Wondering what customer service or contact center conference to attend in 2020?
We’ve got you covered.
Whatever anyone says, attending live events is essential if you want to keep up and keep involved with the industry around.
Not only is it a chance to find out what everyone is working on — and hopefully pick up some tips — but it’s also a chance to meet with our peers. And you shouldn’t underestimate how important that part is.
Particularly in an industry like customer support, it’s so important to be around people who are working on the same things and can understand what it’s like to be in our shoes. It’s fun, educational, and a great opportunity to build new relationships.
This year, we’ve published our full selection of customer service conferences and contact center summits in North America. We’re personally attending the five below, and possibly more, so please let us know if you’re coming, too!
You can find the full list below in chronological order.
Simply click on any conference to be taken to the details, or scroll on to see the full list in detail:
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences 2020:
- Customer Contact Week, Nashville
- Chief Customer Officers USA, Atlanta
- Zendesk Relate, Miami
- X4 Experience Summit, Salt Lake City
- Next Generation Customer Experience, Indian Wells
- Modern CX, Las Vegas
- Adobe Experience Summit, Las Vegas
- CX Talks, Dallas
- SWPP Annual Conference, Nashville
- Customer Experience Strategies Summit, Toronto
- C3: Clarabridge Customer Connections, San Diego
- Customer Contact East, Ft. Lauderdale
- Smart Customer Service, Washington DC
- SQM Customer Experience Conference, Coeur d’Alene, ID
- Elevate CX, Denver
- ICMI Contact Center Expo, Ft. Lauderdale
- Pulse, San Francisco
- CSPN Customer & Employee Experience Conference, Toronto
- CXPA InsightExchange, Salt Lake City
- The Customer Service Summit, San Diego
- Forrester: CX North America, New York City
- Customer Contact Week, Las Vegas
- NECCF Annual Conference & Expo, Foxborough, MA
- Support Driven Expo Americas, Portland
- Call & Contact Center Expo USA, Las Vegas
- GTACC 2020 Conference, Toronto
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in January 2020
Date of Event: January 28-31, 2020
Location: Nashville, USA
Event Host: IQPC Inc.
Who Should Attend: Contact center managers and executives, customer support agents, customer experience leaders.
Notable Speakers: Jerry Greenfield – Ben & Jerry’s, Annette Franze – CX Journey, Kelley Kurtzman – Verizon
Description: For those industry leaders who can’t get enough of Customer Contact Week in the summer, CCW Nashville has your back. They kick off the new decade with a selection of aspirational speakers, including the First Female NFL Official Sarah Thomas. The strong educational offerings alone make this customer support conference attractive, with plenty of opportunities to network both formally and informally with people from all strata of the customer service industry. Plus, we’re betting the weather in Nashville isn’t too bad either.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in February
Date of Event: February 5-6, 2020
Location: Atlanta, USA
Event Host: Corinium
Who Should Attend: CEOs, chief customer officers, CXOs, COOs, contact center leadership.
Notable Speakers: Elizabeth Zornes – Zendesk, Raj Sivasubramanian – AirBnB, Bob Azman – CXPA
Description: Chief Customer Officers is a premium event designed for customer experience leadership. It’s only a couple of days long but they manage to cram in a LOT. Besides the keynote presentations, attendees have the opportunity to attend the breakout Discussion Group sessions, with many attendees citing these as the highlight of the conference. These are a great (and rare) opportunity to spend 45 minutes in an open, friendly discussion with leaders in customer service. Definitely worth a look in for any C-level customer support executives.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in March
Date of Event: March 3-5, 2020
Location: Miami, USA
Event Host: Zendesk
Who Should Attend: COOs, CXOs, CCOs, Zendesk users, customer experience managers
Notable Speakers: Jesse Itzler – Owner, Atlanta Falcons; Sara Blakely – CEO, Spanx;
Description: Relate is Zendesk’s 3-day global user ‘experience’. Not only can you get all the latest tips, tricks, and sneak previews from the Zendesk product line, but you also get to meet everyone else using it too.
