116 Event Statistics Shaping the Industry in 2025

• Research shows the global events industry market is expected to reach a revenue of 2.1 trillion by the year 2032, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% from 2023 to 2032. 

• 70% of meeting professionals in North America expect their meeting spend to increase in 2025 compared with 72% in 2024. 

• It’s no surprise, then, that 74% of meeting professionals feel optimistic about the state of events in 2025. 

• 58% of events teams plan to host more small in-person events (fewer than 200 attendees). 

Corporate event planning industry statistics: 

• The global corporate events market was valued $325 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to nearly $600 billion by 2029—a CAGR of 10.6%. Dig deeper with a look into the Global Events Industry Market Report and Forecast 2025-2034. 

• Almost 70% of corporate events organized in North America in 2025 are expected to take place in person. 

• According to 54% of business event professionals, incentive and special events will have the highest increases in attendee costs in 2025, followed closely by product launches and senior leadership meetings. 

Concerns for industry professionals to watch: 

• Recent data indicates concerns about economic recession remain. According to a survey, 46% of CEOs globally identified an economic downturn or recession as a high-impact issue for 2025. 

• The most pressing near-term concerns for exhibition industry professionals include the state of the economy (23%) and geopolitical challenges (16%). 

• Perhaps because of these increasing concerns related to global economies and geopolitical challenges, 75% of meeting professionals say risk and compliance are very or extremely important to creating their strategies. 

Still, the event industry is demonstrating a high level of adaptability, underscoring its resilience in a fast-moving world. 

• 52% of planners expect to organize more meetings in 2025 compared to 2024. 

• 32% of planners report being more optimistic about their meetings and events programs, which remains higher than those who are feeling less optimistic (23%). 

• 79% of planners say their or their clients’ organizations view events as significantly more valuable or somewhat more valuable than other sales, marketing, or business development initiatives. 

• Nearly 9 out of 10 planners expect in-person onsite and offsite meetings to increase in 2025. 

• In-person events remain the most popular option for attendees, with 8 in 10 attendees stating they prefer in-person events. 

• A study from early 2024 showed that event professionals planned to participate in an average of 42.4 regional trade shows throughout the year, a slight decrease from 46 the year before. That being said, this constitutes a minor slowdown from massive upward trajectory based on attendance of an average of less than 30 regional trade shows from 2019-2023. 

• 87% of attendees find that discovering new products is an essential aspect to in-person attendance. And a striking 65% of consumers say they better understand a product or service when they experience it through live events. 

The preference for in-person events reflects a collective yearning for genuine connections, networking opportunities, and the unique vibrancy that live experiences bring. That said, planners are struggling with rising costs and constrained budgets and doing all they can to get more bang for their buck: 

• Planners say cost is the most important factor in choosing their event venue, and budget constraints come in at a close second. 

• It makes sense, then, why 97% of planners say they would switch from a preferred venue to a second choice for the sake of cost savings of 20% or less. 

• However, in stark contrast, 94% of planners also say they’re willing to pay more to book with a preferred hotel or venue, which means venue-planner relationships play a critical role in the venue selection process. 

• The largest expense items for planners include food and beverage (73%), audiovisual needs (66%), and venue (29%). 

• 26% of planners say that a poor attendee experience would deter them from returning to a venue in the future.  

• 49% of planners are sourcing special event venues—a 32% increase from 2023. This change is not only due to the ability to improve the attendee experience (34%), but also as a strategy to cut costs, with 37% of planners citing competitive pricing as their reason for booking unique venues. 

What’s more, planners are experiencing many difficulties when working with hotels and venues: 

• 65% of planners say food and beverage costs are higher than expected, and 61% say higher accommodation rates are an issue when sourcing. 

• 80% of planners say the ideal request for proposal (RFP) response time from a hotel or venue is under four days, but 39% of planners say hotels are slow to respond to RFPs. 

• This highlights another challenge planners are facing: venue staffing shortages. 32% of planners believe staffing shortages are to blame for slower RFP response times. 

• 23% of planners say understanding how an event space will meet with needs is their biggest sourcing challenge, while 21% say researching a venue’s specs, capabilities, and amenities is most difficult. 

While in-person is the preferred format for many events, there are many instances when virtual events simply make more sense, leading to a steady growth in the virtual events market, from virtual trade shows to webinars. 

• 21% of events worldwide were planned as virtual-only events for 2025. 

