The customer experience (CX) industry is not short on events. And for good reason: this is an industry that moves fast, and the appetite for learning, connecting, and staying ahead is real.
But there is a particular kind of conference experience that senior CX leaders tend to describe when you ask them what they are actually looking for. It’s not about the biggest audience or the longest speaker list. It’s about something harder to engineer: a conversation that changes how you think, a CX peer who has wrestled with the exact problem sitting on your desk right now, and relationships that are still paying dividends years later.
When is the last time you left a conference having learned something that actually changed how you work? When is the last time you met someone in a session who became a genuine thought partner, not just a LinkedIn connection? When is the last time a conference sent you home thinking differently about your job function?
That is what CRS is built around.
At CRS Scottsdale (September 30–October 2, 2026), the format is intentionally intimate, designed to foster real conversations, share knowledge, and build relationships that outlast the event itself.
Here’s what sets it apart from other CX conferences.
Leaders Learning from Leaders
At most conferences, you learn from a stage. At CRS, you learn from the person sitting across from you at dinner. The insights come from the CX executive who just cracked a problem you have been wrestling with for months, or the C-suite keynote speaker who is willing to share not just what is working, but what isn’t. There is a candor in the room that is rare because it is composed of people who have actually done the work.
“This is the only event where true CX leaders can learn from other leaders.”
— Ebrahim Hyder, Vice President of Customer Service, Michael Kors
That peer-to-peer dynamic changes everything about how knowledge moves through an event. You aren’t passively absorbing presentations. You are actively exchanging hard-won experience with the people who understand your challenges most deeply.
Intimate by Design
CRS is intentionally small. And that is the whole point. You are not navigating a convention center floor hoping to catch five minutes with someone meaningful. The smaller scale is a deliberate structural choice that shapes every aspect of the event, from the session format to the way the agenda is built, with dedicated connection time woven throughout.
Collaboration at scale is a contradiction in terms. Real collaboration, the kind that surfaces new ideas and shifts your thinking, requires enough space for a genuine conversation. CRS is built around that insight.
“One of the things I really love about these conferences is how intimate it is. The smaller environment allows for a lot more collaboration.”
— Dima Cichi, Global Customer Success & Service Transformation Leader, Microsoft
An Openness You Won’t Find Anywhere Else
Something happens when you put the right people in a room together. The attendees who come to CRS are not there to pitch or to perform. They are there because they genuinely care about the customer experience and want to get better at it, alongside others who share this. That shared purpose creates a culture of openness that is hard to manufacture and impossible to fake.
“What keeps me coming back year after year are the friendships you make and the people you trust.”
— Lisa Oswald, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Member Services, Travelzoo
When the people in the room trust each other, conversations go deeper. Problems get examined honestly. Advice is given and received in good faith. That is the environment CRS creates and protects.
Relationships That Last Beyond the Event
A conference that leaves you with a stack of business cards is forgettable. A conference that leaves you with a network of genuine partners is something else entirely. Attendees describe the connections they have made at CRS as those that have made them better leaders, strategists, and people. Relationships that did not end when the event did.
“I have developed relationships from coming here over many, many years that transcend work. They’re my partners. And I think that’s very unique in the conference space.There’s no other community like that in the industry.”
— Dave Pitsch, Vice President of Guest Services, Arc’teryx
That word, community, is what separates CRS from everything else. An event happens once a year. A community is always there.
Come Experience CRS for Yourself
We are at a complex moment in customer experience, trying to figure out how to harness AI while doubling down on the human connection that still defines great brands. The tension between those two imperatives is real, and the organizations navigating it best are the ones learning together in rooms like the ones CRS creates.
There is no better place to work through that challenge than alongside the leaders doing it in real time. If you have not been to CRS before, this is the year to find out what everyone keeps coming back for.
