HighLevel LIVE Manila 2026: Recap & Takeaways
By Dr Priya Jaganathan, GoHighLevel Certified Admin · HL Growth Partner, Australia · Updated 14 September 2026 · 10 min read
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Quick verdict: HighLevel LIVE Manila ran 8–9 August 2026 at the Manila Marriott and drew more than 2,000 attendees, making it HighLevel's largest event to date — larger than any LevelUp Summit. Tickets started at US$97, all three co-founders spoke, and the room was full of working operators rather than people evaluating the platform. For Australian agencies it is the cheapest serious HighLevel event within reach.
On This Page
- Manila at a glance
- Why it was HighLevel's biggest event yet
- On stage in Manila
- The themes across the two days
- Why the Philippines, and why now
- What Manila means for Australian agencies
- Manila versus LevelUp Dallas
- Will there be a HighLevel LIVE Manila 2027?
- What I took home
- Frequently asked questions
- Related Articles on HL Growth Partner
In August 2026, more than two thousand people filled the Manila Marriott for HighLevel LIVE Manila. That made it the largest HighLevel event ever held — bigger than any LevelUp Summit before it, and it happened in Asia-Pacific rather than the United States.
I was one of the keynote speakers. This is what actually happened, why the Philippines was the right place for it, and what Australian agency owners should take from a room that size assembling eight hours from Brisbane.
Manila at a glance
| Event | HighLevel LIVE Manila 2026 |
| Dates | 8–9 August 2026 (check-in 7 August) |
| Venue | Manila Marriott Hotel, Newport World Resorts, Pasay City |
| Attendance | More than 2,000 — HighLevel's biggest event to date |
| Tickets from | US$97 |
| Co-founders on stage | Shaun Clark, Robin Alex, Varun Vairavan |
| Pre-event | VIP Gala hosted by Cece Tan, 7 August |
The speaker lineup mixed HighLevel leadership with regional and international operators — among them Billy Gene, Cece Tan, Chase Buckner, Chris Dillon, RJ Villamer, Joanna Sherrow, Declan O'Reilly, Matthew Panganiban and Michael Reimer.
Why it was HighLevel's biggest event yet
Two thousand attendees is not a rounding error above previous events. It is a structural signal about where HighLevel's growth is now coming from.
HighLevel currently powers over two million businesses and passed 120,000 customers in March 2026, moving more than 1.6 billion messages a month. The company recorded 781 per cent revenue growth across three years, which put it at number 516 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 and number 116 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
Growth at that rate does not come from one market. Manila's attendance was the clearest evidence yet that the centre of gravity for HighLevel's agency community is shifting toward Asia-Pacific, and HighLevel scheduled and resourced the event accordingly.
On stage in Manila
Speaking at an event this size is a different experience to speaking at a local conference, and the thing that struck me was the composition of the room.
It was not an audience of spectators evaluating whether to try the platform. It was full of people already running client work on GoHighLevel who wanted specifics — pricing, delivery capacity, where automation breaks, how to scale a team without the founder approving every workflow. The questions afterwards were operational, not introductory.
That matters for how you read this recap. Manila was not a beginner event with a cheap ticket. It was an operator event with a cheap ticket, which is a rarer and more useful thing.
The themes across the two days
Rather than a single product announcement, Manila ran on recurring threads that showed up across sessions:
- AI in delivery — moving from novelty demos to agents doing real client work
- Agency growth and high-ticket offers — packaging and pricing rather than volume
- WhatsApp — dominant in the region in a way it simply is not in the US
- Team development — building capability offshore instead of buying hours
- Affiliate and SaaS systems — recurring revenue models built on the platform
The WhatsApp emphasis is the one Australians should notice. In much of Asia-Pacific it is the primary channel, not a secondary one, and agencies serving migrant or multicultural markets in Australia are frequently under-built on it.
Why the Philippines, and why now
The Philippines was not a random choice of venue. It now ranks second worldwide for HighLevel Certified Admins, behind only the United States, with more than 75 certified professionals according to HighLevel's own certification team.
That concentration of certified talent explains a great deal about how agencies everywhere — including Australian ones — actually get their GoHighLevel work delivered. A large share of the implementation capacity serving Western agencies sits in this region.
For an Australian agency owner, the practical reading is straightforward: the people who will build and maintain your GoHighLevel systems are increasingly in this time zone, not in yours. That is an advantage if you structure for it and a liability if you ignore it.
