For more than two decades, the internet organised knowledge through search. If you wanted to understand something, you searched. Search led to articles, articles led to publishers, and publishers monetised the traffic that followed. That was the architecture of the digital knowledge economy.

The rise of answer engines changes that architecture. Search no longer leads to sources. It leads directly to answers. AI systems synthesise information and present it instantly, often without the user needing to click through to the original material.

In last week’s AI in Media Substack, I described this shift as an Armageddon moment for publishers. When answers appear directly inside the interface, users stop clicking through to the source. And when the click disappears, the economic hinge of digital publishing begins to fail.

But what looks like a structural threat for publishers is something quite different for the events industry.

Subscribe now

When answers replace discovery

For years, the process of searching, reading, comparing sources and exploring related material created context almost by accident. The act of discovery helped people understand not just the answer to a question, but the surrounding landscape of ideas. When the answer arrives immediately, that context is stripped away.

This creates an interesting paradox. The easier it becomes to obtain answers, the more people begin to crave something answers alone cannot provide: interpretation, debate and lived expertise. Those items rarely appear in search results. They emerge in conversation. Conversations tend to gather around places where people meet.

Across the internet, this pattern is already visible. People seek knowledge in environments where ideas are discussed rather than delivered. Reddit threads, specialist communities, Slack groups, Discord servers, podcasts and newsletters all share a common feature: they allow ideas to be debated, challenged and expanded.

The internet is shifting from information retrieval toward knowledge gathering. This shift has important implications for the events industry.

Where knowledge actually forms

Conferences and trade shows were often framed as extensions of media businesses. They were places where information was presented on stages, supported by editorial brands and industry publications. But now, when machines flatten complex issues into one-line answers, the value of events becomes clearer.

Events are not primarily about delivering information. They are about creating environments where knowledge is formed.

While AI is good at producing answers, summarising reports, combining information from many sources into a single coherent answer and generating plausible explanations instantly, it is much less effective at producing trust, reputation and judgement. Those qualities happen through human interaction, through debate, disagreement and the gradual formation of shared understanding.

That is what happens when people gather.

Seen through this lens, events start to look less like temporary gatherings and more like the centre of a broader knowledge ecosystem. The physical event is the moment when a community convenes. Around that moment sit a range of other activities: newsletters, research briefings, online communities, podcasts, reports and ongoing conversations between participants.

AI, ironically, makes this ecosystem easier to operate. Sessions can be transcribed and analysed. Themes can be extracted from discussions. Follow-up briefings can be created within hours rather than weeks. Conversations can be turned into structured insight that feeds future programming and research.

The opportunity for event businesses

Now the event stops being a two-day moment on the calendar but becomes the focal point of a year-round knowledge engine.

If I were an event executive, this reframing would keep me awake at night. Many event organisations still think of their product as a conference, an exhibition or a trade show. In reality, the product is something more valuable: a trusted environment where expertise, relationships and industry understanding develop over time.

The physical gathering might be the most visible moment in that process, but it is only one element of it.

This helps explain something that has puzzled many observers of the media industry over the past decade. While digital publishing has struggled to maintain its economic model, events businesses have often grown stronger. Companies like Informa, RX and Clarion have steadily expanded their portfolios and influence within professional industries.

The reason becomes clearer when viewed through the lens of the Answer Engine Economy.

As information becomes easier to generate and distribute, the value shifts toward places where information is interpreted collectively. That places the events industry in a powerful position. The conference floor, hallway conversation, panel debate, fireside chat, private meeting after the session — these are moments where information becomes understanding. They are the places where reputations are built, trust is formed and ideas are tested in public.

The companies that recognise this shift will stop thinking of themselves as organisers of conferences and start understanding that they are building knowledge ecosystems: communities where media, research, data, discussion and live interaction reinforce one another.

Over the past week, I noticed several event technology announcements that, taken individually, felt like nothing much. A new independent, review-led, comparison-driven buyer navigation platform for event technology launched. AI-powered matchmaking was reframed as “measurable engagement”. Session capture tools promising smarter reuse of content were introduced. Platform updates emphasised workflow efficiency and operational control rather than bells and whistles.

None of these on their own felt especially significant. Yet together they point to something more structural. When placed alongside what operators are saying in private conversations, and what people like Maanas Mediratta, CEO of Bridget Media, have been articulating about financial defensibility in event technology, a pattern begins to emerge.

The event technology stack is shifting, not because AI is offering shiny new things, but because control over data, spend and outcomes no longer resides in one place.

The event tech stack is becoming modular

For years, the event technology model centred on integrated platforms. Registration, event app, matchmaking, lead capture, analytics and reporting were bundled into a single commercial relationship. Organisers bought a system, configured it and ran their events inside that system.

AI is accelerating a move away from this that began some time ago. Event technology is now being built and bought in separate, interchangeable components rather than as one tightly integrated system. Exhibitors can deploy their own lead capture tools with AI-assisted enrichment and API integrations. Sponsors can independently enrich and route data without relying solely on organiser dashboards. Content teams can summarise and repurpose session material outside the confines of the event app.

This does not render platforms irrelevant. It does mean they become part of a wider stack rather than the sole centre of gravity. When the barriers to building around a platform fall, leverage shifts. If exhibitors can spin up their own capture tools in days rather than months, the organiser’s official scanner ceases to be a moat. If sponsors can validate pipeline contributions independently, the post-event report deck loses some of its mystique, and perhaps some of my old skill set with it. If content can be atomised and distributed year-round, the event itself is no longer the only container of value.

AI is not causing this change in isolation. It is lowering the cost and complexity of building systems, which spreads optionality and, with it, power.

Performance must translate into financial defensibility

At the same time, the language around event technology is changing. It is no longer enough to talk about engagement uplift, improved interaction rates or cleaner reporting. Those metrics still matter, but they are no longer decisive on their own.

Maanas Mediratta, whom I interviewed last year and who recently addressed this in his LinkedIn newsletter, captured the issue clearly. Event technology often delivers what teams expect. Engagement improves. Sponsors interact more. Reporting gets cleaner. Yet when budget season arrives, requesting the technology again can still feel harder than it should. The issue is rarely execution. It is how value is explained.

Even in the best of times, finance teams struggle to evaluate interaction metrics. They review cost structures, revenue predictability and risk exposure. Time saved only carries weight if it leads to cost avoidance or unlocks capacity. Engagement matters more when it strengthens sponsor confidence, drives renewals or improves pipeline contribution.

In recent examples he cited, what resonated financially was not the novelty of automation but an 80 percent reduction in live support workload and a tangible saving per event. Not simply an uplift in lead scans, but a move from marginal capture rates to levels that materially strengthened sponsor delivery.

The scrutiny now centres on whether engagement translates into revenue confidence, cost efficiency or stronger strategic positioning.

Procurement is maturing

Another signal is the emergence of independent comparison and decision-support platforms in event technology. Buying is becoming less theatrical and more transparent. Where relationships and pitch decks once dominated, buyers now have clearer visibility into performance, pricing and peer validation.

As a result, distribution advantage weakens and proof advantage strengthens. Vendors are increasingly required to demonstrate commercially meaningful impact rather than rely solely on feature breadth. It is a sign of a maturing market in which vague value propositions carry less weight.

What is really changing

It would be tempting to frame all of this as another wave of AI disruption. That would miss the deeper shift. What is happening is a redistribution of control and an elevation of accountability.

Exhibitors have greater technical autonomy than they did even two years ago. Sponsors can interrogate data more independently. Organisers have more modular options and more levers to pull. Platforms are being asked to prove measurable contribution rather than promise potential.

The event stack is being unbundled, not chaotically, but in ways that introduce flexibility and composability. When tools become easier to assemble and integrate, power spreads across the ecosystem. That requires organisers to be clearer about where their defensible value truly lies.

The strategic question is no longer which AI feature to adopt next. It is where in the stack you are uniquely valuable and where you are over-invested in infrastructure that is rapidly commoditising. Community curation, brand authority, trusted audience relationships and commercial orchestration are difficult to modularise. Basic functionality is not.

The quieter transition

None of this is accompanied by a single headline declaring that the event industry has changed. The announcements appear incremental and the product releases are framed as updates rather than upheavals. Yet when observed collectively, the direction becomes clear.

AI is not the central story. The deeper movement is towards modularity, accountability and financial clarity. Event technology is entering a phase in which it must justify itself not only to event teams but to finance leaders and executive boards. In that environment, surface innovation carries less weight than demonstrable impact.

Those who recognise this shift early will not simply adopt new tools. They will rethink how their event business is structured, measured and defended. The event stack is being quietly unbundled, and the organisers who respond strategically rather than defensively will shape what comes next.

For the third year running, I’ve surveyed event attendees about what matters to them. This year’s responses, benchmarked against 2024 and 2025 data, reveal something organisers can’t ignore:

With budgets biting, attendees are recalibrating what justifies showing up at events.

First, a look at who participated in the survey.

Who These Respondents Were

The three surveys had around 200 respondents from fourteen industry sectors. About the 2026 respondents:

Geography

They were from:

Event frequency

They were regular event-goers, with 66% attending two or more events and a further 26% one event per year. In other words, 92% attend at least one event per year.

Seniority:

They were all in managerial positions, such as C-suite, MDs, Founders, SVP and VPs, Directors, Heads of Departments, and so on.

Gender and Age

52% said they were female, and 48% male. More than 90% were aged 25-54, with the single largest group in the 35-44 bracket. These are professionals in their prime earning and decision-making years.

What follows is an overview of what is important for this demographic when it comes to the events they attend or plan to attend.

ROI Pervades Everything

Budgets are tightening and attendees demand more from every event element. This is best illustrated with the following (weighted averages out of five).

Nothing escaped this recalibration. Attendees are raising expectations across the board. Networking, speakers, exhibitors and doing business, deep-dives, and experiences, every element now sits above 4.0 out of 5. That’s the new baseline.

Why? Because when you’re justifying event spend to finance, every component of the event must deliver value. Mediocre speakers won’t cut it. Pointless workshops won’t cut it. Awkward networking is out.

The entire event – from content to connections to what happens outside the conference room with exhibitors and added experiences – must justify the cost of showing up.

Share

Networking and Meetings

When asked to rate the importance of different event elements, as in previous years attendees gave networking the highest score: 4.29 out of 5. It’s also the second biggest reason people attend (31%), after learning (38%).

The networking dimension

What makes up networking? There’s peer-to-peer learning. Sparking ideas. Finding collaborators and partners. Doing business. But also getting to know colleagues as humans, not job titles. Building professional communities. Socialising.

The commercial dimension

Networking and business development go hand-in-hand. But here we saw a shift in the value people attach to them as a reason to attend. Three years ago they were equal, now there is a 10-point gap.

• Networking as motivation: 25% (2024) → 27% (2025) → 31% (2026).

• Business development: 25% (2024) → 23% (2025) → 21% (2026).

However, that can be misleading. While fewer people cite business development as their primary reason to attend, the importance of doing deals at events climbed sharply from 3.51 (2024) to 3.73 (2025) and 4.13 (2026).

This tells me attendees aren’t going to collect business cards. They’re going to build actual relationships that yield commercial opportunities.

The organiser challenge

Bizzabo’s 2026 research shows 60% of organisers rate their networking “somewhat effective,” while only 15% rate it as “very effective.” That’s out of sync with the importance attendees attach to networking.

Organisers must not leave networking to chance.

Attendees rate networking at 4.29 out of 5. That’s a gap.

Content and Learning

Learning is the top motivation for attending events at 38%, holding steady across all three years.

We can break that into structured learning (speaker sessions, masterclasses, etc), the content organisers design to deliver, and unstructured learning (through networking etc).

When we look at the structured learning component, we see a change in what constitutes value.Not only has the value attendees attach to keynote sessions increased, but there’s been a significant jump in how they value add-on content like workshops and masterclasses.

Deep-dives started from a low base (2.89), but the 39% climb shows attendees now value hands-on sessions and workshops nearly as much as the speakers on stage.

To be clear, they’re not choosing between formats. They’re placing higher value on everything. Every session - whether a 25-minute keynote or hour-long masterclass or workshop - must deliver substance they can apply.

For senior leaders, that might mean frameworks, strategic insights, and peer perspectives they can use. For middle management, that might mean hands-on approaches to problems they’re facing day-to-day.

For me, it’s also about the rhythm of an event. Giving attendees the opportunity to move between shorter speaker sessions and longer masterclasses, interspersed with networking and meetings, keeps energy flowing throughout the day. Variety in formats prevents the fatigue that comes from sitting through panel upon panel throughout the day.

Exhibitors That Matter

I, increasingly, tend to think of Exhibitions as part of the event’s content experience. The more relevant and valuable to exhibitors to the audience, the better all around.

The value attendees place on exhibitors jumped from 3.74 (2024) to 3.82 (2025) to 4.11 (2026). That’s nearly a 10% increase in three years, not far off the value they extend to speakers.

This also connects directly to what attendees want from the exhibitor floor, with more wanting hands-on experiences at events rather than purely conversations.

Attendees see exhibitors as direct access to solutions, products, and potential commercial partnerships. They want to meet vendors who can solve actual problems they’re facing, even more so when budgets are tight. They want to “experience” their solutions on offer.

The exhibitor floor is essential business infrastructure. Organisers should push beyond static displays to interactive demos, live problem-solving, and direct conversations with decision-makers, not booth staff reading from scripts.

This is experential content.

Subscribe now

Events as Ongoing Relationships

Pre-event

It’s about decision-making and early peer-to-peer connection.

• Information: Information that aids decision-making – the agenda and speakers, sponsors and exhibitors, and logistics.

• People: It’s about people. Who will we meet, how can we meet/engage (even before the event starts)?

Both have grown. Agenda and speaker information rose from 43% to 52%. Community platform interest climbed from 25% to 36%. The first helps attendees decide whether to attend. The second helps them extract value before they arrive.

The fact that both increased year-over-year shows attendees vetting harder and demanding earlier engagement. They’re building ROI cases before committing and identifying targets before stepping through the door.

Post event

Extending event communities is the aspiration of many event organisers. The results above seem to support the idea. However, there isn’t widespread evidence of successful post-event community implementation.

It’s not good enough to rely on some community platform that either adds more noise to people’s day with superficial conversations, or is a ghost town soon forgotten. The following is by no means a new idea, but it’s worth mentioning again.

