Conference News: Two Conferences Change Names; KubeCon CFP; IBC & FCIF on Deck
Inbound to Unbound: After fifteen years known as INBOUND, HubSpot’s flagship event next week has been rebranded as UNBOUND. Expected to draw 13k attendees over three days, UNBOUND 2026 will be held 16-18 September in Boston. The organizers explained the change, “INBOUND laid the foundation. UNBOUND reflects how growth works today. Built for modern go-to-market teams ready to become unstoppable, UNBOUND is a mindset for connected systems, AI-driven execution, and unified teams across the entire customer experience.”
Change is Possible: For the rest of 2026, CultureCon’s events will continue under the CultureCon brand – but things are changing! In January 2027, to acknowledge their 10-year anniversary, the organization – and their events will rebrand to officially become WorkPossible. According to the conference team, the name “captures a belief that our community has rallied behind since day: Better work is possible.” They also noted that “What we’ve built has grown beyond a conference, and we wanted a brand that was distinct to our community while also giving us room to grow.”
Submission Opportunity: The Call for Proposals is OPEN for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2027 happening 15 – 18 March in Barcelona. The agenda covers the future of cloud native computing and AI infrastructure across several topics including AI Inference + Infrastructure, Agentic AI, Cloud Native Application Development, Cloud Native Experience, Cloud Native Novice, Connectivity, Data Processing + Storage, Emerging + Advanced, Observability, Operations + Performance, Platform Engineering: DevEx + IDPs, Platform Engineering: Infrastructure + Delivery Security. If you have a session idea, be sure to submit it before the 11 October deadline.
Lunchtime Learning: Shoptalk, which offers a convening “where the entire retail ecosystem comes together to create the future of our industry,” held its most recent Europe Conference edition in June at the Fira Gran Via. Highlights from each day of the Barcelona event can be found here, while individual sessions – like this interview with Estée Lauder on “Winning at the Speed of the Consumer” and interview with Zalando on “The Mastery of Scale” and navigating Europe’s macro shifts – are also available on ShopTalk’s YouTube channel here.
Coming Up Next Week: IBC (11-14 September; Amsterdam) is “where media and entertainment comes to life,” bringing together broadcasters, content owners, rightsholders, solution providers, and other creative and business stakeholders shaping the future of the industry. Fast Company Innovation Festival gets underway 14 September at venues across NYC, including the main Convene Festival Hub and offsite Fast Tracks, which offer exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to New York City’s most innovative companies. AI Infra Summit (15-17 September; Santa Clara) draws attendees who are focused on making AI faster, more efficient, more affordable, and more sustainable, its organizers stating, “We don’t go deep into specific enterprise applications, but we knit together all of the various pieces of the infrastructure layer that keeps AI scaling.” And at Brandweek Summit 2026 – which runs 15-17 September at the historic Southern Exchange in Atlanta – attendees can expect “a sharper focus on the skills marketers and brand leaders need now.”