What Manila means for Australian agencies
Three things worth acting on.
First, the regional events are no longer the junior version of Dallas. An event that outdraws every previous LevelUp is not a satellite. If you have been assuming the only serious HighLevel conference is in Texas, that assumption is now out of date.
Second, it is a third of the cost. Manila is roughly eight hours from the east coast against fifteen to sixteen to Dallas, on a ticket that starts at US$97 rather than US$1,297. For a first HighLevel event, that is a far cheaper way to find out whether the format works for you.
Third, the talent and partnership networks in the room were denser than anything available locally. If you are building offshore delivery capacity — and most scaling Australian agencies are — the rooms at these events are where that actually gets arranged.
Manila versus LevelUp Dallas
| HighLevel LIVE Manila | LevelUp Dallas | |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket from | US$97 | US$1,297 |
| Flight from east-coast Australia | ~8 hours | ~15–16 hours nonstop |
| All-in from Australia | ~A$2,000–2,800 | ~A$6,000–8,500 |
| Attendance | 2,000+ | 1,000+ expected |
| Roadmap reveal | No | Yes — Dallas only |
| Best for | APAC network, delivery talent, low-risk first event | Product roadmap, US pricing calibration |
Dallas keeps the flagship content. The 300-plus feature reveals and the following year's roadmap happen there and nowhere else — see our LevelUp Summit 2026 guide and our assessment of whether it justifies the fare.
Will there be a HighLevel LIVE Manila 2027?
Nothing has been announced. As at 14 September 2026, HighLevel's official events listing covers 2026 only, and the Manila recap page points attendees toward LevelUp in Dallas rather than a 2027 regional date.
Given the attendance Manila achieved, a return would be unsurprising — but unsurprising is not announced, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We track every confirmed date on our GoHighLevel events calendar, which is updated as HighLevel publishes.
The other regional event worth reading about is New Delhi, which opened the 2026 series — see the HighLevel LIVE India recap.
What I took home
The most useful thing I brought back from Manila was not a feature announcement. It was a recalibration of what "normal" looks like.
Two thousand operators in one room, most of them running client work at a scale and price point that would make a lot of Australian agencies uncomfortable, and almost none of them apologising for their pricing. If you only ever benchmark against your local market, you will systematically undercharge — and you will not notice, because everyone around you is doing the same thing.
That is the argument for getting on a plane at least once a year, whichever event you pick. The content is available later. The calibration is not.
If you want your GoHighLevel build assessed against what good actually looks like — pipelines, workflows, SaaS Mode and AI configured properly — that is what we do at HL Growth Partner.
Frequently asked questions
When and where was HighLevel LIVE Manila 2026?
HighLevel LIVE Manila ran on 8 and 9 August 2026 at the Manila Marriott Hotel at Newport World Resorts in Pasay City, with check-in on 7 August and a VIP gala hosted by Cece Tan the evening before.
How many people attended HighLevel LIVE Manila?
More than 2,000 people attended, which made it HighLevel's biggest event to date by attendance — larger than any previous LevelUp Summit.
Who spoke at HighLevel LIVE Manila 2026?
All three HighLevel co-founders — Shaun Clark, Robin Alex and Varun Vairavan — spoke, alongside a regional and international lineup including Billy Gene, Cece Tan, Chase Buckner, Chris Dillon, RJ Villamer, Joanna Sherrow, Declan O'Reilly, Matthew Panganiban, Michael Reimer and Dr Priya Jaganathan.
How much did HighLevel LIVE Manila tickets cost?
Tickets started at US$97, compared with US$1,297 for General Admission at LevelUp Summit in Dallas.
Why did HighLevel hold a major event in the Philippines?
The Philippines now ranks second worldwide for HighLevel Certified Admins, behind only the United States, with more than 75 certified professionals according to HighLevel's certification team. A large share of the implementation capacity serving agencies in Australia, the UK and North America sits in the region.
Will there be a HighLevel LIVE Manila 2027?
No 2027 event has been announced. As at 14 September 2026, HighLevel's official events listing covers 2026 only, and the Manila recap page directs attendees to LevelUp in Dallas rather than to a 2027 regional date.
Is HighLevel LIVE Manila better than LevelUp Dallas?
They serve different purposes. Manila is far cheaper and closer for Australians, drew a larger crowd, and had a strong operator and Asia-Pacific focus. Dallas remains the flagship: the 300-plus feature reveals and the following year's roadmap happen there and nowhere else.
