Big Marketing Meet-Up returns to ICC Belfast this November as it sets its sights on bringing marketers together from across Ireland
A Belfast-born marketing event that launched with just 89 delegates in 2023 and attracted 285 last year is preparing to stage its fifth edition at ICC Belfast this November.
The Big Marketing Meet-Up (BMMU) will return on Thursday 5 November 2026, bringing marketers, agencies and industry leaders together for a day focused on the challenges, changes and opportunities shaping the profession.
READ MORE: The Sound of Opportunity: Culture, Community and Tech Growth in Northern Ireland
Founded by marketer and event strategist Treena Clarke, BMMU has seen attendance increase by 220% since its first event, growing from 89 delegates in 2023 to 285 in 2025.
Now, as it prepares for its fifth edition, the ambition is to build on that growth by attracting even more marketers from across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to Belfast.
BMMU founder Treena Clarke said:
“When 89 people came to the first BMMU in 2023, I knew there was an appetite for marketers to come together in a different kind of environment, but I certainly didn’t know it would grow this quickly.
“To go from 89 people to 285 in such a short period of time is a 220% increase, but for me the important thing isn’t simply making the event bigger.
“I want to make BMMU more useful, more relevant and more representative of the marketing community across the whole island of Ireland.
“Belfast has built something worth travelling for, and I want more marketers from Dublin, Cork, Galway and across Ireland to feel that BMMU is for them too.”
The 2026 programme is built around six themes reflecting some of the biggest issues facing marketers today: Be Different, Be Chosen, Be Informed, Be Indispensable, Be Human and Be Ready.
Across the day, speakers and industry leaders will explore issues including brand, customer behaviour, creativity, artificial intelligence, data, marketing effectiveness, leadership and the changing role of marketing within organisations.
Treena said the programme has deliberately been designed to move away from the traditional conference format.
“Marketing is dealing with more noise, more change and more pressure to prove its value than ever before.
“I don’t want BMMU to be a day where people sit and listen to polished presentations telling them things they already know.
“The best conversations at conferences are often the ones people have over coffee, in the corridor or in the bar afterwards. BMMU is about bringing more of that honesty, debate and personality onto the stage.
“I want people to laugh, disagree, hear something that changes their thinking, meet people outside their usual circle and go back to work feeling excited about marketing again.”
Among the additions to this year’s programme will be an Agency and Client Roast, giving marketers working on both sides of the relationship the opportunity to anonymously share the client and agency behaviours, frustrations and situations they rarely get to say out loud, with selected confessions roasted live on stage.
The fifth BMMU will also feature keynote presentations, interviews, live discussions, audience participation and contributions from marketing leaders, agencies and technology brands from across the UK and Ireland.
She added:
“BMMU started in Belfast and I’m proud of that.
“The next stage isn’t about moving away from Belfast. It’s about making Belfast a place that marketers from across Ireland actively choose to come to.
“If we can create one room where marketers from Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Galway and everywhere in between are meeting, learning from each other and having genuinely useful conversations, that’s much more interesting to me than simply chasing a bigger attendance number.”
READ MORE: Instil appoints Ibrahim Mahmood as Chief Financial Officer to support next phase of growth
The Big Marketing Meet-Up takes place at ICC Belfast on Thursday 5 November 2026.
Tickets are currently available, with support also being offered to students, marketers who are between roles and those personally funding their attendance.
EVENT DETAILS
Big Marketing Meet-Up 2026 Thursday 5 November 2026 ICC Belfast Belfast, Northern Ireland
Read the Summer 2026 edition free online →
Stay connected with NI's tech community:
