Your event website starts working before your event does. If your site isn’t doing some seriously strategic heavy lifting, you’re leaving registration, engagement, and ROI on the table. Use these tips to ensure your goals inform the layout, design, and flow of your event site (and not the other way around)—so you can make sure you hit them.
1. Define Your Website Goals Early
Sure, your event has goals, but your website has its own job to do. When you identify these goals early on, each content or design decision gets much easier to make because you’re laddering it up to something specific.
Treat it like your event’s digital concierge. It’s the first impression any potential registrant will have of your event, as well as its digital homebase.
2. Be Audience-First, Always
Different audiences need different things (shocker). But too many event websites forget this. Make sure your content and design is structured to serve the attendees you’re targeting.
Consider:
Who’s coming to this site? First-timers will need different information from returning attendees
What do they need now—before, during, or after the event?
What tone, visuals, and flow will click for this audience?
Your site is for your attendees, not your internal team. Design it to speak their language—literally and visually.
Think of your website navigation as a GPS, not a maze. The basics include: Home, Agenda, Speakers, Registration, FAQs, etc.
More importantly, make your content structure intuitive, skimmable, and obvious.
Attendees shouldn’t have to click seven times to figure out where, when, or how. Get them where they need to go, fast. Your event technology should help you strike that balance between function and flair on your website.
4. Don’t Just Prioritize “Pretty”
A polished event site is great. A high-performing one is better.
Making it beautiful is one thing, but your highest priority should be making sure it’s functional, easy to digest, and designed to drive action. Attendees should be pushed to take action quickly.
Shape how visitors instantly experience your site with these factors:
Strong layout hierarchy with digestible info
Accessible colors and fonts
Smart use of visuals that enhance content, never distract
5. Consider Timing and Flow
Yes, these are two important factors of good design. Intentionality around when and how people access information can generate a more dynamic experience.
For example, you could:
Drip out speaker announcements to spark return visits
Tease the agenda with highlights first, then build depth over time
Keep content fresh so your audience keeps coming back
A living, breathing site leads to better engagement. Continually update your website to keep things moving and fresh, so people keep coming back.
6. Make Your Words Matter
Your event website is pushing someone to register, attend, and engage. That CTA button, session description, and welcome headline should all be crafted intentionally if you want to hit those goals.
Remember that while clever is good, clarity is better. The voice on your event website should also match your brand’s vibe, so your reader feels like they’re exactly where they belong.
Engineer Backwards to Hit Your Goals
Start with your event website goals to ensure you actually hit them. Intentionality in the beginning begets registrations, engagement, and all-around attendee excitement.
As an event leader, true leadership growth requires more than just driving results within your own department. It involves growing your influence so that events are seen as a critical business driver across the company. This requires a laser focus on building strong partnerships with cross-departmental leaders—from sales to marketing to customer experience to other leaders of event programs—to show how collaboration across your event strategy moves the entire business forward.
To break down how you can build those partnerships, we sat down with our very own Katie Golland, director of product marketing at Swoogo (and juggernaut of cross-functional collaboration), for her best tips to form real, strategic partnerships with leaders across the company.
1. Develop genuine connections
Real influence across your business starts with real relationships. People are far more likely to listen, collaborate, and go the extra mile for someone they genuinely like and trust. That trust doesn’t magically appear in meeting rooms or Slack messages—it’s built in the moments between deadlines, in casual conversations, and in the shared understanding that we’re all humans first, professionals second.
“Take the time to ask them how they are, and get to know them as a person. What do they do outside of work?” advises Katie. Not only does this create a genuine connection (that’s just straight-up pleasant), but it also builds that relational equity for when you’ll need to lean on each other.
"Everyone knows—especially in events—things don’t always go as planned. If you don’t have a relationship with someone, it’s hard to make any last-minute ask."
Katie Golland, Director of Product Marketing at Swoogo
When your only interactions with other leaders are transactional—requests, approvals, and more requests—you’ll likely feel (and look) heavy-handed, dropping fast ones on their plate. They, in turn, may feel like they’re being taken advantage of. But if you’ve built a genuine connection, they’re far more likely to step in without hesitation.
The Trust Factor
Katie points out two key angles to keep in mind when it comes to those inevitable last-minute asks:
People help people they like and trust. If you’ve taken the time to build a relationship beyond just work, your colleagues will feel more inclined to help you when you need it. It’s not about manipulation—it’s about mutual respect and goodwill.
Your track record matters. As Katie puts it, “You've got to build a track record. If you’re known to plan and communicate far in advance, those last-minute asks feel like one-offs rather than a regular occurrence.”
2. Create a prioritization framework
Successful cross-departmental collaboration often comes down to setting the right expectations. Help other leaders understand the level of each ask, and how everything ladders up to the bigger picture, by using a prioritization framework.
For Katie, it helps to have a visible roadmap that outlines key projects and their priority levels.
“On the product side, we tier our launches,” she explains. “An M1 launch is a big deal—we know we’ll need demand gen, customer success, and multiple teams working together. M2 launches still drive demand generation, but are maybe a little less tactical. M3 and M4 are lighter initiatives.”
Getting clear on your prioritization framework for initiatives—and showing people a roadmap of what's coming—both gets things on their radar and helps them understand how much time and effort is needed.
Katie Golland, Director of Product Marketing at Swoogo
Help everyone understand where to focus their energy, and make sure not everything is a top priority—again, this goes back to transparency and building trust.
How to Put This Into Practice
Use a prioritization framework and make sure major cross-functional projects are visible to all stakeholders.
Hold kickoff calls for high-priority initiatives. For major projects (think M1 and M2-level, in our speak), bring all key stakeholders together, share the initiative and what you’re thinking, and collect their thoughts. “Make it feel more collaborative when it moves into the tactical phase,” says Katie. “Once everyone can add their say, then they can solidify their plans in your project management tool.”
Use project management tools. Platforms like Asana, Monday.com, or Notion can help keep priorities organized and transparent.
Incorporate updates into existing meetings. Rather than creating more work, integrate project check-ins into meetings that already happen.
Plan ahead as much as possible. Give teams as much advance notice as possible, so nothing feels like a last-minute scramble.
Having a clear prioritization framework prevents the chaos of competing priorities and ensures all teams stay aligned on what truly matters.
3. Ask leaders who they think should be involved
Just like an event experience, you need to know how to get the right people into the room for your cross-functional initiative. Sure, you know which departments need to be involved, but do you know who within that department should be looped in?
Find out tactfully and efficiently by asking the leaders of those teams directly. This helps them feel looped in and heard as well.
Katie points out that there are two ways to approach this:
The 1:1 roadshow approach: Meet individually with department leaders to brief them on what’s coming, understand their priorities, and determine who on their team should be involved.
