Inside the Minds of Industry Leaders:

Mia Monroe

Senior Program Manager, Events at Amazon

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, events aren’t just gatherings – they’re strategic drivers of business growth, brand affinity, and market positioning.

A well-crafted event strategy acts as your north star, aligning stakeholder expectations with measurable outcomes, while creating experiences that resonate long after the last attendee leaves. The key to developing a winning event strategy starts with stakeholder alignment.

Before diving into concept ideation or logistics, gather your key stakeholders to define and align upon clear, measurable goals. This early alignment ensures everyone is not only on the same page, but they’re actively invested in the event’s success. Whether your goals center on brand awareness, pipeline generation, performance improvement, or community building, establishing agreed-upon goals and objectives will guide every decision throughout your planning and execution phases.

Here are three essential elements for building a successful event strategy for 2026 and beyond.

Listen to Your Data

It bears repeating – listen to your data! From registration patterns and session attendance to ROI validation and performance improvement – these insights reveal what truly resonates with your audience. Consider event data as your ongoing conversation with your attendees. As attendees move through their journey, every step tells us valuable information:

• Pre-event engagement: reveals what content draws interest
• Registration patterns: shows optimal timing and motivation triggers
• Session attendance: identifies most valuable content types
• Post-event behaviors: measures lasting impact and ROI

Once you collect that data, do a deep dive beyond the “vanity metrics”. For instance, as you track session attendance, also review drop-off rates, engagement levels, and follow-up actions to understand the “why” behind attendee behavior. Does your value prop resonate with prospective attendees? Does the session format or speaker presentation style yield relevant takeaways for the attendee? Are attendees inspired to act based on takeaways?

When we pay attention to these signals, we can craft experiences that not only meet but exceed expectations.

Optimize Your Tech Stack

While data provides the insights, you need the right technology infrastructure to capture and analyze it effectively. Fortify your tech stack with the tools necessary to capture the entire attendee journey – from the initial discovery of the event to the ongoing nurturing post-event.

Think of your event technology like a high-performance vehicle – each component must work in perfect harmony to deliver an exceptional experience. Your registration platform serves as the ignition switch, sparking the journey and capturing vital attendee insights. Your event platform, mobile app, and engagement tools function as the engine and transmission, converting that initial momentum into meaningful interactions and measurable outcomes.

Just as a car’s systems communicate through a central computer, your tech solutions should be fully integrated. Running disconnected systems is like driving with a misaligned transmission – you’ll get there, but the journey won’t be smooth! Whether through native platform integrations or an external partner, invest in connecting these digital components. When your registration data flows seamlessly into your event platform and smoothly connects to your engagement tools and post-event surveys, you’ve created a well-oiled machine that performs at its peak.

Remember, just as a luxury vehicle anticipates its driver’s needs with intuitive controls and responsive handling, your tech stack should seamlessly enhance the attendee experience without calling attention to itself. When all systems are perfectly tuned and running smoothly under the hood, your participants can shift their focus to what drives real value – forging meaningful connections, absorbing compelling content, and fully immersing themselves in the experience you’ve crafted.

While a powerful tech stack enables seamless experiences, it’s crucial to remember that technology is merely the vehicle that gets us to our destination – meaningful human connection. The most sophisticated platforms and tools exist for one primary purpose: to remove friction from the journey so authentic relationships can flourish. This brings us to perhaps the most critical element of any event strategy…

Cultivate Meaningful Human Connection

Yes, data informs strategy, but connection remains the heart of successful events. Whether your account reps are looking to build trust and establish relationships with clients, or attendees are looking to connect with industry leaders, potential partners/collaborators, or just be in community with like-minded people – folks are looking to connect… and belong. Use data to identify networking opportunities, then curate and design spaces that facilitate organic interactions.

Consider your own experience when you’ve attended a memorable event. Do you remember the flawless registration and check-in process? Probably not, but you do remember a serendipitous conversation that led to a valuable partnership or a hilarious interaction taking place during an immersive session, or even the moment inspiration struck during a 1:1 discussion? This is where thoughtful experience design comes into play.

I recently learned about “pause points” – moments in an event agenda where attendees can process, reflect, and connect. In our eagerness to pack value into every minute of the agenda, we sometimes forget that meaningful connections often happen in the spaces between scheduled activities. These breathing spaces aren’t empty time; they are opportunities for the kind of organic networking that often delivers the highest value to attendees.

When crafting the attendee journey, recognize the power in shared experiences. Whether it’s a collaborative workshop, a community service project, or an immersive learning experience, creating moments that people experience together builds bonds that last far beyond the event itself. These shared experiences become the stories people tell, the memories they carry, and often, the foundation for lasting professional relationships.

