Phew. With Dreamforce and SaaStr Europa and Scale behind us, little tiny Team SaaStr is 100% focused on 2020 SaaStr Annual.
It will be in March this year for one year in 2020, before we go back to February for 2021 on. March 10-11-12 in San Jose, CA just south of San Francisco.
The headline metrics:
- 15,000+ attendees
- 4,000+ CEOs
- 3,000+ Mentorship sessions
- 1,000+ VCs
- 300+ Sessions
- 250+ AMAs, Workshops, Super Braindates, and more
- 100+ Unicorns
- 3+ Days and Nights on sharing, learning, and more
- Big Parties, Small Parties, SaaStr Nights, and More
But what’s new this year? Well, a lot. Let me make a list:
- New!! 100+ Workshops. Lots of them. We’ve added a ton of braindates, mentorship sessions, and more the past 2 years at Annual. We’re boosting that to 11 this year with 100+ Workshops. On everything on how to get more leads, do ABM right, work with mentors, build a world-class CS team, and so much more. Practical, hands-on sessions with Q+A with top industry practitioners.
- New!! 200+ CIOs and CXOs at the first SaaStr CXO Summit. We’re really excited here. On Wednesday, March 11, we’re bring the CIOs and CXOs from Adobe, Intuit, Google Cloud, Nutanix, Zendesk, Zoom, Box, Pagerduty, Coupa and 100s more together with 150+ CEOs that sell to the enterprise and are at $15m+ ARR. Do you sell to the enterprise? If so, CXO Summit is for you. Just buy a standard ticket and then apply at SaaStrSummit.com. If you are at $15m+ in ARR and sell $100k+ deals, you’ll be in!
- Enhanced!! 3000+ Mentorship Sessions. If you’ve been the to the past few Annuals or Europas, you’ve seen a lot of mentorship happening. This year, there will be even more. We’ll have 1-on-1s, 1-on-4s, 1-20s, and more via our networking app Brella and on-site at Braindates. We’ll have 100s of subject matter experts giving 1-on-1 and small group advice on how to do better.
- New!! Women in Revenue Sessions. We’re super excited to have partnered with Women in Revenue to bring a mini event-within-an-event for women leaders in SaaS and Cloud. We’ll have a packed half-day of sessions just with women leaders in Cloud and SaaS on Wednesday, March 11.
- Even Better!! SaaStr Nights 2.0. Last year we shut down the San Jose Arts District for the first-even SaaStr Nights. This year, it’s back, just bigger and better. We’re shutting down 4 blocks this year and a dozen venues for networking, meet-ups, and much more. The classics will be back, like karaoke with Pendo, and lots more fun stuff. We’ll have a curated art walk, tons more food and drink, and lots more. A great chance to meet so many peers on the first night at Annual.
- Birds-of-a-Feather Lounges. Last year the Coworking Space was such a hit we’re expending the concept with a series of lounges just to meet peers. With power, snacks, and more, we’ll have lounges just for Founders; just for Sales + Marketing professionals; just for Builders (Dev + Product), and just for VCs to issue term sheets. These will be a great place to both decompress and meet folks on the same journey.
- New!! The Cantina. Need a place to put up your spurs and relax during the day? We’ll have a lot of options, but dead center of Annual is our new Cantina. It will have snacks, drinks, stools, activations, and just a fun place to relax and meet someone need during Annual.
- New!! Business-of-Commerce Day on Tuesday March 10. We’ll kick off Day 1 with an amazing mini-event. We’ll have the CTO and GM of Shopify and Shopify Plus; the COO of Squarespace; the CEOs of Gorgias and Algolia; and a dozen more e-commerce leaders in sessions, AMAs, and more on March 10. Be there!!
- New!! Recruiting Fair. Outside of SaaStr Square park, we’re adding the first-ever SaaStr Recruiting Fair. We’re pleased to have Hired.com as our lead sponsor, and we’ll have many leaders in SaaS and Cloud on site to meet with folks looking for the next thing! It could be you!! You never know!
- New!! Rising Stars Scholarship Program. We’re making 1,000 no-cost tickets available to the next-generation of SaaS and Cloud leaders. For sales, marketing, product, customer success and engineering folks with 2-10 years of experience who don’t yet have budget for a ticket of their own. No VPs or CEOs, please!! Apply here if you can join us!
- New!! Dev Day on Wednesday, Mar 11. We’re focusing a special track and sessions on sessions with the top leaders in B2D. We’ll have the CEOs and CTOs of Gitlab, Zapier, Algolia, Intuit, and 50+ more on Dev Day.
- Upgraded!! Dozens More “After The Session” AMAs with Top Speakers. Last year, we added 20+ AMAs after the on-stage session with top speakers. Folks loved them, so we’ll cram as many in as possible, so everyone from the COO of Gitbhu to the CEO of Zoom can not just share their learnings, but answer your questions!!
- Even Better!! Solo Visitor Journey. Last year we focused a lot more on folks coming to Annual solo. I know I go to a lot of events solo, and sometimes am not always sure what to do. We’re adding even more this year. We’ll kick things off with an Inclusion Brunch. We’ll add Picnic Lunches with groups on Tuesday so you know who to eat with 😉 At SaaStr Nights on Tuesday night, we’ll add a docent-led art walk to all the galleries and art exhibits which is open to everyone, but especially focused on folks who have come without a plus one. The new lounges above will be focused on helping you meet more new friends as well. Look for a lot more programming here for folks who come solo.
- Upgraded! Meeting with 1000+ VCs. Since Annual #2 we’ve worked to provide more and more opportunities to meet with VCs. Last year, we had an incredible 1000+ Cloud and SaaS VCs at annual. We’re bringing back 40+ Lunch-With-a-VC sessions, and we’re targeting at least 400 more VC 1-on-1s this year. You don’t have to be fundraising to participate in Meet-a-VC at Annual. It’s fine just to want to learn.
- Better! 1,250+ in Our Equality, Inclusion and Balance Program. Most importantly, we continue to learn and invest in how to make SaaStr one of the most inclusive events in the industry. For 3+ years straight we’ve had 50%+ women speakers, and 60%+ less represented speakers. Our long-term goal is to do the same with attendees. As part of that, we’ve increased the size of our Equality, Inclusion and Balance Program to 1,250 (with room for me), and are dramatically enhancing our content and mentorship here. More here.
Phew that’s a lot. And there’s more to come.
We are really excited about where SaaStr Annual is going this Year 6 and beyond.
It’s Where The Cloud Meets.
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