Event organisers can think of events like media brands or membership organisations. Successful communities share specific characteristics:

• Ongoing value delivery. Communities that work provide continuous content – member spotlights, exclusive insights, industry analysis, practical tools. Not event recaps. Not “remember when” posts. Fresh value.

• Peer-to-peer connection. Structured opportunities for members to help each other, share knowledge, solve actual problems together. The organiser facilitates, but members drive conversations.

• Membership benefits. Early access to speaker content, discounts on future events, exclusive networking opportunities. Research suggests people value what they pay for – free communities often become ghost towns.

• Regular touchpoints. Rhythm matters. Think, for example, weekly newsletter, monthly webinar, quarterly get-togethers.

Achieve this, and the event becomes the anchor moment in an ongoing relationship, not a one-off transaction.

This can fundamentally change the business model for event organisers, opening a path beyond one-off ticket sales toward building customer lifetime value with those who engage beyond the event.

But it’s hard to get right.

Experiences Become Non-Negotiable

The importance of add-on experiences to attendees surged from 2.39 (2024) to 3.77 (2025) to 4.08 (2026), the biggest value jump of any metric.

This seems particularly true for longer, regional and international events. “Location” experiences around the event (which also includes networking opportunities), climbed across the board from 2024 to 2026

It feels logical. If attendees invest time and spend money on event tickets and regional or international travel, they want memorable experiences – in and beyond the conference rooms. Experiences create stories. Stories help justify going.

Experiences also include on site dimensions:

We’ve discussed tech and product experiences, and the need for structured networking opportunities. Also worth noting is that “local” food options and healthy activities continued to increase in “likeability” over the last three years.

Subscribe now

Cost and Convenience Wins

Sustainability as a barrier to event attendance climbed from 28% (2024) to 33% (2025) to 36% (2026). However, one of the clearest shifts in the data is how attendees now prioritise accessibility over other sustainability considerations.

The importance of an accessible venue – cost, ease of travel, and time – has more than doubled in three years, rising from 16.7% in 2024 to 36.8% in 2026.

This reflects wider travel-budget pressure, and the importance of time and convenience. Accessible venues matter.

Smaller is Better?

For this particular demographic, smaller, more intimate events are better.

The 71% preference for sub-500 events isn’t arbitrary. It reflects what this demographic values – conferences that enable genuine networking and peer learning, not massive trade shows which are more transactional than relational.

Format Flexibility Rises

Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, in-person preference fell from 64% (2024) to 59% (2024) to 53% (2026). Virtual stayed flat around 25-30% over the three years, while “No preference” rose to 17% (2026) from 11% (2024).

I do not interpret this as in-person losing. It isn’t. But attendees are getting more selective. Some events justify travel. Some don’t. Cost, convenience and supply (sheer number of events to attend) are important ROI calculations.

Attendees have learnt to be choosy.

Subscribe now

What This Means for Conference Organisers

If you’re running sub-1,000 person conferences, here’s my top take-outs for what matters:

1. Every element must justify itself

Forced panels, pointless workshops, awkward networking—attendees won’t tolerate any of it when fighting finance departments for approval.

2. Design networking, don’t hope for it

Attendees rate the importance of networking at 4.29 out of 5 but only 15% of organisers say they deliver networking well. There is a place for socialising, but structured facilitation beats wine, canapes and hoping.

3. Format variety sustains attention

Rhythm energises. Mixing short talks, deep-dives, meetings, and experiences keeps energy high and fatigue low. Rigid programme structure and panel upon panel session don’t satisfy attendees anymore.

4. Pre and post-event engagement isn’t optional

Attendees want to vet before committing and extract value after leaving. Events aren’t just three days. They’re months-long if not 365.

5. Location matters

Choose venues with easy airport access, simple logistics, central locations. Attendees pick convenience and cost- and time-savings.

6. Experiences create stories

Local food, tours, activities, healthy options aren’t nice-to-haves. They add value, offer networking and help attendees create stories.

7. Show, don’t tell

Tech experiences and product demos both jumped to 60% and 53% respectively. Stop accepting “I’ll talk about our product” sessions. Demand interactive demos where attendees can touch, try, and test.

8. Selectivity is the new normal

In-person events haven’t and will not lose value, but it has lost its automatic status. It’s competitive, and attendees are under pressure. They’re choosing fewer events, more deliberately. The “same old” doesn’t crack it anymore.

9. Scale ≠ FOMO per se

For years, event marketing leaned on scale. Biggest audience, longest speaker list, most sponsors. That kind of FOMO marketing is losing its edge.

Attendees now want to be part of something valuable. Who will I meet? What will I learn? What will I experience? What will I leave with? How will it help in the longer run?

Scarcity, relevance, and quality will outperform volume in driving attendance.

Share

The Bottom Line

We see attendees under pressure. Travel budgets climbed from 52% (2024) to 55% (2025) to 60% (2026) as a barrier.

In the meantime, events have exploded post-pandemic, with supply never as high as it is now.

Every event must work harder to justify itself, with relentless focus on value. Attendees now consider everything more critically because they can’t afford events that waste time or money.

The winners are organisers who recognise events aren’t about filling rooms anymore. They’re about delivering measurable value across every touchpoint, from pre-event vetting to the event itself and post-event engagement.

Attendees continue calibrating their expectations.

Are you?

Subscribe now

Connect with me at That Coalition

That Coalition provides fractional event services to businesses that need expert conference programming and execution without the overhead of full-time staff.

We handle speaker curation, programme production, event design and operations, and more through a network of trusted partners, with urgency, efficiency, and a relentless focus on attendee value.

No one-size-fits-all pricing. You only source in what and who you need when you need it in your event’s lifecycle. Get in touch with me at cobus@thatcoalition.com or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cobusheyl/.

Over the past few years, motion became the default response. Events expanded to meet pent-up demand, justify investment, and prove relevance quickly. Programmes grew denser. Formats multiplied. Technology was added to demonstrate engagement and value. In that environment, activity made sense. It was visible. It reassured stakeholders. It helped organisations feel back in control. What’s emerging now is not collapse or disruption, but correction.

What follows below is a synthesis and interpretation of the changes already underway, drawn from conversations with senior event leaders in 2025 and my reading and experience of the industry.

The bottom line is consistent: The next phase isn’t about doing more. It’s about being clearer…

TL; DR

The events industry isn’t heading into a new era of endless expansion. It’s entering a phase of correction, rebalancing purpose, effort, and outcomes.

After years of growth and visible activity (dense agendas, new formats, lots of tech), organisations are now asking what they should stop doing, not just what they can add.

Senior event leaders aren’t talking about disruption. They’re talking about clarity, focus and justification, pruning noise rather than piling on more.

It includes considerations about:

• Portfolio-level correction

• Audience quality over scale

• Content (and panels) with consequence

• Sponsor specifity

• Design function over form

• AI and tech embedded as infrastructure

• In-person USPs

Events that hold value are those that can clearly answer:

• Why does this exist?

• Who is it for?

• What changes because it happened?

Portfolio-level correction

One of the strongest themes to emerge is restraint at portfolio level. It is not a rush to cancel, but a willingness to question the value. It’s first and foremost not about “how do we grow this?”, but rather about “what job does this still do?”.

Event leaders spoke openly about:

• Consolidating event portfolios.

• Killing marginal formats.

• Resisting the urge to launch simply because an audience exists.

It is not a retreat. It is discipline. It is not about costs. It is about opportunity cost, attention, credibility and focus.

Events that survive are the ones that can clearly articulate their purpose — internally first, externally second and builds a value proposition around clarity.

Audience quality over scale

Another clear shift is away from audience headcount as the primary measure of success. Not because scale no longer matters, but because it explains less than it used to.

In the conversations behind this piece, senior leaders spoke less about growth targets and more about who was actually in the room, and whether those people could productively speak to one another.

Smaller audiences came up repeatedly.

1. When seniority is too mixed, conversations stay general.

2. When peer relevance is low, networking becomes superficial.

3. When decision-makers are thinly spread, conversations and outcomes drift.

Reducing the room isn’t about exclusivity. It’s about increasing the likelihood that discussions move beyond description and into judgment.

I’ve said in the past that content gets people in the room, but the quality of networking brings them back. This backs it up, and it is why we, as That Coalition, play in this space.

Content (and panels) of consequence

There was little appetite for adding more complexity to stages and content. What leaders described instead was pressure to justify each session more clearly — not in terms of interest, but in terms of use.

1. Does this session help someone decide something?

2. Does it change how they think or act?

3. Or is it simply filling time?

It is a rejection of content that exists without consequence. It is a rejection of formats that exist for the sake of it.

In a context where information is abundant and easily accessible elsewhere, in-person sessions are increasingly expected to do a different job: interpretation, prioritisation, sense-making.

Increasingly, value is eroded when stage time is used to manage interests rather than deliver substance — whether that’s by placing brands on stage without a clear story, multiplying panels to keep stakeholders satisfied, or introducing formats that signal creativity but don’t produce insight or action.

You don’t require more. You require sharper intent.

Panels ≠ for decoration

Building on the theme, panels came up often in conversations as a practical concern.

What we’re seeing is that panels are frequently used when there isn’t agreement on what a session needs to achieve. They spread risk, accommodate multiple interests, and feel flexible.

Those qualities make them useful … but also easy to misuse.

From transcript analysis and post-event debriefs, panels were seen to work best when there is:

1. Focus: A specific problem or decision is being examined, not a broad topic

2. Debate: Speakers genuinely disagree or hold clearly different positions

3. Honesty: Speakers are able to speak openly and from direct experience

Panels work poorly when there is/they are:

• Appeasement: The session is designed to satisfy interests rather than explore an issue

• Superficiality: The conversation is superficial and unfocused

• Decorative: The speakers are included mainly to give visibility rather than insight

This isn’t about banning panels, but it is about using them deliberately and sparingly, because clarity matters more than coverage.

Sponsor specificity

When it came to sponsorships, “selectivity” was a dominant theme. Sponsors are asking more directly:

1. Who is this room actually for?

2. What conversations will happen here?

3. What changes because we are involved?

It’s not about sponsorship becoming harder; it’s about it becoming more specific.

Aligning with the earlier points about justification and size, events that are clear about purpose are easier to align with. Events that try to accommodate everyone struggle to explain their value to anyone.

It is a correction rather rather than disruption.

Design function over form

Conference design follows a similar pattern. There is no rejection of high production values, but there was a growing sensitivity to when design adds complexity rather than clarity.

More screens, motion, and effects don’t automatically improve understanding. In some cases, they compete with the conversation they’re meant to support.

Design decisions are increasingly assessed against simple questions:

1. Does this help people follow what’s happening?

2. Does it support attention and flow?

3. Does it reinforce the purpose of the session?

If the answer isn’t clear, the design is doing the wrong job.

Share

Technology to remove friction

Technology is not necessarily discussed as a differentiator in its own right, but as something that quietly extends what organisers and participants can realistically expect and do.

Tools are increasingly judged on whether they:

• Reduce manual effort

• Improve decision-making

• Remove friction for speakers, organisers, and attendees

Leaders spoke less about adding tools for showcasing innovation and more about using fewer tools better. In practical terms, that meant:

• Simplifying tech stacks

• Removing overlapping platforms

• Avoiding systems that require explanation to be usable

AI integration everywhere

AI came up frequently in conversations, not as an experiment or a feature, but as something already reshaping how serious event businesses operate.

What stood out for me was not the front-of-house use cases per se, but depth of integration and how AI is being used internally to redesign how work happens.

For example, Informa has built a proprietary assistant trained on its own data and extended it with agent-building capabilities. This allows teams across the organisation to create tools that remove friction from sales, operations, product, and marketing workflows. (Note: most event organisers don’t have the scale of Informa, but there are several vendors in the space that can help smaller operators with custom agents.)

The significance here isn’t speed alone. It’s that intelligence is being embedded directly into day-to-day decision-making, and innovation becomes distributed rather than centralised.

On the product side, AI is materially changing the value proposition of events. Lead intelligence and matchmaking are no longer treated as add-ons, but as core components of what exhibitors are buying. By combining behavioural, media, and event data, AI improves follow-up quality, pricing power, and long-term defensibility.

In this context, AI is not supporting the event. AI is becoming part of the product itself.

As in other sectors, AI is reshaping discovery. Rather than resisting AI-driven search and recommendation, Informa is structuring content and environments to work with AI. It uses AI as a routing mechanism that drives users into deeper engagement across media, data, and events.

Overall, a common thread from conversations is that AI is not being treated as a moment or a message. It is being embedded as infrastructure.

Its value lies less in visibility and more in how it improves internal efficiency, product economics, customer insight, and post-event follow-through.

In that sense, AI increases the return on in-person events by making what happens before, during, and after the room more usable and more valuable.

Subscribe now

Clarity in the in-person USP

As mentioned earlier, in-person events are no longer primarily about access to information. That you can do online. Events’ value now lies in things that are harder to replicate digitally:

• Judgment: The ability to weigh options, trade-offs, and risks in conversation with peers who have comparable responsibility

• Context: Understanding not just what is happening, but why it matters in a specific organisational or market setting

• Shared interpretation: Reaching a common understanding of what information actually means, rather than consuming it individually

• Real-time testing of thinking: Stress-testing ideas with peers, challenging assumptions, and refining positions in the moment

• Commercial exchange: Meeting the right people, progressing relationships, and doing business in ways that rely on trust and immediacy

These outcomes don’t scale easily, and they don’t benefit from volume or excess. They depend on clarity about who needs to be in the room, and what those people need to work through together.

What 2026 looks like

Taken together, these shifts don’t point to reinvention. They point to correction and clarity.

Events are being stripped back to what they can do uniquely well, and relieved of tasks they were never well suited to carry.

That doesn’t mean fewer ambitions. It means clearer ones.

The events that will hold their value in 2026 are likely to be those that can answer, plainly and early:

1. Why does this exist?

2. Who is it for?

3. What changes because it happened?

Those aren’t creative questions. They’re strategic ones with direct operational consequences. That clarity matters.

Share

Originally published last week in AI in Media. Reposted here for That Event Stack with light contextual edits.

Recently, at The Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information & Events in London’s Stationers’ Hall, I watched the room divide itself without anyone even having to spell it out. By afternoon tea, it was unmistakable: the media industry on one side, cautious and defensive; the events industry on the other, pragmatic, experimental, almost impatient to get on with the future.