• 63% of event organizers plan to invest more in virtual events in 2025. 

• The virtual events global market has continued to grow rapidly in recent years, up to $236.69 billion in 2025 from $193.45 billion in 2024. What’s more, virtual events are expected to continue to grow to $537.18 billion by 2029, with a CAGR of 22.7%. 

• This upward trend includes several different types of virtual events, with some expecting larger growth than others. Virtual trade shows, for instance, are expected to grow in coming years, with a CAGR of 14.3% from 2024 to 2032, reaching a value of $171.6 billion by 2032. 

• Virtual product launches and online training events are also set to increase market share, reaching $52.2 billion and $26.6 billion, respectively, by 2032. These increases highlight the need to reach larger audiences more affordably. 

Of course, not all virtual events are created equal, and those who choose to tune in have lofty expectations. What’s more, the event type and goals for the event dictate what works best when presenting online content.

If learning is the primary objective of your online content, whether that means product demonstrations, industry insight webinars, trainings, or otherwise, here are some important insights to consider: 

• 83% of people prefer to consume instructional or informational content by watching a video, which means virtual events are a great way to engage your audience. 

• In fact, about 50% of the videos people watch include informal and formal training videos, live streams, and webinars, with 66% saying they watch at least one instructional or informational video per week. 

Of course, there are limits to how long your audience wants to watch video content: 

• While 10-19-minute-long informational videos are preferred by 24% of people, and another 17% prefer videos 20-60 minutes long, there’s still a definite preference for shorter videos, with 58% of people preferring videos less than 10 minutes long. For virtual events, this might mean breaking up informational content with Q&As, live polling, and other engagement features. 

• This is an important consideration, as 35% of people choose which videos they watch based on whether the video length is acceptable. 

The good news? When seeking product-specific knowledge, learning a new skill for a job, or generally increasing knowledge about a topic, audiences look to longer video content to meet their needs: 

• 67% of people would watch a video over 60 minutes long to learn a new skill or ability to use at their job, or increase their knowledge on a certain topic. 

So, how can you keep your audience engaged for the duration of your virtual event? Here are a few key elements to consider, with content at the heart of it all: 

• When asked what keeps someone engaged in watching online video content, three key elements led by a wide margin: 57% of people said ease of following along, 55% said relatable and current content, and 51% said a knowledgeable and engaging speaker. 

• 42% of people ranked professional graphics as one of the top three content characteristics that’s most important in a video. Infographics, lower-thirds, and text overlays can add to the production value, making a simple presentation look more professional and engaging. 

• Clearly outlining what the audience can expect from your content is crucial to keeping them engaged, as 25% of people will stop watching a video if it does not have the information they expected. That means clear content descriptions and getting to the point quickly. 

• Another 22% of people will stop watching a video they find boring or uninteresting, so make sure you’re stepping up your engagement strategies to meet growing expectations. 

As the events industry continues to evolve, the biggest changes are due in large part to the event technology that makes it all possible. 

• Research shows the global event management software market size was valued at $14.37 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $107.28 billion by the end of 2037, exhibiting a CAGR of 17.7% within that period. 

• 89% of businesses that use event technology say it saves them around 200 hours per year. 

• 91.1% of event professionals said technical know-how, including proficiency in using AI, is a critical future skill for corporate event planners. 

• Data analysis was also identified as a critical skill for 66.1% of event professionals. While most event organizers aren’t data experts, there are ways to use AI and event reporting tools to help. 

• About one-quarter of large enterprises spend over $250,000 per year and may use six or more event technology solutions, and the majority plan to maintain their current event tech spending despite budgetary constraints. 

• AI ranks as the top technology meeting professionals plan to use during their events (50%), followed by mobile event apps (41%). 

• With resource and time limitations pushing planners to do more with less, 36% of planners spend more time using technology to streamline venue sourcing, 49% to review meeting space diagrams and specifications, and 43% to negotiate with venues. 

• The most sought-after digital services, according to 2023 data, are technologies for event analytics and data collection, with 52% of respondents expressing interest in such tools.

• 95% of frequent business travelers believe AI can enhance their travel experience. The top benefits expected include added convenience (44%), cost efficiencies (43%), and streamlined expense management (41%). 

• 51% of B2B companies say they use their partners’ marketing channels to help drive event registrations. 

• 74% of B2B event organizers say they see a positive ROI at least 6 months after a virtual event. 