The group kickoff approach: Host a larger kickoff meeting where all relevant leaders are present and can discuss who should be involved from each team.
Knowing your audience matters here. Some teams thrive in collaborative, open discussions where they can riff off each other and debate ideas. Others prefer a more direct, one-on-one approach where they can focus without distractions. Understand your audience and follow suit.
4. Give enough time for two-way feedback
The biggest barrier to successful cross-departmental collaboration with other leaders?
“Time,” shoots Katie (without so much as a blink).
Specifically, when you don’t give other cross-functional leaders enough time to actually react and give input on your initiatives (cough, or collaborate), the partnership breaks down.
Collaboration works best when people feel heard. Forming strong connections with other leaders across your company is often about fostering two-way feedback. That’s why you need to get (majorly) ahead and garner leadership buy-in, ideas, and input from the offset, especially for your big-picture, cross-functional milestones for the year.
It takes time to collaborate. We plan in terms of annual, quarterly, and monthly alignment. At the annual level, you need true leadership buy-in.
Katie Golland, Director of Product Marketing at Swoogo
5. Prep for meetings that actually get things done
Win influence by being the most prepared person in the room. When you run a meeting, come with your agenda and make sure every participant knows what’s expected, feels equipped to contribute, and sees the value in being there.
Be prepared with the 'what' and the 'why' so people have enough knowledge to contribute. Otherwise, they’ll check out during your meeting.
Katie Golland, Director of Product Marketing at Swoogo
Katie outlines, “It can look like saying: this is Project X, here's why it matters, here's how I think we can approach it—what do you all think?” Again, preparation is key, but you still want to keep it open enough so others feel empowered to share their ideas.
How to Make Cross-Functional Meetings More Effective
Set an agenda. Even if you don’t have time to send it in advance, start the meeting by clearly outlining what you’ll cover and why it matters.
Anticipate what different stakeholders need. If a sales leader is attending, be ready to discuss how the project impacts revenue. If a customer success leader is there, be prepared to touch on retention.
Make space for collaboration. Instead of just presenting, invite input and create a safe space for sharing ideas.
💡 Pro Tip: Check in with key leaders beforehand. A quick, “Hey, what are the top three things you want covered?”—helps ensure their needs are addressed and that they feel heard before the meeting even starts.
6. Lean into transparency and vulnerability
Influence starts with trust, and trust starts with transparency. Be upfront about your priorities and where they align with others, and importantly, be open about results.
“Don’t just say, ‘we launched that,’ and move on,” says Katie. "Come forward with, ‘Here’s what we did, and here’s what we can work on.’
Leaning back into vulnerability, call out what you could’ve done to improve. This shows you’re all about getting into the trenches together—and not just what others can do for you.
Katie Golland, Director of Product Marketing at Swoogo
Signal to other leaders that you’re not just here to get things done for yourself and your team. You’re invested in the shared success of the entire company. The more honest and open you are, the easier it becomes to align with other leaders and create a culture of mutual support.
Influence Is Earned, Not Given
At the end of the day, growing your influence and forming strong cross-functional partnerships isn’t about pushing your agenda. It’s about building trust, aligning goals, and creating a culture of collaboration with other leaders. Gain a seat at the leadership table not just by getting buy-in, but by gaining allies.
For busy event pros and marketers, automation is always the name of the game. That’s why we’re pumped to announce Swoogo’s new native integration with Zapier.
This bi-directional integration now makes it easier than ever to automate your workflows—no coding required. Say hello to hours back in your work day. 🙌
What This Means for You
You can now connect your Swoogo event data with over 6,000 other apps—including Gmail, Eloqua, Asana, Google Sheets, Slack, Mailchimp, and more—to fire automated workflows, streamline repetitive tasks, and save time without batting an eye.
For instance, you can set up actions, or “Zaps,” to automagically:
➜ Ping event staff on Slack when a VIP checks in to your event
➜ Add new registrants immediately to your marketing automation tool
➜ Create a new contact in Swoogo when a Google contact is created
➜ Add new registrants to a Google Sheet
And anything else you can dream up.
No Technical Savvy Required
You don’t need to know a single line of code, which means you can tap into the power of Swoogo’s webhooks or API without having any in-house technical expertise. Zapier's drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for anyone to set up triggers, actions, and searches of your event data.
The Data You Can Sync
Currently, the integration supports the ability to trigger actions based on the Registrant, Contact, and Event objects. When these objects are created, updated, or deleted, they can trigger a Zap. Data on these objects can also flow back into Swoogo.
Ready to set up some workflows? Use one of our pre-built templates with workflows ready to go, or create your own solution and customize to your heart’s content.
The integration is available for all Swoogo customers, but you will need a Zapier plan to get started. Say goodbye to tedious manual tasks, so you can spend your time on what matters most.
Swoogo is an industry-leading event management software that provides flexible, customizable solutions for in-person, digital, and hybrid events. With a focus on user-friendly design and powerful integrations, Swoogo empowers event planners to create impactful experiences effortlessly. For more information, visit Swoogo’s website.
About Zapier
As the leader in easy automation, Zapier empowers businesses to automate workflows and move data across 7,000+ apps. Zapier works with what you work with, across your apps and tech stack, so you can make magic happen. For more information, visit Zapier's website.
In today’s data-driven world, event tech leaders are constantly challenged to prove the ROI of their events—not just in terms of revenue, but also in delivering exceptional attendee experiences. After all, the ethereal, human impact of your events is what turns attendees into true fans, ultimately both improving customer lifetime value and fostering a true, thriving community around your brand. So how can event tech leaders measure that fuzzy goodness?
Enter the Net Promoter Score (NPS), an underutilized yet powerful tool for the event space. While NPS is often associated with customer experience and product feedback, it can be a game-changer for events, helping you quantify attendee sentiment, improve performance, and get leadership buy-in on the value of events.
Here’s why every event leader should be using NPS as a cornerstone metric—and how it can elevate your strategy.
What Is NPS?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a highly effective metric that measures loyalty and satisfaction. It all starts with one straightforward but revealing survey question:
"On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this event to a friend or colleague?"
Based on their answers, attendees are sorted into three categories:
Promoters (9-10): Your superfans—these are your loyal enthusiasts who’ll recommend your event to others and attend again.
Passives (7-8): They’re satisfied, had a good time…but they’re not racing to tell anyone about it. They might attend again, but they could just as easily be swayed by another brand or event.
Detractors (0-6): These folks are not impressed. Disappointed attendees who may share negative feedback or avoid future events.
Your NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, resulting in a score between -100 and 100.
