Building long term relationships with high-value SaaS and software leaders

At Business of Software conferences, we aim to make a real difference to the wonderful people and companies that make up our BoS Community. This isn’t something we can do all on our own though – it is thanks to the speakers, supporters, and attendees who come together to help each other grow and succeed.

We try to offer attendees a few things to remember the conference by and make sure that whatever we produce is worth keeping.

The t-shirts, notebooks, pens, books, bags, and more, everything we hand pick is designed to be taken home, kept, and used time and time again. We know that, in general, people value what they receive and we hate to think that things will be thrown away. Sadly, every year the landfill sites across the world get fuller and fuller.

This year at BoS Europe, we made some changes and we’ve been very encouraged by the feedback.

8 June 2022 | Online

When you spend time and money on attending a conference you want to learn new ideas and see how they can be put to work in your business so that you can spend more time on what works and less time on what doesn’t.

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is a tool to help you understand what your customers are trying to achieve and how you can help them with their goals. It helps you focus on what the customer really wants to achieve by hiring your product. Originally applied to product development, it is increasingly being used to great effect in sales, marketing. You cannot drive growth by only looking at one aspect of your business.

Have a look through some of our previous JTBD talks in this handy playlist.

Our next One-Day Online Business of Software Conf will open your eyes to how you can apply this approach effectively to product development, sales, and marketing.

Bob Moesta, Claire Suellentrop, Nopadon Wongpakdee, Rand Fishkin, Alan Klement, and more, will explain some theory but, more importantly, will show you how the theory hits the road with case studies, interactive sessions, and round table discussions.

Once you understand the difference JTBD can make to your approach and thinking, you will never turn back.

Online 8 Jun 2022

Getting Your Tickets

You can save over 50% if you bring your team or come to more than one event.

• Bring a team of three for less than the cost of two – use code TEAM3.
• Bring a team of six for less than the cost of three – use code TEAM6.
• Register one person for a series of three conferences.
• Register one person for a series of six conferences.

Pick number of attendees below, enter details, and add to order. You can enter your coupon code at checkout.

Trouble registering? Contact marketing@businessofsoftware.org for help.

$495.00 Ex VAT

Buy now

Following their first in-person conference, Business of Software In-Person Europe Conference on 4-5 April 2022, the lovely people at Quiet Light have a few words to share with our community:

Although I’ve been with Business of Software for just over a year and being part of our online events, my experience at the Europe In-Person Conf felt like beginning a new job.

One thing I saw very quickly is that regardless if folks are supporting, attending, or speaking the networking that happens between the talks is very much focused on long term relationship building. I had heard that BoS was not a speed networking style conference, but to see it in person was another level. I think it is what divides us from other trade shows/conferences/large exhibition tech events: our community.

I felt welcomed with open arms and not once as though I wasn’t meant to be there.

On day one of Business of Software’s In-Person Europe Conference, Joe Leech mentioned he was part of the bum-bag brigade (fanny-pack fraternity for those in US) and some may have noticed I also had a handy satchel with me during the conference too.

So I thought you might be interested (and if you aren’t, well you’re already this far so just keep reading anyway) in what we considered to be BoS Conf essential enough to be on our person all day:

Driving home from Business of Software Europe In-Person on Tuesday evening a song came on the radio and the lyrics summed up my experience perfectly:

Now I know what you’re thinking, “oh no Kirk is one of those ‘it’s a sign’ people”; I’m not, but – after 57 hours of being in BoS-mode and having not slept much as my head was buzzing with adrenaline – I may have become slightly emotional.

But enough of THAT!

Here are my top three moments and three things I learned from my first ever in-person BoS Conf :

Business of Software  Europe In-Person, Churchill College Cambridge UK

Two days working on, not in your business. BoS Europe will not be streamed.

4-5 April, Cambridge UK

With just three weeks to go till we see you in-person again, we have a handful of speakers to help whet your appetite. Next week we will be revealing our full schedule and speaker list with more info on all the talks you can look forward to.

We know that when you hear a founder story, you like to then pick their brains and ask questions to help steer you and your teams towards success (or away from failure). We also know you like to walk away with actionable tools that you can put in practise. Lucky for you, we have both of these and so much more…

When Jason Cohen writes, it’s worth reading and we love his latest long form blog post, The Myth of Exponential Growth.

Jason explains why almost no company has exponential growth and that what people term exponential growth is in fact quadratic or logistic growth. Not just a matter of terms though. Jason argues understanding a growth model is important for predicting growth and understanding the core drivers of growth enables you to take smarter actions to create growth in your company.

Jason breaks down the growth of companies including Hubspot, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Pinterest and more, demonstrating that their growth has come from a series of campaigns or product launches, each of which follows a fairly predictable pattern…

Most growth comes from layered marketing campaigns – a series of overlapping activities that combine to drive growth over time.

The full article, The Myth of Exponential Growth, is well worth your time, not just because of the analysis of other campaigns, but because Jason outlines his thoughts on how you should model your own growth and how it should inform your marketing activity.

(We won’t steal the highlights here, you should see it on his blog).

We do want to share three great talks he has done on marketing that will make you smarter, (and a bonus talk from Gail Goodman about seeking silver bullets that never grows old)…

Some of Jason Cohen‘s Best BoS Talks on Marketing

Book Review: ‘Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics’

Stephanie Hare, author of the recently published, ‘Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics’, will join us at Business of Software Conference Online next week, 9 March to talk about an important topic.

The book is easy to read in the sense it is well written. Some of the ideas might keep you awake at night thinking about some of the consequences. She frames her arguments by offering some perspectives on the history of technology and clearly explains the two opposing sides of view on the question.

Is technology neutral?

In the neutral corner…

On the side of neutrality, she discusses the views of people including Demis Hassabis – DeepMind founder, Verner Vogels – Amazon CTO and others who argue broadly that technology is neutral but can be applied for good and bad. It is not really the tech that is the problem, it can be very powerful, but it is users that can abuse the power.

The legendary chess grand master Garry Kasparov sums up the neutral side succinctly.

“Tech is agnostic, it amplifies us. ‘Ethical AI’ is like ‘Ethical electricity’”

The first of our whopping 40+ speakers this year has been confirmed!

We know that one of the reasons some of you may be holding back from signing up to Business of Software conferences this year is not knowing who you are going to be learning from. You want to make sure that you have time to do your homework, learn up on people, and prepare your questions before you’re in the room with them.

So here is our first speakers of 2022 and a few of the wonderful and smart folk leading some of the breakout sessions online.