Business of Software Conference is a 3-day single-track conference for Founders, CXOs, and Emerging Leaders in Software and SaaS companies, hosted at The Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center in Boston, MA. Over 3 days there are:
- 14 1-hour sessions – 45-minute talks with time for Q&A. Each talk is given by an expert in their field with something valuable to say. Sponsors can never, ever pay their way onto the stage – BoS talks are renowned for their quality (judge for yourself – our vast library of talks is available here), and that’s the way it’s going to stay.
- The legendary BoS Hallway Track. You’re in a room with 300 other Software leaders – people who do what you do, all of whom are looking to learn and pass on things that they’ve learned. The quality of the people you’ll meet is unrivalled, and the things you’ll learn from them will be as important as the things you learn in the sessions.
- Opportunities to chat with Speakers. Not only is there ample time for Q&A after each session, Speakers stay for the whole conference – meaning you can grab them for a chat afterwards. You are as likely to sit next to a speaker at lunch than anyone else.
Business of Software Conference has a full money back guarantee. If you attend the Conference and do not get value, we will refund your ticket price. We are confident that attendees will find BoS Conference to be time and money well spent.
Schedule
Day 0 – Sunday 30th September
Early Afternoon Boston Photowalk
Meet some of the BoS regulars for a sightseeing trip around Boston.
7pm Registration opens. Welcome Reception & Drinks
Hit the ground running and start your networking before the Conference begins. Avoid the queues by registering early and join us for a light buffet and drinks to celebrate the opening of the Conference.
Day 1 – Monday 1st October
7:30am Breakfast and Registration
Full Breakfast Buffet provided.
9am How To Manage Your Badass Team // Mikey Trafton – CTO, Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas
Mikey will share methods, tools, and processes he’s used to manage a team. You’ll learn how to delegate effectively, how to manage people in fields you’re not an expert in, and how to hold people accountable (even if you’re a conflict-avoider).
10am Break
Grab a coffee and spend some time networking with other software leaders.
10:30am 10 Years Of Balsamiq: What I’ve Learned // Peldi Guilizzoni – CEO/Founder, Balsamiq
Balsamiq founder Peldi will update us on the latest chapter in the Balsamiq story. Always an incredibly open and honest speaker, Peldi will pull back the curtain and talk about the inner workings of Balsamiq and how some of the challenges he’s faced as the company has scaled.
11:30am The Many Flavours Of Agile: What’s The Right One For Your Team? // Bethany Pagels-Minor – Senior Program Manager, Apple
Agile Coach Bethany Pagels-Minor will be discussing the many flavours of Agile. They’ll leave you with a framework for choosing the right process for your particular team, taking into account your people, company size, and more.
12:30pm Lunch with Birds of a Feather tables
Grab your lunch from the provided buffet and head to one of our ‘Birds of a Feather’ tables – tables themed around specific discussion topics. Want to meet other people doing Remote Working and chat about how they manage people in different states? Check. Want to meet other people building scalable sales teams? Check. ‘I don’t want to talk about work’ tables also provided, along with lunch.
2pm The 5 Skills Of An Innovator // Bob Moesta – CEO, The Re-Wired Group
Jobs-To-Be-Done master Bob Moesta will talk about the 5 skills of an Innovator, and emphasize the importance of building proficiency in these building blocks of new product development.
3pm Design Metrics That Matter // Jared Spool – Founder, UIE
UIE founder Jared Spool will talk about the importance of balancing data and metrics with your instincts. You’ll learn how to create analytics experiments that provide real insight into your users’ experience in your product.
4pm Breakout Sessions
A staple of BoS Conferences – the mystery breakout sessions are a way to encourage valuable networking time.
5:15pm Leading A High-Growth Company // David Cancel – CEO/Co-Founder, Drift
David will talk about the journey he’s been on as Founder of Drift, and what he’s learned about leading a company that releases products faster than most companies release features.
6:30pm Networking Dinner & Drinks
Head back to the Seaport Hotel for an evening of relaxed networking with dinner. See if you can find one of the speakers – they’ll be around too! Sponsored by the wonderful FEInternational.
Day 2 – Tuesday 2nd October
8am Breakfast
A full breakfast is provided again before Day 2. The Birds of a Feather tables will still be out – make a useful contact before 9am!
9am What To Do About Your Audience’s Real Roadmap Questions // Rich Mironov – Author, The Art of Product Management
Author of ‘The Art of Product Management’ Rich Mironov will be tackling the question of how you ensure your roadmap prioritizes your customers while still delivering value to stakeholders across your company.
10am Break
Have a pastry, a cup of tea, and meet someone new.
10:30am Alternative Marketing, or “Oops I Did A Marketing” // Shawn Anderson & Shane Corellian – Co-Founders, PDQ.com
Co-Founders and twin brothers Shane Corellian and Shawn Anderson bootstrapped PDQ.com and found they had a problem – they couldn’t afford to run marketing campaigns, and they also didn’t want to. Instead, they did what they love – talking tech – and it was more effective than they could have hoped. You’ll learn how to use your passion to make your business stand out from the crowd.