The simplicity and provenness of this metric make NPS a favorite among C-level executives and investors alike.
Why Use NPS for Events?
1. Quantify Sentiment for C-Level Discussions
One of the greatest challenges in event management is demonstrating value beyond revenue. NPS offers a quantitative analysis of attendee sentiment, making it easier to translate the subjective “feelies” of an event into hard data.
With NPS, you bring a metric that resonates with executives and investors, speaking their language while proving the value of your events.
Credibility: NPS is a recognized benchmark across industries, so stakeholders trust it.
Universal language: C-level leaders and investors often prioritize NPS in evaluating a business’s health, making it a natural fit for event analysis.
Trackability: You can finally track sentiment to show improvement over time.
2. Track Events Against Business Metrics Beyond Revenue
Revenue alone doesn’t capture the full impact of an event. NPS provides a broader perspective, allowing you to:
Benchmark performance: Track attendee sentiment across multiple events to identify trends and improve weak spots.
Uncover attendee loyalty: Measure how well your events foster repeat attendance and brand affinity. Are attendees becoming more deeply connected to your brand? Are they becoming more likely to refer you?
Make data-driven decisions: Use NPS feedback to identify specific areas for optimization. Are certain event formats getting higher NPS scores? Is a specific type of content driving more engagement?
Event leaders who track NPS can measure success in ways that align with business goals and long-term strategy.
3. Identify Advocates for Organic Growth
Your Promoters—those scoring 9 or 10—are more than satisfied attendees; they are brand advocates who can amplify your event’s success. When you can identify this powerful segment of attendees, you can leverage them to:
Fuel word-of-mouth marketing: Encourage them to share their experiences, reviews, and photos on social media or recommend your event to peers.
Engage VIPs: Turn your Promoters into ambassadors by involving them in post-event campaigns, testimonials, or referral programs to bring in more like-minded attendees.
Drive retention: Promoters are more likely to attend future events, ensuring sustained attendance growth.
4. Drive Cross-Team Alignment on Event Goals
Using NPS for events doesn’t just benefit leadership; it also creates alignment across your teams. When everyone—from marketing to sales to event operations—works towards improving NPS, it fosters collaboration and a shared sense of accountability. Improving event experiences becomes a collective goal.
Cross-functional insights: NPS results can pinpoint which teams need to improve their processes (e.g., registration flow, session quality, or post-event follow-ups).
Continuous improvement: With consistent tracking, your teams can create iterative strategies to enhance every stage of the attendee journey.
How to Implement NPS for Events
Here’s a simple roadmap to make NPS a cornerstone of your event strategy:
Ask the right question: Deploy the NPS question as part of your post-event survey.
Gather feedback: Use follow-up questions to understand the reasons behind scores and help pinpoint action items.
Analyze trends: Track NPS across multiple events to identify patterns, benchmark success, and gauge what changes actually move the needle.
Take action: Address Detractors’ pain points head-on. Convert Passives into Promoters by refining areas they felt were “just okay.” Celebrate, engage, and leverage your Promoters, your biggest advocates.
NPS Is the Future of Event Success
NPS is a game-changing tool for event tech leaders to measure, enhance, and prove the impact of their events. By adopting this methodology, you not only quantify attendee sentiment but also unlock deeper insights into loyalty, satisfaction, and areas for growth. Meanwhile, you drive alignment across teams and elevate your events’ strategic value to leadership.
Start speaking the universal language of business while improving your events, and make NPS an integral part of your event strategy.
Events shouldn’t be isolated moments. They should be catalysts for ongoing engagement, ultimately turning attendees into true advocates for your brand. The most successful event strategies—the ones that truly increase customer lifetime value—go beyond one-off experiences to create a meaningful community that’s activated throughout the year.
Below, we dive into how you can transform your event strategy from an annual high-energy sprint into a year-round, thriving ecosystemwith meaningful touchpoints along the way.
1. Keep attendees engaged with other elements of your event portfolio.
One individual might not attend five big in-person events a year, but they might engage with your brand through varied event formats. The key is to flesh out your event portfolio with different kinds of experiences that meet people where they are.
Draw attendees into a larger ecosystem of touchpoints that keep them engaged and deliver value, so your brand remains top of mind as a resource and partner throughout the year.
Expand your event portfolio with the following touchpoints.
Webinars and Virtual Workshops
It’s important to remember that webinars are still virtual events that can be powerful drivers of engagement. Particularly, these are perfect for maintaining a connection with attendees between in-person events. Consider developing a monthly webinar series featuring industry experts, product deep dives, or leadership panels that can keep your community active and continuously learning.
Community Forums and Online Groups
Keep the event experience going even after attendees leave the venue. Build a digital space where they can continue conversations and where members can ask questions, share insights, and collaborate in real time.
Educational Tracks and Certification Programs
If learning and professional development are central to your event, consider building out year-round educational offerings, like:
Exclusive certifications tied to your event
Ongoing training modules
On-demand library of past event sessions
If your brand already has a certification or learning program for customers, invite those who’ve attended your events but haven’t yet participated in your program. Each of these meaningful touchpoints build upon each other, ultimately improving customer lifetime value and creating brand advocates who see you as a valuable resource in their professional development.
Networking Events and Coffee Chats
Casual events with a focus on building connections can be just as (if not more) valuable as large conferences. Foster relationships that last far beyond the one event with checkpoints like:
Virtual happy hours
In-person coffee meetups
Structured speed networking events
💡 Quick Takeaway: Not every event needs a keynote speaker and a registration fee. Think about how your audience prefers to engage and build a mix of options that keep them involved throughout the year.
2. Supplement your branded annual event with smaller offshoots throughout the year.
Sure, your annual flagship event is like the Super Bowl for your business. But the power of its brand can extend far beyond just the one big moment; it has the potential to become its own year-round engine of engagement and community.
Create smaller events (or micro-events) throughout the year that build on the brand of your flagship event. One idea is to host these in different locations according to where your target audiences are based. Think of it as taking your company’s Super Bowl “on the road,” building community while extending the reach of your main event. It’s all about deepening engagement and maximizing the power of your branded event strategy.
Here are some micro-event ideas to supplement your branded event:
Local Meetups
As we discussed, consider local gatherings based on major locations of attendees and prospects. Another perk of this approach stems from the fact that not everyone will fly across the country for your main event, but they might attend a local meetup. Hosting city-specific gatherings allows you to stay engaged with your audience in a more accessible way.
Industry-Specific Roundtables
Rather than trying to appeal to a broad audience, create hyper-focused discussions for specific segments of your community. For instance, if you run an event for collaboration software, you could host niche discussions tailored for project managers or SaaS marketers.
