Many marketers are already invested in the value of events as a critical ingredient of the marketing mix. In fact, this year’s Exhibit Leader Insights report tells us that 71% of exhibit marketers are satisfied that exhibitions continue to offer value as a marketing channel. With a case to be made for brand exposure, lead generation, increased customer loyalty and real-time engagement opportunities, it’s a no brainer that our stakeholders love events and their impact on the entire business… right!?
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

According to a CWT study last year, it’s estimated that the cost-per-attendee for meetings and events was 25% higher in 2022 than in 2019, set to rise by another 7% in 2023 alone. And yet, our budgets are not rising at a pace that can keep up with inflation and increasing costs.

With less obvious ways to track and measure the impact that our events have on our wider marketing strategy and business objectives, event spend is certainly under greater business scrutiny. Gartner reports that events make for 18.8% of total marketing budget allocation, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that our senior leaders are now taking more of an interest in tightening the purse strings.

So, how can we leverage events as part of our marketing mix? Where can we actively track and measure our event impact? And how can we effectively defend our event marketing spend to the business?

During this session, Chloe will arm you with some practical tips, industry best practices and some actionable insights that will help any marketers defend events as marketing money well spent.

Audience takeaways:

• Why events are critical to your wider marketing strategy
• How to successfully integrate events into your marketing mix
• Demonstrating event impact that will justify budgets and make your stakeholders love you