Subscribe now

It played out inside a venue that has witnessed almost four centuries of technological panic (from movable type to the first copyright laws), so perhaps it was appropriate that history repeated itself. The morning sessions, dominated by representatives from media companies, carried a familiar unease: the sense that AI was happening to the media, not with it. But when the events executives took over in the afternoon, the tone flipped completely. If the media panels described a disruption, the events panels described a plan.

The morning: an industry aware of the threat but unsure of the path

Publishers weren’t wrong to sound worried. Their content is being scraped, their distribution channels destabilised and their licensing strategies remain undefined. When asked about deals between media organisations and AI platforms, most responses hovered somewhere between “We hope so” and “It’s complicated.” The uncertainty wasn’t feigned; it was structural.

More fundamentally, media leaders struggled to articulate where AI fits inside their business model.

Improve workflows? Yes.
Rewrite journalism? No.
Generate revenue? Unknown.
Protect the archive? Absolutely.

In short, the media industry understands the stakes but hasn’t yet agreed on the strategy. AI feels like a threat they must respond to rather than an engine that could help them grow.

The afternoon: an industry already building with AI

And then came the events world, speaking at the same conference but with the confidence of a sector already halfway up the hill.

Where the morning had been defensive, the afternoon was almost exuberant. Event operators talked about matchmaking engines already up and running; internal LLMs generating hundreds of custom apps; data products with zero customer churn; real-time sentiment scoring; and exhibitor tools that are no longer selling square metres but selling qualified intent.

It wasn’t theory.
It wasn’t futurism.
It was execution.

Informa described a future where exhibitors buy lead intelligence and exhibition access is determined by that relationship. RX explained how they already know what will perform at a New York show based on data from London and Paris. Terrapinn talked about AI not as a threat to face-to-face events, but as the thing that finally makes them scalable.

The contrast couldn’t have been clearer.
In the morning: copyright law.
In the afternoon: commercial architecture.

The real divide: posture

What emerged wasn’t simply that the events industry is “ahead.” It’s that the two sectors have adopted fundamentally different postures.

The media industry has taken a protective stance - understandable, given its assets - but here’s the rub: compulsive protection tends to become paralysis. Meanwhile, the events industry has decided to treat AI as infrastructure, something to build on rather than brace against.

The irony? Both industries share the same pillars: content, audience, data. One sees AI as a threat to those pillars; the other sees it as reinforcement.

And if this divergence continues, the events industry could realistically begin to own the intelligence layer between professional communities and the information they rely on. This is the layer publishers once dominated.

If I were advising a newsroom CEO…

Last week’s version of this piece - written for AI in Media - focused squarely on the media side of the divide. And there, my advice was blunt:

1. Build capability, not caution.

The companies moving fastest don’t have the most policies; they have the most people using AI.

2. Treat AI as a product engine, not a workflow trick.

Ask what you could sell because of AI, not just what you could automate.

3. Get ahead of AI search now.

Discovery is being rebuilt in real time. Visibility will depend on structure, metadata and licensing.

4. Recognise that your next competitor might not be a publisher at all.

Events companies are rapidly building insight and attribution products media companies assumed they would always own.

If I were advising event leaders…

For this repost on That Event Stack, it’s worth flipping the lens.

If the events industry emerged from Stationers’ Hall as the sector most confidently building with AI, then the advice here is less about correction and more about acceleration.

1. Don’t slow down - you’ve already proven the model.

While other industries debate risk, you’re deploying AI at scale. That execution instinct is your competitive superpower (read my Substack about Fishing with dynamite).

2. Treat your data layer as your future P&L.

Prediction, behaviour modelling, exhibitor intelligence: this is where long-term value will sit. Invest accordingly.

3. Industrialise the experiments.

Internal LLMs, dynamic matchmaking, automated content packs — turn what works into infrastructure. Don’t let it stay experimental.

4. Own the ecosystem before someone else does.

You’re positioned to become the central intelligence hub for entire industries. Publishers once held that role. They didn’t keep it.

The split is the story

When I walked out of Stationers’ Hall - the same building where printers once fought over who owned the rights to Shakespeare - it felt like two industries had attended two different events. One was asking how to survive AI. The other was asking how much faster they could deploy it.

The risk for media is not that AI will replace journalism. It won’t.
The risk is that adjacent industries, like events, will use AI to capture the value journalism never had time to reach.

If media doesn’t close that gap soon, the future of insight, influence and audience understanding may be built by someone else entirely.

Share

Two days ago, I found myself inside Stationers’ Hall, London - the 17th-century home of the 622-year-old Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers - live-reporting an AI conference using AI. If there’s a better metaphor for the moment the events industry is in, I can’t think of it.

Stationers’ Hall is where early printers and booksellers once stamped their ownership onto Shakespeare’s plays and Dickens’ novels, and where the Register became the backbone of the first copyright laws. It is a place built on the idea of protecting intellectual labour. And on Tuesday, inside that same wood-panelled hall, the conversation was about how AI is reshaping that labour: not abstractly, not someday, but now.

Subscribe now

Staged by Colin Morrison’s Flashes & Flames and Peter Houston’s Media Voices, media and event executives gathered in the birthplace of copyright to ask a deceptively simple question: how will AI reshape every business built on content, including the events industry itself?

In the back of the hall we had our own operation running: a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (designed for musicians, repurposed by journalists who should know better) wired into a MacBook, while Otter.ai cheerfully swallowed a mixed feed from the sound desk. We tapped in speaker IDs at speed, knocked out summaries before the next chair even cleared their throat. AI not as a theory, but a tool — scruffy, speedy, occasionally chaotic, and utterly worth it.

What followed across the sessions was an unexpectedly clear narrative. The event industry isn’t dabbling in AI. It is reorganising around it. The recurring themes came quickly and repeatedly, and by the end of the afternoon it was obvious: AI won’t replace events, but it will remake the companies that run them.

Matchmaking made with AI

The first major theme was matchmaking, the long-promised, long-suffering holy grail of events. Greg Hitchen of Terrapinn framed it bluntly: AI may disrupt many industries, “but it cannot destroy face-to-face.” What it can destroy is bad matching, wasted footfall and exhibitors who leave wondering whether the right people walked by without ever stopping. Alison Jackson of Nineteen described the trade show model as simple on paper - hire a hall, sell space, fill it - but painful to execute. Sales scripts, qualification calls, hit-and-hope meeting arrangements. AI is finally starting to cut through the friction. As she put it, we’re still at “the MySpace stage,” but the direction of travel is unmistakable.

RX’s CIO, Robin Tapp, showed what happens when that direction becomes operational. They’re already capturing not just who met whom, but whether those meetings were good, and why. Combine that with QR engagement, sentiment scoring, and a recommendation engine that tells you “if you liked this, go there next,” and live events suddenly behave like high-functioning digital platforms. The point isn’t to replace serendipity but to engineer more of it. By the time RX stages the New York edition of a sector event, they already know what trends dominated London and Paris.

Then came Informa. And if the earlier examples were promising, this was industrial-strength execution. Strategy Director Alex Roth talked about a future where exhibitors no longer buy floor space but buy lead intelligence, and the right to exhibit flows from that relationship. Their churn on these insight products is literally zero. They’re folding app behaviour, beacon data, facial-reaction analysis and licence-protected content into a single decision-making engine. When Roth says their moat is deepening, that’s not rhetoric; that’s architecture. He even suggested a future where the physical booth is almost the wrapper — the data is the product.

Data on steroids

Which led naturally into the second major theme: data. Not data as exhaust, not data as a spreadsheet exported at the end of the show, but data as the core asset of the events business. Whether it was Emap using AI to give awards entrants personalised feedback at scale, or Nineteen testing AI-assisted sales calls, or RX mapping the commercial DNA of an entire sector, the message was identical: if the last twenty years were about digitising content, the next five will be about weaponising insight.

Festivalisation

A third recurring theme was the transformation of the event experience itself. “Festivalisation” is the current buzzword, but the underlying point is serious: younger audiences will not tolerate bad production values, boring panels and stale formats. They want inspiration, clarity, actionable outcomes and some actual joy. AI won’t generate the atmosphere, but it will help curate, personalise, direct and energise it. As Robin Booth put it, conferences have been “too complacent for too long.” AI forces a higher bar — better content, better analytics, better human experience.

The AI culture shift

Threaded through all of this was perhaps the most important theme of the day: AI isn’t a technology rollout; it’s a cultural shift. The companies getting ahead aren’t those with the best tools; they’re those encouraging their staff to experiment. Informa has hundreds of internal AI apps already built by employees through their in-house LLM “Alicia.” Mumsnet’s Sue Macmillan talked earlier about the mindset shift — AI as “an electric bike, not a driverless car.” You still steer. You still think. But you move faster.

That cultural shift also shapes how the industry thinks about risk. Whether it’s copyright, transparency, LLM crawling or data privacy, the mood was not panic but pragmatism. This room - inside a building founded to regulate the first printing presses using movable type, the 15th-century system of rearrangeable metal letters that revolutionised publishing - was talking about AI in almost the same way the Stationers once talked about that technology: a force so transformative you either embrace it and shape it, or you get flattened under someone else’s future.

Following the money

And finally, circulating beneath all the sessions was the real shift: monetisation. The industry is moving from selling presence to selling outcomes. From square metres to qualified intent. From attendance to attribution. AI makes that possible at scale. And once it is possible, it becomes expected.

Our own little experiment at the back of the room mirrored the sector’s wider transition. AI didn’t replace reporting; it replaced the admin that slows reporting down. It didn’t replace judgement; it made judgement faster. It didn’t replace the human voice; it cleared space for it.

So here we are, on Thursday, two days after the event, catching our breath and stitching together what became clear only in retrospect: the event sector is not just “AI-curious.” It is, in a way that surprised even me, AI-serious. This wasn’t an industry debating whether to adopt AI. It was an industry debating how fast they can do it.

Share

I don’t want to pick a fight with public relations people. Truly, I don’t. They do a difficult job, one that most journalists would find impossible. They calm anxious executives, manage impossible expectations and somehow keep a dozen messages on track at once.

I like PR people. I’ve covered numerous events of theirs, including the esteemed PRCA in the UK, and I’ve often admired their professionalism. In fact, I once dabbled in PR myself, briefly and rather unsuccessfully, which only deepened my respect for how hard it is. They keep the media machine running when everyone else is ready to pack up and go home.

But there’s a gap, and it’s growing.

In this world of mounting AI, automation and real-time publishing, many PR teams still don’t quite get how to turn an event into content that lives, breathes and spreads. They see content as something that happens after the event. A tidy recap. A press release. A few quotes and photos once the bums have left the seats. By then, of course, the conversation has already moved on.

The journalist’s advantage

A journalist never waits for something to happen before thinking about the story. The story begins before the lights come on and the microphone crackles to life. We build frameworks in advance. We make sure we know which speakers might be interesting, which themes might spark debate and which panels might produce the quote of the day.

We’re already thinking of the headline before the first keynote starts. PR, by contrast, often starts thinking about content when the event after party is almost over. It’s a tidy, risk-free process, but it misses the energy of the moment.

The secret is anticipation. Good content from live events isn’t about what happened. It’s about what’s happening. The trick is to prepare so well that you can publish almost instantly. And I very seldom see this happen.

With a bit of experience and a few AI tools, you can have the basics lined up before the event begins. With pre-prepared templates, anticipated outlines and possible prompt structures, you are already ahead of the pack.

That way, when the first quote lands or a speaker says something sharp, you can shape it into a post or a short article within minutes. The tools exist to make this easy. Whisper for instant transcription. ChatGPT for summarising. Canva or Descript for quick clips and captions. But none of that matters unless the mindset is there first.

Capture, don’t control

PR’s and journalists gets out of the starting block from a varied premise. PR’s focus on control. Journalists focus on capturing.

PR’s want the story to fit the message. Journalists want the message to fit the story. It’s a small but important distinction.

The best content doesn’t come from the carefully approved talking points. It comes from the throwaway line, the unexpected quote, the off-script moment when someone says something real. Those moments can be captured, cleaned up and shared instantly across multiple platforms, but only if you are ready - in advance.

Audiences do not care about polish. They care about immediacy. So, publish fast and refine later, because speed matters. With attention spans getting shorter, waiting for sign-off is the surest way to make your content irrelevant.

Modern content creation is iterative. You publish, refine, expand and build the story as it unfolds. It’s the rhythm of newsrooms everywhere, and AI fits perfectly into that flow. The machine can handle the clean-up, but the human decides what’s worth saying.

Borrow a few newsroom habits

So yes, I don’t want to pick a fight with PR people. They’re professionals. They have a vital role. They make the rest of us look slightly more organised than we are. But when it comes to event content, they could borrow a few newsroom habits. Prepare early. Capture fast. Publish first. Polish later.

And here’s the rub: content that appears after the moment has passed is like a tree falling in a forest with no one interested in listening. It simply does not make a sound.

What do you think?

If you’ve worked on both sides - journalism and PR - I’d love to hear how you handle event content. What works, what doesn’t and how do you see AI fitting into it all?

Next time, I will look at how journalists can use AI to build live content pipelines from conferences, before the first speaker even takes the stage.

I’ll be attending a few conferences later this year where I’ve been asked to help with media coverage. It made me stop and think about how we’ve been doing it in recent years. And here’s the rub: conferences thrive on immediacy, not post-mortems.

People come to exchange ideas while they’re still fresh, yet coverage rarely keeps up. Reports are written afterwards, newsletters go out the next day and social posts trickle in once the dust has settled. By then, the energy has flown out the window.

Artificial intelligence has now reached a level of sophistication (and accuracy) that gives us the opportunity to close that gap. For media events and professional gatherings more widely, AI can make it possible to capture and circulate content as it happens. The tools are here and the steps are practical.

How I’ll approach my next event in practice

Most events already have microphones and recording in place for hybrid streaming or archives. Those same audio feeds can be routed into a transcription engine. Tools such as Whisper, Trint or AssemblyAI can produce live transcripts within seconds. Accuracy is now good enough that the output is usable without heavy editing.