Executive Dinners and VIP Events
Host micro-events targeted for high-value attendees—think executives, investors, and decision-makers. Think exclusive networking dinners or a private, invite-only experience. The key is making these gatherings valuable, with curated guest lists and discussion topics that cater to their interests.
Community-Led Sessions
Your audience isn’t just there to listen; they also have insights to share. Encourage them to host their own small gatherings under your event umbrella. This not only decentralizes event planning but also deepens engagement by empowering attendees to take ownership of their community experience.
💡 Quick Takeaway: Think of these smaller events as the bridge that keeps your audience engaged between your flagship events. They provide frequent, high-value touchpoints that maintain momentum, deepen relationships, and maximize your ROI.
3. Keep conversations going within community spaces.
The best events aren’t just about content, they’re about connections. But if those connections die as soon as the closing session wraps up, you’re missing a huge opportunity. A thriving community needs a home where discussions can continue year-round.
Keep your community alive through:
Slack Channels
Many industries already have active Slack communities where professionals connect daily. Why not create a branded space for your attendees to interact beyond the event?
LinkedIn or Facebook Groups
For a more structured approach, a well-moderated LinkedIn or Facebook group can serve as a hub for ongoing discussions, shared resources, and thought leadership.
Your Own Community Platform
Consider launching your own digital space where attendees can access event content, participate in forums, and network with peers.
With Swoogo, you can build an Event Hub that serves as an interactive space—filled with access to content, one-on-one connections, future and past events, and more—where attendees can stay engaged before, during, and after any event.
Live Office Hours or Drop-In Sessions
Hosting weekly or monthly live Q&A sessions with industry leaders or event speakers keeps the energy going and reinforces your event’s role as a knowledge hub.
💡 Quick Takeaway: A strong online community ensures that the energy from your event doesn’t fizzle out—it evolves into an ongoing conversation that keeps your audience coming back for more.
Turn Your Events Into the Heartbeat of Your Community
If you want to build a true community through events, you need to think beyond the big annual event and how to create an entire ecosystem with multiple, meaningful touchpoints throughout the year. Create these personalized experiences that keep them coming back for more.
Modern, robust event strategies follow an important mantra: if we can keep the party going, let’s keep the party going. Today's audiences crave continuous engagement, and businesses are recognizing the value of maintaining an ongoing dialogue with their communities. Enter the always-on event strategy — a transformative approach that shifts from isolated events to a continuous, immersive experience.
What is an always-on event strategy?
An always-on events strategy is centered around creating a perpetual event environment — a dynamic platform where audiences can sign up for, watch, and engage with your content at their convenience, long after your event ends.
This approach ensures that your brand remains at the forefront of attendees' minds, and extends the reach and impact of your content well beyond your curtain call.
Frankly, embracing an always-on event strategy offers numerous advantages.
The Benefits of an Always-On Event Strategy
Extended audience engagement: Continuous access to content fosters deeper relationships with your audience, encouraging regular interaction and sustained interest.
Increased return on investment (ROI): Repurposing and updating content reduces the need for constant new material creation, maximizing the value derived from each piece.
Enhanced brand presence: A consistent, active platform reinforces brand authority and keeps your organization relevant in a crowded marketplace.
How can you create this perpetual event environment? Lucky for you, with Swoogo, it’s as simple as creating your Event Hub.
A 24/7 Hub for Engagement
Your Event Hub serves as an interactive space where attendees can stay engaged before, during, and after your event. Instead of a short-lived experience, your event becomes a continuous digital environment where participants can explore past sessions, schedule meetings with sponsors, connect one-on-one with other attendees, and chat with speakers, sponsors, and organizers — all in one place.
This hub also acts as a gateway to future events, allowing attendees to discover what’s next, revisit recorded content, and maintain valuable connections within your event community. It’s more than just an event platform — it’s a dynamic, always-accessible space that fosters year-round engagement and networking.
Pro Tip: Leaving networking channels open long after an event ends can create a thriving, free community where like-minded professionals connect, collaborate, and build lasting relationships — making your event brand even more valuable.
Data-Driven, Smarter Events
Because Swoogo allows unlimited events and registrations, you can technically keep an event active indefinitely, which means you can continuously collect leads, distribute content, and nurture an ongoing attendee community.
An always-on event strategy also unlocks deeper insights. With digital attendee tracking, you can monitor attendee activity — such as session views, clicks, and time spent engaging with content — while linking this data to job titles, industries, and other demographics. This level of insight allows for more strategic event planning, personalized content, and highly targeted marketing efforts.
How to Transition From a One-Off to Always-On Event Strategy
Get started with these actionable steps to shift to an always-on events strategy.
1. Develop a centralized event hub
Create a dedicated platform where all event-related content resides. With Swoogo, your Event Hub serves as the cornerstone of your always-on strategy, providing a centralized location for live sessions, on-demand videos, articles, and interactive features.
Take action: Whatever your tools, make sure your event management software supports continuous content updates and seamless integration with other tools. Ensure the platform is user-friendly and accessible across various devices to cater to a diverse audience.
2. Implement a content repurposing plan
Maximize the lifespan of your content by repurposing it in various formats. For instance, transform a webinar into a series of blog posts, infographics, or podcast episodes. This approach not only extends the reach of your content but also caters to different audience preferences.
Take action: After each event, analyze the content to identify key themes and insights. Develop a repurposing schedule to systematically release new formats over time, maintaining a steady flow of fresh material.
3. Foster continuous community engagement
Encourage ongoing interaction by creating spaces for community engagement, such as forums, social media groups, or regular live Q&A sessions. Active participation nurtures a sense of belonging and keeps the audience invested in your brand.
Take action: Establish a content calendar that includes regular interactive events, like monthly live chats or quarterly virtual meetups. Promote these events through your content hub and communication channels to drive participation.
4. Leverage data and analytics
Utilize analytics tools to monitor audience behavior, content performance, and engagement levels. Insights gained from data analysis inform content updates and help tailor experiences to meet audience needs.
Take action: Set up key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, such as average time spent on the platform, content shares, and conversion rates. Regularly review these metrics to refine your strategy and enhance effectiveness.
5. Incorporate AI
AI can significantly enhance the always-on event experience by automating tasks, personalizing content, and analyzing data more efficiently. For example, AI-driven chatbots can provide instant support to users, while machine learning algorithms can recommend content based on user behavior.
Take action: Explore AI tools that align with your objectives and integrate them into your platform. Start with features that offer immediate benefits, such as personalized content recommendations, and expand as you become more comfortable with the technology.
Challenges and Considerations
While the always-on event strategy offers numerous benefits, it's essential to be mindful of potential challenges:
Content fatigue: Regularly updating content is crucial to prevent audience boredom. Stale or repetitive material can lead to disengagement. Solution: Maintain a diverse content mix and encourage user-generated content to keep the platform lively and engaging.
