Bigger events are better – at least that’s what the research is telling us again this week.
The latest Five Events Worlds news scan found event organisers are leaning more towards large, mega events and away from small, intimate gatherings. Across Australia and New Zealand, the gap between mega events and small events was widest at 40 points. Globally, this ‘Gathering Gap’ was 30 points, and over in the US it was just 16 points.
What does all that mean? Well, a few examples from the news before we land the point.
First, in Australia, the trade press lit up with stories about a confirmed delegate-spend pipeline of $1 billion, as reported by Spice News. That’s a lot of money in any country. Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s trade press was busy with big conference contracts of its own.
Then over in Europe, IFA Berlin reported it had 240,000 attendees, up 9 per cent (now that’s a crowd I wouldn’t mind addressing from the stage!).
Finally, in the US, things get complicated. The trade media is reporting on US cities losing meeting contracts through to 2031 due to political issues, Chicago hotel strikes, Gen Z rejecting the value proposition of traditional conferences and persistent worries about AI enabling fraud.
Value is everything
This week’s news is a reminder that we can’t lose focus on event outcomes, or the value created for attendees and sponsors. Scale without intentional design is the fastest way to lose value.
And by intentional design, I’m talking about truly understanding why people are in your room – and then working backwards from that insight.
Think about it for a moment. Most of the events I attend as a speaker and MC are conferences run by technology vendors or B2B conference organisers. These are organisations that are very clear about why people are in the room. They’re existing and future customers, or business leaders who have very real, complex problems that need solving urgently.
You just can’t organise an event in that context without truly understanding what those problems are and, of course, being in a position to offer solutions and ways forward. If you organise an event for this audience simply because you have products to push, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Your event format and messaging must always flex and change in response to audience feedback and marketplace signals.
A real example
In my past life as CEO at ImpactInstitute, I worked with the team who organise and run the Disability Expo program – Australia’s largest and longest-running expo for the disability community, with around 50,000 attendees each year.
Two quick examples stand out. First, after every three-day event, the team meets for a comprehensive debrief. Surveys are studied, and exhibitor and attendee feedback is analysed. Then decisions are made to change or refine the systems, processes and experiences that support the next event on the calendar.
It’s a structural, or system-led, approach to value creation that has served the organisation, attendees and sponsors really well.
But let’s go a step further with an example of how that process led to intentional design. One of the pieces of feedback we received was that the bathroom facilities were not sufficient for people with very high mobility needs. A person in a wheelchair with significant mobility issues sometimes needs help to be lifted out of the chair – and that can be an injury risk for a support person. In response, we hired a lift designed for this very task.
That might feel like a lot of expense (it was) for just one person, but that’s not the point. Other attendees who see that lift in the bathroom might not use it, but they very quickly pick up a clear signal – this event is inclusive. We think about people of all abilities, and we’ll go out of our way to help the one.
That’s, in my view, intentional design par excellence.
What’s your design ethos?
Clearly this isn’t rocket science. Gathering audience feedback isn’t hard – acting on it in meaningful ways is where things get tricky. Budgets, risk/reward assessments and resourcing issues all get in the way.
But as a challenge, I’d say this. What stories do you want your attendees sharing at scale? Everyone’s got a smartphone, and they’re not afraid to use it. Regardless of whether your event is big or small, design is everything.
Learn more about our Five Events Worlds research project at The Story Code Co. and subscribe to our free newsletter for fortnightly insights.