A ranked guide for marketers, agency owners, and SEO professionals who want to understand how to get their brand cited, recommended, and trusted by AI-powered search platforms.
Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, is no longer a niche conversation happening at the edges of the SEO industry. It is now one of the most urgent strategic questions facing any business that depends on organic discovery. ChatGPT serves over 800 million weekly active users. Google's AI Overviews appear in more than 60% of search results. Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini are collectively fielding billions of queries every month. The brands that figure out how to show up inside those AI-generated answers are gaining a structural advantage over those still optimising exclusively for traditional search rankings.
That shift is why GEO conferences matter in 2026. Because while you can read guides and follow threads, there is no substitute for being in a room with people who are running real experiments, seeing real results, and building real systems for AI visibility. This list ranks the best GEO conferences in 2026 based on content depth, speaker credibility, practitioner quality, and the probability that you leave with something you can actually apply.
#1 The Masterminders
The world's highest-rated SEO and GEO conference for serious operators
📅 24–26 June 2026 | 📍 Manchester, UK | 💷 £295–£645 | 👥 250–300 Attendees
The Masterminders sits at the top of this list because it does something dedicated GEO conferences still struggle to do: it puts the full picture in one room. GEO does not exist in isolation. It works because of strong SEO foundations, entity authority, structured content, digital PR, and brand signals that generative engines can actually verify and trust. The Masterminders is the conference that treats all of those disciplines as a connected system rather than separate tracks, which is exactly how GEO needs to be understood in 2026.
Founded and hosted by Kasra Dash, the conference attracts agency owners, in-house SEO leads, and digital marketing operators who are already working at a level where GEO is a live strategic concern rather than a theoretical topic. Because the event is capped at around 300 attendees and speakers are vetted for practitioner credibility rather than platform affiliation, the conversations that happen in the room tend to be more advanced than what you hear at larger, broader events.
The three-day format is what makes this event genuinely different. Day one runs private mastermind sessions for a maximum of seven people per group, where a vetted expert works through specific challenges with the group. Because the session is that small, GEO questions get specific, detailed, honest answers rather than carefully worded stage presentations. Days two and three bring the full conference together for panels, workshops, and strategy sessions covering entity-based SEO, AI search optimisation, knowledge graph positioning, and the kind of content architecture that makes brands visible to generative engines rather than invisible to them.
In 2025, over 80% of attendees said it was the best conference they had ever attended, specifically citing the quality of the conversations and the ROI from the connections made. The 2025 event sold out entirely, and 2026 is expected to welcome attendees from more than 25 countries. Tickets start at £295 for general access and rise to £645 for the full Mastermind experience.
Why this conference ranks first: GEO is won at the intersection of SEO authority, entity strategy, content structure, and digital PR. The Masterminders is the only conference that brings all of those disciplines together in a single room with practitioners who are actively doing the work. If you want to understand how to build brand visibility in AI-generated answers, this is where that conversation happens at its highest level.
#2 GEO Conference (Washington DC)
The world's only dedicated Generative Engine Optimisation conference
📅 March 2026 | 📍 Washington DC, USA | 💷 TBC | 👥 ~150 Attendees (Capped)
The GEO Conference is the first and only event built entirely around the science and practice of Generative Engine Optimisation. Since its inaugural edition in Austin, Texas in July 2025, it has attracted speakers and attendees from organisations including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Adobe, Accenture, Etsy, L'Oreal, and Comcast, which reflects how seriously the world's largest brands are now taking AI search visibility.
What makes the GEO Conference different from every other event on this list is its exclusive focus. Every single session, panel, and workshop is about one question: how do you show up in AI-generated results from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity? Because the scope is that tight, the depth of the content is correspondingly high. Sessions at previous editions covered how LLMs evaluate content credibility, why provenance and authorship signals matter to generative engines, how to structure content so AI systems can confidently cite it, and how to measure GEO performance in an environment where traditional rank tracking tools do not apply.
The 2026 Washington DC edition introduces two tracks for the first time, separating the marketing-focused content from the technical content. That structure means you are not sitting through sessions aimed at a different kind of practitioner. The event is also deliberately off-the-record with no recordings and nothing shared online, which creates an environment where speakers share proprietary approaches and real data rather than polished stage versions of things they have already published.
Best for: Practitioners, strategists, and technical SEOs who want the deepest available education specifically on GEO, and who are prepared to travel internationally for a concentrated, high-quality day.
#3 BrightonSEO
The world's largest SEO conference, with increasingly strong GEO content
📅 Spring & Autumn 2026 | 📍 Brighton, UK | 💷 From £360 | 👥 Thousands of Attendees
BrightonSEO has adapted faster than most large conferences to the AI search moment. Because the event runs twice a year and its speaker selection reflects what is actually happening in search results right now, GEO topics have moved from a single niche session to a regular presence across multiple tracks. At recent editions, speakers have presented data-backed research on AI search optimisation, structured data for generative engines, and how brands can structure their online presence to earn citations in AI-generated answers.
The advantage of learning about GEO at BrightonSEO is context. Because the conference also covers technical SEO, content strategy, digital PR, and link building in the same building on the same day, you can see how GEO connects to the disciplines that actually make it work. Understanding entity-based content is more useful when you have also just sat through sessions on structured data and Knowledge Graph optimisation, and BrightonSEO gives you that breadth in a single trip.