Resource allocation: Sustaining an always-on platform requires continuous effort and resources. Solution: Automate routine tasks where possible and consider collaborating with partners or leveraging AI to manage workloads effectively.
Technology Integration: Ensuring seamless integration of various tools and platforms can be complex. Solution: Invest in scalable, flexible event management software that supports integrations and can adapt to evolving needs.
Keep Your Event Strategy and Content Working for You
Transitioning from one-off events to an always-on events strategy is a paradigm shift that offers substantial rewards. Businesses stand to create a dynamic, immersive, “evergreen” event experience that resonates with audiences year-round. Embrace the always-on approach to not only stay relevant but to lead the way in the evolving landscape of B2B events.
Events are more than just a marketing tactic — they’re a powerful engine for driving business growth. If you think of your go-to-market (GTM) strategy as a machine, events have the potential to be the central gear that keeps everything moving smoothly: they create direct engagement, accelerate sales cycles, and generate invaluable insights that no other channel can replicate.
Yet, too often, events are treated as standalone initiatives rather than a strategic pillar. It’s time to shift that mindset. Here’s why events should be at the core of your GTM strategy — and how to make them work for you.
Understanding the Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy
Before jumping into the deep end, let's ensure we're all on the same page about what a GTM strategy entails.
In essence, a GTM strategy is your master plan for launching a product or service into the market. It outlines how you'll position, promote, and deliver your offering to the target audience. This strategy brings together various departments — marketing, sales, product development, and customer success — to ensure a unified approach to reaching and satisfying customers.
The Power of Events in Your GTM Strategy
Here are some compelling reasons events should take center stage in your GTM performance.
1. Direct Engagement With Target Accounts
In the B2B world, building relationships with key accounts is paramount. Events provide a golden opportunity for face-to-face interactions, allowing you to connect on a deeply personal level. This direct engagement fosters trust and can accelerate the decision-making process.
✅ Take action: Host exclusive events like VIP dinners, webinars, or roundtable discussions tailored for high-value accounts. This personalized touch shows your commitment to their success.
2. Showcases Thought Leadership
Hosting events positions your company as an industry leader. By sharing valuable insights and innovative ideas, you demonstrate expertise and build credibility among your peers and prospects.
✅ Take action: Organize workshops or seminars featuring your in-house experts or industry thought leaders. Ensure the content is relevant, timely, and addresses the pain points of your target audience.
3. Accelerates the Sales Cycle
Events can significantly shorten the sales cycle by addressing objections, demonstrating value, and building relationships in real time. Prospects can experience your product or service firsthand, ask questions, and get immediate feedback.
✅ Take action: Incorporate live demos or hands-on sessions into your events. Allow attendees to interact with your product and see its benefits up close.
4. Gathers Valuable Insights
Events are a treasure trove of data. Attendee feedback, questions, and engagement levels provide insights into customer needs, preferences, and pain points. This information is invaluable for refining your product offerings and marketing messages.
✅ Take action: Use polls, surveys, and Q&A sessions during events to collect attendee input. Analyze this data to inform future product development and marketing strategies.
5. Building Community and Loyalty
Regularly hosting events helps build a community around your brand. This sense of belonging fosters loyalty, turning customers into brand advocates who are more likely to refer others and provide repeat business.
✅ Take action: Create a series of events, such as monthly webinars or annual conferences, to keep your community engaged and connected.
Integrating Events into Your GTM Strategy
Now that we've established the "why," let's explore the "how." Here's a roadmap to seamlessly weave events into your GTM fabric.
1. Align Event Goals With Business Objectives
Ensure your event objectives mirror your overarching business goals. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or launching a new product, clarity in purpose drives success.
✅ Take action: Define specific, measurable outcomes for each event. For example, aim to generate 100 qualified leads or achieve a 25% attendee-to-customer conversion rate over a certain period of time.
2. Leverage Account-Based Experiences (ABX)
Account-based experiences (ABX) take personalized marketing to the next level by focusing on creating tailored experiences for high-value accounts throughout their journey — not just during the sales phase. Events play a pivotal role in this strategy by offering customized experiences that resonate with individual accounts.
✅ Take action: Design event content and experiences that cater to the specific needs and interests of your target accounts. This could include personalized agendas, exclusive networking opportunities, or bespoke content sessions.
Harness data to inform your event strategies. Analyze past event metrics, customer feedback, and market trends to design experiences that resonate with your audience.
✅ Take action: Implement analytics tools to track attendee behavior and preferences. Use this data to tailor future events and enhance attendee satisfaction.
4. Foster Cross-Department Collaboration
Break down silos by involving various departments in event planning and execution. Collaboration ensures a cohesive approach and maximizes the event's impact on your GTM strategy.
✅ Take action: Create a cross-functional task force with representatives from marketing, sales, product, and customer success teams to plan and execute events.
5. Implement Post-Event Follow-Up Strategies
The event doesn't end when the last attendee logs off or leaves the venue. Effective follow-up is crucial to nurture leads and convert prospects into customers.
✅ Take action: Develop a post-event communication plan that includes personalized thank-you messages, access to event resources, and tailored offers based on attendee interests.
Measuring Event Success
To justify placing events at the heart of your GTM strategy, it's essential to measure their impact. Here are key metrics to consider:
Attendance and registration rates: Gauge interest and reach.
Engagement levels: Monitor interactions during the event, such as questions asked, poll participation, and session attendance.
Lead generation: Track the number and quality of leads acquired.
Conversion rates: Measure how many attendees progressed to the next stage in the buyer's journey.
Customer feedback: Collect insights on attendee satisfaction and areas for improvement.
✅ Take action: Use event management software that integrates with your CRM to track these metrics seamlessly and provide a holistic view of event performance.
Integrating events into your GTM strategy isn't just a trend, it's a strategic move that can yield substantial benefits. By placing events at the core of your approach, you create immersive experiences that engage prospects, accelerate sales cycles, and foster lasting relationships.
The next time you're mapping out your GTM strategy, leverage personalized, memorable experiences to leave a lasting impression.
You've just wrapped up another event. The signage is down, the lanyards are packed away, and the post-event high is starting to mellow. Now comes the million-dollar question: How do you prove it was successful?
Of course, adding leads and pipeline to your CRM is crucial. But stakeholders crave a more comprehensive picture of an event's impact. Let's dive into creative and actionable strategies to showcase the full spectrum of your event's value.
1. Embrace Integrated Revenue Campaigns
Imagine your event as a superstar in a blockbuster movie. It's not just about its solo performance but how it fits into the bigger cinematic universe. Enter integrated revenue campaigns — a holistic approach where your event is a pivotal part of a larger marketing strategy.
