The Best Virtual Product Events to Attend in 2020

Back at the beginning of the year, we made a list of all of the product conferences you should attend in 2020. However, recent events have caused many of these great events to either be postponed or moved online. In this new and uncertain world, we thought we’d share a list of high-quality virtual product conferences, workshops, and events you can still enjoy this year, right from the comfort and safety of home.

Forrester SiriusDecisions Summit

If you’re a PM for a B2B product, this virtual conference is a must-attend. Forrester and SiriusDecisions are some of the leaders in industry research and analysis, and they will be sharing their insights on sales, marketing, and product at this multi-day summit. From May 4-7, some of the top minds in the business of B2B will share best practices and actionable advice for high-functioning teams. The event also offers 1:1 meetings with analysts to discuss your product and organization’s specific strategies and concerns.

The ProductCraft Virtual Conference 

We at ProductCraft had a fantastic time at our San Francisco event back in February and really enjoyed meeting so many product pros. Unfortunately, we had to postpone our ProductCraft Conference events in London and Boston due to COVID-19. However, we didn’t want to leave our fellow product-obsessed peers empty-handed. That’s why the ProductCraft Conference is coming directly to you as a free virtual event on May 7.

You can expect the same high-quality speakers and session content as our in-person events but from the comfort and safety of your home. And as always, we’ll be putting a different spin on the traditional product conference format, with plenty of opportunities for networking through our ProductCraft Slack channel. Presenters include product leaders from some of tech’s fastest-growing companies, including Box, 15Five, and Coursera. 

Virtual Product Summit + ProductCon

Product School, one of the leaders in product management courses and certification, is holding a number of virtual events this year. First up is their Virtual Product Summit, which takes place on May 21. The four-hour live stream begins at 9 a.m. and features an impressive list of speakers, including Andrey Khusid, the CEO of Miro, and Parul Goel, the head of product at PayPal. We’re particularly interested in the “3 Key Biases in Product and How to Avoid Them” session, presented by Clémence Tiradon, director of product at eBay. Tickets are free if purchased before May 15.

ProductCon, Product School’s marquee event, has moved entirely online. The four virtual events will take place on the following dates:

• May 26: ProductCon San Francisco
• July 9: ProductCon Seattle
• September 10: ProductCon New York
• November 5: ProductCon Los Angeles

ProductCampRTP

We wanted to give a shout-out to our fellow product-obsessed, North Carolina-based friends at ProductCampRTP. Unlike many other product conferences, this one isn’t organized by a specific company and is designed to be industry- and market segment-agnostic. Whether you work for a B2B company, a B2C org, a manufacturing plant, or a bleeding-tech cloud software firm, you’re welcome at ProductCampRTP. This year, the event will take place entirely online over four consecutive Thursdays in June/July. And speaker slots are open if you want to apply.

Product-Led Summit

This summit comes from the Product-Led Institute, founded by our friend Wes Bush. And if you want to hear from some of the product-led growth movement’s biggest advocates and most advanced practitioners, then this is the virtual event for you. Well, it’s not technically an “event,” since you can access the content on-demand. But you do need to sign up. And registration is well worth it, as you’ll receive access to over 100 talks on PLG and related product topics. Speaker highlights include:

• Aazar Shad, head of growth at Userpilot
• David Darmanin, CEO of Hotjar
• Brian Donohue, director of product at Intercom
• Matheus Mello, growth product manager at Productboard
• Nir Eyal, bestselling author

The Progressive Delivery and Experimentation Virtual Summit (Test and Learn)

The team at Optimizely hosted their first virtual Test and Learn event last year, and it was such a success that they’re hosting an even bigger online event this year. This summit is geared more toward the “quants” than the “poets” among the product management ranks, but anyone who works with analytics in some capacity is sure to learn something new and valuable. The event takes place on May 20 and will offer attendees over five hours of expert content aimed at helping them deliver better software, faster. Speakers include Oji Odezue, VP of product at Calendly, and Nicole Forsgren, VP of research and strategy at GitHub.

Tech in Asia Product Development Conference (PDC)

The theme of Tech in Asia’s now-virtual flagship conference is a very timely one: Pivoting Products in a Pandemic. If that isn’t enough to get you interested, the list of speakers includes product leaders from companies like Google and Y Combinator, and attendees will get access to over thirty hours of content. There are two separate conference series: the Indonesia Series, which takes place on July 1st and 2nd, and the Regional series, happening on July 7th and 8th. Both will offer actionable sessions on how to build and scale great products in the Asian market.

INDUSTRY Virtual Conference and Workshops

INDUSTRY, best known for its large in-person product conferences, is going remote this year. The INDUSTRY Virtual conference will take place on September 22 and 23 of this year. Twenty top-of-the-line product speakers (including our and Pendo’s CEO, Todd Olson) from companies like InVision, Basecamp, and Optimizely will appear “on stage” at the event. Tickets range in cost from $125 to $699, with each price point offering additional content.

Looking for a smaller, more hands-on virtual product event? The INDUSTRY team has also put together a series of highly interactive online workshops, each limited to 50 or fewer participants. You’ll get the chance to collaborate with other product professionals and get real-world advice from leaders in the field. Facilitators include Dan Olsen, Gibson Biddle, and Bob Moesta of Rewired. One workshop that caught our eye as being particularly relevant is “Choosing the Right Strategy for Growth in Feast or Famine,” taking place on May 12 and headed by Tami Reiss, SVP of product strategy at Produx Labs. Sessions range in length from three to five-and-a-half hours, and the price varies by workshop.

JAM Online 2020

The JAM product conference started as a small event back in 2015 and grew to draw thousands of product practitioners each year. This year, the conference is going fully virtual (excluding a small, socially-distanced in-person event called the JAM Salon in London) for a five-day online experience. From Oct 12-17, attendees will find their agendas jam-packed (pun intended) with fantastic product sessions, engaging speakers, networking opportunities, and hands-on workshops. Also, their event themes  — Shaping the Future, Building Resilience, and Reinventing Remote — are particularly relevant to the challenges facing PMs today.

We hope this list helps you stay both healthy at home and up-to-date on your product management skills and knowledge. Did we miss another virtual product event you’ll be attending? Let us know on Twitter (@Product_Craft) and we’ll add it to the list.