ETA Events
The Calendar
Dated and still to come
September 15 to 17, 2026 · Columbia, Missouri · Open registration · Main Stage $250, Classic $1,500, All-In $6,000
Three days in a small Missouri college town that has become the largest gathering of small-business owners in the country. The program is operating rather than dealmaking: pricing, hiring, and running the business after the wire. Passes are sold at three levels and the cheapest one is main stage only.
For owners and operators doing $5M to $50M in revenue, with acquirers, searchers, and capital allocators.
September 18 to 19, 2026 · Durham, North Carolina · Open registration
Four business schools run one conference together, and the 2026 edition meets at Duke. The curriculum follows the search lifecycle: proprietary sourcing, debt structuring, and running the company afterwards. Registration closes in stages, and the site warns that the price rises rather than publishing what it is.
For current and recent MBA students and mid-career professionals in the Southeast.
October 19 to 21, 2026 · Salt Lake City, Utah · By application
A three-day acquisition summit in Utah that screens who comes: the way in is an application rather than a ticket link. The room is built around three groups, an operator, a capital provider, and an advisor, which is a different shape from the student conferences. No price is published before the application.
For operators running $2M to $50M businesses, capital providers, and the advisors around a deal.
October 30, 2026 · Chicago, Illinois · Open registration
The thirteenth edition of what Booth's own pages call the largest ETA conference in the country, run jointly with Kellogg. One day, and a case competition set on a real search fund dilemma runs inside it. Booth and Kellogg both name it on their club pages, which is how the date can be trusted this far out.
For search fund entrepreneurs, investors, MBA students, and faculty.
HBS Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Conference
November 14, 2026 · Boston, Massachusetts · Open registration
One of the oldest student-run conferences in the field, listed by the school beside its other club conferences. Harvard's own calendar dates the 2026 edition to the Saturday; a sponsor's page moved it to the Sunday, which is the sort of drift a listing site carries and a school page does not. The club page is the route to a ticket.
For searchers, operators, investors, and students, with the school's own club running it.
February 8 to 11, 2027 · Sundance, Utah · Open registration · $7,500 all-in
The multi-business owners' gathering, held at a ski resort and capped at 150 people, which is the point of it. The price is one all-in figure covering lodging and meals rather than a ticket plus a hotel. It ran as the HoldCo Conference through the February 2026 edition and carries a new name from 2027.
For operators three years or more into running a business, and people holding several of them.
April 21 to 22, 2027 · Irving, Texas · Open registration
The national gathering of the online SMB community, held in the Dallas area after earlier editions elsewhere. It is a deal-doing room rather than a classroom: the people in it are buying, lending, and running. Tickets are not on sale yet and the site takes a notification list.
For searchers, operators, investors, and the micro private equity firms buying alongside them.
Between editions
These recur and the host has not dated the next one. The last edition is shown so a reader can see roughly when it comes round.
Last held April 2 to 3, 2026 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Open registration
A day in Huntsman Hall with a welcome reception the evening before, run by the school's ETA club. The April 2026 edition sold out. The registration site keeps the last edition up between editions, so the page a reader finds is the one that has already happened until the club opens the next.
For MBA students, searchers, investors, and faculty.
Last held April 2, 2026 · Los Angeles, California · Open registration
Two rival schools run this one together, which is why it covers the West Coast rather than one campus. The third edition ran a full day at the Luskin Conference Center on two parallel tracks, one on the fundamentals and one on operating and financing. The fourth has not been dated.
For southern California searchers, operators, and investors, students included.
Last held February 27 to 28, 2026 · Cambridge, Massachusetts · Open registration
Two days at the Samberg Event Center covering search tooling, the first hundred days as a chief executive, and how deals are being financed. The tenth edition ran in February 2026 and the club takes an interest list for the next one. The club also runs a spring summit under a separate name.
For anyone, since the club describes the conference as open to the public rather than to students alone.
Stanford Search Fund CEO Conference
No dates published · Stanford, California · By invitation
The school that documented the model runs a conference for the people running the companies, and it is the one event here a reader cannot simply buy into. Stanford writes about each year's edition afterwards and publishes no registration page or date. A reader planning a year of travel should treat it as closed and read the write-ups instead.
For searchers who have already bought a company, rather than students exploring the path.