Why Integrated Campaigns?
By aligning your event with broader marketing initiatives, you ensure that every aspect, from pre-event buzz to post-event follow-ups, works in harmony to drive overarching business goals. This synergy amplifies your event's impact and provides a clearer picture of its contribution to revenue.
Actionable Steps:
Collaborate across departments: Work closely with marketing, sales, and product teams to weave your event into the fabric of the company's campaigns. If you’re not meeting regularly with other GTM leaders, now’s the time to do so.
Unified messaging: Ensure that the event's theme and content resonate with the company's current marketing narratives. For instance, if a financial company is focusing on personalization that allows customers to achieve their unique goals, the event might focus on empowerment and how one can actively manage their finances with the right tools and guidance.
Leverage technology: Use platforms that integrate event data with your CRM and marketing tools, providing a seamless flow of information and a comprehensive view of attendee engagement.
For a deeper dive into integrated revenue campaigns, check out our nifty guide.
While ROI is about financial gains, return on objective (ROO) evaluates how well an event achieves its predefined goals — whether those goals are educational, relational, or brand-driven.
For instance, if your company is launching a new CRM platform, measuring success through revenue alone might not capture the full impact of your event. Instead, focusing on brand awareness, audience education, and lead engagement can provide a clearer picture of how well your event delivered on its purpose.
How to Measure ROO:
Set Clear, Measurable Goals
Define what success looks like for your event. Is it increased brand awareness? Launching a new product? Educating your audience?
For our new CRM launch, let’s say the primary objectives are:
Brand awareness: Increase market recognition of the CRM by securing at least 50 media mentions and 10,000 social impressions
Education: Ensure at least 75% of attendees engage with product demo sessions or workshops
Lead engagement: Generate 500 qualified leads, with at least 200 requesting follow-up meetings
Collect Relevant Data
Once objectives are in place, track success using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, like:
Brand awareness metrics: Track media coverage, press mentions, and social media reach using platforms like Meltwater or Google Alerts.
Education metrics: Use session attendance reports, engagement heatmaps, and post-event quizzes to measure learning retention.
Lead engagement metrics: Capture data through attendance, app interactions, booth visits, and meeting requests. A post-event survey can also gauge attendee interest.
For example, our new CRM company might set up QR codes at demo stations that attendees scan to access exclusive content. Each scan provides insight into audience interest and allows the team to track which features generate the most buzz.
Analyze and Report
After the event, compare actual results against goals:
Brand awareness: 55 media mentions (+10% over goal), 12,500 social impressions (+25%)
With these insights, our CRM company can assess where the event excelled (brand reach and lead engagement) and where to optimize next time (perhaps expanding educational content).
3. Measure Attendee Engagement and Satisfaction
Leads are great, but engaged attendees? Even better. Engagement metrics offer a window into how your audience is interacting with your event, providing insights beyond mere attendance numbers.
Actionable Steps:
Pre- and post-event surveys: Gauge expectations before the event and measure satisfaction after. This not only shows areas of success but highlights opportunities for growth.
Engagement analytics: Monitor session attendance, participation in Q&As, and networking activities to identify high-interest topics and formats.
Social media activity: Keep an eye on mentions, shares, and the overall buzz your event is generating online.
NPS scores: Leverage your Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a credible way to measure and showcase loyalty and satisfaction.
💡 Pro Tip: Use an event management platform (and its native apps) that offer real-time engagement tracking. This not only helps in measuring success but also allows for on-the-fly adjustments to boost interaction.
4. Evaluate Content Effectiveness
Your event content — be it presentations, workshops, or panel discussions — is a treasure trove of value. Evaluating how this content resonates can provide insights into attendee interests and the event's overall impact, as well as inform future planning.
Actionable Steps:
Session attendance: Identify which topics drew the largest crowds (and which ones didn’t!). Use the highest-performing topics for post-event content and follow-up comms.
Session ratings: Allow attendees to rate sessions in real time for immediate feedback on content relevance. “In real time” is the key phrase here to get their most accurate input. Schedule a push notification for session attendees to rate each session on your event app as it’s wrapping up.
On-demand views: Track how often recorded sessions are accessed post-event.
Content downloads: Monitor how popular your supplementary materials are, like reports, guides, or slide decks.
5. Analyze Social Media Impact
It’s a no-brainer that social media buzz can amplify your event's reach and influence. That goes for every stage of your event lifecycle: pre-event, on-site, and post-event.
Actionable Steps:
Monitor mentions and hashtags: Track the volume and sentiment of social media mentions to gauge public perception.
Engagement rates: Measure likes, shares, and comments to assess how much your event content is resonating with your audience.
Influencer collaboration: Partner with industry influencers to expand your event's digital footprint and credibility.
6. Assess Brand Awareness and Perception
Events can enhance brand visibility and shape public perception. And while measuring brand awareness can be a bit abstract, it's absolutely doable.
Remember, a positive shift in brand perception can lead to long-term benefits that outweigh immediate sales.
Actionable Steps:
Pre- and post-event brand surveys: Measure shifts in brand recognition and sentiment among your target audience.
Media coverage analysis: Evaluate the quality and quantity of press mentions to understand media impact. Today, this should also include industry podcasts that your subject-matter experts participate in.
Share of voice metrics: Compare your brand's event-related mentions against competitors to gauge market positioning.
Website metrics: Track KPIs like overall traffic and branded search volume (especially around milestone dates for the event).
7. Calculate Customer Retention and Loyalty
Retaining existing customers often delivers more value than acquiring new ones. Research by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company (the creators of Net Promoter Score) finds that a 5% increase in customer retention boosts profits by 25% to 95%. Events can play a pivotal role in strengthening these relationships.
In fact, our 2025 Eventscape report found that 21% of event organizers say their events are used primarily for keeping customers, and those companies are 13% more likely to have an average year-over-year growth rate of more than 10%.
Also, community and customer events is the #1 event type teams are running, with 59% of event organizers saying it's on their events calendar.
It’s time to not only add, but dedicate serious energy to your customer retention efforts.
Actionable Steps:
Track repeat attendance: Monitor how many attendees return for subsequent events, indicating sustained interest and loyalty.
Customer lifetime value (CLV): Analyze whether event participation correlates with increased CLV, showcasing long-term benefits. Work with your revenue operations team to ensure you have the right reporting and dashboards in place to measure this.
Exclusive perks for loyal customers: Offer special access or benefits to repeat attendees, fostering a sense of community and appreciation.
The true testament to an event's impact lies in the actions attendees take afterward.