There’s a certain magic that happens when we leverage data and technology to enable more human connection. Let your analytics inform where and how people prefer to connect, then design spaces and experiences that facilitate those preferences.

As you develop your event strategy, remember that success lies in the harmonious integration of these three elements: data-driven insights, seamless technology, and authentic human connection. When these components work together, you create not just events, but transformative experiences that deliver measurable business impact while fostering genuine relationships.

Bethany Murphy

Senior Director of Global Events at SentinelOne

Driving Alignment Across Teams: The Key Ingredient to a Winning Events Strategy

When it comes to building a successful events strategy, budgets, venues, and agendas usually get the spotlight. But the real differentiator isn’t logistics – it’s alignment. Events are high-investment, high-visibility moments. Without strong collaboration between marketing, sales, and executives, even the most amazing program can underdeliver.

The Stakes of Alignment

An event without alignment often looks like this: marketing drives a beautiful experience, but sales isn’t sure how to engage with attendees. Executives deliver keynotes, but their messaging doesn’t tie back to broader company objectives. Follow-up is inconsistent, leaving pipeline potential on the table. All the effort and investment risks becoming “a moment in time” rather than a true growth driver.

The solution is simple in theory but harder in practice: ensure every stakeholder group shares the same vision and owns a piece of the outcome.

Building Alignment Early

Alignment can’t be an afterthought; it should start months before the first attendee registers.

At SentinelOne, we begin by involving our executives in shaping the purpose and messaging of major events like OneCon. Their early input ensures consistency between what’s said on stage and what’s being prioritized at the board level. At the same time, we bring in our sales organization to identify target accounts, customer pain points, and the kinds of sessions or experiences that will be most valuable to prospects and partners.

When every group sees their input reflected in the plan, they become champions of the event instead of passive participants.

Creating a Shared Language and Goals

One of the simplest but most effective ways to drive alignment is to set shared success metrics. By creating a unified scorecard—pipeline influence, executive meetings secured, attendee satisfaction—you give all groups a common language. Everyone understands what “winning” looks like, and accountability is spread across teams.

At SentinelOne, we use real-time dashboards that are accessible cross-functionally. They give every team visibility into performance against goals, which creates clarity and prevents misalignment.

Streamlined Processes for Collaboration

Alignment thrives on structure. Without it, even well-intentioned teams drift apart.

That’s where playbooks, templates, and clear communication cadences come in. For our large-scale Tier 1 events, weekly cross-functional syncs and shared project management tools keep marketing, sales, and executives in lockstep.

These processes don’t just reduce chaos—they also build trust. Teams know they won’t be left scrambling or surprised, which makes collaboration smoother.

The Payoff of Alignment

When alignment is done right, the results speak for themselves. Messaging lands with clarity. Executives feel like advocates rather than figureheads. Sales takes ownership of follow-up, leading to stronger pipeline outcomes. And attendees walk away with a seamless experience that reflects the best of the brand.

The difference between a “good event” and a “great event” is rarely the décor or the catering. It’s whether the event feels company-owned, not just marketing-owned.

Final Takeaway

Events are too important to be siloed. They’re not just marketing campaigns—they’re strategic growth drivers. By building cross-functional alignment early, creating a shared language of success, and putting processes in place to keep teams connected, you can transform your events from isolated touchpoints into catalysts for long-term impact.

In 2026 and beyond, the organizations that win in events will be the ones who don’t just execute together, but truly align together. At SentinelOne, that’s what we’re working toward every day—and it’s already reshaping how we think about our global event portfolio.

Bridgette Birdie

Sr. Director of Global Events at Moody’s

Moments to Metrics: Event Strategies That Drive Business Growth

Demonstrating the value of events is no longer optional. It is expected. Event leaders who thrive will design memorable experiences and also clearly demonstrate how they drive business results.

Today’s reality is that creativity gets you noticed, but measurement keeps you funded.

1. Building Alignment Through Measurement

Too often, alignment is spoken about in abstract terms: ‘getting everyone on the same page’, ’let’s make sure we have sales buy-in’, ‘we all agree attending this event is important for the business’. The problem? These phrases sound compelling but fail to define success or how it will be measured.

The truth is, alignment happens when you build a shared measurement framework.

• Measurement becomes the bridge between creative ambition and business accountability.
• When sales, marketing, and leadership agree on the KPIs, they are also agreeing on the purpose of the event.
• A clear framework upfront prevents scope creep and ensures investment is directed toward outcomes everyone values.

