Top 2014 Tech Conferences for Entrepreneurs

While small business owners might feel they can't afford to take time away from their day-to-day tasks to attend a conference, there are some benefits to getting out of the office for a few days.

Alon Alroy, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Bizzabo, which offers a networking and mobile platform for event organizers and attendees, believes that attending conferences provides entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet the right venture capital firms, explore possible partnerships and network with industry insiders.

As long as they do their homework beforehand, Alroy said conferences can provide an immense amount of value for entrepreneurs and startups.

"If you take the time to figure out who's coming, who you want (and need) to meet, as well as what the most important content of the conference is for you, there is a great deal to be gained," Alroy told Business News Daily. "Conferences can be a door opener -- a great impression and the right connection can mean the difference between propelling forward or fading into obscurity."

However, with more than 3,000 conferences held each year, finding the ones that have the most to offer can be difficult for small business owners. To help entrepreneurs, Alroy lists his top U.S. tech conferences every startup and small business should consider attending this year:

Alroy said the conferences on this list are particularly catered to the entrepreneurial-minded and the startup crowd.

"This means an ideal balance between quality content geared towards starting and running a company and the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs, investors and the like," he said. "The organizers of these events understand the fast-paced lifestyle many entrepreneurs are living, so they make these conferences ripe with opportunities for startups to make that next business connection that could change their future."

Originally published on Business News Daily.