The transcript becomes the raw material. AI models can condense the text into rolling abstracts (short, in-the-moment summaries that capture the essence of each session): a headline, three bullet points and a highlighted quote. Updates can be generated every few minutes so attendees know what they’re missing in another room, while remote followers can see how the debate is evolving almost live.

Once generated, these micro-summaries can be pushed across multiple channels. An event app can notify delegates of “Top three takeaways so far” from a session they skipped. Screens in the venue can display a live ticker of ideas. Communications teams can queue short LinkedIn or X posts directly from the AI draft.

At the close of each session, the same system can generate a 250- to 400-word summary. This is enough to be used as a live blog entry, a news brief or a social update. By evening, all the session abstracts can be compiled into a “Day One Highlights” digest. Delegates receive an email before dinner that captures the main points and is ready to share with colleagues.

Human editors must remain part of the process. They scan the drafts, trim awkward phrasing, add context and choose which quotes deserve wider circulation. But the slog of transcription and condensation has been handled automatically. The workflow is faster and the barrier to on-the-spot coverage has been removed entirely.

Why this will blow your (and your sponsors’) minds

Too often I’ve seen the hard work behind event coverage go unnoticed. Once the lights dim, most insights and debates vanish. In-the-moment coverage amplifies your content and makes speakers (and sponsors) smile. A few slides might be shared, a press release issued, maybe a short tweet thread, but then it’s gone.

AI can change that, allowing event content to live beyond the stage in multiple formats, instantly.

For sponsors and speakers, the benefit is obvious: their messages circulate more widely and reach beyond the room. For delegates, catching up on missed sessions while still at the venue is invaluable. For organisers, the conference gains a digital afterlife that extends its relevance and reach.

It also alters the tempo. Coverage is no longer a post-mortem. It becomes a current running through the event itself. Instead of waiting for a newsletter the next morning, the audience experiences an unfolding of ideas, captured and shared while they’re still alive.

And it’s easy

The requirements are modest: a reliable internet connection, audio feeds routed into transcription software, an AI summarisation tool and an editor to review and approve the output. None of this requires exotic equipment or prohibitive cost.

What matters is the shift in mindset. An event should be seen not only as a meeting but as a generator of live content. Treating it that way ensures that ideas do not disappear into thin air but circulate widely, fast.

The immediacy and energy of the stage should be matched by the immediacy of its coverage. That’s the future of media events and AI can make it happen.

Subscribe now

Share

You know the scene. Months of chasing speaker bios, squeezing session abstracts out of busy executives, polishing the agenda until it shines. The site finally goes live and you wait for the traffic graph to climb. Instead, it looks like the patient is dying.

Subscribe now

It’s not that people don’t care about your event. It’s because they can’t find what you wrote. And unless you are in the mood to master the dark arts of SEO, it feels like there is nothing you can do.

The good news is you do not need a PhD in algorithms. A few small, human-friendly tweaks can rescue all that hard-won content and keep it working long after the closing keynote.

Tell a richer story

Most speaker bios read like copy-and-paste LinkedIn profiles. Google falls fast asleep. So do potential attendees.

Take a typical line: “Mary Jo Contrary is VP of Product at Xccellant and will talk about AI in retail.” It says almost nothing about why her session matters. Credit here to Vrushti Oza at Bridged Media for calling out this “thin content” problem so clearly and she is spot on.

Her suggestion? “Mary Jo Contrary will share how AI-driven personalisation lifted customer retention by 27 per cent across global retail chains, with practical ideas attendees can use next quarter.”

That single sentence tweak tells search engines and humans why the page matters. A richer summary serves your audience and makes the page easier to discover.

Link the dots

Event websites are often a collection of lonely pages. Speaker profiles rarely point to their sessions. Agenda pages sit in splendid isolation from related blogs or evergreen insights. It is dead simple to fix. Whenever you mention a speaker, link to their session description and back again. From every agenda page, link to at least one or two related thought-leadership pieces.

A Hat tip here to the event website platform ASP’s “Smarter Speaker & Session Content” guide for highlighting how internal links double as hidden SEO power.

This is not just good manners. It is how Google, and increasingly AI assistants, work out that your event site is a credible, connected source.

Keep the lights on

Too many organisers pull their pages down the moment the event ends. All that speaker insight is gone. All those backlinks are wasted. Instead, leave the pages live. Change the headline from “2025 Agenda” to “Past agendas” or “On-demand sessions”. Better still, keep the same URL year after year and simply refresh the content. Your hard work becomes an evergreen traffic magnet and your sponsors and speakers get ongoing visibility.

Why it pays off

Better-found content pays you back. People who find you through search are already interested and more likely to register. Last year’s sessions continue to build authority and audience long after the bums cleared the seats. Speakers and sponsors love it because their expertise stays visible and shareable. As Maanas Mediratta of Bridged Media puts it, the goal is to treat event content as “evergreen discoverable assets”, not disposable flyers.

You do not need to learn the dark arts of SEO to stop your event content from disappearing into the void. Tell richer stories, link the dots, keep the lights on. Do those three things today and the next time you check your analytics you might see a graph that finally climbs instead of flatlines.

Share

Inspired by insights from Vrushti Oza and Maanas Mediratta of the Bridged Media team and ASP’s “Smarter Speaker & Session Content”.

Lately, the British advertising executive Rory Sutherland keeps popping up on my TikTok feed, and I must confess, he grabs my attention every time.

He’s a bit of a tonic. One minute, he’s using his unique mix of behavioural science and marketing insight to cheerfully demolish business clichés, the next, he’s launching a full-scale assault on what I call the “bean counters”, the accountants who insist every expense or potential profit must be measured, predicted and justified in advance.

I see this tension in the events world all the time. Put simply, it’s ROI versus ROR. Return on Investment (ROI) keeps the lights on. Return on Relationships (ROR) keeps attendees coming back.

The tension between these two concepts seems completely unnecessary, yet it persists.

Although this quote wasn’t directed at the events trade per se, Sutherland once said the obsession with ROI is like worshipping a false god.

“Finance people don’t really want to make the company money over time… They just thrive on certainty and predictability. If you’re completely unwilling to embrace the uncertain, you’ll never pursue any incremental opportunity at all.”

As someone who attends events a lot, across both media and broader industries, I see this on repeat. The spreadsheet rules: registrations, sponsor revenue, leads captured, booth traffic, app engagement, and session attendance. They are neat metrics that slot tidily into a dashboard or a quarterly report.

ROI is the figure your CFO wants on the slide deck. It’s the proof that the event wasn’t just a good idea, but a business decision. Fair enough. ROI matters. Money has to come from somewhere and nobody’s going to bankroll an event purely because it makes people feel good.

But here’s the rub. ROI only tells you what you earned this quarter. It says nothing about whether your audience felt connected, valued or eager to come back next year. It doesn’t measure whether your event planted the seeds for collaborations, trust or the sort of loyalty that makes people sing your praises long after the bums have left the seats.

That’s where ROR gets on the stage.

ROI vs ROR: The difference

ROI tells you how many people showed up. ROR tells you how many people can’t wait to come back.

ROI is counting how many badge scans your exhibitor racked up. ROR is whether those scans led to conversations that might turn into real business.

ROI measures how many sponsors you signed. ROR is the sponsor who renews without hesitation because they trust your audience and love your event’s atmosphere.

ROI fills your dashboard with numbers. ROR fills your inbox with emails saying, “Best event I’ve been to in years.”

ROI is the spreadsheet. ROR is the spark.

And herein lies the problem. ROR does not fit neatly into a spreadsheet. It’s the quiet conversation between two attendees over drinks, the speaker who becomes an ambassador for your event, or the delegate who insists five colleagues join them next year because “you simply can’t miss this one.”

ROR is the glow people carry home with them after an event, the feeling that they were heard, that they belonged, that something meaningful happened.

It’s emotional. It’s intangible. And yet, it’s often the reason your event exists in the first place.

How to build ROR

ROR doesn’t come from running bigger events. It’s about designing moments where people talk openly, share problems, discover unexpected allies or simply feel heard. These are the encounters AI can’t replicate and spreadsheets can’t capture.

Hosted buyer programmes flip the usual event model on its head. Instead of hoping decision-makers stroll past your stand, you pre-book serious meetings with real buyers and often cover their costs to ensure they attend. It’s expensive, and your CFO might throw a toy, but it creates high-trust conversations that keep both buyers and suppliers coming back.

Consider roundtable sessions instead of too many panel discussions. Panels might look impressive on a programme but are often one-way chatter. Roundtables gather eight to ten people around a table, giving them the space to speak openly about shared challenges, swap ideas and ask questions they’d never raise in a crowded auditorium. It’s less about showmanship and more about candid discussion. People leave with practical insights and often the beginnings of new professional relationships.

Another powerful format is the fireside chat. Unlike formal keynotes, a fireside chat feels intimate, even if hundreds are listening. It’s a structured conversation between a moderator and a guest, allowing room for storytelling and genuine insight. When done well, it’s personal, engaging and sparks follow-up discussions among attendees.

Speed networking sessions can also drive ROR. They might feel rushed, but by matching people based on shared interests, even a few minutes can ignite connections that blossom into lasting business relationships.

Then there’s the rise of community platforms, whether private Slack groups, member-only forums or WhatsApp groups, which keep conversations going after the event ends. That’s ROR in action, extending the life of your event and transforming attendees into a community rather than a moment.

Technology plays a role too. Personalised agendas, driven by AI, help attendees feel seen and valued. They’re not wandering through a tradeshow hall; they’re discovering sessions and people that genuinely interest them.

And tech’s role doesn’t stop there. AI-powered tools are being used to enhance ROR in subtle but powerful ways. Smart matchmaking analyses registration data, job titles and past interests to connect attendees who share challenges or complementary business needs, like a digital concierge pointing people toward the right conversations.

Sentiment analysis can scan live chat or social media during events, picking up on which sessions, speakers or topics are resonating most. Organisers can pivot quickly, shifting moderators to hot topics or adding impromptu follow-up sessions.

Virtual follow-up rooms recreate those crucial hallway conversations after sessions end, automatically inviting people who attended the same talk into small-group discussions.

Even after the event, AI can keep relationships warm by recommending specific articles, white papers or recorded sessions tailored to each attendee’s interests. It’s a certain way to deepen connections and keep conversations alive.

Finally, AI-powered translation and live captioning can break down language barriers, making it possible for diverse groups to engage in discussions. Let the tech help to ensure no one is left out of the conversation.

In the end, a thousand badge scans mean little if no one remembers your event. But a handful of conversations, supported by the right tech, can spark future business and relationships that last far longer than a single day.

How do you measure ROR?

Here’s where the bean counters get uncomfortable. Because ROR rarely presents itself in neat columns of figures. But that doesn’t mean it’s invisible or unmeasurable.

You see it in Net Promoter Scores, those simple survey results that ask attendees how likely they are to recommend your event to a friend or colleague. When people give you scores of 9s and 10s, it’s a sign they didn’t just attend; they connected. It’s in post-event surveys where attendees talk about connections they’ve made, not just sessions they attended. It’s in sponsor renewals as well, when it happens faster and more easily because last year’s event delivered beyond expectations.

It’s in the social media chatter where people mention not just the content but the community they discovered. It’s in phrases like “Best event I’ve been to in years,” or “I’d never miss this one.”

You spot it when attendees bring colleagues along the next year. When spontaneous testimonials appear on LinkedIn. When partnership conversations begin after the event is over.

And while it may never fit perfectly onto a CFO’s spreadsheet, there are ways to track ROR that can still impress the board.

Start small. Tag and analyse the kind of language people use in social posts and feedback forms. Are people talking about how the event “felt”? Are they mentioning personal connections, relationships or unexpected insights? Tools like sentiment analysis software can help you quantify this into charts showing positive or negative emotional trends.

Count referrals and “plus-ones.” How many attendees brought colleagues the following year? How many speakers came back because they felt valued? Those are measurable signals of trust and loyalty.

Track sponsor renewals and upsells, not just raw revenue. A sponsor who renews at a higher level or asks for bespoke experiences is telling you your audience is worth engaging again.

Even simple metrics like the average length of social media comments or the number of personal stories shared in event hashtags can hint at deeper engagement.

So no, ROR isn’t a neat cell in Excel. But with a bit of curiosity and some smart tracking, you can show your board more than just numbers. You can show them loyalty, trust, and the kinds of relationships that keep events alive long after the last PowerPoint slide has faded from the screen.

Why ROR matters right now

Audiences are changing. People are burned out by generic content and endless webinars. They want experiences worth leaving the house or logging in for.

Sponsors are demanding more than logo placement. They want proof of real engagement and relationships forming around their brand.

When digital tools can replicate almost everything, relationships might be the last true differentiator for events.

ROI might keep the event running. But ROR is what makes it irreplaceable. No spreadsheet ever forged trust, sparked loyalty, or sealed a deal with a handshake.

Subscribe now

Share

From a content perspective, it means treating events not as endpoints but as part of a year-round content and engagement process.

Below are some ideas on how to transform events into year-round media brands that educate, entertain, engage and build community. From before the event to well beyond the closing keynote.

1. Start with an Editorial Mindset

To build a media brand, think like a publisher. Begin with a clear editorial vision: What themes does your event tackle? Who is your audience, and what problems are you helping them solve?

Map out an editorial calendar that extends before and after the event—your mainstage sessions become anchor content, but think beyond: expert interviews, behind-the-scenes features, commentary, and opinion pieces all have a place.

Events give you access to thought leaders and other influencers in a concentrated space of a few hours or days. It is a crime to let such an opportunity slip. Use it as a content generation opportunity with speakers, sponsors and engaged attendees who can help shape your narrative throughout the year.

2. Design Content as a Lifecycle, Not a Moment

Your event should be the spark—not the whole fire. Record sessions with repurposing in mind. Each session has the potential to become:

• Podcast episodes

• Short-form video clips for social media

• Recaps and analysis for newsletters

• Slide decks and whitepapers

• “Best-of” compilations and visual summaries

This layered approach creates a content pyramid that can fuel your brand for months. AI tools can help auto-generate transcripts, summaries, or bite-sized insights that make content production more scalable.

Share

3. Create Consistent Touchpoints Before and After

Build anticipation before the event with pre-event interviews, virtual meetups, or sneak peeks. After the event, don’t go dark. Keep the community warm with post-event AMAs (Ask me anything), curated content drops, or topical newsletters that extend the event's conversations.