Date of Event: March 10-13, 2020
Location: Salt Lake City, USA
Event Host: Qualtrics
Who Should Attend: COOs, CXOs, CCOs, customer research experts, customer experience managers
Notable Speakers: Ellen Degeneres, Michelle Obama
Description: Qualtrics’ X4 Experience Management Summit is a gathering of the world’s leaders in customer, employee, product and brand experience. This event gets a lot of coverage and is accordingly awash with young entrepreneurs and industry leaders from top brands like AMEX, Google and Southwest.
Date of Event: March 23-25, 2020
Location: Indian Wells, USA
Event Host: Worldwide Business Research
Who Should Attend: CXOs, Heads of Customer Experience, senior UX managers and designers, contact center and customer experience managers
Notable Speakers: Kristin Reilly – VP, Walmart; Troy Barnes – CCO, Pizza Hut;
Description: NGCE is a leadership event, focused on fostering customer-centric business processes and decision-making. It’s packed full of CX innovators from a variety of industries, all exploring ways to delight their customers again and again; and make the customer experience a priority for businesses.
Date of Event: March 23-26, 2020
Location: Chicago, USA
Event Host: Oracle
Who Should Attend: CMOs, customer support executives and management,
Notable Speakers: Satya Nadella – CEO, Microsoft; Susan Johnson – CMO, Suntrust Bank
Description: Oracle cast a broad net, with learning and networking opportunities tailored for customer service professionals at almost every level. With a totally flexible event experience, attendees can access a range of workshops — as well as 1:1 time with Oracle’s own experts — to help take their CX game to the next level.
Date of Event: March 29-April 2, 2020
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Event Host: Adobe
Who Should Attend: CMOs, C-level CX executives, VPs of customer service and support, design and content leadership
Notable Speakers: Satya Nadella – CEO, Microsoft; Susan Johnson – CMO, Suntrust Bank
Description: Not to be outdone by Oracle, Adobe’s Experience Summit is another huge conference, dedicated to teaching attendees how to customer experiences that leave a lasting impression on customers, through technology, content, and design. Expect to walk away with a lot of ideas for redesigning…almost everything! And, if you can’t make it in the real, you can sign up to attend the event virtually, from anywhere in the world.
Date of Event: March 30-31, 2020
Location: Dallas, USA
Event Host: Macquarium
Who Should Attend: Customer experience leaders, call center managers, customer support managers and directors
Notable Speakers: Mike Gomes – CXO, Cortland (2019); Diane Magers, CCXP;
Description: The goal for CX Talks is to bring together a variety of professionals from a wide variety of CX practices to meet, learn and share what each of us knows about the growing CX profession. With over 30 speakers from top brands like AT&T, Chick-fil-A, CocaCola and Verizon, the quality of content here is always top-notch. And with several shows throughout the year, you don’t have an excuse to miss it.
Date of Event: March 31- April 1, 2020
Location: Nashville, USA
Event Host: Society of Workforce Planning Professionals
Who Should Attend: COOs, WFM leadership, contact center managers, customer support managers, call center agents,
Notable Speakers: Justin Robbins – 8×8 (2019)
Description: The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals returns to Nashville for their annual two-day event based around Standards and Strategies for Call Center Staffing. For a short-conference, SWPP has a lot of compelling workshops and seminars, focusing their learning around the classroom and facilitated discussion sessions. If you’re looking for a learning-heavy experience with some WFM heavy-hitters, head to SWPP 2020.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in April
Date of Event: April 16-17, 2020
Location: Toronto, Canada
Event Host: Strategy Institute
Who Should Attend: UX/Design VPs, all CX executives
Notable Speakers: Tom LeBaron – CX Director, Walt Disney; Melanie Bois – Director, Voice of the Customer;
Description: CXS will mark its ninth year with another impactful event in Toronto, packed with case studies, training panels, and unmissable keynotes that will give you a new perspective on your customers and how they interact with your brand. Whether you’re a large or a small business, the content here is designed to be scaled to your needs.
Event Host: Clarabridge
Date of Event: April 20-22, 2020
Location: San Diego, USA
Who Should Attend: CXOs, contact center managers, customer support leadership.
Notable Speakers: Bruce Temkin – Founder, Temkin Group (2017); Jeannie Walters – CEO, 360Connext; (2017)
Description: Although still just a ‘save the date’ for 2020, we can always expect some great speakers and workshops at C3. Attendees can expect to learn about the new technology they can apply to enhance the customer journey and streamline customer support operations to accommodate the modern consumer.