Actionable Steps:
Product trials and demos: Track increases in product trial sign-ups or demo requests following the event.
Content engagement: Measure upticks in website visits, blog reads, or newsletter subscriptions post-event.
Sales cycle acceleration: Analyze whether event interactions shorten the time it takes to close deals. Specifically, compare the sales cycle of sourced or influenced opportunities from events with the average sales cycle of all other sourced and influenced revenue.
9. Evaluate Networking Opportunities Facilitated
One of the unique values of events is the opportunity for attendees to network. Facilitating and measuring these connections can highlight the event's role in building communities.
Actionable Steps:
Networking session attendance: Track participation in dedicated networking events or breakout sessions.
Connection metrics: Use event apps that allow attendees to connect and then measure the number of connections made.
Post-event collaboration: Track partnerships or collaborations that originated from event interactions.
Attendee testimonials: Collect stories from participants about valuable connections made during the event.
Sponsors and partners are key stakeholders whose satisfaction can reflect the event's broader success.
Actionable Steps:
Post-event surveys: Gather direct feedback from sponsors and partners regarding event ROI and exposure.
Lead generation analysis: Evaluate the number of quality leads sponsors gained from the event.
Brand visibility metrics: Assess how prominently sponsors were featured in event materials, sessions, and digital content.
Future partnership interest: If sponsors and partners express interest in returning, that’s a strong indicator of an event well-executed from a partnerships angle.
Events Are More Than Just a Sales Funnel
Measuring event value beyond pipeline metrics can prove long-term impact. By assessing everything from engagement, to brand awareness, to sponsor satisfaction, you can craft a compelling narrative around your events’ true value.
Next time someone asks, “Was that event worth it?” — you won’t just have an answer, you’ll have the data to back it up.
If you’re still juggling spreadsheets, manually updating attendee lists, and chasing leads in a chaotic flurry of post-it notes, it’s time for a (loving) wake-up call. Your event team needs a CRM integration — yesterday.
A well-integrated CRM (customer relationship management) system is a necessity for event professionals and their teams. It streamlines communication, keeps attendee data in one place, automates workflows, and — most importantly — helps you prove event ROI.
Here are five telltale signs that it’s time to ditch the manual madness and embrace a more efficient, data-driven approach to event management using event technology with a CRM integration.
1. Your attendee data is scattered across multiple platforms.
You’ve got attendee names in one spreadsheet, contact details in another, registration info on your event management platform, and post-event surveys in yet another software. Sound familiar? If tracking down attendee history feels like solving a mystery, your team needs a CRM integration.
Why this is a problem:
Disconnected data makes it nearly impossible to track the full attendee journey.
Sales teams lack real-time insights into attendee interests and engagement.
Marketing struggles to segment and personalize outreach efforts.
Your leads feel like you’re not paying attention to them and their interactions with your company.
The fix:
A CRM integration centralizes all attendee data, so you have a single source of truth.
You can track interactions from initial invite to post-event follow-ups, so you know who’s engaging with you and when.
Attendee preferences, session choices, and engagement levels are stored in one place, making it easier to implement more targeted follow-up campaigns.
You can automate data syncing so registration details, session attendance, and engagement scores update in real time.
💡 Pro Tip: Make sure your CRM integration allows for a bidirectional sync, so any changes made in one application will be reflected in the other. This way, you don’t have to deal with any manual work and you can avoid any costly human errors.
2. Your sales and marketing teams are out of sync.
You and/or your marketing team are busy promoting the event, your sales team is trying to close deals, and neither team has a clear view of what the other is doing. This disconnect leads to missed opportunities, inconsistent messaging, and potential revenue left on the table.
Why this is a problem:
Sales teams often reach out to leads without knowing their event interactions.
Marketing teams send generic follow-ups rather than tailored, data-driven messages.
You lose opportunities to engage high-intent prospects in real time.
The fix:
A CRM integration connects your sales and marketing teams, giving both access to real-time attendee data.
Sales can see who registered, which sessions they attended, and what interactions they had.
Marketing can use CRM insights to create personalized campaigns that nurture leads before, during, and after the event.
You can set up automated lead assignments so sales reps get instant notifications when high-intent prospects engage with event content.
💡 Pro Tip: Set up automated CRM workflows that trigger follow-up emails based on attendee behavior, such as session attendance or booth visits.
3. Post-event follow-ups are manual and time-consuming.
After the event, your team scrambles to send follow-up emails, assign leads to sales reps, and manually update records. It takes days or (gasp) weeks to process post-event data, and by the time sales reaches out, your warm leads have gone cold.
Why this is a problem:
Delayed follow-ups decrease the likelihood of conversion.
Manual processes lead to human error and missed opportunities.
The lack of automation makes it difficult to scale your event efforts.
The fix:
A CRM integration automates follow-ups, ensuring timely and personalized engagement.
Attendees receive post-event emails, surveys, and relevant content without your team lifting a finger.
Sales teams get instant notifications when high-priority leads engage with post-event materials, making it easier for them to follow up quickly with the right people.
You can create drip campaigns based on attendee interests so follow-ups feel more personalized and engaging.
💡 Pro Tip: Set up lead scoring rules in your CRM so your team knows which attendees to prioritize based on their level of engagement.
4. You struggle to measure event ROI.
Your CFO wants hard numbers on event ROI, but all you have are vague metrics like “good turnout” and “great engagement.” Without clear data, justifying budget increases or proving event impact becomes an uphill battle.
Why this is a problem:
Without CRM data, it's difficult to connect event engagement to actual business outcomes.
Proving event ROI requires tracking leads from registration to closed deals.
Incomplete reporting makes it hard to optimize future events for higher impact.
The fix:
A CRM integration tracks the full attendee journey, from registration to post-event conversion.
You can see which leads turn into customers and calculate the actual revenue impact of your event.
Real-time dashboards provide instant insights into event performance.
You can sync event engagement data with customer lifecycle metrics to see the long-term impact of your event efforts.
💡 Pro Tip: Integrate your event management platform with your CRM’s reporting tools to generate comprehensive event ROI reports automatically.
5. Your attendee experience feels generic and impersonal.
Attendees expect personalized experiences, not generic event blasts. If your communication feels one-size-fits-all, engagement rates will suffer.
Why this is a problem:
Attendees disengage when they receive irrelevant content.
Without CRM insights, event organizers struggle to tailor experiences.
It’s a missed opportunity to enhance attendee retention and nurture long-term relationships.
The fix:
A CRM integration allows for hyper-personalized attendee journeys.
Attendees receive customized recommendations based on past interactions and preferences.
Personalized event experiences lead to higher engagement and stronger brand loyalty.
Use behavioral triggers to tailor messaging — for example, send reminders to attendees who registered but haven’t selected sessions yet.