4. Use Your ‘Stage’ as a Studio

If you’re already investing in an audience, speakers, and content, double down by thinking of your event as a live studio. Set up podcast booths, livestream interviews, or record off-stage chats with speakers. Create “micro-content moments” designed specifically for social channels.

5. Use AI Strategically

AI accelerates content production without sacrificing quality. For example:

Content Multiplication:

• Auto-transcription – Tools like Otter.ai create searchable transcripts, then AI extracts quotes for social posts

• Multi-format generation – Feed transcripts into ChatGPT to create podcast descriptions, newsletter summaries, and article drafts

• Video clip identification – AI identifies engaging moments from sessions for short-form content

• Translation – Use AI to expand the reach of your content (tip: people are forgiving, even if translated copy or closed captions aren’t perfect yet)

Production Acceleration:

• Real-time content – Generate social posts and session summaries during live events

• Automated show notes – Transform presentations into follow-up resources without manual work

• FAQ automation – use an AI concierge to offer information in easy-to-use Q&A formats

• Personalised sequences – Create post-event emails referencing specific attendee behaviour

Optimisation:

• Discoverability – AI optimises titles, descriptions, and tags for discoverability

• Content matching – Match archived content to attendee interests based on event behaviour

• Community prompts – Generate discussion starters for community platforms

That said, use AI as a production accelerator, not a replacement for editorial judgement. Your industry insight remains the differentiator—AI just helps you scale it.

Subscribe now

6. Build Community, Not Just Attendance

Events bring people together, but media keeps them connected. Turn your attendees into an audience by giving them reasons to stay involved throughout the year.

This could be member-only content, peer-led community spaces, webinars, challenges, or whatever community tools you have at your disposal.

Encourage speakers and sponsors to contribute content throughout the year. Co-create with your community, rather than broadcasting to them.

7. Own Your Distribution

To become a media brand, you need to control your distribution. Don’t rely solely on social platforms. Be audience-first, and invest in the direct-to-consumer relationship.

Create your own channels: newsletters, podcasts, video, dedicated resource hubs, etc.

Gate premium content behind lead-gen forms or membership walls, but balance with discoverable, free content to draw in new audiences.

8. Measure What Matters

Shifting to a media mindset means tracking media-style metrics. Don’t just look at registrations or foot traffic—track video views, podcast listens, content shares, article dwell time, email engagement, and community growth. These indicators show how sticky your event brand truly is.

Use these metrics to offer year-round sponsorships, not just event-day packages. Your media brand opens up new revenue streams through branded content, ads, and more.

Final thoughts

Several event organisers are already making the shift to building a year-round competitive advantage and commercial model. Where do you stand on this?

Quick recap:

• Think publisher, not producer – Develop an editorial calendar that treats your event as content anchor, not content endpoint

• Content multiplication – One session becomes multiple assets across channels, maximising your content investment

• Year-round engagement – Pre and post-event touchpoints keep your community warm and your brand top-of-mind

• Own your audience – Direct relationships through newsletters and proprietary channels beat platform dependency

• Revenue diversification – Media brands unlock sponsorship and recurring revenues beyond event day, creating multiple income streams

• Community over attendance – Shift focus from filling seats once-off to building lasting connections that drive long-term value

• Technology and data – Use AI and other technologies for efficiency and scale. Measure all activities, refine and adapt as needed.

Share

Subscribe now

Most event industry trend reports land in January and are outdated by spring. That’s why I deliberately held back until now, June 2025, to take stock of where things truly stand. After speaking with dozens of event leaders and sitting in on sessions like the excellent Monetise B2B conference in London earlier this year, one thing has become very clear: the event industry has entered a serious phase of operational innovation, where attendee experience isn’t simply important — it’s existential.

At Monetise B2B, several sessions on festivalisation, gamification and the evolution of event models crystallised the moment we’re in. Events are no longer competing for attention; they’re competing for sustained loyalty. That means organisers must now use every tool at their disposal: data, AI, interactivity, community-building and behavioural science. The challenge is to create sharp, immersive experiences that drive both attendance and revenue growth. The post-Covid novelty phase is long gone. The real transformation is happening now.

Subscribe now

The clearest theme cutting across every conversation is that personalisation at scale has become mandatory. Attendees no longer want an agenda built for the room — they expect one built around them individually. Each session should align with their specific interests, networking must be curated to match their personal goals, and exhibitor connections need to be highly targeted. On paper, it sounds almost impossibly ambitious.

But it is not. Smart event organisers are mining registration data, session selections, social media signals and previous attendance patterns to deliver targeted experiences. As vFairs CEO Muhammad Younas put it recently: "You need to ensure attendees find the most relevant audience to interact with, the most relevant session to attend and the most relevant exhibitor to meet." That is becoming the baseline expectation.

Detailed engagement metrics

Data analytics sits at the heart of this shift. From RFID-enabled badges to smart event apps, organisers are now able to capture a live digital footprint of attendee engagement, which sessions drew the crowds, which exhibitors generated dwell time and where attendees spent time networking. Companies like the event management platform Whova have shown how this data is reshaping event design, allowing organisers to adjust everything from room allocations to future programming decisions. As one recent Whova case study noted, some events have scaled their global reach several times over by combining in-person and virtual formats, using behavioural data to continually fine-tune the experience.

Personalisation also extends far beyond programming. It’s reshaping monetisation. With first-party data now fine-tuned, organisers are able to offer sponsors not just foot traffic numbers but detailed engagement metrics. Exhibitors can see which visitors came to their booth, how long they stayed and what content resonated most. This, in turn, drives stronger sponsor renewals and investment decisions.

Artificial Intelligence has moved on from hype to an operating system. AI now touches nearly every part of the attendee experience: from intelligent matchmaking that pairs attendees based on goals and interests, to AI-powered chatbots that serve as 24/7 personal event assistants, updating schedules, speaker information and venue maps. Large-scale deployments, such as the AI-powered chatbots used at India’s Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, this year (supporting millions of visitors), show how scalable these tools have become.

In the background, AI is also quietly shaping operational decisions. Event platforms can now use machine learning to predict session popularity, optimise room usage and even adjust livestream quality dynamically for virtual attendees. The engagement platform GlueUp said in their recent analysis, back-end AI is helping event teams fine-tune hybrid event delivery with the kind of precision that would have been impossible a year ago.

Keeping attendees alert

Gamification, which used to be seen as a playful extra in the past, has now become a core design principle for engagement. At Monetise B2B, the conversation around competitive socialising and festival-style experiences made clear that gamified interaction is not optional if you want to drive engagement. Leaderboards, live polls, scavenger hunts, trivia contests and team challenges are increasingly common. They keep attendees alert and emotionally invested and serve as effective ice-breakers, sparking advanced networking.

Beyond points systems, many conferences are now designing entire interactive journeys before the event starts. Automated event management platforms like RSVPify say their data analyses prove that events that integrate game mechanics into pre-event apps, allowing attendees to accumulate points for completing profiles, scheduling meetings or engaging with sponsors, see higher participation once the event goes live.

On the more experimental end, augmented and mixed reality are starting to add richer interactive layers. While full-scale adoption is still limited, AR activations such as digital scavenger hunts or AR-enhanced exhibitor booths are generating some early buzz. Mixed-reality gaming floors, as tested at some US and European events, allow attendees to physically participate in digital competitions, blending the live and virtual worlds into immersive engagement experiences.

Hybrid events have fully cemented themselves as standard operating practice. Post-pandemic, the hybrid format has evolved from a safety net to a revenue driver. Organisers are no longer treating virtual attendees as passive livestream viewers but as participants: live Q&A, breakout rooms, online matchmaking and interactive digital lounges have levelled the experience across both physical and digital channels. As Whova has demonstrated through multiple client case studies, hybrid formats routinely multiply attendance reach while unlocking parallel sponsorship revenue streams, both on-site and online.

The strategic advantage of hybrid lies not only in flexibility but in ongoing engagement. Events are increasingly monetising on-demand content libraries post-event, turning one-time conferences into year-round content hubs that build stronger audience relationships and extend sponsor visibility beyond the event itself.

Core operating systems

Crucially, these trends aren’t limited to one event type or region. B2B conferences like the recent Snowflake Summit 2025 deployed AI to generate personalised session tracks and exhibitor recommendations. The AI Summit in London successfully matched attendees for more productive networking based on AI-driven profile matching, while trade shows and consumer-facing mega events are using the same technologies.

There is enough evidence to prove that the reinvention of attendee experiences moved beyond novelty to operational execution. It means AI and other data tools for personalisation and festivalisation have become core operating systems for event organisers competing for attention and profits in 2025.

What separates the leaders from the rest isn’t merely the adoption of shiny tools; it’s the integration of these systems into a cohesive, revenue-generating, relationship-building ecosystem. Increasingly, event ROI is measured not in ticket sales or sponsor packages, but in “return on relationships” — the long-term depth and strength of communities being built across these platforms.

I’ll bet good money the next 12 months will sharply separate those who fully embrace these realities from those still clinging to a pre-pandemic playbook. The audience has moved on. The technology has raced ahead. And here’s the hard question for anyone in the events business: Do you have the operational courage to rebuild your events around what attendees now expect?

Share

If you found this mid-year reality check useful, subscribe for more analysis at the intersection of events, media and emerging technology. Between Cobus Heyl, founder of That Coalition and an events programme specialist, and me, we cover what’s happening and where businesses should focus their attention next. Feel free to share, comment or challenge. Your perspective helps sharpen the debate.

I particularly liked TED’s guideline, allowing 18 minutes as their optimal talk length for their speakers. So I decided to introduce shorter sessions at our events. Maximum 20 minutes, around 17 minutes talk time with the rest for questions and transitions. Armed with the plan, I tested my assumptions with event psychologist Victoria Matey and ploughed on. I never received one complaint about that.

To be clear, not every session in our programmes was (or is) 20 minutes. They form the bulk but with some other standalone slots of different durations and 40-minute panel discussions added in. You want to mix things up a little to keep it interesting. Besides normal breaks, I also build in regular 5-minute “brain breaks”. It gives people time to catch their breath, perhaps change channels if you’re running more than one, and go again.

‘The World’s Attention Span Has Shrunk’

This week, this article in The Times (“TED talks trimmed in the age of shorter attention spans”) caught my eye (and those of various others, judging by posts about it within my LinkedIn network).

The renowned TED talks are becoming shorter because average attention spans have shrunk, Elif Shafak, the award-winning novelist, told The Times.

According to the article, Shafak said that for her first TED talk she was given guidelines to keep it to 19 minutes, whereas a decade later she was told to keep to 13 minutes.

“I asked why the difference and they said, ‘Well, the world’s average attention span has shrunk’,” the Turkish-British novelist, whose books have been shortlisted for numerous ­literary prizes, told the Hay Festival. “That made me really sad. We are ­incapable of listening to a talk for more than a few minutes.”

While some people will bemoan the shortening of sessions (E.g. “How do you convey complicated thoughts in 13 minutes?!”, most of the comments I saw about this on LinkedIn was positive.

However, I believe conventional wisdom about “shortening attention spans” is just one of the motivations for shorter sessions. For example:

• Shorter sessions mean speakers must think carefully about their messaging. It adds discipline. This gets rid of fluff and helps them create maximum impact.

• It helps to mix things up throughout the day. Add the pace of shorter sessions at the right times, while going deeper at certain intervals. Time, formats, flow, digital integration and so on all play a role.

Subscribe now

What is too short?

Of late, I find myself asking whether 20-minute sessions is going far enough.

A few years ago, data analyst Victoriano Izquierdo posted on X about his study of hundreds of TED talks from 2016 onwards, which shows the average length has dropped to under 10 minutes. That's almost half the traditional TED format (of course, the 18-minute rule does not mean every talk has to be 18 minutes).

Here’s what TED says in its guide for speakers:

“We strictly enforce the clock for all speakers. TED is the place to condense your ideas into a compelling 18-minute talk that communicates your best ideas. We've found that a carefully prepared presentation of this length can have astonishing impact.”

TED founder Chris Anderson is widely quoted as saying that 18 minutes are “short enough to hold people’s attention, but also long enough to say something that matters.” It’s also about simplicity (if you want, watch his 2016 YouTube video where he talks about public speaking – it’s packed with information and only 7:46 minutes long!). It’s about choosing a single topic and building logically on it. With message discipline, there is no need to drag out an idea to fill a half-hour slot or any longer.

But how long is long enough (or short enough, for that matter)? Are our brains being TikTokified to the extent that we are all “goldfish”, as the popular myth about their memories goes?

Share

In his Brain Rules series, molecular biologist John Medina explores the nature of the human brain. Referencing PowerPoint presentations, he writes, “You’ve just got seconds to grab someone’s attention–and only 10 minutes to keep it. At 9 minutes and 59 seconds, you must do something to regain attention and restart the clock.”

This article explores the idea of TikTok Brain in children. According to it, in 2022, the optimal length of TikTok videos to maximise engagement was between 21 and 34 seconds. It states that “many experts believe TikTok and social platforms like it are killing children’s attention spans … Emerging research suggests that watching short-form videos makes it difficult for children to engage in activities that don’t offer instant–and constant–gratification.”

However, it’s not just a recent phenomenon. Remember Vine, with its 6-second videos? (Here’s a podcast about it called Vine: 6 Seconds That Changed the World). I would argue, based on the number of times people subconsciously pull out and look at their phones during conversations, it’s not only kids suffering from TikTok Brain!

This paper adds an interesting contribution. “A new study (well, 2019) in Nature Communications finds that our collective attention span is indeed narrowing and that this effect occurs -- not only on social media -- but also across diverse domains including books, web searches, movie popularity, and more (such as events?).”

It’s not only how we use digital but also the abundance of information we have access to. “The one parameter in the model that was key in replicating the empirical findings was the input rate -- the abundance of information. The world has become increasingly well-connected in the past decades. This means that content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention and our urge for 'newness' causes us to collectively switch between topics more rapidly.”

Where will this end?

What do you think?

For now, especially with in-person events where you have people switching on stage, intros, outros and potential audience questions, I think I’ll stick to 20-minute speaking slots.

But what do you think? Message me and let me know.

Share

Monetising B2B: A Quick Review

Last week, we held Flashes & Flames’ first Monetising B2B Information Services and Events in London at the historic Stationers’ Hall near St. Paul’s.