2. Move Beyond Vanity Metrics

Headcounts and hashtags may feel gratifying, but they rarely influence boardroom decisions. In 2026, the metrics that matter will be:

• Engagement depth: time spent, repeat attendance, session stickiness.
• Commercial impact: meetings held, deal velocity, influenced pipeline.
• Customer loyalty signals: NPS, sentiment analysis, post-event follow-up.

If your metrics do not change a decision, they are just trivia. The future belongs to event leaders who speak the language of revenue.

3. Empower Teams to Think Like Strategists

The future of events is not just about data; it is about the people interpreting it. To make measurement frameworks stick, teams must be empowered to:

• Ask the right questions: what decisions will this data inform? What are we trying to learn?
• Share insights across silos: events to sales to product to customer success.
• Confidently connect creative execution to commercial outcomes.

Data does not drive transformation – people do. An empowered team turns numbers into narratives and insights into influence.

Looking Ahead

By 2026, events that anchor strategy in measurement, alignment, and empowered teams will not just deliver great experiences, they will deliver business transformation. In the next era, event leaders will cultivate strategic teams that position events as indispensable business drivers – and prove their impact with clarity.

I’m excited for a future where event leaders are recognized not as executors, but as strategic architects of growth.

Alex Casolaro

Director of Credential Sales at SXSW

Events are thriving, but they’re also more competitive than ever. With so many choices for how people spend their time and money—and with brands chasing the same attention—the challenge isn’t demand, it’s standing out.

If you want your event to stand out, you have to know what your X factor is—the thing that makes people say, “I can only get that here.”

For SXSW, that X factor is the mash-up. It’s not just music. It’s not just film. It’s not just tech. It’s the surprising blend of all of it colliding. That’s when the magic happens—when you start your morning in a panel on AI ethics, run into a Grammy winner in the taco line, and end the day at a film premiere sitting beside the director. You can’t script those moments, but you can design the conditions for them.

And figuring out your X factor isn’t about slapping a slogan on a website or crafting some trendy marketing campaigns. It’s about really listening to what your community values. What do they leave talking about? What are the “you had to be there” moments?

Your primary task, before making any event plans for 2026, is to familiarize yourself with this information.

You also can’t do that without data. And I don’t mean perfect, shiny, organized data, because spoiler alert: that doesn’t exist. The numbers are always a little messy or incomplete, but you should use them anyway. At SXSW we look at who’s buying badges and when, what sessions are overflowing, what people are buzzing about online, and then pair that with the usual stuff, like asking attendees and partners what worked and what didn’t.

Even if it’s rough, the data will point you to something. Maybe it shows an audience you weren’t paying attention to, or a topic that’s blowing up faster than expected. If you’re willing to work with what you’ve got instead of waiting for perfect answers, you can make better calls in real time—tweak programming, shift marketing, give sponsors better opportunities.

So my advice for 2026 is straightforward:

• Nail down what makes you different. If your audience can’t sum it up in one line, you have work to do.
• Don’t wait for perfect data. Use what you have, listen to what people are telling you, and adapt as you go.

At the end of the day, the X factor isn’t something you announce—it’s something that people experience. If you get that right, you won’t just win over attention in a crowded market, you’ll keep people coming back!

Anna Monogarova

Director of Field Marketing & Events at Later

How to Build Your 2026 Event Strategy: Later Style

Events in 2026 aren’t just calendar dates. Each one is a mini viral launch, and every touchpoint, including creators, consumers, partners, content, social, and sales, becomes a post, story, or reel. Miss one and the buzz fizzles. Nail them all and you create an experience that connects, inspires, and drives results. The best events engage people, build community, and deliver measurable impact.

Know Your Audience

Think you know your audience? Maybe. But do you really? Understand what drives your creators, consumers, and partners. Design experiences that resonate, gather feedback, and adapt to meet their expectations. When attendees feel seen, they engage, advocate, and amplify your brand.

Humans Before Hype – Experiences that stick

Put people first. Intimate dinners, collabs, creator-led workshops and panels resonate. But the real magic happens offstage. Puppy yoga, city-inspired immersive experiences, or if you really want to wow, even a helicopter ride for a beautiful lunch at St. Tropez. When attendees feel seen and free to share, they engage, post and advocate. Authentic connections drive the content, the community and the lasting impact.

Brand in Action

Sell the vibe, not the thing. Your events should inspire and excite, not push a hard sell. Showcase a lifestyle, a community, a vibe. When it feels real, attendees share it, boosting content and reach naturally.

PSA: Brands + creators: collaborate with people who truly live your values. Real connections always win.