💡 Pro Tip: Use CRM data to segment attendees into personas and tailor event content accordingly. Perhaps you segment by location and send a personalized invitation to individuals within a certain radius, or you send a specific follow-up to individuals who opened your previous email more than once.
If any (or all) of these signs sound familiar, it’s time to get serious about integrating your event management platform with a CRM. The right integration will save your team time, eliminate manual errors, improve attendee engagement, and — most importantly — help you prove the value of your events.
Next Steps:
Audit your current event data management process: What event data is hard to access or use? How much manual work goes into it? Identify gaps where CRM integration can improve efficiency.
Evaluate CRM compatibility: Make sure your event management platform integrates seamlessly with your existing CRM. Look for a bidirectional integration that won’t rely on extra resources or money to implement.
Train your team: Ensure your sales, marketing, and events teams know how to leverage CRM data for maximum impact. If you skip this step, you’re missing one of the biggest pieces.
Test and optimize: Start with a small event to refine your workflows before rolling out CRM integration at scale.
Ditch the spreadsheets and embrace a smarter, more streamlined event management strategy. A strong CRM integration can radically change the game for both your efficiency and efficacy in maximizing your event ROI.
Events. Whether you’re planning them, attending them, or simply trying to survive them, there’s always so much to keep up with.
This year, some of the big things people are talking about are creating highly personalized events, using shiny new tech (ahem, AI), and (finally) figuring out what’s keeping them from proving real ROI.
We’ve rounded up a ton of event marketing statistics to help you figure all of this out. What’s working? What’s not? Where is everyone putting their time, money, and energy?
Grab a coffee (or something stronger) and let’s take a look. You’re gonna want to bookmark this one (and all the research linked, too).
Event Strategy
71% of event professionals say they use events equally for acquiring and keeping customers. (Swoogo)
21% of event organizers say their events are used mostly for customer retention. (Swoogo)
Companies using events primarily for customer retention are 13% more likely to have an average year-over-year growth rate of more than 10%. (Swoogo)
The global event marketing industry has a projected market size of $722.67 billion by 2028.
44% of marketers say that focusing on the customer and the brand experience became more important to them in the past year. (HubSpot)
96% of marketers say that personalized experiences have increased sales. (HubSpot)
21% of event professionals say getting the right attendees in the door is their top challenge for 2025. This is the #2 challenge, behind boosting attendee engagement and getting budget and buy-in (both tied for #1). (Swoogo)
Event Planning
41% of event professionals are hosting more events in 2025. (Swoogo)
Only 6% of event professionals are hosting fewer events in 2025. (Swoogo)
94% of event professionals are hosting at least the same number of events in 2025, if not more. (Swoogo)
In-person micro events hosted on Swoogo increased 16% in 2024. (Swoogo)
Companies investing in micro events are 15% more likely to have an average year-over-year growth rate of 20% or more. (Swoogo)
Nearly half (45%) of event professionals said their companies are committed to hosting micro events this year. (Swoogo)
Enterprise companies are 22% more likely to invest in micro events. (Swoogo)
Community and customer events is the #1 event type teams are running, with 59% of event organizers saying it’s on their calendar. (Swoogo)
52% of event professionals are running internal events. (Swoogo)
22% of event professionals say getting budget and buy-in is their biggest challenge for 2025. This is the #1 challenge, tied with boosting attendee engagement. (Swoogo)
66% of event professionals anticipate bigger budgets in 2025. (Amex GBT)
Event ROI and Data
50% of event professionals think that demonstrating event ROI is a top stressor. (Swoogo)
The #1 event KPI that event professionals track is registrations, followed closely by attendance rate. (Swoogo)
Event ROI is the #3 most important KPI for event professionals. (Swoogo)
Enterprise companies are 57% more likely to say ROI is a priority KPI for their events. (Swoogo)
Enterprise companies are 68% more likely to say pipeline is a priority event KPI. (Swoogo)
Event Trends
44% of event professionals think AI will be this year’s biggest trend in events. (Swoogo)
36% of event organizers mention generative AI specifically as the biggest event trend for 2025. (Swoogo)
24% of event professionals think building the right audiences for micro events will be this year’s biggest trend. (Swoogo)
92% of marketers say that AI has impacted their role already. (HubSpot)
In-Person Events
Companies hosted 12% more in-person events in 2024, and it was the only event format to increase. (Swoogo)
40% of event professionals are running conference wraparound events. (Swoogo)
In-person meetings and events are the #1 choice for event format, with 59% saying they run in-person events only. (Amex GBT)
In-person events are the #1 source for buyers to discover a new product or service. (Freeman)
Virtual and Hybrid Events
Companies hosted 25% fewer hybrid events on Swoogo in 2024. (Swoogo)
Almost half (47%) of event organizers have hosted hybrid events in the past, but have no plans to host them in the future. (Swoogo)
The #1 reason why event professionals are done with hybrid events: engagement isn’t high enough (54%). (Swoogo)
48% of event professionals say that hybrid events take away from the event experience for in-person attendees. (Swoogo)
34% of event organizers say that connecting the virtual and in-person experiences is too difficult. (Swoogo)
51% of event professionals are running webinars. (Swoogo)
Event Experience
22% of event professionals say boosting attendee engagement is their biggest challenge for 2025. This is the #1 challenge, tied with getting budget and buy-in. (Swoogo)
Event content is the top factor for a memorable attendee experience (38%). (Amex GBT)
With a bigger budget, event professionals would choose to improve the on-site experience as their #1 priority. (Amex GBT)
More than half (54%) of professionals think sustainability in events is important. (Amex GBT)
64% of event attendees say immersive experiences is the #1 element for a positive event experience. (Freeman)
45% of event attendees say customized agenda plans is a top element for a positive event experience. (Freeman)
Event Technology
44% of event professionals don’t have their event management platform connected to their CRM. (Swoogo)
69% of event organizers don’t have their event technology connected to their marketing automation platform. (Swoogo)
Only 33% of event organizers have their event management platform connected to internal communications tools. (Swoogo)
39% of B2B companies don’t connect their event technology to their CRM. (Swoogo)
64% of B2B companies don’t connect their event technology to their marketing automation platform. (Swoogo)
27% of planners say integrations are a challenge in deploying event technology. (Amex GBT)
27% of planners also say lack of buy-in from leadership is a challenge in deploying event technology. (Amex GBT)
44% of event attendees say technology that makes consuming the event easier is a top element for a positive event experience. (Freeman)
Conclusion
There you have it. Whether 2025 is the year you tackle attendee engagement, proving the value of your events, or making AI your new bestie, there’s no shortage of opportunity this year.
