12 Remote Work and Digital Nomad and Conferences Happening in 2018
The concepts of working remotely and digital nomading have really taken off. Even looking at the Google search results for “remote work” you can see a significant rise in the past 10 years.
Naturally, with more interest and more people involved in remote work, there are more resources popping up for remote workers around the world. One such resource is conferences. A wonderful way to meet new people and connect over shared experiences.
There aren’t as many remote work conferences as there are marketing conferences (yet!) but it’s clearly a growing trend with more to pop up soon.
I’d love to know if you are attending any and if you have any to add to this list! Leave a comment below so we can discuss. 🙂
1. The Remote Work Summit
March 5, Online
Date: March 5
Location: Online
Price: $0 — $147
In the true spirit of remote work, The Remote Work Summit is an entirely online event. The Summit centers around building, scaling, and leading remote teams. Companies we admire including Automattic, Trello, and Zapier are all involved, and we’re grateful that our very own Courtney Seiter speaking.
2. Remote Work Conference
March 20–21, Online
Date: March 20th — 21st
Location: Online
Price: Free
Remote Working Conference is a two-day event that includes keynote speakers and roundtable discussions. This is also an online event, so it’s quite remote worker friendly!
3. Scatter
March 21–22, Austin, Texas
Date: March 21–22
Location: Austin, TX
Price: $300 USD
Scatter brings together diverse people from across the world to tell the stories of remote workers, share experiences, learn new habits, meet other remote-friendly companies, and discover the gear that helps remote workers make the most of their unique workflows.
4. Rebel + Connect’s Remote Work Summit
May 31 — June 4, San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala
Date: May 31 — June 4
Location: San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala
Price: N/A
Rebel + Connect’s Remote Work Summit is a curated invitation-only event for remote leaders. It’s a destination style remote leadership summit on a mission to empower remote leaders and end malnutrition in rural Guatemala! The amazing thing is that 100% of profits go back into the local community to fight the systemic causes of chronic hunger and malnutrition in rural Guatemala.
5. Running Remote
June 23rd — 24th, Bali
Date: June 23rd — 24th
Location: Bali, Indonesia
Price: $499 — $999 USD
Running Remote is a place to get practical advice from leading CEO’s, Founders, and Project Managers who build and manage remote teams. As they say on their website: “No fluff, no muss. Just hard-hitting tips from inside the trenches.” Some of their speakers include Doist CEO, Amir Salihefendi, and Github’s Director of Global Workplace Operations, Lara K Owen.
We’re excited to have Buffer’s CEO Joel Gascoigne speaking at Running Remote as well!
6. DNX Conference
September 8th — 10th, Lisbon, Portugal
Date: September 8th — 10th
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Price: €197 — €997
The DNX Conference is specifically for digital nomads and life hackers. It’s an action-packed event featuring 10 top keynote speakers as well as 20 workshops and masterminds. This year they expect over 800 attendees to join in on the talks, it’s a great place to meet like-minded people and network.
7. 7in7 Digital Nomad Conference
October, Medellín, Colombia
Date: October
Location: Medellín, Colombia
Price: TBA
7in7 is a project amounting to seven conferences in seven years on seven continents. (Super cool, right?) This year, they’re on year three in South America so it’s a great time to jump in. The whole goal of 7in7 is to help remote workers and digital nomads find more of their people.
8. Nomad City
Date, price, not yet announced
Date: TBA
Location: Gran Canaria
Price: TBA
Nomad City started out by bringing the growing community of remote workers together in Gran Canaria to enjoy local activities and give talks about the movement that is reshaping the way we work. Their talks tackle topics and issues related to remote companies and workers.
9. The TRaD* Works Forum
Date, price, not yet announced
The TRaD Works Forum’s priority is to talk about opportunities and challenges surrounding Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed work. While their 2018 conference hasn’t yet been announced, they’re a great leader in the remote work industry to keep an eye on.
10. The Yonder Conference
Date, price, not yet announced
Yonder Conference is a roundtable discussion for founders, owners, CEOs, and other company leaders. It’s a chance for distributed organizations to get on the same page so that we can move industries in the right direction. They’re keeping it small — just 20–30 people — and invitation-only.
Remote work conferences that have already happened in 2018
While these conferences have already happened they’ll likely happen early in the year again in 2019 so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on!
11. Nomad Summit
January 2018
The Nomad Summit brings together 400 experienced and aspiring location-independent entrepreneurs gather from around the globe for a day of inspiring talks and networking. Speakers share their business models, productivity tricks, travel hacks, and money making techniques in listener-friendly 40-minute TED-style talks.
The 2019 Nomad Summit tickets are already on sale for the 19th of January, 2019.
12. The Coworking Unconference Asia
February 9th — 11th, Penang, Malaysia
Date: February 9th — 11th
Location: Penang, Malaysia
Price: $21.49 — $615.99 USD
The Coworking Unconference Asia is a two-day unconference where their “industry discussions often focus on ‘work’ and ‘place’ as [they] explore the rapid changes in those spheres.” This is one of the few remote work conferences happening in Asia in 2018.
Looking for more remote work resources?
Check out last year’s list which includes retreats for remote workers and digital nomads as well as remote work conferences.
Over to you!
- Are you attending any remote work conferences this year? If so, which ones?
- Did I miss any remote work conferences that should be on this list? Comment below!
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This blog post was first written by Hailley Griffis on the Buffer Open blog on February 14, 2018.
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