Adapt & Advance: Essential Training for B2B Media

Each year, ASBPE’s national conference delivers best practices in B2B journalism, networking with peer professionals, and forward-looking industry insights.

In 2026, we’re refreshing our annual national conference — ASBPEvolve: The Biggest B2B Editorial Summit. This year’s conference will take place virtually from June 16-18, making it more affordable and accessible from anywhere.

In a time of disruptive change in media, ASBPEvolve will help B2B editorial professionals hone their skills and adapt — tackling the biggest and hottest topics for B2B editorial professionals across three full days of programming:

• Morning sessions will focus on best practices to help editorial professionals improve their craft.
• Afternoon sessions will focus on where the industry is going in the future and how editorial professionals can adapt to change.
• Networking in small groups will also help you learn from other professionals and organizations on how they’re navigating the biggest challenges and opportunities we face.

ASBPE members pay just $325 for three full days of education and networking (with no travel costs) through June 5. Plus, we’re offering free registration to recently laid-off journalists. Browse our growing session list below. The final deadline to register is June 15, 2026 at 12 pm ET.

Register Today!

Want to support the hard-working B2B journalists and publications that use your products and services to improve the industries they cover? Read more about sponsoring ASBPE’s national conference.

Registration Fees and Deadlines

Conference Tickets

Full conference tickets include access to all educational and networking sessions across the three days, June 16-18. Tickets purchased by May 13 include free attendance at the May 14, 2026 National Azbee Awards of Excellence presentation.

Laid-off in 2025 or 2026? Contact us to learn how out-of-work journalists can get free registration to ASBPEvolve 2026!

*No registrations will be accepted after 12 pm ET on June 15, 2026.

Register Today!

---

National Azbee Awards of Excellence Tickets

ASBPEvolve tickets purchased by May 13 include access to the May 14, 2026 Azbee Awards of Excellence presentation, which will include insightful interviews with 2026 winners providing best practices, tips and strategies for improving your own publication. Awards-only tickets are available through May 13 at 12 pm ET.

 

Awards Presentation Tickets

2026 Conference Schedule & Sessions

ASBPEvolve 2026 brings you highly relevant and timely topics across a three-day virtual event. We’re featuring wide-ranging coverage on topics that are front-of-mind for our members, focused networking opportunities to help you learn from your peers, and our Annual Members’ Forum empowering you to shape our 2026-27 programming.

Our 2026 conference will take place June 16-18. Each day, the event hub will open at 8:30 a.m. EDT for greetings and networking. We’ll begin promptly at 9:00 am, with opening remarks and our first session. Sessions will wrap up by 5:00 pm EDT on Tuesday and Wednesday, and by 3:00 pm EDT on Thursday.

Along with the sessions announced below, this year’s virtual conference will cover topics including:

• The future of journalism in the age of AI
• Business model case studies
• The value of data and visualizations in B2B journalism
• Making the transition from journalist to personality
• Building your email audience
• Networking: Pitch Meets Publisher

More session details coming soon!

B2B Mental Health: Handing Trauma on Difficult Beats

Panelists: Megan Gates, Senior Editor, Security Management and Editor-in-Chief of Security Technology, ASIS International; Dr. Karen Ladley, Senior Associate Director, The Carter Center; and Samantha Ragland, Senior Vice President, American Press Institute
Moderator: Khalil Garriott, Executive Editor, ABA Banking Journal and Vice President for Creative Content & Copywriting Strategy, American Bankers Association

Journalists covering difficult topics — from health crises and security incidents to emergency response scenarios — often face continued exposure to traumatic topics or events. This emotional burden can impact your well-being, but knowing how to cope and when to seek support is essential for career longevity. Join our expert panel for a candid conversation on recognizing the signs of trauma in yourself and others, strategies to manage your exposure, and the vital role managers play in supporting their teams. You will leave with actionable knowledge to protect your mental health and build a more resilient approach to high-stakes reporting.

Best Practices for LinkedIn

Panelists:  Carolyn Kuimelis, Social Media Editor, Tax Notes, Tax Analysts; Katja Ridderbusch, Independent Journalist
Moderator: To be announced soon

Unlock LinkedIn’s full potential with strategies designed for editors, freelancers, designers, and audience engagement specialists working across the B2B media ecosystem. We’ll explore techniques to build your personal and publication brands, connect with niche industry readers, expand your source networks and gather information for stories. Whether you are a staffer or a solopreneur, you’ll learn practical tips for optimizing your presence, showcasing creative work, and effectively tracking beat developments on the platform.