The scale can work against deeper conversations, but for teams that want to send multiple people and ensure they come away with both foundational SEO knowledge and emerging GEO insight, it remains the most efficient conference on this list for covering ground.
Best for: UK-based teams and practitioners who want strong GEO content within a broader search marketing programme, without travelling internationally.
#4 SMX Advanced
The most technically rigorous search marketing conference for senior practitioners
📅 2026 (Dates TBC) | 📍 Multiple Locations | 💷 Varies | 👥 Senior-Level Audience
SMX Advanced has built its reputation on refusing to dumb things down. Because the audience is explicitly senior, the sessions on GEO at SMX Advanced tend to go further into implementation than the overview-level content that dominates more accessible events. Sessions cover how AI Overviews are constructed, how search intent is evolving as generative engines become the primary discovery interface, and how to adapt measurement frameworks when a significant portion of your organic visibility no longer generates a click.
For GEO specifically, SMX Advanced is one of the few conferences where the practical limits and failure modes of GEO strategies are discussed openly. Because the audience has already built and run campaigns at scale, speakers are not starting from first principles and the conversation moves faster as a result.
Best for: Senior in-house SEOs, heads of organic, and agency leads who want technically rigorous GEO content and are comfortable with advanced discussion of search engine architecture and AI retrieval systems.
#5 SEO Week New York
A multi-day immersive conference with a dedicated track on AI search and GEO
📅 2026 (Dates TBC) | 📍 New York, USA | 💷 Varies | 👥 Practitioners and Strategists
SEO Week takes a distinctive approach by organising its four-day format around themed days rather than a standard multi-track programme. One of those themes is the Future of Search, which in 2026 means a focused day on AI-driven discovery, generative engine optimisation, and how search is evolving beyond the traditional blue link result. Because the entire day is built around that theme, the GEO content at SEO Week has a narrative coherence that conference tracks rarely achieve.
The event is particularly strong for practitioners who want to understand GEO as part of a wider shift in search behaviour rather than as a standalone tactic. Speakers at SEO Week tend to situate GEO within the broader context of how indexing systems, retrieval models, and user behaviour are changing simultaneously, which helps attendees build a more complete strategic picture.
Best for: SEO professionals and content strategists who want to understand GEO in the context of a broader shift in how search works, rather than as an isolated technical topic.
#6 SMX Munich
Europe's strongest search marketing conference with growing GEO focus
📅 2026 (Dates TBC) | 📍 Munich, Germany | 💷 Varies | 👥 European Search Marketers
SMX Munich has positioned itself as the place in Europe where AI Overviews and GEO sit alongside paid search and traditional SEO in a genuinely integrated agenda. Because the European search marketing community faces the same AI visibility challenges as counterparts in the UK and US but often with multi-language and multi-market complexity layered on top, GEO conversations at SMX Munich tend to include dimensions that UK-only or US-only events do not address.
Sessions at the 2026 edition are expected to cover GEO's impact across language and market boundaries, how entity authority transfers across international content strategies, and what attribution looks like when AI-generated answers are driving discovery that does not show up in standard analytics platforms.
Best for: European agencies, international SEO practitioners, and anyone whose GEO challenges involve multi-language or multi-market content strategies.
#7 Chiang Mai SEO
The most advanced affiliate and content SEO conference, with emerging GEO content
📅 Late 2026 | 📍 Chiang Mai, Thailand | 💷 Varies | 👥 Advanced Practitioners
Chiang Mai SEO has always attracted the kind of practitioner who tests things rather than theorises about them, which makes it an increasingly valuable place to hear honest, data-driven takes on GEO. Because the audience is dominated by affiliate marketers, niche site operators, and technical SEOs who compete in highly contested spaces, the GEO conversations at CMSEO tend to involve real case studies on content visibility in AI platforms rather than aspirational strategy frameworks.
If traditional SEO conferences can feel overly cautious about GEO claims because of the nascent evidence base, CMSEO tends in the opposite direction. Speakers share what they have actually tested, what worked, and what did not, which gives attendees a much more grounded view of where GEO delivers returns and where the theory has not yet caught up with the reality.
Best for: Advanced practitioners, affiliate marketers, and content SEOs who want raw, test-driven insight on AI search visibility rather than polished frameworks.
How to Think About GEO Conferences in 2026
The GEO conference landscape is still forming. Because the discipline itself only became a formal strategic concern for most businesses in 2025, the dedicated events are newer and the established conferences are still figuring out how much of their agenda to give over to AI search content. That makes 2026 a particularly valuable year to attend, because the practitioners in these rooms are working through the same problems in real time rather than presenting resolved case studies.
If you can only attend one event in 2026 and GEO is a priority for your business, The Masterminders in Manchester is the clearest choice. Because it treats GEO as part of a connected system of entity authority, content structure, digital PR, and SEO foundations rather than as a standalone tactic, the insight you take away is more applicable than what you get from events that treat AI search optimisation in isolation.
If you want the deepest possible dedicated GEO education and can travel to the United States, the GEO Conference in Washington DC is the one event built entirely around that question. For UK-based teams who want strong GEO content without leaving the country, BrightonSEO remains the most accessible and broadest option, with GEO content becoming a more prominent part of the programme with every edition.
The common thread across the best GEO conferences on this list is a commitment to practitioner-led, evidence-based content over speculation. Because GEO is still evolving quickly, the most valuable thing any conference can offer right now is honest reporting of what is actually working, from people who are actively doing the work.
