Make the Case
for MAICON 2026

A practical guide to getting your registration approved

Asking for conference approval isn’t always easy. Tight budgets, packed calendars, and education + training often get deprioritized.

But MAICON isn’t just another conference. And 2026 is not the time to shy away from professional development.

MAICON is where marketing and business leaders go to understand what AI is changing right now, and how to respond with clarity, confidence, and an actual plan.

If your organization is serious about staying competitive, this is the room to be in.

Step 1: Start With the Real Reason MAICON Matters

Here’s the simplest way to frame MAICON to your boss:

This isn’t a conference about AI tools.
It’s a conference about AI strategy, adoption, and execution
across marketing and business functions.

Most organizations are already experimenting with AI.

The difference? Some are experimenting randomly, while others are building a real competitive advantage across marketing and business operations.

MAICON is designed for the leaders who are, or want to be, in that second category.

Step 2: Make It About Business Outcomes (Not Curiosity)

AI isn’t “interesting” anymore. It’s operational.

Attending MAICON will help you bring back practical strategies to support goals like:

• Improving productivity and speed-to-market
• Increasing marketing and business efficiency
• Reducing wasteful tool experimentation
• Creating smarter workflows with AI embedded into daily work
• Building team readiness and responsible usage guidelines
• Strengthening competitive positioning as AI accelerates

If we want to move beyond experimentation and start scaling what works across marketing and business teams, MAICON is a fast, actionable step forward.

Step 3: Highlight What Makes MAICON Different

There are plenty of conferences that include an AI track. MAICON is different.

AI is not a track. It’s the entire focus.

Every session is designed to help marketing and business leaders answer questions like:

• How do we move from experimentation to real AI adoption at scale?
• What workflows should we standardize across our teams right now?
• How are leading organizations measuring AI impact and ROI?
• What does responsible AI governance look like in practice?
• How do we train teams so AI becomes a capability, not a novelty?
• How do we choose the right tools (and avoid wasting budget on the wrong ones)?
• How do we build an AI-forward culture without creating chaos or risk?
• What are the real-world playbooks other leaders are using successfully?

This is what makes MAICON a strategic investment, not just a learning experience.

Step 4: Use Proof (The “Room Matters” Factor)

Now in its seventh year, MAICON has become one of the leading gatherings for marketing and business leaders navigating AI adoption. Attendance has grown from the 300s in its early years to more than 2,500 expected in 2026, reflecting how quickly AI has moved from emerging trend to operational priority.

MAICON attracts the kind of attendees you actually want to learn from.

• 58% Director-level and above
• 33% senior leadership / executive-level
• 72% with an intermediate or advanced level of AI understanding
• Attendees travel from 20+ countries

This isn’t a conference full of entry-level marketers looking for inspiration or a trip to a new city. It’s a gathering of marketing and business leaders solving real AI adoption challenges in real time.

And the MAICON community is part of what makes the experience so valuable. The conversations in the hallways, between sessions, and at networking events often become the “aha moments” you don’t get from webinars or online learning.

You’re not just attending sessions. You’re joining a room full of people who are actively building what’s next.

That’s hard to replicate. And it’s why the room matters.

Step 5: Be Ready for the Common Objections

Objection: "We can't afford this.”

The bigger expense is doing business without AI, even as AI is everywhere around us. AI is here, and it's here to stay. We need to make sure we're future-proofing our team members and our business.

If MAICON helps us identify even a few efficiency gains or workflow improvements, the ROI can easily outweigh the cost of attendance.

The cost of staying behind competitors? That’s much harder to recover from.

Objection: “Can’t you just learn this online?”

The real value of MAICON isn’t just the sessions. It’s the context.

You’re hearing directly from leaders implementing AI across marketing and business functions right now. You’ll get the nuance, the “what we tried,” the “what failed,” and the “what we wish we knew sooner.” That kind of insight doesn’t show up in a blog post.

MAICON also gives you access to a community of peers you can learn from long after the event ends. It’s one thing to hear ideas from a stage. It’s another to talk directly with leaders who are testing, piloting, and scaling AI inside real organizations…and walk away with relationships you can lean on later.