When Colin Morrison CBE and I started work on the project in January, we figured for the first event, we’d be happy with 150+ attendees. In the event, we sold out weeks in advance, ending with 238 participants.

Most remained until the end, including off-site post-event networking drinks, a testament to the quality of the speaker programme and the networking.

We had a high-quality audience. Nearly 60% of attendees held senior leadership positions, including CEOs, Founders, Partners, Managing Directors, Presidents, and other C-level roles.

More than half signed up to use our meeting booking platform, Conversation Starter, to pre-book meetings. In the end, excluding informal networking meetings, they booked 177 15-minute meetings during the day. That’s 2,655 meeting minutes (or 44.25 hours) if my math is correct. The top meeting requests was about:

• Monetisation strategies: 18.2 per cent

• Events and Exhibitions: 17 per cent

• Partnerships and Collaboration: 14.6 per cent

• Advice or Mentorship: 14.2 per cent

• Data Strategies: 11.7 per cent

• Information and Content: 11.3 per cent

• AI and Tech: 10.5 per cent

The feedback was pleasingly positive. Here is an overview from Colin, which includes some of the feedback he received about the event.

We’ll do it again in 2026.

Subscribe now

Next week I’ll be attending the Monetising B2B Information and Events conference in London. The sold-out event focuses on how B2B media, events and information services can generate revenue. Presented by Flashes & Flames: The Global Media Weekly newsletter and business, founded by British publishing executive Colin Morrison, CBE, the gathering will provide attendees with insights into successful monetisation strategies, practical lessons and networking opportunities.

First a confession: as excited as I am to cover the event as a journalist and write the post-conference report, I am also nervous (and that's despite the fact that I’ve been doing this now for 35 years.) In the past, covering conferences meant one thing: take notes, capture quotes and string them together in a coherent narrative. There was value in that simplicity. It was about capturing information and making it accessible. But it was also limited. Reports were comprehensive but rarely insightful. They documented rather than interpreted.

In today’s world, where AI tools can transcribe, analyse and even summarise all event content in a matter of seconds, conference reporting has become something else entirely. You might think AI has made event reporting easier but, in fact, it’s made it more complex.

I no longer just capture what’s being said - I curate, analyse and extract meaning from the chaos of information overload. And without a clear strategy, these powerful tools can become a liability, flooding you with data but leaving you directionless. This is one of the challenges of the AI era. Anyone can record a keynote and AI can spew it back, summarising and highlighting in seconds. But turning that into a valuable, meaningful report requires something else: experience, insight and a clear understanding of what outcomes you’re aiming to achieve through your report or post-conference content, whatever format that might take.

How speed has met complexity

With tools like Otter.ai, I can now record, transcribe and store hours of conference content almost instantly. But that speed brings a huge challenge: What do you do with all this information? How do you turn a mountain of transcriptions into something valuable?

Subscribe now

This is where the complexity comes in. LLM’s are excellent at identifying recurring words, themes and sentiment. It can even summarise key points. But it cannot decide what is important. It cannot tell a story. And it cannot replace the critical human touch.

Experience is the true differentiator

As someone once said, “You cannot Google experience.” The same sentiment applies when it comes to utilising AI. The ability to use AI effectively depends entirely on knowing the outcome you want to achieve. Without that vision, knowledge and insight, these tools are like a spinning block of wood on a lathe, where the chisel carves without direction. You might end up with a table leg that appears sleek, but if parts of it are as thin as a matchstick, it will snap.

Imagine using AI to transcribe a keynote speech and then letting it decide which themes are most important. You risk creating a report that is accurate but meaningless because you did not guide the tool.

Experience means knowing what to look for:

• Recognising which speaker's insights are genuinely impactful;

• Understanding the connections between various talks and panels; and

• Identifying emerging trends that might be hidden beneath the surface.

In short, experience is what transforms raw data into a coherent, meaningful narrative.

Preparing for Monetising B2B Information and Events: An AI-driven strategy

Here’s how I’m preparing to cover Monetising B2B Information and Events and why the human touch is now more critical than ever.

Don't be a passive listener. Nor rely on AI to decide what matters. Instead, I’ll take a more strategic approach:

1. Pre-conference preparation:

   • Identify key themes and potential emerging trends that are likely to be discussed.

   • Research speakers and their previous commentary to understand their focus.

2. Live reporting with AI support:

   • Use Otter.ai for real-time transcription but focus on active listening.

   • Take notes of key moments, quotes and recurring themes so you can immediately flag it in the transcripts.

   • Capture the elements that AI can’t tell me - the delegates, interaction, atmosphere, sentiments and offline conversations.

3. Post-conference curation and analysis:

   • Use an LLM to help highlight frequently mentioned topics and cross-reference them across sessions.

   • Continue to manually identify the most important insights, using my experience to guide the narrative.

   • The final report will not be a summary of what was said but a curated analysis of what it means.

The critical role of curated content in an AI world

This is what AI demands of us now: not mere speed, but wisdom.

AI can provide the data. It can help you identify patterns. But it cannot replace or replicate experience and insight. It cannot (some will say - ‘yet’) sift through a hundred scattered insights and uncover the one theme that truly matters.

The AI revolution in reporting is not just about conferences. It is a broader lesson for anyone creating content. The tools we have are powerful, but they are only as good as the person using them. You need an experienced carpenter, or you might risk ending up with a sleek but ultimately wonky and defunk table.

Share

There’s an ongoing shift in the world of event sponsorships. The traditional model—where sponsors were company profiles, logo placements, brief mentions, and an event booth—is gone. Sponsors need deeper, more meaningful engagements that offer tangible returns on their investments.

In this week’s Substack, I offer a few examples of this change (I also wrote previously about the topic, here, if you want more).

From Visibility to Value

In the past, sponsorship was largely about brand visibility and engaging prospects/leads on the day. This approach no longer meets the expectations or, indeed, what can be achieved. Sponsors should now also get:

• Active Engagement: Enhanced service to maximise opportunities to interact directly with attendees.

• Data-Driven Results: Access to metrics that help demonstrate their sponsorship's impact.

• Strategic Alignment: Partnership options that align with their brand values and marketing objectives.

This evolution is driven by a broader shift in marketing strategies, where authenticity, engagement and data trump mere passive exposure.

Subscribe now

The Rise of Experiential Sponsorships

Experiential marketing has been around for ages but is becoming a cornerstone of effective sponsorship. Brands are moving beyond traditional methods to create immersive experiences that resonate with audiences. For instance:

• Interactive Installations: Sponsors are setting up engaging booths or activities that encourage attendee participation.

• Digital Integration: Utilising digital platforms to enhance the event experience and extend engagement beyond the venue.

• Content Creation: Collaborating on content that provides value to attendees while promoting the sponsor's message, from pre- to post-event.

These approaches enhance the attendee experience and provide sponsors with richer engagement metrics. It also helps create event-related content for their marketing channels.

Collaborative Planning for Mutual Benefit

Successful sponsorships require a collaborative approach between event organisers and sponsors. This involves:

• Early Involvement: Engaging sponsors in the planning stages to tailor opportunities that meet their goals.

• Customised Packages: Moving away from one-size-fits-all tiers to bespoke packages that offer specific value to the sponsors … and the audience.

• Ongoing Communication: Maintaining open lines of communication to adjust strategies and ensure alignment throughout the event lifecycle.

With genuine partnerships, organisers and sponsors can achieve greater success … and deliver more value to attendees.

Share

Embracing the Future of Sponsorship

As the landscape of event sponsorship continues to transform, organisers must:

• Innovate Continuously: Stay abreast of emerging trends and technologies that can enhance sponsorship opportunities.

• Prioritise Attendee Experience: Design events with the attendee journey in mind, ensuring that sponsorships add value to the sponsors and them rather than distract from it.

• Measure and Report: Provide sponsors with clear, actionable insights into the performance of their sponsorship.

They must be innovative and data-driven to create more compelling sponsor offers and relationships.

And that requires the right and the left brain to work in tandem together.

I planned to attend a high-brow AI event in London next month, organised by a respected institution with a solid track record. The speaker lineup looked decent, the venue was central, and the ticket price of €99 seemed fair.

But then, I read the agenda - a familiar fatigue set in.

It was generic. It was linear. There was a list of panels, followed by more panels, with no breakout sessions, no audience-driven content and no clear way to connect with people who shared my interests. In other words, it wasn’t designed with me - or any other attendee - in mind. I decided not to go.

This is 2025. Events designed for everyone - and engaging no one - should be a thing of the past. The most talked-about events today share one defining trait: personalisation. Not just in marketing emails or post-event recaps, but embedded into the structure of the experience itself - often powered by AI.

In the B2B space, especially, expectations are rising while attention spans shrink. The shift is clear: it’s no longer about providing access but delivering outcomes. The most effective events now feel like they were built with each attendee in mind.

Subscribe now

How do we achieve this?

Start by understanding that personalisation is no longer a bonus - it’s the most basic baseline. We’ve moved beyond putting someone’s name on a lanyard or sending a “recommended sessions” email after they’ve registered. True personalisation means designing an event journey that adapts in real time to an attendee’s goals, interests and behaviours.

It’s not just about showing them what might be useful - it’s about making sure their time onsite (or online) is genuinely well spent.

Take the recent NOAH Conference in London, one of Europe’s top gatherings for digital leaders and investors.

In 2024, NOAH introduced an AI-enhanced attendee experience that included:

• Dynamic agenda building – Attendees selected themes of interest before the event. Based on this input and real-time engagement data, their app-generated agenda evolved throughout the day.

• Matchmaking with purpose – Instead of a static list of names, the app recommended specific 1:1 meetings powered by AI agents trained on company profiles, investment preferences and pre-event signals.

• Smart content surfacing – During breaks or quieter moments, attendees received push notifications suggesting relevant sessions or nearby booths. These were tailored to attendees’ stated interests and live app behaviour.

The result? Higher session attendance, longer average dwell time and improved post-event satisfaction scores.

Behind the scenes, much of this was powered by AI models trained on years of NOAH attendee data. These tools weren’t replacing human curation but amplifying it - automating the mundane so organisers could focus on the meaningful.

This is what personalisation should look like in 2025: responsive, data-driven and integrated into every stage of the attendee journey.

More matchmaking made in AI

The most forward-thinking events are now using intelligent matchmaking tools that connect attendees, sponsors and speakers based on intent, shared interests, behavioural data and business alignment - not job titles.

Platforms like Swapcard and Brella are at the forefront of this shift. Their algorithms analyse everything from pre-event survey responses to real-time app engagement, LinkedIn profiles and session attendance to suggest introductions.

The result: curated meeting schedules that prioritise business relevance over random chance.

Take IBC in Amsterdam, Europe’s flagship media and broadcast event.

In 2024, IBC focused on facilitating connections through a larger variety of networking touchpoints -both digital and in-person. These included::

• Targeted networking events – Curated sessions like the Women Networking meetup offered attendees opportunities to connect with peers and professionals aligned by interest, sector or expertise.

• Booths with intent – Exhibitors were positioned not just as vendors but as conversation hubs. Attendees could explore new products, engage in demo-led discussions and explore potential partnerships.

• Conference-driven engagement – Keynotes, panels and breakout discussions were designed to fuel thought leadership and post-session interaction among attendees with shared professional interests.

• The IBC app – While not powered by advanced AI matchmaking, the official event app helped attendees locate others with shared goals and schedule meetings, both in advance and during the event.

• Digital channels for continuity – IBC also made use of social media and online communities to keep conversations going before, during and after the event. This extended the networking value long after the bums left the seats.

The result? While not yet driven by predictive AI, IBC 2024 demonstrated how structured, intentional touchpoints can still deliver high-quality interactions. For attendees, the experience offered a mix of discovery and design, setting the stage for future personalisation at scale.

DMEXCO in Cologne - Europe’s leading event for digital marketing and tech - offered AI-guided networking lounges. Attendees could enter preferences and get instant meeting suggestions, complete with conversation starters pulled from publicly available professional profiles

These are all examples of matchmaking with intent and intelligence. And it's no longer a nice-to-have - it's becoming a defining feature of events that deliver measurable ROI for attendees and sponsors.

From agendas to adaptive journeys

In the past, an event agenda was fixed: keynote at 9, panel at 10, sandwich at 12, ‘fireside’ chat at 14, drinks at 17. Attendees had two options: follow the herd or drift.

That model is cracking under the weight of rising expectations.

In 2025, adaptive agendas are emerging as the next big thing in event design, with AI helping to personalise the experience as the event unfolds.

Instead of a static programme, delegates receive dynamic content suggestions based on their stated interests, behavioural signals and in-event interactions. Think of:

• Session recommendations that adapt as the day progresses

• Alerts for pop-up breakouts aligned with your professional focus

• Priority access to curated roundtables where the discussion matches your industry challenge

This isn’t hypothetical. At VivaTech in Paris in May last year, the annual technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups, attendees using the official app were guided through their day with personalised session prompts based on industry tags and browsing habits. If a user showed sustained interest in sustainability or deep tech, their content feed evolved accordingly, suggesting startups to visit, panels to attend or investors to meet.

Similarly, at TNW Conference in Amsterdam, AI-driven schedules helped users decide whether to attend a session or skip it in favour of a curated networking cluster - a shift redefining event success from ‘number of sessions attended’ to ‘value of each interaction’.

Time is currency and adaptive journeys are giving events the edge, transforming agendas from rigid schedules into responsive experiences.

What’s the wake-up call here? What should we do in practice?

• Invest in personalisation tech that delivers. AI platforms like Brella, Grip and Swapcard are raising the bar for matchmaking and adaptive content delivery. Choose tools that integrate with your registration data, CRM, and on-site behaviour analytics.

• Design for outcomes, not optics. Don't just fill rooms - create moments that matter. Focus on enabling meetings, delivering relevant sessions and letting participants self-direct their event journey.

• Start small, scale fast. You don’t need a Netflix-level algorithm from day one. Begin with better tagging, smarter data capture and modular agendas. Use what you learn this year to double down next year.

The most successful events this year and beyond won’t be those with the biggest halls or flashiest speakers. They’ll be the ones that feel uniquely useful, as if designed for just one person at a time.

Share

That’s not just personalisation. That’s performance.