IRL + Digital

Your events should live everywhere: online and in the room. TikTok challenges, livestreams, and interactive filters keep the vibe alive long after the doors close. Create shareable moments and feed that content back into your marketing.

“Surround Sound Strategy”—my favorite term, the one I keep on repeat.

Alignment = Amplification

When Marketing, Sales, Product, Creator, and Content sync, the message hits harder and ROI becomes measurable. Every team adds to the story, every move stacks momentum. Playbooks set the stage, experiments write the story. Wins scale, misses teach, and the story keeps moving. Build. Experiment. Repeat.

Here’s the Play

2026 events = people first, content-driven, impact guaranteed. Know your audience, create experiences that stick, sync your teams, mix IRL + digital, and let creativity take the wheel.

P.S. Have fun, be bold, push boundaries! The best events spark conversation, create content, and leave people wanting more. If they’re not talking, posting, or coming back, it wasn’t an event—it was just a meeting.

Timothy Calder

Associate Director of Global Events at Achievers

Defining Success Before You Choose the Event

In my decade running events, I’ve learned the most expensive mistake isn’t a blown budget—it’s starting without knowing what success looks like.

Before I book a venue, sign a sponsorship, or hire a caterer, I ask: What do we want to happen when it’s over?

Are we sparking industry conversation? Building trust with customers? Driving pipeline? Breaking into a new market? That answer shapes the audience, the format, the budget, and the resources. Skip it, and you risk “let’s just run something”—and hoping for the best.

Guardrails That Keep Strategy Sharp

For my team, there are a few non-negotiables:

• Every event must directly support a defined business outcome.
• The attendee experience should be memorable.
• Budgets must be used efficiently without sacrificing quality.
• Every event should have a built-in experiment so we leave smarter than we arrived.

These guardrails aren’t just philosophical. They decide whether an idea gets a green light or a polite “not this time.”

Event Strategy Requires Math (Not Magic)

With those principles in place, I start with the numbers and work in reverse:

• How much pipeline are we expected to close?
• How many opportunities does that take?
• How many qualified leads need to attend to create those opportunities?
• How many registrations will it take to hit that attendance goal?
• Is our target audience large enough to make those numbers realistic?

Without this math, you’re guessing—and guessing is a quick way to overspend and underdeliver.

A Practical Case Study

After the pandemic, one proposal was to take our product innovations on the road. My budget, lead targets, and pipeline goals were already set. The options were clear:

• Sponsor an industry tradeshow: high visibility, but it would consume the entire year’s budget in one go.
• Host a series of field dinners: more touchpoints, but heavy on resources and high risk if attendance lagged.
• Join a partner’s roadshow: guaranteed audiences and shared costs, but less control over content and experience.

On paper, the partner model was the winner. But paper doesn’t move speakers from city to city or staff a dozen events. Before committing, I had to confirm we had the travel budget, speaker availability, and operational muscle to deliver consistently. That alignment with stakeholders was as critical as the financial model itself.

Test, Learn, Repeat

Once we were in, we treated every stop like a working lab. We refined follow-up strategies. We adjusted presentations to test audience reactions. We experimented with messaging. This agility let us make improvements in real time—something a one-shot, all-in tradeshow investment could never offer.

By the end of the tour, the program wasn’t just a win—it was a repeatable, scalable model with a proven ROI. We knew what worked, where to invest more, and how to fine-tune for the next run.

Saying “No” Is A Strategy Too

Not every “we should do an event” request is the right move. Before I say yes, I ask:

• Is this the best channel for the goal?
• Does the audience care about this message?
• Do we have the resources to execute a compelling experience?
• Will sales commit to outreach and follow-up?

If any answer is no, I redirect the spend to a better channel. Sometimes the boldest move is declining an event.

The Final Takeaway

Events are one tool in the marketing toolbox—not the only one. The winners in 2026 won’t be the biggest or flashiest, but the most precise: clear goals, proper resourcing, and measured against outcomes.

Sarah Kahn

Head of Events, AI Technology and SaaS Industry
Former Senior Director of Events at Cognitiv

If there is one thing I have learned in over a decade of creating experiences for some of fashion and advertising’s most innovative brands, it’s this: the events that stick with people are the ones that feel personal, purposeful, and alive long after the closing remarks.

As we look toward 2026, the bar is higher than ever. Attendees aren’t just comparing your event to others in your industry, they are comparing it to every remarkable and inspiring experience they have had in their lives, from a Taylor Swift concert to a perfectly curated dinner party (both of which I have had the privilege of executing).