Date of Event: April 26-29, 2020
Location: Fort Lauderdale, USA
Event Host: Frost & Sullivan
Who Should Attend: CX directors and executives, contact center leadership, customer service leadership, operations executives
Notable Speakers: Anne Bibb – Snr. Customer Care Director, Hilton; Rena Thompson – Dir. Call Center Ops, Cleveland Clinics
Description: The research and business analytics firm Frost & Sullivan hold two annual conferences focused on customer experience, East Coast & West Coast. East coast is up first, and you can expect top-level customer executives from across the customer experience space, both on stage and in the myriad of workshops covering everything from ops to customer service strategy.
Date of Event: April 27-29, 2020
Location: Washington DC, USA
Event Host: Strategy Institute.
Who Should Attend: CX executives, customer support directors and operations executives, CS/CX research leaders, customer service agents
Notable Speakers: Callie Field – EVP, T-Mobile; Jay Bauer – Author, Social Pros;
Description: Smart Customer Service marks its eighth year in Washington with a spotlight on the technology that’s changing the customer experience and all of our lives. Learn about some of the innovative approaches that the world’s leading brands are using to maximize the value of customer interactions.
Date of Event: April 28-30, 2020
Location: Coeur d’Alene, USA
Event Host: SQM Group
Who Should Attend: CX executives, call center managers, customer support directors and operations executives
Notable Speakers: Mike Desmarais – CEO, SQM Group;
Description: Learn industry-tested strategies on how to improve the customer experience in your company and how to develop a CX management strategy at SQM’s Annual Customer Experience Conference and Industry Awards 2020. This event has been running since 1996, bringing together hundreds of contact center and CX leaders. The focus this year is on how contact centers can contribute more to their organization’s strategy and performance, something we discuss in our 2021 contact center trends report.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in May
Date of Event: May 13-14, 2020
Location: Toronto, Canada
Event Host: Customer Service Professionals Network (CSPN)
Who Should Attend: CSPN members, CX leaders, directors and agents, customer support managers and professionals
Notable Speakers: Angeline Singh – Director Client Service, ADP; Marketa Gibson – VP, Nestle
Description: CSPN returns for its 23rd CX event. This is one of our favorites, and probably one of the best call center conferences you can attend this year. Over the 3-day summit, attendees will get a mix of insights from guest speakers drawing from their personal challenges and mistakes, as well as workshops and breakout sessions with a focus on building better customer and employee experiences and relationships.
Date of Event: May 15-16, 2020
Location: Salt Lake City, USA
Event Host: Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)
Who Should Attend: CXPA members, CX leaders, directors and agents, customer support directors;
Notable Speakers: Scott Steen – Director, APS; Greeta Wilson – CCXP, Humana;
Description: Although run by the CXPA, this conference is open to members and non-members alike. It’s the perfect opportunity for customer experiences professionals at every stage of their career to expand their knowledge and network. Their mix of high-quality educational content and small-groups sessions usually makes this a fruitful event with lots of opportunities to meet influencers in your niche.
Date of Event: May 1-2, 2020
Location: Denver, USA
Event Host: Elevate Summit & CoSupport, LLC
Who Should Attend: Directors of CX, customer advocates, directors and customer support managers, call center leaders
Notable Speakers: Darcy Peters – HHL, Buffer; Chelsea Margolies – Director of CS, 15Five;
Description: Elevate is a smaller scale summit for around 200 leaders of the customer experience world, with two days of learning and networking opportunities. Expect an intimate crowd of dedicated CX professionals, actionable advice from the speakers and workshops, and a well-thought-out itinerary.
Date of Event: May 11-14, 2020
Location: Fort Lauderdale, USA
Event Host: InformaTech; ICMI
Who Should Attend: Contact center executives, managers, agents, customer support directors and operations executives
Notable Speakers: Carla Harris – VC Global Wealth, Morgan Stanley; Roy Atkinson – CX Analyst, HDI;
Description: ICMI’s expo is one of the biggest and probably the most important in the contact center world. With over 30 years of experience running call center conferences to better serve the industry, you can always expect there to be something new and inspiring to learn at ICMI, as well as some of the best networking opportunities all year.
