What Rough Agenda does

Rough Agenda is a UK-based, founder-owned events organisation that operates a portfolio of digital marketing conferences and a training division. Its flagship event, brightonSEO, is held twice yearly in Brighton, UK and annually in San Diego, US, and is described as the world's largest search conference. The portfolio was expanded in 2024 through the acquisition of Hero Conf and PPC Hero, adding PPC and paid social advertising events in both the UK and US markets, alongside two smaller fringe events — MeasureFest (web analytics and CRO) and AffiliateHuddle (affiliate marketing).

The company serves four primary customer personas: SEO/search marketing professionals, PPC and paid social advertising professionals, affiliate marketers, and web analytics/CRO professionals. Revenue is generated through four streams: conference ticket sales (one-time purchase), training course fees (including standalone London sessions, pre-conference workshops, and bespoke in-house corporate training), fringe event tickets, and sponsorship/exhibition packages sold to brands seeking access to the attendee base. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and appears to be quote-based across all streams.

Rough Agenda operates with no proprietary technology platform — the business is fundamentally a live events and training operator whose value proposition rests on practitioner-led content, a strong community ecosystem, and brand recognition built around founder Kelvin Newman's reputation in the SEO industry. Distribution is direct to attendees and corporate sponsors, with marketing driven by email mailing lists, organic social media (notably Twitter), and community word-of-mouth referrals. The company is bootstrapped, profitable by inference (no external funding disclosed), and headquartered in Brighton with a US operating base in San Diego.

Name

Rough Agenda

Legal name

Rough Agenda

Website

https://roughagenda.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Rough Agenda is a UK-based, bootstrapped events organiser operating the brightonSEO and Hero Conf digital marketing conference brands in Brighton and San Diego, serving SEO and PPC professionals via ticketed events, training courses, and sponsorship.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Events and Training Services

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

akta.pro primary industry

Professional & Association Conferences (MPAGAGAB)

Keywords

• Digital marketing conferences
• SEO training events
• PPC paid social events
• Marketing training courses
• Search marketing conferences

Headquarters

HQ city

Brighton

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Conference Event Tickets: Revenue generated from ticket sales for the company's flagship events including brightonSEO (UK and US editions) and Hero Conf (UK and US editions). Events draw thousands of marketing professionals.
2. Training Courses: Hundreds of training courses delivered annually covering the digital marketing spectrum, including standalone London training days, pre-conference workshops, and bespoke in-house corporate training.
3. Fringe Event Tickets: Revenue from smaller specialized events including MeasureFest (analytics and CRO focused) and AffiliateHuddle (affiliate marketing focused), which run alongside main conferences.
4. Sponsorship and Exhibition: Implied revenue from exhibition stands and sponsorship packages, as evidenced by exhibition management roles and sponsor-related descriptions on the website.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Rough Agenda organizes large-scale digital marketing conferences (brightonSEO and Hero Conf) held in Brighton, UK and San Diego, US, alongside smaller fringe events (MeasureFest and AffiliateHuddle). The company also delivers hundreds of training courses annually across the digital marketing spectrum, including standalone London training days, pre-conference workshops, and bespoke in-house corporate training. Its portfolio is anchored by brightonSEO, described as the world's biggest search conference, with additional PPC and paid social training delivered through the 2024 acquisition of Hero Conf and PPC Hero.

Product overview

Rough Agenda operates as an events organizer delivering major digital marketing conferences and training programs. The core product portfolio centers on four main event brands: brightonSEO (the flagship SEO conference held in Brighton and San Diego), Hero Conf (a PPC/paid social conference acquired in 2024 and running alongside brightonSEO), and two smaller fringe events — MeasureFest (analytics and CRO-focused) and AffiliateHuddle (affiliate marketing discussions). The company also provides a comprehensive training division offering hundreds of annual courses spanning standalone sessions, pre-conference workshops, and bespoke in-house corporate training across the digital marketing discipline.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• brightonSEO: The world's biggest search conference, taking place in Brighton, UK and San Diego, US. A large-scale, in-depth SEO event.
• Hero Conf
• MeasureFest
• AffiliateHuddle

Products and services

• brightonSEO

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Hero Conf / PPC HerocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024In 2024, Rough Agenda acquired Hero Conf and PPC Hero, described as the very best conference, news and training for PPC and paid social advertising. The conferences run alongside brightonSEO in both the UK and US markets.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Moz (MozCon): Moz operates MozCon, a flagship annual SEO conference that competes head-to-head with brightonSEO for the same audience of search marketing professionals, and publishes educational content for the same SEO practitioner base.
• Social Media Marketing World: Social Media Examiner runs Social Media Marketing World, one of the largest social-media-marketing conferences globally, with overlap in digital-marketing practitioner audience and competing for a share of sponsorship spending from marketing technology vendors.
• Pubcon: Pubcon is a long-running US-based SEO and digital marketing conference series targeting the same search-marketing professional audience and competing directly for SEO/PPC sponsorship dollars.
• SearchLove (Distilled/PageTraffic): SearchLove is a long-standing SEO conference run by Distilled (now PageTraffic) targeting the same SEO community, with conferences in the UK and US — the Head of Conferences at Rough Agenda (Lynsey Jones) herself produced SearchLove for 13 years before joining brightonSEO.
• Content Marketing World (CMI): Content Marketing Institute runs Content Marketing World, a major digital-content marketing conference with significant overlap in attendee demographics (marketing practitioners) and sponsorship pools with Rough Agenda's events.
• Third Door Media (SMX): Search Marketing Expo (SMX) is a major SEO and PPC conference series run by Third Door Media, targeting the same search-marketing practitioner audience and competing directly for sponsorship dollars from SEO/PPC tool vendors.

Emerging players

• Ahrefs (Ahrefs Evolve): Ahrefs runs Ahrefs Evolve, an SEO-focused conference and educational platform serving the same SEO audience, leveraging its dominant position in the SEO tool market to attract attendees and sponsors similarly to brightonSEO.
• Semrush: Semrush hosts its own digital marketing events and content programs (e.g., Semrush Global Online Conferences) targeting the same SEO and digital marketing practitioner audience, leveraging its market-leading SEO tool brand.

Broad incumbents

• Informa (Digital Marketing Events Division): Informa is a global events and B2B information services giant that runs many large-scale marketing and technology events (e.g., MarTech Conference, Cannes Lions-adjacent events), competing with Rough Agenda for sponsorship budgets and exhibiting deeper pockets; the Head of Sales at Rough Agenda previously spent 11 years at Informa.
• HubSpot (INBOUND): HubSpot's INBOUND is a much larger digital marketing and sales conference with overlapping attendee base and sponsorship pools, representing a scaled incumbent in the same broader category of digital marketing conferences.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/roughagenda
• Facebookfacebook.com/roughagenda
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rough-agenda

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rough Agenda