Case Study: How the JACR Launched a Thriving Podcast That Builds its Brand

Panelists: Abby Faulkner, Digital Media Strategist, Journal of ACR, American College of Radiology; Nicole Racadag, MSJ, Senior Managing Editor, American College of Radiology
Moderator: Jenny Jones, Strategic Communications Consultant at Sprout Narratives and former association editor

A successful podcast requires a blend of niche targeting, consistent scheduling and high-quality audio — creating an intimate, engaging experience for listeners. These elements were key for the American College of Radiology’s publications team who partnered with a radiologist subject matter expert to launch a scholarly journal podcast. Together they defined a specific listener persona, employed consistent branding and conducted effective social media outreach. The result was “Contrast and Clarity with the JACR” — an education-forward podcast that features guest academic and private practice radiologists and sets the stage for an exciting journey into the world of medical imaging.

Editor, Meet Freelancer: One-on-One Networking Match-Ups

Connect with the people who can move your work forward. For this dedicated virtual matchmaking session, we’re turning traditional networking into efficient, one-on-one conversations designed to match editors with freelancers.

Before the event, you’ll complete a short survey about the industries and topics you cover, the types of content you produce or assign, and what you’re hoping to gain. We’ll then match you with complementary professionals — editors seeking writers and freelancers seeking assignments who share your beats and goals.

You’ll meet with pre-matched partners in a relaxed, virtual format designed specifically for focused, productive conversations. Whether you’re looking to build a reliable roster of freelance writers or clients for immediate assignments or to build long-term relationships for future work down the road, this is the fastest way to make meaningful, targeted connections that can lead to real collaborations.

Space is limited. Complete your survey early to guarantee the best possible matches.

… or Open Networking

Not looking for more freelancers or clients? Take part in randomized networking conversations to meet peers across the B2B media industry with similar interests and build your network!

The Great SEO Pivot: Adapting to the Answer Engine Experience

Speakers: Erin Hallstrom, Director of Content Operations & Visibility, Endeavor Business Media; Travis Hessman, VP Corporate Content, Endeavor Business Media

For 25 years, SEO was the operating system of digital publishing — a discipline of H-tags, meta descriptions, and keyword density that, in extremes, tended to reward formatting over substance. That era is ending. AI overviews and generative answer engines are collapsing organic search traffic across the industry, and the editors who win the next decade won’t be the ones who optimize the hardest. They’ll be the ones who do the best journalism.

This session is a working playbook for that pivot. Erin Hallstrom and Travis Hessman will walk through what Endeavor learned rebuilding its newsroom for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — the practice of producing content that answer engines cite, recommend, and convert from. 

They’ll share the numbers behind the shift and break down the 173-hour editor training program built around three disciplines: 

• Formatting (Key Highlights, schema, structured data the engines can read), 
• Structure (headlines, decks, internal linking, and the elimination of thin content), and 
• Framing (journalist voice, deep BOFU expertise, and “What Is…”-style explanatory content that closes the industry knowledge gap left by a retiring generation of practitioners).

Attendees will leave with a clear-eyed view of what AEO actually requires, a framework for auditing their own coverage, and the editorial standards that make content visible — and credible — to the engines now deciding who gets cited when readers ask the questions that matter.

How Far is Too Far with AI? (Networking Discussion)

Networking Facilitators: To be announced soon

Let’s be honest: AI isn’t some futuristic invader; it’s been our silent work mate for years. If you’ve used Otter to transcribe an interview, Grammarly to catch a typo, or even Excel to crunch industry data, you’ve already invited AI into your workflow. But now that the tech has moved from “fixing my spelling” to “writing my feature,” the stakes have changed. The question isn’t whether we should use it, it’s how much of our editorial soul we’re willing to trade for a faster deadline.

This networking session encourages candid conversation for the editors, designers and freelance writers who actually do the work. We’ll move past the “AI is scary” headlines to tackle the day-to-day dilemmas that don’t have a clear right answer.

We’ll dig our teeth into:

• Visuals vs. Vibe: Is using an AI-generated header image a clever shortcut or a slap in the face to our creative directors?
• The Freelancer “Gray Area”: If a writer uses AI to ghostwrite their outline but checks every fact, are they still giving you original work?
• The Disclosure Obsession: We never labeled stories “Edited by Microsoft Word,” so why are we so panicked about labeling AI now? Where do we draw that line?
• Losing Our Voice to SEO: If we let algorithms dictate our tone just to rank on Google, are we even writing for humans anymore?