Objection: “It’s too much time away from work.”

Stepping away for 3-4 days is exactly what allows marketing and business leaders to shift into strategic mode, think clearly, and return with actionable next steps.

A plan can also be put in place to ensure responsibilities are covered while away, and the goal is to return with tangible outcomes, not just notes.

Objection: “Is this just another marketing conference?”

MAICON is not focused on marketing trends or surface-level tactics, and that’s what makes it different.

It’s focused on:

• AI strategy
• AI implementation
• AI governance
• AI adoption
• AI workflow design
• Scaling AI responsibly across marketing and business teams

In other words, it’s built for organizations trying to lead, not follow.

Step 6: Make a Clear Commitment (What I’ll Bring Back)

When you attend MAICON, don’t position it as “I’ll come back inspired.”

Position it as a commitment to action and measurable impact.

Here’s what you can commit to delivering within 7-10 days of returning:

• A written summary of key insights and trends
• A shortlist of AI workflows to implement immediately
• A list of recommended tools, frameworks, or vendors to explore
• Best practices for responsible use and governance
• A team debrief session (live or recorded)
• 3–5 concrete recommendations aligned to marketing and business goals

Sharing notes and resources with the broader team ensures the organization gets maximum value from the investment.

Step 7: Make the “Risk of Not Going” Clear

If we don’t invest in AI education and strategy right now, we risk:

• Teams adopting AI inconsistently and inefficiently
• Employees using AI tools without governance or guardrails
• Competitors moving faster across marketing and operations
• Wasted spend on tools without a clear strategy
• Slower production cycles and reduced organizational velocity
• Missed opportunities to improve marketing and business performance

MAICON is designed to help leaders avoid these exact pitfalls.

Step 8: Outline the Estimated Cost

Here’s the estimated total investment:

• MAICON Registration: $1,899 (update this cost based on package)
• Travel / Airfare: $XXX
• Hotel: $275/night (update based on final cost; room blocks close mid-Sept.)
• Meals / Incidentals: $XXX
• Total Estimated Cost: $XXX

Additional details:

• Dates: Oct. 13-15, 2026
• Location: Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland

Step 9: MAICON Isn’t Just an Event. It’s a Community

MAICON brings together marketing and business leaders who are actively navigating the same challenges you are.

The sessions matter. But so do the conversations:

• peer-to-peer problem solving
• idea sharing across industries
• real talk about what’s working and what’s not
• relationships that continue beyond the conference

For many attendees, the connections made at MAICON become one of the most valuable long-term outcomes.

Step 10: Decide on a Solo or Team Trip

Is MAICON a place for you and your team? Consider:

• The agenda is built with applied AI tracks for practitioners and strategic AI for leaders
• Teams that learn together advance faster. Group rates are available.
• 1-3 team members - regular rates apply
• 4-9 team members - a 10% discount is automatically taken off at checkout when registered together
• 10+ team members - contact us for group rates
• Subscribers and community members also know of special offers or discounts the general public does not.

Copy-and-Paste Message to Your Manager

Subject: Request to Attend MAICON 2026 - Oct. 13-15, Cleveland, OH

Hi manager,

I’d like your approval to attend MAICON 2026 in Cleveland, OH, from Oct. 13-15, 2026.

MAICON is the leading conference for marketing and business leaders who are actively piloting and scaling AI across their organizations. Now in its seventh year, MAICON is entirely focused on practical AI adoption, including strategy, implementation, governance, and scaling across marketing and business functions.

I believe attending would directly support our priorities around productivity, growth, operational efficiency, and innovation.

If approved, I will return with actionable takeaways and share them with the team. Specifically, I will provide:

• A written summary of key learnings
• 3–5 workflow or process improvements we can implement
• Recommendations on tools and best practices based on what leading organizations are doing
• A team debrief session to share insights

The estimated total cost is $XXX (registration, travel, hotel, etc.).

AI is moving fast across marketing and business operations, and MAICON is one of the most efficient ways to stay ahead of the curve and bring back strategies we can apply immediately.

I’m asking to attend so we can learn how to use AI intentionally, responsibly, and faster than our competitors.

Thanks for considering it,
Your name