The number
We counted 970 sessions across the 16 autumn agendas we track, and 242 of them mention AI somewhere in the title or description, which works out at 25%, or one in four. That is the figure vendors will quote back at you, and it is accurate. But turn it over and it says something more useful: three sessions in four are about something else, and if you walk in with "AI" as your only filter you have set aside most of the programme before you've read it. We've started calling this the Quarter Problem, because the headline number tells you where the attention is and very little about where the value is for your particular business.
The spread behind that 25% is wide enough that the average barely describes anyone. Microsoft Ignite is at 39%, with 62 of its 157 sessions mentioning AI, and XChange NexGen at 33%, IT Nation Connect Global at 32% and ChannelCon EMEA at 32% sit close behind. At the other end both Canalys Forums and IT Nation Grow Q4 have 0 sessions mentioning AI, Women of the Channel Leadership Summit East has 2 out of 41, and MSPNXT and Kaseya Connect APAC sit at 12% and 13%. So the same word on two tickets can mean an agenda that is nearly two-fifths AI or one that has put its two days to other uses entirely, and both can be the right event for the right person.
Where the AI sessions actually are
Share is one thing and count is another, and for anyone planning who sits where, count is what matters. IT Nation Connect Global has 71 sessions mentioning AI, the biggest number anywhere this autumn, out of a 225-session programme that also carries 52 workshops and 121 breakouts. Ignite's 62 come packed into 105 breakouts, 20 workshops and 21 panels with only 2 keynotes, so the AI content there is mostly in rooms built for questions rather than on a stage built for listening. MSP GLOBAL has 21 AI sessions in 108, Pax8 Beyond EMEA has 15 in 73, and XChange NexGen has 17 in 51.
What changed this year is that AI stopped being mainly a keynote topic and turned into a breakout topic, and that matters for how you pick. A keynote tells you where a vendor is heading next year, which is exactly what the person writing your proposals needs to hear from the top. A workshop tells you whether the thing works today and what it costs to make it work, which is the conversation an owner needs before touching a client's tenant. (Our test: if a session mentions AI and sits in a workshop or breakout slot, send someone technical; if it mentions AI and is on the main stage, send the person who writes your proposals.)
Keynotes, workshops and talks: the mix tells you what kind of event it is
Set the AI question aside and the session mix is the most honest signal of what two days will feel like. MSP GLOBAL lists 36 keynotes in a 108-session programme, a third of the agenda on a main stage, alongside 39 talks, 9 workshops and 6 drop-ins. XChange NexGen runs 14 keynotes against 18 talks in 51 sessions, and Women of the Channel East has 12 keynotes in 41. Those are events built around a room full of people facing the same direction, which suits a first visit and suits a sales lead who wants to hear positioning from the people setting it.
The Quarter Problem resolves itself the moment you stop asking how much AI is on the agenda and start asking which quarter.
The workshop-heavy agendas are a different animal, built for people who arrive with a specific problem and want to leave with it half-solved. IT Nation Connect Global carries 52 workshops, MSPNXT has 11 in a 41-session programme alongside 7 keynotes, and ChannelCon EMEA puts 7 workshops into a 28-session agenda. Pax8 Beyond EMEA leans towards 48 talks, with 10 keynotes and 3 workshops, so the format there is sitting with people who have done the thing and hearing how it went, which suits an owner choosing a direction. And then there are the Canalys Forums, 12 sessions each, where 3 networking slots, 2 meals and a party make up as much of the agenda as the 2 keynotes and 2 panels do, which is the organiser telling you plainly that the corridor is the product.
One note on reading any of this: ChannelPro DEFEND Anaheim currently lists 25 of its 44 sessions as "Other", which is the usual shape of a published agenda that is still being filled in, and we'll update the counts as the detail arrives.
What a night costs
The cheapest hotel night we found on Booking.com when we checked ranges from £34 to £365 across the events where we could find one, and every one of those prices will have moved since. The £34 is the Mercure Bali Nusa Dua for Canalys Forum APAC, a 27-minute walk from the venue, checked on 2 November. The £365 is the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Central Park South-Midtown West for Women of the Channel East, a 5-minute walk, also checked on 2 November. Between them, MSP GLOBAL's Alannia Salou was £57 and a 16-minute walk when we checked on 14 October, the Steel House Copenhagen for Pax8 Beyond EMEA was £59 and a 30-minute walk on the same date, and the Travelodge London Central Waterloo for ChannelCon EMEA was £59 and a 10-minute walk when we checked on 17 September.
The pricier end clusters where you'd expect, in cities where the conference shares its beds with everyone else in town that week. Parc 55 San Francisco was £201 for Microsoft Ignite, a 13-minute walk, when we checked on 3 November, the Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown was £192 for MSPNXT and a 10-minute walk on 14 October, and the Victorian Hotel was £156 for ChannelNEXT26 West, 30 minutes away by SeaBus, which is the kind of commute worth knowing about before you book. IT Nation Connect's £83 at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Orlando at SeaWorld comes with a 48-minute walk, so for a 225-session programme the fair comparison is the room rate plus a taxi each way. We haven't yet found a rate for Managed Services Summit Manchester, so that row is blank until we do.
What to do with one in four
The Quarter Problem resolves itself the moment you stop asking how much AI is on the agenda and start asking which quarter. Take the event you've already booked, download the agenda, and mark every session mentioning AI as either stage or room, because the rooms are where the owner three seats over tells you what happened when they switched on Copilot for a client. Then give each person going a named list, split them up when you arrive, and agree before you leave which sessions each of them owns and who they are there to meet.
We check every date with the organiser and every hotel rate on Booking.com, and we'll re-run these numbers as the agendas fill out. Figures are as of 5 November 2026.
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