Here is how I think about building event strategies that not only meet expectations but redefine them.

1. Every Great Event Starts with a Great Brainstorm

Before budgets, timelines, or vendor calls, start with ideas, lots of them. The best events are born from bold, joy-filled brainstorming. That could mean scrolling Pinterest, revisiting past event decks and photos, exploring LinkedIn for fresh inspiration, or even prompting ChatGPT with your initial concepts.

Step outside your bubble: visit a museum, attend other industry events, or walk a conference floor just to see what catches your eye. Then, gather your team for a true creative brainstorm session. Fill a wall with Post-it notes, sketch wild concepts on a whiteboard, grab colorful markers, and encourage everything to make the board, from ideas that make you chuckle to ones you can’t yet imagine budgeting for.

Somewhere in the middle lies brilliance. One of my favorite events started exactly this way, as a silly comment scribbled on a Post-it. That idea became Neural Networking, our first NYC flagship event that later expanded to Chicago. It blended thought leadership with interactive food and beverage stations, custom swag, and AI-driven branding, and it went on to generate over $1M in revenue. Proof that the best brainstorms aren’t just fun, they’re the launchpad for unforgettable, high-impact events that deliver ROI.

2. Design the Whole Experience, Not Just the Event

The journey starts the moment someone hears about your event, so give yourself enough planning time to include each and every deliverable on your calendar. It is the save-the-date email that sparks curiosity, the interactive landing page, the social teaser that gets shared, the podcast episode previewing the speakers.

It extends well beyond the final session, with content repurposed into bite-sized videos, thought leadership articles, or community discussions that keep the conversation alive. I have seen first-hand how this multiplies ROI.

When you turn panel highlights into social series, distill keynote soundbites into snackable insights, and use post-event surveys to fuel follow-up programming, events become part of a continuous dialogue, not a one-and-done experience.

3. AI Builds the Map, Humans Create the Journey

By 2026, AI will be woven into every stage of the attendee experience, from the moment they register to the final post-event follow-up. AI can instantly craft a personalized agenda, create an outline for speaker prep calls, recommend session titles, activation ideas, or even seating arrangements in real time.

But here is the reality: AI can curate what someone could experience, while human interaction (HI) determines how they feel experiencing it. The warmth of a greeting at check-in, the energy in a speaker’s voice, the serendipity of meeting the right person at the right time—these are things only humans can deliver.

4. Look Past Attendance to True Impact

Attendance is the easiest number to measure and the least informative.

Your events in 2026 should be tracked and measured by:

• Depth of engagement: How long did people stay? Did they participate in networking sessions, activations, or post on their social accounts during the event?
• Follow-up actions: Did they request a meeting, sign up for a newsletter, or share content with colleagues afterward?
• Share of voice: Did your event dominate conversation in your industry either in person or online that week?

To do this well, event strategy needs to be integrated with marketing, sales, product, and data teams from the very beginning. You cannot just measure what happened at the event, you measure what happened because of it.

5. More Fun, More Creativity, More Community (“More Festiv”)

One of the most important lessons that I have learned as I grew in my career is that great events do not just inform or impress, they light people up and connect them in ways they didn’t expect.

In a world where AI is automating so much, the human element becomes the differentiator. That’s why we lean into what we call “More Festiv” at Cognitiv, infusing events with surprise, cultural tie-ins, charitable donations and joy. It might be a rooftop pickleball night at La Peer in West Hollywood, a custom “Find Your Positiv” activation in Grand Central with a charitable donation to Mental Health America, or a signature event series with a panel that pairs trailblazing industry expertise with unexpected branded activations.

The magic happens when attendees feel like they are part of a community, not just a conference. They remember the laughter, the serendipitous conversation, the moment they were delighted. That is the recipe that will have them coming back for more.

The 2026 Mindset

The future of events is not about more sessions, bigger stages, or flashier swag. It is about designing experiences that we would all want to attend ourselves. If you take one thing from above, let it be this: In 2026, a great event should leave your attendees richer in ideas, connections, and perspective than when they arrived.

The brands that win will combine technology, creativity, and community to make every touchpoint unforgettable.

Micro Tips for a Winning 2026 Events Strategy

• Design for before, during, and after: treat your event like an ongoing conversation, not a one-time gathering.
• Use AI for logistics, not for everything: let tech personalize the schedule, but you create the goosebumps!
• Track what really matters: measure engagement depth, post-event actions, and share of voice.
• Make it More Festiv: surprise and delight whenever you can!

