Best ETA Conferences: Search Fund Events, Dates and Hosts
The best ETA conferences for searchers, investors and operators: Booth Kellogg, SMBash, Stanford, IESE, SEETA and more, with hosts and dates verified.
By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.
The best ETA conferences are the Booth Kellogg ETA Conference in Chicago, SMBash in Dallas, the Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference, the IESE International Search Fund Conference in Barcelona, and the school summits at Duke (SEETA), HBS, Wharton and MIT. Pick by your stage: searching, raising, under LOI, or running the company.
Watch the hallway at one of these and you see two kinds of searchers. One is collecting cards. The other already booked coffee with the two lenders they need, and texts the investor that night with the deck.
The room matters less than what you do with it. But the rooms are different, and picking the wrong one costs you a flight and a weekend. Every date below was checked on the official site on October 28, 2026. Where a date could not be verified, it says so.
What are the best ETA conferences to attend?
The rooms worth attending are the ones where the people who fund you, lend to you and send you deals show up in the same place. Here is the comparison.
| Conference | Host | Date (verified) | City | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booth Kellogg ETA Conference | Chicago Booth ETA Group, Polsky Center, Kellogg | Oct 30, 2026 | Chicago | Searchers raising, investors, students |
| SMBash | Not named on official site | Apr 21 to 22, 2027 | Irving, Texas | Self funded searchers, SBA lenders, holdcos |
| Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference | Stanford GSB | Last held Sep 3 to 4, 2025. Next: check the official site | Stanford | CEOs, boards, investors |
| IESE International Search Fund Conference | IESE Business School | Last held Oct 15 to 16, 2026. Next: check the official site | Barcelona | International searchers and investors |
| SEETA Conference | Duke Fuqua, UNC Kenan Flagler, UVA Darden, Georgetown McDonough | Last held Sep 18 to 19, 2026. Next: check the official site | Durham (at Duke in 2026) | Students, first time searchers, investors |
| Wharton ETA Summit | The Wharton School | Last held Apr 2 to 3, 2026. Next: check the official site | Philadelphia | Students, searchers, investors |
| MIT ETA Summit | MIT ETA club | Last held Feb 27 to 28, 2026. Next: check the official site | Cambridge | Owners, investors, advisors, students |
| HBS ETA Conference | HBS ETA Club, per the Smash roundup | Check the official site | Boston | Check the official site |
| Self Funded Search Conference | Self Funded Search Association, per the Smash roundup | Check the official site | Dallas, historically | Self funded searchers |
What makes the Booth Kellogg ETA Conference different?
Size and timing. The official FAQ says more than 1,000 people register each year, and the 13th edition is Friday, October 30, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. It is one day, in person only, and the app is Go Attend by Swoogo, live two weeks before. Side events hosted by the ETA community get posted in the app.
One day and a thousand people means you will meet more people than you can remember. If you are going this week, use the Booth Kellogg ETA follow up playbook.
Why do self funded searchers pick SMBash?
Because the lenders are there. The official SMBash site describes an in person, two day summit: day one on the ETA Expo floor with workshops and deal reviews, day two with keynotes and sessions on deal sourcing, SBA financing, acquisitions and operations. It caps attendance on purpose to keep the room small.
The site names no meeting app, so you book your own coffees. Here is the SMBash follow up guide.
Who is the Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference for?
CEOs who already bought, plus their boards and investors. Stanford GSB’s coverage of the September 3 to 4, 2025 edition says it was the fifth since 2017 and drew nearly 500 attendees, most of them CEOs or their closest advisors and supporters. Stanford had not posted the next date as of October 28, 2026.
If you are still searching, this is not your room yet. If you are a CEO, it is where your investors’ other CEOs are. See the Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference follow up.
Which conference fits your stage of the search?
Match the room to what you need in the next six months. Here is how I would choose.
| Your stage | What you need | Best room |
|---|---|---|
| Thinking about ETA, still in school | Peers, a first look at investors | SEETA, Wharton, MIT, HBS |
| Raising a traditional search fund | Investors who back first time searchers | Booth Kellogg, IESE |
| Self funded, searching | SBA lenders, brokers, other searchers | SMBash |
| Under LOI | Lender, QoE, legal, an operator mentor | SMBash, Booth Kellogg |
| CEO after close | Other CEOs, board members | Stanford |
| Investor | Deal flow from the next class of searchers | Booth Kellogg, IESE, the school summits |
Two rules of thumb. Register early: the IESE page said registration and its waiting list were closed at full capacity, and the 2026 Wharton page showed the summit as sold out. And go to fewer rooms with a plan rather than more rooms without one.
For non ETA rooms like DealMAX, IBBA and AM&AA, see which M&A conferences are worth it.
How do you get deal flow out of an ETA conference?
You get it in the 30 days after, not on the day. The conference gives you a room. The follow up decides whether anyone in that room thinks of you when a deal lands.
- Before: list the 10 people you most need to meet, by name, and book coffee with them.
- In the room: capture each person in 10 seconds, with one line on what they need.
- Within 48 hours: text the investors and lenders who asked you for something, with that thing.
- Within a week: make every intro you promised.
- At day 30: reach out again with a real reason: a deal you are looking at, a post of theirs, a closed round.
This is the deal flow side of a search. More on it in deal flow for business buyers.
The system that does this for you
Here is how I would run it: let a system remember the room, and keep my 10 minutes for the texts.
FRONT OF MIND lets you capture in seconds: say a name and a sentence out loud, snap a business card or badge, or take a selfie together, and it is filed under the event. Each morning it opens on your 10 minutes for today, with one line on why each person matters today: you met at an event days ago and never followed up, they posted, their company was in the news, or they are going cold. Drafts are text style, 40 words max, and nothing sends without your tap.
It runs in your phone’s browser and can be saved to your home screen. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them. Start free with your first 25 contacts and see who from the last conference comes up first. See how it works