Setting the Stage

How a stage and theatre are set up can help shape how people feel, engage and remember. It’s a bit like Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message.”

Factors such as where the stage is set up in a room, how high it is, and lighting all affect how speakers are perceived. It sends subliminal messages about the power balance between speakers and audience, how much people are expected to engage (i.e. passive consumption or active participation), etc.

In this week’s newsletter, I look at some design aspects that frame the speaker-audience relationship—from layout to lighting to seating.

I also include a section with tips from event psychologist Victoria Matey, among others, for speakers (also read my previous post about the psychology of event speaking).

1. For Organisers: The Stage Is a Signal

Staging is never neutral.

• A raised platform says, “Look at me.”

• A podium says, “I’m in charge.”

• Space to move around says, “I’m at ease.”

• A low stage, or no stage, says, “We’re in this together.”

When you understand that the stage is part of the messaging, the goal shifts from pure technical efficiency to emotional impact.

Layout: Bring the Speaker Closer?

Speaker-audience proximity matters.

• High stage: A high stage creates distance. That may be useful for a 1,000-plus-person keynote, where sightlines matter. In smaller rooms, it becomes a barrier. You can see the speaker but not “feel” them. It’s a one-way transmission.

• Low or no stage: This setup signals that the speaker is “one of us.” They’re a person, not a performer. They’re accessible, not distant. This is why fireside chats work so well in an environment where speakers are seated at eye level. It’s “conversation over presentation.”

• In-the-round formats: These formats—where the audience surrounds the speaker—are even more immersive. They break hierarchy and demand attention. But be sure your speakers are up for it. An in-the-round setup requires them to engage a 360° audience without a clear focal point, demanding more physical dynamism, spatial awareness, and emotional presence.

Design consideration/s:

If the goal is intimacy or interaction, reduce the height, distance, and theatrics.

Seating: A Behavioural Script

The shape of your seating tells people how you expect them to behave. Here’s a quick overview.

• Theatre: Theatre-style rows signal, “Be quiet and listen.” They are good for keynotes but not so much for connection. Tip: Curve the seating slightly, even if just a few degrees. It increases visibility and draws focus inward.

• U-shape: U-shape arrangements make everyone more visible to each other and the speaker. It signals discussion.
  Round tables: Round tables invite interaction. They say, “You might be asked something.” They’re best for peer learning or co-creation.

Design consideration/s:

Seating is as much choreography as the stage. Where are you directing attention? What is the speaker-audience power balance? What level of interaction are you after?

Lighting: Set the Emotional Temperature

It’s as logical in event design as it is at your home: Lighting is emotional tech. It shapes mood, focus and levels of participation.

On stage,

• Warm, low lighting makes people feel safe and relaxed. It’s ideal for reflective conversations or smaller workshops.

• Cooler, brighter lighting energises and sharpens attention. It suits high-tempo sessions, launches or opening keynotes.

When it comes to the audience,

• Dark audience lighting puts more emphasis on the stage and speaker.

• Softer, ambient lighting suggests to the audience they’re part of the room and should lean in on the conversation.

Design consideration/s:

Lighting is more than technology; it signals the type of relationships you want.

Sound: Hearing Isn’t Neutral

Poor audio quality is an event no-no, but sound isn’t only about signalling professionalism and carrying words. It shapes how persuasive and trustworthy those words feel.

• Directional or immersive sound helps create intimacy.
  Ambient sound or subtle music helps shift emotional tone and energy.

• Sound can control pace, presence and interaction with the audience. It’s not just about what your speakers say; it’s also about how you get them to present their words.

Design consideration/s:

Don’t treat audio as technical infrastructure but as part of your emotional environment.

2. For Speakers: Brain-Friendly Delivery

While organisers shape the environment, speakers shape what happens inside it.

Victoria Matey, who studies the neuroscience of events, argues that minor tweaks—often overlooked—can significantly affect learning and engagement.

Here are some of the tips for speakers.

Kill the Text

People don’t read and listen well at the same time. The more text on your slide, the less they “hear.”

Top tips:

• Use fewer words.

• Use images, diagrams, whitespace.

• Say it, don’t write it.

Hook Early

Speakers have 60 seconds to win attention.

Top tips:

• Don’t waste it on bios or what the session will cover.

• Start with a bold statement, a surprising fact, or a question that triggers curiosity.

Engage More Senses

Most talks engage sight and sound. However, the more senses you activate, the better your message will stick.

Top tips:

• Encourage note-taking (activates touch and reinforces memory)

• Use relevant music (sets the tone and improves recall)

• Involve movement to re-engage (brief standing discussions or shifting groups help reset attention and physically anchor key moments).

• Use tactile materials (physical handouts, postcards, or props can make abstract ideas feel more tangible).

• Can you engage scent? For example, passing around scent samples related to a topic.

For Virtual Events: What’s In The Background?

According to Victoria, research suggests backgrounds with books and plants increase speaker trustworthiness and perceived competence. Blank walls or corporate wallpaper have the opposite effect.

Top tips:

People aren’t just watching you and listening to your words. They’re reading your environment.

3. Final Thoughts

The stage isn’t just a platform. It’s a message. It either draws people in or keeps them at a distance.

• Good organisers know that. They don’t just design for looks. They design for connection, focus and participation.

Engaging audiences is about more than the spoken word.

• Good speakers know this. They keep the brain in mind. They think about hooks and how people hear, see, and react.

Subscribe now

4. Current Event Projects

Here is a quick overview of the events I am currently working:

• 14 May, London: SubscriptionX is about scaling and sustaining DTC in the retail environment (more here)

• 20 May, London: Monetising B2B is about the business of information and data services (media) and events and exhibitions (more here)

• 21-23 October, Madrid: The FIPP World Media Congress is an international conference that considers and helps shape media strategies at the intersection with tech (more here)

• April to June: Several invitation-only events for Prospect (more here)

Share

Picking the right event technology can significantly enhance attendee experience and streamline event management. We look at the top event apps tailored for each phase of your event lifecycle.

Share

A few weeks back, I interviewed Kurt Bowen, Production Director at White Space Creative Solutions, who boasts over 25 years of producing conferences, exhibitions and award ceremonies. In the article ‘The risks of chasing shiny new things’, which you can read here, Kurt emphasises that event tech should be nothing more than a set of tools in a larger toolkit. While each individual piece of event tech is not a solution in itself, successful event organisers mix and match multiple tools to optimise registration, networking, audience engagement, post-event comms and any other activities that will enhance attendees’ experience and the exposure of sponsors.

To app, or not to app?

Personally, I’ve tended to be sceptical about some of the event tech going around. I recall some years ago attending a tourism exhibition and conference where each attendee received something representing a rubber memory stick which we had to dangle around our necks. If held close to a fellow attendee’s stick, it automatically downloaded that person’s contact details. It became a running conference joke of who you had been “rubbing sticks with”. Apparently this was the hottest alternative to a business card.

But post-event, downloading the information was of no value whatsoever because anybody who had come within a metre of me had their information downloaded, making it impossible for me to remember who I actually intended to stay in contact with. In a word - chaos. It left me yearning for the simplistic effectiveness of the humble ‘old school’ business card.

Modern-day event apps are thankfully much smarter, but still have their limitations. I have seen them fail if the event venue’s wi-fi could not support the tech bandwidth. Others, I have deleted from my phone simply because I was spending more time trying to work the app out than actually enjoying an in-person event, where the whole point of being there was to speak and interact with people.

No matter the criticism, presenting a modern event in this day and age without the correct apps will be a brave move, especially now that most of them are integrating the apps with AI. I have therefore taken a closer look at some of the event apps being punted by event organisers, trying to match them with each part of the event lifecycle. Prices of these apps may vary by event size, add-ons and other options such as upgrading to branded native mobile apps, elevating sponsor visibility.​ Although the bulk of our audience finds themselves in Europe, all prices quoted are in US dollars as that would be the currency you purchase in.

Pre-event phase: Planning and registration

Eventbrite - feels ‘old school’ but effective

• What? A platform for event registration and ticketing, offering tools for creating email invites, tracking RSVPs and analysing ticket sales. Suitable for classes, conferences, fundraisers, and social events.

• Why? Enables you to monitor event data in real-time. Think instant access to check-in numbers and on-site sales. Contactless ticket scans and payment for tickets and merchandise.

• Anything special for your sponsor? Some limited built-in sponsor engagement features in the event marketing feature and Eventbrite ads.

• Pricing: Flex Version at $9.99 per event (up to 100 tickets sold); Pro Version at $29.99 per month for unlimited events (up to 100 tickets per event). A custom pricing system kicks in for larger events.​

• Cost indication: Affordable for smaller events; costs may increase for larger events requiring custom pricing.​

• Beyond pre-event capabilities? Yes, it will handle basic event comms and provide post-event sales analytics and attendee data.

Sched - who needs a PA?

• What? Sched offers tools for scheduling, event registration, ticketing, page management, room scheduling, event apps, event analytics, call for papers, AI event planning, badges, event attendee tracking and check-in capabilities. It's suitable for conferences, conventions, festivals, seminars and professional development events.

• Why? Sched provides a suite of event management tools that facilitate seamless planning and automation across sign-up forms, attendee registration, personalised schedules and real-time updates.

• Anything special for your sponsor? There are features to maximise sponsor visibility and engagement. The app enables a dedicated vertical for sponsors or exhibitors enabling tiers of sponsorship where organisers can customise every tier with a unique profile. It also allows sponsors and exhibitors to promote the event via their social media channels, post in event channels via chat, and create group chats with interested attendees. Sponsor and exhibitor profiles can also be linked to video streams and webinars. Any sponsors can be associated with specific sessions for added exposure.

• Pricing: Pricing starts at approximately $125 per month for events up to 250 attendees, with packages designed to include essential tools for planning virtual, hybrid, and in-person events. Plans can be upgraded for branded/native mobile apps.

• Cost indication: Sched is cost-effective for events of various sizes, offering scalable pricing that accommodates different budgets. It’s also flexible with options for non-profit and educational organisations.​

• Beyond pre-event capabilities? Yes, Sched handles event communications during the event and provides post-event analytics and attendee feedback collection tools to assess event performance and gather insights for future planning.

During-event phase: Engagement and networking

Whova - now execute

• What? Whova is an all-in-one event management platform that handles most aspects of event planning and execution.

• Why? Whova can streamline event logistics, offering tools such as an agenda center, speaker hub and real-time notifications. It enhances attendee engagement through features like live polls, Q&A sessions, and interactive maps, facilitating communication and networking among attendees.

• Anything special for your sponsor? ​Whova offers a suite of features designed to enhance sponsor and exhibitor visibility and engagement, such as customisable interactive virtual booths to showcase their products and services, incorporating product videos, brochures and product photos.​ The app also allows for livestream demonstrations, sponsor tiering where organisers can implement tiered sponsorship packages offering varying degrees of benefits and exposure as well as enhanced visibility where sponsors can gain increased exposure through placements on announcements, web app entry pages, surveys, and registration pages.

• Pricing: Whova’s pricing is based on the number of attendees and the length of the event, but it will only provide a quote after an event organiser completes a comprehensive price quote request, and can vary from client to client. However, based on some published user experience, the following price was shared with me: $1499 for an event with up to 500 attendees over two days.

• Cost indication: For detailed pricing information, contact Whova directly.

• Beyond during-event capabilities? The app offers event registration, customisable event apps, event websites, name badge generation, attendee check-ins, attendance tracking and virtual networking capabilities. It also provides post-event analytics to assess performance and gather attendee feedback.

EventMobi - A premium solution

• What? EventMobi is also an “end-to-end event management platform” that facilitates event planning, promotion, and execution.

• Why? EventMobi is adept at enhancing attendee engagement through customisable event apps that offer personalised schedules, networking opportunities, and interactive content as well as an interactive event map. The platform also supports live polling, Q&A sessions, and gamification to boost participation.

• Anything special for your sponsor? EventMobi provides robust sponsorship opportunities, including customisable sponsor profiles, banner ads within the event app, sponsored push notifications, and virtual exhibitor booths to maximize sponsor exposure.

• Pricing: EventMobi's pricing starts at $3,500 for a single event package, with an unlimited events package available at $9,000 annually.

• Cost indication: EventMobi is positioned as a premium solution suitable for organisations seeking a comprehensive and customisable event management platform.​

• Beyond during-event capabilities? In addition to during-event features, EventMobi offers event registration, website creation, ticketing, and post-event analytics to measure success and gather attendee insights. ​

Post-event phase: Analytics and feedback

EventsAir - Analyse this

• What? EventsAir offers comprehensive post-event analysis tools, including on-demand content sharing and detailed reporting features. It enables organisers to maximise their investment by extending the life of event content and driving further ROI for sponsors and exhibitors.

• Why? EventsAir excels in providing secure, trackable access to reports, ensuring compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). It offers over 150 purpose-built reports, allowing organisers to efficiently track various metrics from registrations to financials.

• Anything special for your sponsor? The platform facilitates content sharing post-event, offering sponsors and exhibitors extended visibility and engagement opportunities with attendees. ​

• Pricing: Specific pricing details are not publicly provided; contacting EventsAir directly is recommended for a tailored quote.​

• Cost indication: Pricing likely varies based on event size and requirements.​

• Beyond post-event capabilities? EventsAir is an all-in-one platform covering the entire event lifecycle, including planning and execution. ​

Bizzabo - Detailed engagement metrics

• What? Bizzabo provides robust event data analytics, enabling organisers to track registrations, attendee engagement, session attendance, and more in real-time. Its comprehensive reporting tools assist in analysing and optimising events, proving ROI, and facilitating data-driven decision-making.

• Why? Bizzabo is adept at offering real-time analytics and reporting, allowing organisers to gauge attendee engagement and event performance promptly. This facilitates quick adjustments and informed planning for future events.

• Anything special for your sponsor? The platform's analytics can demonstrate sponsor ROI by providing detailed engagement metrics, helping to attract and retain sponsorships for future events.

• Pricing: Bizzabo offers customised pricing based on the specific needs and scale of the event; contacting them directly will yield precise pricing information.​

• Cost indication: As a premium solution, Bizzabo's pricing reflects its comprehensive feature set; it's suitable for organisations seeking an all-encompassing event management platform.​

• Beyond post-event capabilities? Bizzabo is a holistic event management platform, offering tools for event planning, promotion and execution.