Jonathan Kazarian

CEO at Accelevents

Events Are Finally Getting Their Moment

For years, events were treated as a cost center, a “nice-to-have,” or simply a line item in a marketing budget. Today, that mindset is shifting. The reasons are clear. Digital channels are reaching saturation. Inboxes are crowded with AI-generated outreach. Paid ads blend into the scroll. SEO is a long game that benefits incumbents.

Events, on the other hand, put people face to face. They restore the human element that trust is built on. They allow brands to engineer word of mouth by creating venues where authentic conversations happen. In short, events are finally getting the credit they deserve.

Resetting Expectations

Before we talk strategy, let’s clear up a common misconception: events are not magic. A dinner will not generate half a million in pipeline overnight. Webinars are not “check-the-box” activities. Community does not appear just because you rented a booth at a third-party trade show.

Companies set themselves up for disappointment when they confuse events with instant ROI machines. That mindset wrecks teams, burns out event staff, and undermines the potential of one of the most powerful marketing channels we have.

Winning strategies start with aligned expectations. Events create relationships, credibility, and long-term impact. But they require investment, thoughtful design, and coordination across the go-to-market organization.

The New Playbook

So what does a winning strategy look like today? It’s simpler than many leaders think, but it requires discipline.

• Co-host small, high-value gatherings with ecosystem partners, customers, and influencers. These multiply reach and create trust by association.
• Target the right attendees with direct outreach. LinkedIn messages outperform mass email blasts when you want decision-makers in the room.
• Prioritize deep conversation over shallow networking. Attendees remember meaningful discussions, not another PowerPoint deck.
• Be intentional with follow-up. Share a recap of insights or connections made rather than jumping straight into a sales pitch.

This model works because it respects the way humans build trust. It creates a reason for people to advocate for you after the event, which is the real multiplier effect.

Execution Matters

Great strategy without disciplined execution is wasted effort. Winning event leaders focus on details that make attendees feel valued:

• Do not badmouth competitors. It erodes credibility.
• Act like a host, not a salesperson.
• Listen more than you speak, and ask meaningful questions.
• Be generous with introductions during and after the event.
• Celebrate your partners and customers first, before your own brand.

These behaviors might sound small, but they compound into lasting impressions. They also signal to your audience that your company is invested in building real relationships, not just transactions.

Beyond Logistics

Too many organizations still treat events as logistics. Book a venue, send invites, run registration, print signage. That approach misses the point. Events are not a series of tasks. They are an extension of your go-to-market strategy.

That means marketing, sales, and customer success must be aligned onsite. It means events should integrate with your CRM so attribution is clear. It means customer advocacy should be intentionally built into the program design. And it means resourcing properly. You cannot expect one underfunded coordinator to deliver the same results as a fully staffed team with executive support. At Accelevents, we’ve seen first-hand that when events are integrated into CRM and tied into the larger go-to-market motion, attribution becomes clear and teams can actually measure impact. That level of clarity is what elevates events from logistics to strategy.

Experience Is the Differentiator

The content of your sessions and the quality of your logistics matter, but what attendees remember most is the experience. Did they feel welcomed? Did they leave with new insights or relationships? Did the event create stories worth retelling?

Memorable experiences turn into advocacy. Advocacy turns into trust. And trust drives pipeline. It is a progression, not an instant transaction.

The Path Forward

A winning event strategy is not about adding more dates to a calendar. It is about aligning investment, expectations, and execution. It is about giving your team the resources and cross-functional support they need to succeed. And most importantly, it is about remembering that events are not about you, they are about the people you bring together. That belief is what has guided my work at Accelevents.

We built the platform to help companies run events that are not only memorable but measurable, so teams can prove impact and keep investing in what works.

When you focus on building trust, creating memorable experiences, and empowering your community to advocate for you, events stop being just a marketing line item. They become the engine of your brand’s growth.

Steph Pennell

Founder at The Event Critic

Why 2026 Is the Year of Curated Connections

Events are back at the center of go-to-market. Budgets are up, competition is brutal, and expectations? Sky-high.

But here’s the real plot twist: attendees don’t care about your stage as much as they care about who else is in the room.

In 2026, the winning event strategies will put just as much weight on networking, connections, and peer learning as on content. People are craving conversations with others who share their challenges—not another overly polished keynote.

So the marketer’s job isn’t just to fill seats. It’s to curate the right seats. To win, you’ll need to be crystal clear on outcomes, intentional about design, and ruthless about making every dollar count.

Start With Outcomes, Not Logistics

If your first question is, “What venue should we book?” or “How many attendees can we get?” you’re already behind.

The first question should always be: what business outcome are we working for?