• In 2024, the value of the B2B trade show market in the United States reached an estimated 15.78 billion U.S. dollars surpassing previous projections. 

• 35% of B2B marketers believe their organizations’ investment in in-person events will increase in 2025. 

• 77% of B2B customers are more likely to engage with a company when they are offered personalized experiences. 

• This makes sense, and organizations are doing all they can to take the pulse of their customers and clients, with 82% of top-performing B2B marketers saying their success is mostly due to understanding their audience. 

• 73% of event marketers reported receiving budget increases in 2023. A remarkable increase compared to 38% in 2021 and 35% in 2022.  

• 77% of marketers say events are the most effective marketing channel for their organizations. 

• According to another study, marketers ranked in-person events (52%) and webinars (51%) as the most effective distribution channels, followed by email (42%), social media (42%), blog (41%), and email newsletters (37%). 

• Despite this, each of the channels that trailed in-person events and webinars in effectiveness are used far more regularly by marketers. Social media took top billing, used by 89% of marketers in the last 12 months, followed by blogs (84%), email newsletters (71%), and emails (63%). In comparison, in-person events and webinars were used by only 55% of B2B marketers. 

More and more, organizations are embracing event-led growth (ELG) as a major marketing strategy: 

• Marketers have good reason to believe in the power of events if they can make the investment: those who implemented ELG strategies were 75% more likely than those who didn’t to see a growth rate over 50% in 2023. 

• What’s more, 93% of marketers using ELG said they are meeting their companies’ revenue and/or pipeline goals, compared to 76% of those who do not use ELG. 

• Similarly, 86% of marketers using ELG were able to directly attribute events to their company revenue, where only 64% of those not using ELG could say the same. 

• 53% of companies who do not use ELG say their events are underperforming as a direct result. 

• All these ELG stats in mind, it makes sense that 44% of marketers also said they planned to implement ELG strategies in 2024. 

What makes marketers’ jobs a bit easier when it comes to taking an ELG approach? 

• Event marketers say the most effective ways to drive virtual event registration are leveraging an event website (80%), email (76%), and social media (60%). 

• 49% of marketers say programmatic advertising is a large contributor to driving event registrations. 

• 92% of marketers believe event software makes it easier for them to achieve business outcomes. 

• 70.6% of event organizers are looking for marketing automation integrations when selecting a virtual event platform. 

• That said, only one in five enterprise-level organizations have integrated their event platform with their marketing technology. 

While event tech and integrations can be immensely helpful for marketers, where does AI fit into the mix? 

• 65% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) worldwide believe generative AI will never replace human imagination, and the same number say their customers are willing to pay a premium for content created by humans. 

• What’s more, 49% of CMOs said GenAI cannot create ads that move people—a critical requirement for effective marketing content. 

• 49% of marketers say audience engagement is the biggest contributing factor to hosting a successful event. 

• Event professionals believe the top three elements that contribute to a memorable attendee experience include content (38%), venue (27%), and destination (25%). 

• It makes sense, then, that the most important priorities identified by event organizers were content creation (5/5), attendee engagement (4.16/5), budget management (3.99/5), and venue selection (3.73/5). 

• Attendees want to leave an event feeling like they traded their time for something valuable, and 83% of planners say entertainment service providers are the key to a successful event. 

• Planners are also focusing more on individual attendees' needs, crafting smaller, more exclusive, and boutique-style events that deliver an exclusive and premium experience for attendees. In 2023, approximately one in five businesses expressed a plan to increase spending on VIP customer events in 2023 and beyond. 

• By year-end 2024, global experiential marketing spending was forecasted to reach $128.3 billion, up 10.5% from 2023. 

Event sponsorship plays a key role in the success of many events due to added revenue and other less tangible benefits. 

• 65% of event organizers accept sponsorships for their events. 

• 87% of those organizing large trade shows opt for virtual event platforms that have virtual sponsorship booth capabilities. 

• 91% of event organizers take on sponsors for their event sessions to generate extra sponsorship revenue. 

• 53% of organizations spend more money on sponsoring and attending events compared to hosting events (47%). 

• The sponsorship segment of the global events industry is poised for significant growth in the next few years, with a projected CAGR of 12.1% from 2021 to 2028. What’s more, sponsorship is expected to continue dominating the global events revenue share through 2035. 

This segment is poised to play a central role in the event landscape as organizations continue to recognize the potential of both sponsoring events and partnering with sponsors when hosting events.