B2B Summit North America has earned its reputation as the premier event for B2B marketers — not because it’s flashy but because it’s relentlessly useful. And this year, that usefulness feels especially urgent.
AI, self-directed buying, and increasingly complex buying networks are rewriting the rules of marketing faster than most teams can update their playbooks. Traditional go-to-market models are cracking under the pressure. Measurement is getting harder. Visibility is less guaranteed. And the lines between brand, demand, sales, and product have started to blur.
B2B Summit is designed for this moment. The agenda delivers Forrester’s latest research-backed frameworks and practical guidance — but it also offers something just as valuable: space to think, pressure-test ideas, and connect with peers who are wrestling with the same challenges.
If you’re a marketer attending B2B Summit this year, here are 10 things you shouldn’t miss if you want to get the most out of it.
1. Keynotes That Set The Future Of Marketing
The keynotes at B2B Summit aren’t just big-room inspiration — they lay the intellectual foundation for the content that follows. Each keynote tackles a core pressure point facing modern marketing and offers a clear point of view on what needs to change.
This year’s lineup explores how AI-powered buyer autonomy is dismantling decades-old go-to-market (GTM) models, why discoverability and trust matter more than ever when buyers control the journey, and how brand, demand, and accountability must converge to drive real growth. You’ll also get a practical look at how human creativity and machine intelligence can — and must — work together in a hybrid GTM future.
The throughline across all the keynotes: Marketing, as we’ve known it, isn’t coming back. These sessions give you the language, frameworks, and mental models you’ll hear echoed — and expanded — across breakout sessions, workshops, and hallway conversations. Our advice? Attend them all.
2. Dynamic Breakout Sessions (That Go Beyond The Theory)
With more than 40 marketing-focused breakout sessions, the Summit agenda is built to meet marketers where they are — whether you lead marketing, run ABM, own marketing ops, manage portfolios, or work closely with partners and channels.
The sessions take the big ideas from the keynotes (and beyond) and translate them into tangible guidance you can use. This year’s topics include unified GTM planning, answer engine optimization strategy, marketing to buying groups, organizational design, working with AI agents, and more.
Pro tip: Filter the agenda by topic to craft your ideal schedule, and consider dividing and conquering with a teammate so you can compare notes afterward. If you’re looking to go even deeper, keep an eye out for details on this year’s certification track, which culminates in a professional certificate and digital badge.
3. Interactive Workshops And Roundtables
If you like rolling up your sleeves, don’t skip the workshops and roundtables. These sessions are consistently among the most popular at Summit — and for good reason.
Workshops and roundtables give you the chance to apply what you’re learning, pressure-test ideas, and hear how other teams are tackling similar challenges. Attendees often leave feeling energized — and armed with concrete next steps.
This year’s marketer-focused sessions include:
Bringing Order To The Chaos Of Campaign And Program Workflows
Influence That Builds Brand Authority In The AEO Age
Jump-Starting Your Buying Group Transformation
Make Brand + Demand Your Preference Multiplier
Rewriting The Rules Of Marketing Accountability
These sessions fill up quickly, so make sure you’re registered and ready when sign-ups open.
4. A Simulated B2B Buying Environment
New this year, B2B Summit introduces an immersive, high-impact experience that puts you directly in the buyer’s seat.
Inside a fully simulated B2B buying environment, you’ll navigate real-world customer challenges, make strategic decisions under pressure, and uncover the disconnects that often exist between how vendors think buyers behave — and how they actually do. Guided by expert facilitators, this isn’t a passive session; it’s an eye-opening exercise in empathy, alignment, and GTM reality.
If you’re serious about marketing to buying groups, this is one to prioritize.
5. One-On-One Analyst Meetings
Summit attendees have the opportunity to discuss their specific challenges in a private, 20-minute meeting with a Forrester marketing analyst. Analysts bring years of practitioner experience and deep research context, making these sessions ideal for talking through validating an approach or testing assumptions. If you’re not already a Forrester client, it’s also a great way to experience the value of analyst guidance firsthand.
Sign-ups open shortly before the event, and spots go fast.
6. Curated Networking
B2B Summit networking is both intentionally designed and delightfully serendipitous.
Programs like the invite-only Executive Leadership Exchange and the Forrester Women’s Leadership Program create smaller, more focused environments for meaningful conversation. These sessions emphasize real discussion over small talk and have sparked mentoring relationships, partnerships, and long-standing peer connections over the years.
7. Learning From B2B Award Winners
Our B2B Return On Integration Honors and B2B Programs Of The Year Awards spotlight companies that have achieved standout results through cross-functional alignment or excellence in a specific area of marketing (as well as sales and product). Winners share what worked, what didn’t, and what they had to overcome to get there, with a level of candor and detail that allows attendees to imagine how they might replicate their strategies.
Some past attendees have left inspired enough to aim for the stage themselves the following year — and succeeded.
8. The Marketplace (With An Action Plan)
It’s hard to miss the B2B Summit marketplace — the energetic hub of activity at Summit. The marketplace brings together leading martech providers across buyer intelligence, creative platforms, content management, pipeline tools, and more, making it an ideal place to explore what’s new and what’s next.
To get the most value, we recommend taking an early walk-through to familiarize yourself with the vendors, then circling back to the ones that align most closely with your priorities. Live demos and real-world case studies make it easy to see these solutions in action and envision how they could support your organization’s goals. And yes — picking up a little swag along the way is part of the fun.
9. The Annual B2B Summit Concert
Forrester events have a long-standing tradition of booking impressive musical talent, and this year is no exception. The B2B Summit concert takes place Tuesday night — and if the music alone doesn’t sell you, the food trucks might.
10. A Taste Of Phoenix
Finally, don’t underestimate the value of stepping outside the conference walls.
Whether it’s a quick team dinner, an early-morning walk, or exploring Phoenix’s local food and culture, a little time away from sessions can help ideas settle — and spark some of the best conversations of the week.
Ready? Excited? We can’t wait to see you in Phoenix. Register now if you haven’t already. (And find resources on the page to convince your boss!)
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