Join your peers to figure out how to keep our integrity intact without falling behind.

Lessons from NewsGuard in Navigating Fake News

Speaker: Eric Effron, Editorial Director, NewsGuard
Moderator: Wyatt Kash, Senior Vice President of Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

The rise of misinformation and disinformation in American media — driven by social platforms, algorithmic amplification, and declining trust in traditional gatekeepers — has made it harder to separate fact from fiction. For business publication editors covering U.S. industries, this presents both risk and opportunity. False narratives can infiltrate reporting pipelines, distort coverage, and damage a publication’s credibility if not caught early, while also exposing outlets to reputational and legal risk. At the same time, editors who invest in rigorous verification, transparent sourcing, and rapid myth-busting can differentiate their brands, strengthen audience trust, and position their publications as authoritative voices in an increasingly noisy information environment.

One organization that has pioneered the practice of busting fake news is NewsGuard, founded by media entrepreneur and award-winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz.

Don’t miss this one-on-one interview with Editorial Director Eric Effron on how NewsGuard combines human expertise and technology to provide data, analysis and journalism that helps enterprises and consumers identify reliable information online — and what B2B editors can learn and apply to their editorial operations.

One Story, Many Uses: Making Your Work Go Farther

Speaker: Stephanie Hendrixson, Editor-in-Chief, Additive Manufacturing Media & Manufacturing Connected, Gardner Business Media

B2B journalists are familiar with “doing more with less” but let’s flip the script. Instead of focusing on how to simply make more content, this session will address how to realize more value from high-quality, longform articles, videos and podcast episodes. Strategies to be discussed include: recasting content for new platforms and audiences, extracting specific pieces for reuse, and adapting content for social media purposes. Attendees will walk away with new ways of thinking about content distribution and a “content amplification” checklist they can leverage to get the most from each piece of high-value reporting.

The Power of Print in the Digital Age

Panelists: Laura Baker, Creative Director, Education Week; Jacquie Chakirelis, Senior Director of Digital Strategy, Cleveland Studios; and John O’Brien, Editor & Publisher, ABA Journal, American Bar Association
Moderator: Toni McQuilken, Senior Editor, PRINTING United Alliance

In an era of digital overload, endless scrolling and growing audience skepticism, print is proving its unmatched power to create the presence, trust and genuine connection that no algorithm can replicate. This panel discussion will explore why B2B publications and their audiences are actively leaning back into print as a counterbalance to digital fatigue.

You’ll discover how tangible print media experiences build deeper loyalty and stronger engagement than digital alone. You’ll leave with practical, real-world strategies for creating print and digital strategies that reinforce each other, delivering palpable engagement across your audience. This session will show you how to turn print into a competitive advantage in today’s multi-channel media landscape.

Tips for Tackling Big or Controversial Stories

Panelists: Scott Wenger, Senior Economics Editor, World Bank Group; Claire Meyer, Editor-in-Chief, Security Management, ASIS International
Moderator: Craig Johnson, Senior Editorial Director, Staffing Industry Analysts, Crain Communications

Editors and reporters have key decisions to make as they handle major news developments and issues that can be contentious: How can they go beyond a breaking news alert to provide coverage that reflects fairness and balance, but also context and relevancy that reflects subject matter expertise and delivers the most value to their audiences? Panelists will share their experience from the front lines, with ideas on how to cover controversial stories, conduct sensitive interviews and ways to ensure teams cover all sides of a story. They’ll also discuss ways to get reluctant sources talking and how to best handle complaints or concerns.

Who Will Feed the Unicorns?

Speaker: Bryan Abdul Collins, Creative Career Coach
Moderator: Andrew Bass, Art & Production Manager, Risk Management Magazine, RIMS

For years, a “unicorn” was a seductive and illusive label hiring managers and recruiters called their fantasy hires. The one magical person to do three people’s jobs. A whole generation of designers up-skilled and survived like it was career Squid Game. Then came AI.

If you’re mid-career and thinking that you are replaceable by a younger designer with chatbot prompting experience, you’re not alone. In this session, designer and career coach Bryan Abdul Collins shares why your experience matters, why your humanity matters, and how you can navigate the changing landscape of the design profession. “Design isn’t a set of artifacts you can line up and count. It’s judgment, pattern recognition, synthesis, facilitation, the ability to think laterally and bring unexpected perspectives,” he says.