11:30am Why “Customer First” Fails – And What To Do About It // Ayat Shukairy – Co-Founder, Invesp
Ayat will teach you how to use the right language on your website to boost sales, and help you find what that right language is for your company.
12:30pm Lunch with Birds of a Feather tables
Another opportunity to discuss a problem you’re facing with someone who’s already tackled it. Share your wisdom with someone struggling with something you’ve faced.
2pm AI, Hype, And The Future Of Humanity // Rick Nucci – CEO/Founder, Guru
Rick will help you understand what is really important in AI and explain why its value will be in making people better at what they do rather than replacing them.
3pm Creative Trespassing: How to Sneak More Imagination into your Work and Get More Done // Tania Katan – CEO/Founder, Creative Trespassing
Tania will leave you with tools and strategies for taking more creative risks, leading with more imagination, facing fears and embracing obstacles as an opportunity to accelerate growth, and the ability to find inspiration where others see only limitations.
4pm Break
A chance to re-fuel and discuss the talks of the conference so far with other attendees.
4:30pm Lightning Talks
A BoS classic – short, informative, funny talks to teach you something useful while sticking to an auto-forwarding slide deck. Always fun and interesting.
1 Startup in 10 Years vs. 1,000 Startups in 10 Minutes // Matt Wensing, Founder, Riskpulse
What could you learn if you could run 1,000 different startups in minutes, not years? Matt decided to find out.
Mental Health – What You Can Do // Greg Baugues, Manager, Developer Community, Twilio
Talking is the first step. How can you best support a co-worker who is strong enough to take it?
5pm Making Workplaces Work For Humans // Isa Watson – CEO/Founder, Squad by Envested
Isa will talk about some of the ways that companies can provide a better environment for humans to work. She will also share how she came to realize that in her startup, she had to bring her ‘best self’ to the business every day – no one else in the business has more impact on the morale and well-being of the team than the CEO.
6pm Self-Propelled Networking Dinners
Organise dinner with some people you’ve met at the conference so far – keep an eye on the Conference Slack channel to see where people are going.
Day 3 – Wednesday 3rd October
8am Breakfast
Make the most of a final excellent breakfast provided by the Conference. The final chance to use the Birds of a Feather tables.
9am The Product-Market Fit Engine // Rahul Vohra – CEO/Founder, Superhuman
Rahul will discuss what product-market fit is and why it’s so important whether you’re a first-time entrepreneur on your first startup or IBM. He will show you how to measure product market fit and how to build a world-class product based on both vision and data.
10am Break
Coffee and a snack before the final 2 talks of the Conference.
10:30am Get Out Of The Echo Chamber: How To Use Jobs-To-Be-Done To Perfect Your Product’s Positioning // Claire Suellentrop – CMO/Co-Founder, Userlist.io
Claire will be talking about the importance of focusing on your user’s ultimate motivation when positioning your product, and leave you with a step-by-step process to uncover your ideal customers’ ‘job-to-be-done’.
11:30am Say No With Confidence: How To Tell The Great Ideas From The Merely Good // Bruce McCarthy – Founder, Product Culture
How awesome would it be if you could cut through politics, opinions, and circular arguments and have a clear way to prioritize? To close the conference, Bruce McCarthy will arm you with his battle-tested approach to prioritizing your most critical initiatives that will increase your organization’s focus by increasing confidence in your prioritization decisions.
12:30pm End of Conference. Lunch to go.
Home time! Make sure you take some time to take stock of what you’ve learned, and what you’re going to change as a result.
1pm Workshops (Optional addition)
Attending a BoS Workshop is an incredibly valuable way to end the conference. 3 hours of practical, interactive teaching that you can easily implement into your business, from incredible teachers. Workshop topics this year include:
- Switch – Why Do Customers Leave Your Product? // Bob Moesta
- Website Dissection – Where Are You Losing Customers On Your Website? // Dave Collins
- Exit Planning – How To Keep Your Business Looking Attractive To Buyers // Thomas Smale
- Roadmapping Relaunched – How To Make A Modern Roadmap // Bruce McCarthy
- Design Origami – How To Design Better User Experiences // Sean McGuire
4pm Workshops Close
End of the Conference. See you next year!
Got any questions about BoS Conference? Email us here!
Atmosphere & Approach
Attendees
- Exceptional people who want to be the best they can be in their chosen career. Entrepreneurs, established and emerging leaders, they come to learn from each other, not to party (though there will be plenty of social activity). So many events are about everyone being on ‘broadcast mode’, Business of Software is different, people come to listen and learn from each other, to share their problems and help each other be successful.
Code of Conduct FAQ
Speakers
- Don’t hide away in a VIP Room. Everyone that attends is on this journey together and they want to learn from you as much as you want to learn from them. We help you understand all of the important elements that come together to make great software and great software companies.
See the Speakers
This is not a mass produced event.
- We HATE going to events that promise much and deliver little. We HATE events where you have to bring a telescope to see the stage, where the speakers are whisked off into a secure room straight after their keynote where you were left feeling like you had just paid to listen to a sales pitch. It sucks if you pay good money to attend an event and a treated like one of a large flock of sheep. We will feed you well. You are as likely to sit next to the speaker at lunch than anyone else.