• Pipeline creation
• Customer expansion
• Executive engagement
• Community building

Anchor in the “why,” and the “how” becomes obvious. Instead of a fuzzy goal like “brand awareness,” define success as 40 new exec-level relationships in target accounts.

And go deeper: count every onsite 1:1 or demo as a completed sales activity. If your team runs 40 demos with those execs at the event and historically converts 20% into pipeline, you can walk away knowing the event should yield ~8 qualified opportunities.
That’s a metric your CRO actually cares about.

Segment Your Audience Like a Pro

Not all attendees are created equal—and your invites should reflect that. A CMO prospect, a customer advocate, and a booth freebie collector? Totally different playbooks.

Here’s what works:

• High-intent prospects (SQCs): personal outreach, 1:1 meetings, curated dinners.
• ICP-fit, low-intent contacts (MQCs): targeted campaigns, automated plays, compelling sessions.
• Nurture tier: lightweight experiences, brand impressions—or honestly, no invite at all if they don’t serve the goal.

Get this right and your events stop being random acts of marketing. They become an engine for pipeline and relationships.

Make the Audience the Star (and Skip the Hype)

Flashy keynotes and vendor panels? Snooze. What lands now are hard-won lessons from leaders in the trenches—and space for peers to learn from each other.

When curating content, ask yourself:

• What conversations are my buyers already having behind closed doors?
• What access can I give them they can’t get on LinkedIn?
• How do I make them active participants, not passive note-takers?

Tactical moves: swap one long keynote for three punchy 15-minute power talks, build in facilitated roundtables, and weave networking into the agenda (not as an afterthought at happy hour).

Design for Flow, Not Just Agenda

The best events aren’t remembered for their agendas—they’re remembered for how they felt. Attendee energy naturally ebbs and flows, so plan for it.

• Don’t shove registration tables in a corner—create a transition zone that sets the tone.
• Bake in real breaks (and make them networking-friendly).
• Sprinkle in surprise-and-delight moments—a wellness reset, a Dance Dance Revolution machine, a manifestation wall.

It’s these small touches that separate a “solid” event from one people rave about.

Prioritize Speed-to-Impact

Nothing kills event ROI faster than a sluggish sales handoff. I’ve seen teams wait six days to upload notes into the CRM—by then, the energy is gone and so are your leads.

Fix it with a pre-defined workflow:

• Pre-event: align on follow-up ownership and what counts as a hot lead.
• Onsite: make capture dead-simple (no more end-of-day note-dumping).
• Post-event: follow up within 48 hours with context-rich messaging.

Events should accelerate pipeline, not stall it. Speed matters.

P.S.

The best 2026 event strategies won’t be the flashiest. They’ll be the ones anchored in clear goals, smart segmentation, meaningful content, thoughtful design, and disciplined follow-up.

Above all, they’ll deliver what attendees want most: the chance to connect with the right people in the right room.

Josh King

VP of Growth at emc3

The events industry has never been more competitive – or more full of opportunity.

With audience expectations at an all-time high and budgets under constant scrutiny, the events that will stand out in 2026 are those that combine creativity with commercial impact.

At emc3, we believe every successful experience begins with one question: What business outcomes are we trying to achieve? From there, we build out a strategy-first framework that ties every element of content, design, and production back to those objectives.

So, what makes an event strategy truly impactful – and how can you avoid the common pitfalls?
Here are our top tips for building your 2026 events strategy.

Laying Strategic Foundations Through Stakeholder Alignment

Every impactful event starts with clarity: Why are we running this event, and what outcomes are we trying to achieve? Too many brands jump to the “where” and “how” without defining the “why,” which results in fragmented activations that fail to deliver measurable business value.

At emc3, we address this through Strategic Experience Design – a continuous lifecycle that ensures every event connects back to your broader business goals:

• Strategy & Alignment: define objectives, KPIs, and secure stakeholder buy-in
• Content & Storytelling: develop messaging that solves problems and resonates with your audience
• Creative & Experience Design: co-create compelling environments, activations, and journeys around your strategy
• Production & Delivery: execute seamlessly with flawless logistics and innovative technology
• Measurement & Optimisation: capture performance data, feedback, and sustainability metrics to inform and enhance your future campaigns

A critical part of this process is our Strategy Workshops, designed to bring together stakeholders from across events, marketing, sales, brand, finance, product, and procurement to ensure alignment from day one. These workshops set a shared north star by covering:

• Mission, Vision & Purpose Development: articulate your organisation’s core identity and long-term ambition
• Goal Alignment & KPI Frameworks: define success metrics and ensure accountability
• Market, Audience & Competitor Analysis: use data-driven insights to guide planning
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) & Value Proposition: position your event offering for maximum impact
• Strategic Planning & Milestone Mapping: develop a clear roadmap from strategy to execution
• Content & Agenda Optimisation: design experiences that resonate, engage, and inspire
• Marketing & Communications Strategy: build a cohesive narrative and go-to-market plan
• Creative Development: refine your visual identity, storytelling, and experience design
• Event Technology & AI Integration: identify tools and innovations to future-proof your events

By aligning stakeholders early and often, these workshops eliminate ambiguity, build momentum, and ensure everyone is working towards the same vision of success.