Pulse, San Francisco
Date of Event: May 13-14, 2020
Location: San Francisco, USA
Event Host: Gainsight
Who Should Attend: Contact center executives, customer success managers, support agents, operations managers
Notable Speakers: Allison Picken – COO, Gainsight;
Description: Pulse describes itself as the biggest customer success and product management conference in the world. As customer care conferences go, it’s pretty big. Whether you’re looking for the latest thought-leadership from best-in-class organizations, making lasting connections with your peers in the CX game, Pulse has you covered.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in June
The Customer Service Summit, San Diego
Date of Event: June 8-9, 2020
Location: San Diego, USA
Event Host: Incite Group
Who Should Attend: Customer engagement experts, contact center executives, customer support agents and managers
Notable Speakers: Andrea Silas – VP Support, DreamHost; Young Noble – Dir. of CX, Samsung;
Description: This is one of the few customer experience conferences with a focus on the business of customer service itself. You’ll find lots of leaders and experts, and novel vendors to help take your customer support department to the next level.
Date of Event: June 16-18, 2020
Location: New York City, USA
Event Host: Forrester Research
Who Should Attend: Customer support executives, CX experts and analysts, CX product developers
Notable Speakers: Mary McDuffie – President/CEO, Navy Federal CU; Maryssa Miller, Head of Digital, JetBlue; (2019)
Description: Forrester’s CX summit in NYC is an annual customer service data-fest and a leading customer support executive conference. Bustling with data analysts, CX experts and customer service leaders, this event has all the tools to help you build a data-driven approach to customer service.
Date of Event: June 22-26, 2020
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Event Host: IQPC Inc.
Who Should Attend: Contact center executives, customer support agents, customer engagement experts
Notable Speakers: Joe Montana – QB, San Francisco 49ers;
Description: Customer Contact Week Las Vegas is CCW’s main event of the year, and one of the biggest and best customer service conferences in the world. It’s packed full of breakout sessions with contact center experts and interesting SAAS vendors; this is a must for any serious contact center professional.
Date of Event: June 9, 2020
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Event Host: NECCF
Who Should Attend: Contact center executives and managers, customer support agents,
Notable Speakers: Talkdesk; Genesys; (2019)
Description: The NECCF’s Annual Conference & Expo is a highly anticipated event in the northeast with an emphasis placed on showcasing the latest in technology and innovation in the contact center industry. The day includes a wealth of networking opportunities, roundtable discussions, and expert-led workshops.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in July
Date of Event: July 12-13, 2020
Location: Portland, USA
Event Host: Support Driven
Who Should Attend: Customer care leaders, customer support executives, Heads of customer service
Notable Speakers: Jez Louise – Head of Support, Job Adder; (2019)
Description: Support Driven’s Americas conference brings together some of the leaders of customer support to provide the tools you need to succeed in contact center life. It’s a conference that’s all about the service and support side of the industry, bursting with great tips and real-world solutions for creating a seamless customer experience.
Customer Service and Contact Center Conferences in September in October
Date of Event: October 21-22, 2020
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Event Host: Prysm Group Inc.
Who Should Attend: Contact center executives, call center managers, contact center agents
Notable Speakers: Dr Nicola Millard – Head of Customer Insight, BT;
Description: CCC is a customer engagement conference that’s focused on where the bulk of the engagement happens – the contact center. Expect breakout sessions and speakers on building the contact center of the future, the latest technology, and some great vendors.
Date of Event: October 22, 2020
Location: Toronto, Canada
Event Host: GTACC
Who Should Attend: Contact center leaders and executives, contact center managers, call center agents
Notable Speakers: Harriet Thornhill – VP, RBC Contact Centers;
Description: One of our favorite conferences for the contact center world, especially is the GTACC’s event in Toronto. And we’re not just saying that because it’s local. This is a great one for anyone involved in contact center life; expect contact center leaders from some of the biggest North American brands giving up their secrets.
Is your favourite customer service summit missing from this list? Share them in the comments below or reach out to us and we’ll see if we can squeeze it in.