?
• Benefits of attending an engineering conference
• 6 engineering conferences to attend in 2022 and 2023 

What happens at engineering conferences?

Engineering conferences are a space for professionals, educators, researchers, and academics to gather and discuss field trends, innovations, and concerns. Whether you’re a new engineer or a senior leader at your company, there will always be something new to discover!

Most engineering conferences offer a diverse group of speakers and panel discussions, networking hours where you can meet and connect with other industry professionals, and a wide range of suppliers ready to sell their products, services, and ideas to you (sometimes at a discount!).

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Benefits of attending an engineering conference

• Networking
• Staying up to date
• Learning something new
• Progressing your career
• Meeting industry experts and suppliers

1Networking

When you network at an engineering conference, you strengthen your business connections, grow your personal brand, and raise your professional profile. Networking leads to the exchange of ideas and knowledge, contributes to your social well-being, and can help you boost your professional confidence. Networking with industry veterans and others who are striving to make their mark in the field also gives you insight into areas you may not have known about otherwise! When you have a large, interconnected network, you’ll be given broader access to new and valuable information more regularly. 

2Staying up to date

Attending an engineering conference won’t hurt, even if you make an effort to stay up to date on the latest trends. At a large event, you’re bound to chat one-on-one with other professionals about their work and research, and they may even give you advice on how to refine your own skills. Attending a conference will expose you to changes in your field that can be costly and even destroy your business if you’re caught unaware. Don’t lose your market share to your competitors because you’re unprepared! When you stay up to date on industry best practices, you’re investing in your business and yourself. 

3Learning something new

You never stop learning throughout your professional career, and this is especially true in engineering! The speakers at these events are often among the best in the industry. Learning from the best means that you’ll learn how to implement change in your own everyday work. Hearing the achievements of others will also energize you to apply new strategies to your work—as a result, you’ll go back to your organization with newfound creativity and inspiration! 

4Progressing your career

 A conference is a great place to learn more about your career growth options. Whether you’re a third-year university student or the CEO of a multinational company, you may meet someone who could dramatically impact the course of your professional career. If you’re looking for a new role, company, business partner, collaborator, or a general idea of how you can move your career forward, an engineering conference is a perfect place to get more information! 

5Meeting industry experts and suppliers

Nothing will inspire and drive you to work hard quite like meeting other impressive individuals in your field. At engineering conferences, you’ll be exposed to experts who will challenge you to bring your new ideas to life. Many conferences have sessions for professional development and career advice. While you and the other attendees may be united by a single broad topic, there will be many sub-fields to learn about from individuals with a variety of different career paths. Additionally, you might meet suppliers that can help your team optimize operations! 

6 engineering conferences to attend in 2022 and 2023 

• Fellow’s Engineering Leadership Summit
• LeadDev
• Advanced Design & Manufacturing (ADM) Expo
• The Engineering Conference
• SAAS North
• DeveloperWeek

1Fellow’s Engineering Leadership Summit

Date: January 27, 2023

Location: Remote

Price: Free

Overview: The event will feature leaders from Netflix, Hashicorp, Numan, Whoop, Oyster, Github and Fellow in a variety of different events! There will be two panels on managing distributed engineering teams and learning how to manage managers; a keynote that will discuss how to be strategic as a technical leader and a live Supermanagers episode with Jason Warner, the former CTO at Github.

2LeadDev

Date: October 25, 2022 (workshops) and October 26-27, 2022 (conference)

Location: San Francisco, CA

Price: $1,499/person (standard conference ticket)

Overview: LeadDev San Francisco is a conference for engineering managers. At the event, you’ll get behind-the-scenes access to case studies from top engineering organizations, practical advice and frameworks, and the opportunity to network with industry leaders from companies like Google, Netflix, and Stripe. At this conference, you’ll learn about creating growth strategies, understanding metrics, nurturing team culture, and building effective teams. 

3Advanced Design & Manufacturing (ADM) Expo

Date: November 9-10, 2022

Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, Montréal, QC 

Price: Free

Overview: The ADM Expo is Montréal’s end-to-end design and manufacturing show. The event covers design and manufacturing, automation technology, PACKEX, EXPOPLAST, and Powder & Bulk Solids. At the event, you’ll explore the latest trends and technologies shaping the future in advanced design and manufacturing across fields like automation, robotics, energy efficiency, packaging, and many others. You’ll also be able to connect personally with suppliers, discover the latest products, and experience new equipment in action to help accelerate your business goals and grow your career. 

4The Engineering Conference

Date: November 3, 2022

Location: The Shaw Centre, Ottawa, ON

Price: $275 to $375/person for in-person attendees*

*Further price breakdown can be found on the conference website

Overview: The Engineering Conference is hosted by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and is Canada’s largest engineering, diversity, and recruitment event. This event will bring together engineers with industry, research, and government leaders to present and discuss opportunities, challenges, and innovations in the field. Delegates at this conference will be able to participate in interactive presentations by professional engineers and subject matter experts on important issues facing the profession, network with colleagues while learning about the innovative engineering work taking place in Ontario, visit trade show booths, and attend panel discussions. 

5SAAS North

Date: November 16-17, 2022

Location: The Shaw Centre, Ottawa, ON

Price: $725/person (early bird special ends October 13, 2022)

Overview: SAAS North is the Canadian hub for rapidly-scaling software as a service (SaaS) founders and their teams. If you’re in SaaS, this is the conference for you. This November, over 2,000 attendees from 800+ companies and 100+ speakers will get to hear from industry experts on topics like the state of SaaS, marketing and growth, sales, customer success, product, pricing strategies, hiring, people and culture, operations and scale, and raising capital, among others. At the event, delegates will have the opportunity to network with other industry members, discuss innovative engineering work in Ontario, and participate in interactive presentations by professional engineers.

6DeveloperWeek

Date: February 15-23, 2023

Location: San Francisco Bay Area and online

Price: Coming soon

Overview: If you’re interested in learning about the latest in developer technologies, languages, platforms, and tools, DeveloperWeek may be the conference for you! DeveloperWeek is the world’s largest developer and engineering technology conference and expo. Each year, more than 8,000 developers, engineers, software architects, dev teams, managers, and executives from more than 70 countries gather to take part in a 1,000+ attendee hackathon, 800+ attendee tech hiring expo, workshops, technical talks, and keynotes. This year, the event includes an expanded DevExec World, two days of roundtable talks, educational talks, and networking opportunities for managers, tech execs, and lead developers! 

Parting advice 

We each have our own reasons for attending conferences, but the fact is that conferences can dramatically enhance our personal and professional development. When you attend a conference, you’re encouraged to dig deeper into topics that interest and excite you. 

Check out one of our top engineering conferences this year or next to network, expand your knowledge base, present your ideas, and learn about and beyond your chosen field of work!