Put the Audience at the Centre

The best event strategies are designed for people, not products. That means understanding your target audience’s needs, challenges, and preferences. Use pre-event surveys, focus groups, or social listening to uncover what your community really wants.

Remember: attendees aren’t looking for another sales pitch – they want value. By solving their problems, you earn their trust (and ultimately, their business) – focus on solving, not selling.

Avoid the Common Pitfalls

Even well-intentioned event strategies can fall short. Here are the most common pitfalls we see:

• Lack of clear objectives: without defined KPIs, events risk becoming “just another activation.”
• Misaligned stakeholders: if sales and marketing measure success differently, expect friction. Alignment workshops solve this.
• Quantity over quality: running 20+ events a quarter drains resources and reduces impact. Fewer, better events deliver stronger ROI.
• Neglecting the post-event phase: the event isn’t over when the lights go down. Failing to capitalise on follow-ups, content repurposing, and community-building leaves huge value on the table.

Measure What Matters

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove – or improve – it.”

Measuring success isn’t just about ROI. In 2026, brands will need a holistic framework across:

• Engagement impact: registrations, attrition, dwell time, live polling, app usage
• Business impact: MQLs, SQLs, meetings booked, pipeline influenced, ticket/sponsor sales
• Brand impact: NPS, sentiment, social reach, media coverage, SEO lift
• Content impact: pre- and post-event content views, downloads, shares
• Sustainability impact: carbon footprint, DEI, Accessibility, CSR, wellbeing

By tracking these consistently, you not only justify your spend – you unlock insights to shape your future event portfolio.

Harness the Power of Strategic Storytelling

Behind every great event is a great story. Storytelling humanises brands, creates emotional connections, and makes content memorable. The most effective event stories are:

• Authentic: real voices, unfiltered moments, and diverse perspectives
• Purpose-driven: rooted in values like sustainability, inclusivity, or social impact
• Multisensory: blending sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell for deeper recall
• Heritage-informed: celebrating legacy while painting a vision of the future

Whether it’s a global partner conference or an intimate roadshow, storytelling transforms experiences into legacies.

Personalise the Experience

One-size-fits-all events are over. Today’s attendees expect hyper-personalised experiences:

• Behaviour-based segmentation: tailor content to audience motivations
• Choice-driven formats: multiple tracks, curated networking, audience-driven agendas
• Tech-enabled journeys: AI matchmaking, smart badges, interactive apps
• Multi-channel engagement: pre-event comms, live experience design, post-event nurture

When people feel the event was designed for them, they’re far more likely to engage, remember, and return.

Prioritise Holistic Sustainability

Sustainability isn’t a cost centre, it’s your competitive edge. A Deloitte survey found that 85% of procurement professionals now include ESG in RFP scoring.

But sustainability goes beyond carbon tracking. At emc3, we advocate for a holistic approach that incorporates:

• Environmental impact (carbon, waste, transport)
• DEI and Accessibility
• CSR initiatives
• Mental health and wellbeing

Events are powerful platforms to showcase your values. Use them wisely.

The Event Lifecycle: From Strategy to Sustained Success

The best events aren’t isolated experiences – they’re launchpads for ongoing campaigns. Plan for 30-, 60-, and 90-day follow-ups, repurpose content across channels, and create community touchpoints to sustain momentum.

When you treat events as part of a bigger lifecycle, they evolve from one-off cost centres into engines of measurable, long-term business growth.

Final Thoughts

Building an impactful 2026 events strategy requires more than great production. It demands:

• Strategy-led planning: align objectives, content, creative, and delivery in a continuous lifecycle
• Cross-departmental alignment: get sales, marketing, and leadership on the same page
• Authentic storytelling: craft experiences that resonate on a human level
• Holistic sustainability: design with people and planet in mind
• Data-driven optimisation: measure relentlessly, improve continually

Events have the power to change the world.
By designing them strategically, sustainably, and with your audience at the heart, you can ensure your 2026 event portfolio delivers lasting impact.