Any that I’ve missed? Or that you’d recommend? Drop a note in the comments and let me know how you line up the different phases of your event lifecycle with the most suitable apps to create seamless and engaging experiences that resonate with attendees and deliver value to sponsors.

Over the years, I’ve seen speakers light up a room the second they step on stage. I’ve also seen them bomb.

What makes the difference? It’s not just charisma or experience. There’s a science to audience attention, engagement, and connection.

The Attention Coefficient

Audience attention is short-lived. Some studies suggest it drops after 10-15 minutes in lectures or presentations. TED Talks are capped at 18 minutes—long enough to make an impact, short enough to hold attention.

But it’s not just about time. How a talk is structured, the stories told, and even how a speaker dresses and moves on stage all influence engagement.

How do good speakers ensure their ideas not only land but actually stick?

A Quick Aside: Events Loading

Before I go on, I’m currently working on several events that might be of interest to you:

• SubscriptionX focuses on scaling and sustaining DTC brands in the subscription economy. It takes place in London on 14 May. Read more here.

• Monetising B2B brings together some of the world’s top business-to-business leaders, from RELX, Informa and William Reed to brands such as the Business of Fashion, The Financial Times and The Economist. They will discuss topics such as information, media and marketing, data and technology, and conferences and exhibitions. It takes place on 20 May in London. There is more here.

• The FIPP World Media Congress takes place on 21-23 October in Madrid. Few media companies survive 100 years without tenacity, adaptability, and a commitment to the future. FIPP marks this milestone this year. However, rather than dwell on the past, the Congress 2025 is about what’s next for the industry, technology, business … and audiences. Read more about it here.

• I also produce event programmes for Prospect across several dates. These London-based events are policy-focused with themes including the economy, wealth, housing and energy themes. You can find more on the Prospect website.

The Three Main Speaking Formats (and When to Use Them)

Most conference sessions fall into one of three formats: fireside chats, panel discussions, or presentations. Each has its own strengths (and pitfalls). The key is knowing how to make them work for you.

Here is my quick take on them, so you know my biases before reading on!

● I’m a fan of fireside chats for their conversational nature and the way they draw audiences into the discussion. With the right moderator in place, they’re great for maintaining flow, but for unlocking valuable insights and engaging the audience. And, let me be honest, they spare organisers the headache of chasing slide decks and managing (costlier) AV setups.

● While panel discussions share the characteristics of fireside chats, I’m not a big fan. Too often, they’re a way to cram in as many speakers on stage as possible. To me, it feels like some organisers create panels not for the audience, but to appease egos, maintain relationships, or do favours for friends. It can feel like lazy programming.

● Slide deck presentations are often dismissed as old-school. I agree; it is a bit traditional. But while my favourite format is fireside chats, I know that in certain circumstances presentations are superior. I particularly like them to help with cues for multi-lingual audiences (helps understanding) or for anything where visuals add to the verbal story. Plus, it’s a pretty good feeling when the audience takes their phones out to take and share a picture of a slide!

Before I dive into the three session formats, the first and most important point for any type of event session is that good speakers put the audience first. Always.

Subscribe now

Fireside Chats – Intimate and Engaging (If Done Right)

Fireside chats can create the most memorable moments at a conference. They’re relaxed, informal, and personal. Done well, they draw audiences in and encourage participation.

But there’s a risk. If the speaker isn’t naturally engaging or the interviewer is unprepared, it falls flat.

A great fireside chat feels like eavesdropping on an insightful conversation. The best speakers:

• Ditch the script. No one wants PR soundbites. People want honesty, insight, and maybe a bit of humour.

• Think of it as a conversation with colleagues or friends, not a speech. Be natural, like you're sharing insights over coffee.

• Engage with the interviewer. Good energy comes from a real back-and-forth, not just answering questions.

• Stay on point. No rambling.

• Tell stories. Anecdotes make ideas stick.

Panel Discussions – A Conversation, Not a Sermon

Panels should feel dynamic—like a great discussion, not a collection of mini-lectures. Done well, participants feed off each other’s energy and bring fresh perspectives. Poorly done, they’re a scattered mess.

The best panel participants:

• Paint pictures with words. Panels don’t have slides, so speakers must make ideas come alive through storytelling, clear examples, and analogies.

• Find the balance. They jump in when needed but don’t hijack the conversation. They respect fellow panellists while ensuring their points land.

• Make key points stick. A strong insight or example is more powerful than a long-winded explanation.

• Build on others’ ideas. This creates flow and makes them look like a team player.

Solo Presentations – The Power Visuals and Voice

A great solo talk takes people on a journey. A bad one is a lecture people can’t wait to escape.

Great presenters:

• Use slides as support, not a crutch. Slides should enhance the talk—not replace it. They use them for visuals, key takeaways, or data. Speak to the audience, not to your slides.

• Tell a story. People remember stories far more than raw facts.

• Start strong. A bold statement, question, or surprise grabs attention immediately.

• Vary pace and tone. Monotone kills engagement. Energy shifts keep people tuned in.

• End with clarity. One strong takeaway, summarised in a single sentence, makes it stick.

If your audience includes non-native speakers, presentations with slides can be a lifesaver. Panels and fireside chats rely heavily on spoken word. If accents, jargon, or speed become an issue, you risk losing part of the audience. Visual cues help create understanding and reinforce key points, making talks easier to follow.

Share

The Psychology of Clothing: What You Wear Contributes to Your Storytelling

What a speaker wears on stage isn’t just fashion—it’s communication. Clothing signals intent, status, and whether someone aligns with (or challenges) cultural norms.

Take a recent example: When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Oval Office in his military-style gear, critics called it disrespectful. When Elon Musk wore a T-shirt and baseball cap in the same setting, few questioned it. Potential biases aside, this reflects how clothing creates or reinforces perceptions.

For event speakers, the psychology of clothing is similar. Consider:

• Formal Attire (Suits, Business Dresses): Projects authority, expertise, and professionalism. Ideal for high-stakes, traditional settings (e.g., corporate keynotes, political speeches).

• Smart Casual (Blazers, Sneakers, Relaxed Fits): Blends approachability and expertise, creating a sense of modern confidence without being overly rigid.

• Ultra-Casual (T-Shirts, Hoodies, Jeans): Signals disruption and relatability, commonly found in tech, creative industries, and startup cultures.

Clothing, like stage presence and presentation style, is a nonverbal storytelling tool. The key is intentionality—whether the goal is reinforcing authority, relatability, defiance or whatever.

The Psychology of Public Speaking – How to Win Over a Room

Great speakers don’t just talk to their audience. They connect with them. They:

• Use inclusive language. Saying “we” and “you” makes people feel part of the conversation.

• Make eye contact. In smaller rooms, look directly at people. In bigger venues, scan the crowd naturally.

• Be interactive. Ask a well-timed question, show of hands, or quick poll to snap people back into focus.

And what to do about nerves?

Rest assured, even pros feel them. The best speakers channel that adrenaline into energy.

• Reframe nerves as excitement. The physical symptoms of fear and excitement are the same.

• Start strong. A confident first 30 seconds sets the tone. Smile, breathe, and own the stage. It will all follow naturally from there.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, it’s all about the audience. Know them, value them, and speak to their needs.

Secondly, speaking at a conference isn’t just about sharing information. It’s about creating an experience. Engage people. Make them think. Leave them with something they’ll remember.

Great talks aren’t just heard—they’re felt.

An Event Psychologist’s Tips

I’ll close here with some tips shared by event psychologist Victoria Matey. According to Victoria:

● Slide design: Use minimal text. People cannot use two sensory channels simultaneously, so if they have to read a lot of text while you talk, they will not hear you. Always opt for less text over more.

● Grab attention early. Long intros are a killer. Research suggests you’ve got about 60 seconds to introduce your topic and hook your audience. To lock in their focus right away, start with a thought-provoking question, a captivating story, or a surprising statistic - anything that will pique their curiosity.

● Engage more senses. In a typical presentation, it’s mostly vision that’s engaged - maybe some striking images if you’re lucky. But studies show that involving additional senses makes information easier to remember and improve motivation.So why not engage other senses? Encourage your audience to take notes, add music, etc. These can really help with focus and memory.

● For online events, even seemingly irrelevant details matter. For instance, research found it’s best to have books and plants in the background to boost a speaker’s trustworthiness and perceived competence.

You can purchase Victoria’s Event Psychology for Speakers guide here.

Subscribe now

Share

#eventprofs #prospeakers #conferences #events

Most of us in the events space can get overly excited about “innovation in event tech or strategy” and often find ourselves chasing the 'next shiny thing'. So it’s refreshing to sit down with someone who has been producing events for decades, who has witnessed a revolving door of ‘innovation’, ‘new trends’, and even see a pandemic come and go to be reminded of an age-old adage, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.'

Subscribe now

Kurt Bowen, Production Director at White Space Creative Solutions, boasts over 25 years of producing conferences, exhibitions, award ceremonies, and special events. With a career spanning face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid events, he’s seen firsthand how trends emerge, evolve, and often fade away. (Read more about White Space Creative Solutions below this Stack)

I put some of the biggest event industry assumptions to the Kurt-strength-test and found the reality is far more nuanced.

Event tech: The myth of the silver bullet

Surely with all the new event tech, apps, and AI-driven solutions, organisers can sit back and relax, knowing tech can handle everything seamlessly–from pre-event comms to real-time updates, networking, and on-demand translation services.

But Kurt cautions: “There’s no single piece of tech that does it all.” Event tech is a toolkit, not a solution in itself. Instead, successful organisers mix and match multiple tools – registration systems, networking apps, audience engagement platforms, and translation services – to enhance the experience without overwhelming attendees. The key, he says, is knowing when and how to use tech, rather than blindly chasing the latest gadget, gimmick, or app.

Smaller conferences: Strategic shift or just practical?

One of the biggest post-COVID trends is the rise of smaller conferences, often with fewer than 200 attendees. Are smaller, more intimate events the future?

Not necessarily. Kurt sees this trend as a mix of strategy and necessity. “Smaller events are easier to organise, require lower upfront commitments, and come with fewer technical demands. But that doesn’t always make them better.”

He also points out that a counter-trend is emerging. As businesses reduce office spaces and embrace remote work, in-person networking has become a critical touchpoint for lead generation and sales. Larger, well-executed conferences still deliver immense value, if done right.

The power of curated networking

Face-to-face events are back, but traditional networking receptions are no longer enough. Instead, curated networking–morning runs/swims, private wine tastings, or gaming sessions for like-minded professionals–is gaining popularity.

The same shift applies to sponsorships. Instead of just slapping logos on event materials “like on a Formula 1 car,” the more successful event organisers create high-value engagement opportunities for sponsors. A logo on a banner is fine, but what sponsors really want is access to the right people, Kurt explains. Private roundtables, VIP meet-and-greets, and bespoke networking sessions, like an exclusive breakfast, make a bigger impact than a booth in an exhibition hall.

Stage production: Are shorter talks always better?

Shorter presentations are better, right? Research backs this up, I suggest to Kurt.

“Yes, that’s a trend,” he admits. “A well-structured 20-minute talk forces speakers to be more focused and audiences respond better to punchy, curated content.” It mirrors how schools design lessons to maximise attention spans.

But, he warns, brevity isn’t always the answer. When event organisers pay large sums to secure high-profile speakers, they need value, not just in quality but also in time. Striking the right balance between engaging delivery and sufficient depth is key.

The same goes for the so-called “fireside chats.” While they can be engaging, their success hinges on the interviewer, more than the guests. A good fireside chat isn’t just a casual Q&A. The moderator needs to have done their homework otherwise, it’s just a wasted opportunity. Think about it, reminds Kurt, there’s a very good reason your late-night celebrity talk show has new celebrities every week but the presenter remains the same.

And then there’s PowerPoint, “the last significant on-stage tech innovation” that’s still an ever-present conference staple. But Kurt has seen it misused more times than he can count slides in a slideshow pack.

PowerPoint should support a talk, not be the talk, he stresses. The worst thing a speaker can do is put 72 slides on screen. It’s about complementing the message with strong visuals, not overwhelming the audience with information.

Sponsorship: Moving beyond the Formula 1 model

Many events take the “Formula 1” approach to sponsorship–plastering logos everywhere in the hope of visibility. But does this translate into real engagement?

Kurt is sceptical. When your sponsor booths look like the B2B version of a car boot sale, you’re getting it wrong.

The smarter approach is boutique-style sponsorship, where sponsors have curated opportunities to connect with their ideal audience such as hosting private networking sessions, securing a branded meeting space, or integrating sponsorship into digital experiences. It’s not as complicated as it might sound. Remember, most event apps can carry sponsor content, reminds Kurt.

Successful organisers collaborate with sponsors to create meaningful engagement rather than just selling branding space, he says.

Post-event engagement: The biggest missed opportunity?

Too often, engagement stops the moment an event ends. In exhibitions, organisers secure commitments for the next event while exhibitors are still on the show floor. But in conferences? Not so much.

“An event shouldn’t end when people walk out the door,” says Kurt. Event apps, follow-up content, and ongoing community engagement can extend the value long after the final session. For sponsors, this continued interaction is invaluable, offering touchpoints beyond just the event itself.

Kurt’s insight is a valuable reminder that event trends come and go, but one thing remains constant: success lies in understanding why a trend is emerging, how it fits within the audience you want to engage, and more importantly how they should engage with your event and other attendees.

Whether it’s event tech, sponsorship models, or conference formats, the key isn’t just to follow trends, it’s to adapt them intelligently. While the event industry is evolving, the fundamentals of great events remain the same:

- Technology is a tool, not a solution.

- Smaller conferences can work, but scale still matters.

- Networking and sponsorships thrive on curation, not just visibility.

- Post-event engagement is an untapped goldmine.

What do you think? Are event organisers getting these balances right? Let me know in the comments.

Share

More about White Space Creative Solutions

White Space Creative Solutions prides itself on creating event experiences with measurable impact. The company offers tailor-made event project management, including fresh concepts and designs. They can facilitate any event from large international congresses to local pop-up brand experiences.

White Space Creative Solutions operates in five key areas: conferences, award ceremonies, gala evenings, exhibition stands, and event-live on-screen content. Unlike event organisers, they focus on production, ensuring that branding, staging, and on-screen graphics seamlessly integrate into the event experience.