Which topics dominate business events and conferences: an analysis of 2,415 conferences

Among the clearly named topic fields, AI and data dominate at conferences with an open call for papers, with 356 of 2,415 conferences or 14.7 per cent. This is shown by our analysis of 2,415 conferences that openly advertise speaking slots for 2026, followed by cloud and DevOps with 281 conferences, software architecture with 99 and security with 86. The largest block, with 1,576 conferences, consists of general and cross-industry programmes in which management and industry topics have their place. This article puts the fields in context and shows what the distribution means for experts who want to win B2B clients through conference stages.

Which topics are most common at conferences?

The most common at conferences are general and cross-industry programmes, and among the clearly defined fields AI and data leads. Our basis is an analysis of 2,415 conferences with a call for papers, the public announcement with which a conference collects talk proposals. Each conference is assigned to its main topic:

• General and cross-industry programmes: 1,576 conferences, 65.3 per cent
• AI and data: 356 conferences, 14.7 per cent
• Cloud and DevOps: 281 conferences, 11.6 per cent
• Software architecture and backend: 99 conferences, 4.1 per cent
• Security: 86 conferences, 3.6 per cent
• Web and frontend: 17 conferences, 0.7 per cent

The large first block covers all conferences whose programme is not assigned to one of the five technology fields. It includes conferences on management or marketing, events about the world of work and industry conferences from manufacturing, retail, healthcare or finance. For consultants and business owners without a technology focus, this block is the most important market, because managing directors and heads of department sit in the audience.

Why AI and data lead

AI and data lead because companies in every industry are deciding how to use AI, and conferences are building their own programmes and tracks for it. With 356 conferences, the field is larger than cloud and DevOps with 281 and more than three times the size of software architecture with 99. The technology fields together account for 839 conferences, around 35 per cent of the analysis.

AI does not only appear at dedicated AI conferences. Many industry conferences in manufacturing, HR or marketing run their own tracks on AI in business, thematic strands within the programme, and practical experience reports are in demand there. For consultants who support AI projects, these tracks are especially productive, because decision-makers who award projects are listening. What committees accept at AI conferences is shown in Speaking at AI conferences.

The downside of size is competition for the slots. Where many conferences advertise a topic, many experts submit too, and a general outlook on the future of AI gets lost in the crowd. What gets accepted is an abstract that shows a concrete application problem from practice, and what a programme committee looks for is described in What a programme committee looks for in an abstract.

Which conference topics are trending for 2027?

The conference topics with the greatest weight for 2027 are AI and data, cloud and security, because they already form the largest named fields in the programmes for 2026. Conference programmes shift their focus gradually from year to year, because organisers bet on topics that drew an audience the year before. The calls for 2027 conferences open during 2026, and if you then offer a practical topic in one of these fields, you meet many open slots.

For experts outside technology, the trend lies in the connection. Leadership in organisations using AI, sales with new tools, HR work amid skills shortages: such topics link a field from the general block with the largest named topic and therefore fit two kinds of programme. How to cut a stage topic from your field that a committee will accept is described in What should I actually talk about?.

How many business events are there in Germany?

Around 2.7 million events of all kinds took place in Germany in 2024, around 2 million of them on site or hybrid. This is the count of the Meeting- & EventBarometer 2024/2025, the annual market study by EVVC and GCB together with the German National Tourist Board, conducted by the European Institute for the Meetings Industry. In total there were 516 million attendances, 377.6 million of them on site. The figure covers everything that takes place with an audience, from company seminars to congresses.

Specialist conferences with an open call are a small part of this total and a particularly valuable one for winning clients. Our database holds around 22,700 conferences, and at any given date around 1,500 calls for papers are open at the same time. At a specialist conference, professionals from one industry hear talks about their field, so the room is full of people with a concrete professional problem that an expert can solve.

What the distribution means for choosing your stages

A topic with many conferences offers many opportunities, and the acceptance rate determines how many submissions that takes. In our submissions for clients we reach up to 19 per cent acceptances per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions. In our experience, an operation that delivers acceptances reliably involves at least a hundred submissions to around twenty conferences in the first month and at least fifty a month after that. In the general block of 1,576 conferences, the work lies mainly in finding the conferences whose audience matches your clients, because the programmes are broad and the target groups differ.

In narrow fields, the idea of buying a missing stage is tempting. Pay to speak means that an organiser sells speaking slots for money, usually as a sponsorship package, and that quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. Sponsored sessions are often not labelled in the programme, but a specialist audience recognises sales intent in a talk quickly. What the whole route from topic to stage looks like is described in the guide to becoming a speaker.

Stage Starter takes on this work for you: we find the right calls for your topic, write the submission and submit in your name. After that we follow up and accompany you to the stage. From you we need your expertise and one approval of talk and abstracts, given once before the start, and you hold the conversations after the talk yourself. The collaboration starts from €990 net per month for the whole operation. No agency can guarantee acceptance, which is decided by the programme committee. How the research works in detail is shown in Outsourcing conference research.

The next step

At which conferences your topic finds the right stages is something we discuss in an initial consultation.