Why You Shouldn’t Use AI to Create Visuals (Yes, Really)

Panelists: To be announced soon

AI isn’t just part of the conversation anymore — it is the conversation. From lightning-fast retouching and background swaps to generating full-blown illustrations, video and vector art from a single prompt, the tools are powerful — and everywhere. But here’s the twist: just because you can use AI, doesn’t always mean you should.

This session cuts through the hype to explore the real, often overlooked reasons to hit pause on AI-generated visuals. Where does human creativity still outshine the algorithm? What risks, trade-offs, and blind spots should designers (and their editors) actually care about?

Join our panel for a candid, no-filter discussion on when to embrace AI — and when to leave it off the table. Because like it or not, AI isn’t going anywhere…but your creative decisions still matter more than ever.

Your Worth, Your Words: Navigating Compensation and Negotiating Pay

Speaker: Christina Sincere, Career Advisor, School of Communication, American University Career Center
Moderator: Paul Albergo, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Communication and Site Director, Dow Jones News Fund

Breaking into journalism is hard enough — figuring out what you’re worth and asking for it shouldn’t be. This session equips early career journalists with the practical tools and mindset to understand compensation in a rapidly changing industry. We’ll cover how to research salary benchmarks, how to evaluate full compensation packages (not just base pay), and how to approach negotiation conversations with confidence — whether for a first job or a raise. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies they can use immediately, and a clearer sense of how to advocate for themselves throughout their careers.

Annual Members’ Forum

Moderators: Davide Savenije, Senior Vice President of Editorial, Informa TechTarget and President, ASBPE; Brooke Bilyj, Founder and Chief Content Officer, Bantamedia and Vice President and Incoming President, ASBPE; Jonathan Maze, Editor-in-Chief, Restaurant Business, Informa Connect and Incoming Vice President, ASBPE; and Jessi McCarthy-Hills, Executive Director, ASBPE

ASBPE continues to invest in new programming that our members want and need the most. The Annual Members’ Forum creates a space for members to help our Board of Directors shape key initiatives for the following year. We’ll share our plans for upcoming programming and new initiatives, and we’ll open the floor for members to share feedback, suggestions, and requests. Let’s continue to build a better ASBPE together.

Buy ASBPEvolve and B2B Media Merchandise

Want to show your support for ASBPE and B2B media? Browse our selection of t-shirt and merch designs available for purchase. We’ll be adding more t-shirt designs soon to celebrate the B2B publishing community. If you have a B2B media pun that you want to see on a t-shirt, don’t hesitate to send us your ideas.

Buy ASBPE Merch

2026 Sponsorship Opportunities

Supporting ASBPE’s national conference is the best way to show your support for the hard-working B2B journalists and publications that use your products and services to inform and improve the industries they cover. Read more about sponsoring ASBPE’s national conference.

Questions?

We love to hear from our members and guests. Please get in touch with our Conference Committee through our contact form if you:

• have any questions, concerns or feedback for ASBPE.
• are interested in speaking at or becoming a sponsor for our 2025 conference.
• are an Azbee Awards judge and would like to use Azbee Bucks to cover a portion of your registration fees.
• are a non-member who currently resides outside the United States, are interested in attending our 2026 national conference, and need additional guidance for your registration.

If you have suggestions for a conference session topic, please complete our suggestion form.

By completing payment for national conference tickets, you indicate you have read and agree to ASBPE’s Payment, Refund & Cancellation Policy. Your purchase also provides permission for ASBPE to share limited contact information and conference activity details with our sponsors. Please reach out to ASBPE’s Executive Director with any questions about this policy before completing payment.

2025 Conference Session Recordings

If you missed ASBPEvolve 2025, hosted May 28-30, 2025, you can still get the benefits of our educational programming through our session recordings. Recordings of our 2025 sessions are available for $30 per session ($20 for ASBPE members), or save 20% when you purchase the full package of 20 session recordings for $480 ($320 for ASBPE members). The package set includes three bonus recordings, including the introductions to our topic-based networking discussions on Audience Strategy and Leadership, and the recording of ASBPE’s inaugural Annual Members’ Forum.

You can review the available recordings in our product list, or purchase the full package of 2025 recordings.

Purchase ASBPEvolve 2025 Recordings

In order to receive the member discount, you must be a current member — or apply for membership and wait for approval before purchasing recordings. Azbee judges can use their Azbee Bucks towards these recordings. Please reach out to the Conference Committee through our contact form with questions.