As AI and emerging trends continue to shape events, one audience is often overlooked: attendees over 60. In this interview, Alistair Turner, author of the IBTM World Trends Report, explains why this group is a powerhouse of potential and how inclusion, AI, and intentional event design can come together to create more meaningful experiences.
Key takeaways
- Aging audiences are a growing opportunity: Attendees over 60 are digitally savvy, affluent, and engaged. Designing events with this audience in mind unlocks untapped potential for attendance, sponsorship, and long-term impact.
- Inclusion drives relevance: Age diversity is often overlooked, but inclusive planning teams and age-conscious design ensure events resonate across generations and avoid outdated stereotypes.
- Human insight is essential in the AI era: AI can support personalization and efficiency, but meaningful experiences still rely on human understanding, empathy, and intentional design.
The fastest-growing event audience is older, not younger
For Turner, “The most important audience development facing events between now and 2030 isn’t emerging, it’s already here. The biggest demographic shift globally is the aging population, and the speed of that shift is what should concern planners.”
Globally, there are already over 1.1 billion people aged 60+, a figure projected to rise to around 1.4 billion by 2030. “While the industry talks about Gen Alpha as a future opportunity, the over-60s audience is amplifying right now,” says Turner.
Despite this, most events still treat older delegates as a logistical consideration rather than a strategic one. Add more seating. Improve signage. Increase accessibility. Move on. Turner’s challenge is more ambitious than that.
Because the over-60s delegate of 2026 is not who the industry still imagines them to be. Rather than doddering old folk, they’re digitally knowledgeable and information-literate, comfortable with technology and remote working.
“They arrive early and stay later. They often bring their partners and are willing to extend their trips. And most of all, they spend money. For destinations and sponsors, that’s powerful. For planners, it’s an opportunity hiding in plain sight.”
Using age for event planning is outdated
“Old isn’t old anymore.”
Turner is very clear about the shifts in attitudes towards age taking place in society. We now live at a time where being in your forties is no longer considered “over the hill”. These days, increasing life expectancies and better healthcare mean that our sixties are no longer our winding-down years.
With retirement ages moving toward 70, and likely beyond, a 60-year-old attendee today may well be in mid-career or even starting a new one. They could be a digital nomad, shifting into consulting, mentoring, or investing. They’re also more likely than ever to be actively learning and adapting.
This isn’t just about longevity, it’s about relevance. Turner argues that age is now a poor proxy for mindset, and that events relying on generational stereotypes are designing for a world that no longer exists.
If you only segment audiences purely by generation, you may miss those factors that drive us more deeply, such as motivation, purpose, values, and worldview. And when that happens, experiences flatten into generic content that doesn’t truly land with anyone.
Inclusive events need an inclusive planning team
The report links the aging audience directly to DEI, calling out something the industry rarely addresses head-on: age is one of the last acceptable blind spots for discrimination. If you want a more inclusive audience, you need a more inclusive organizing team. If only the young are shaping the agenda, the tone, or the experience, it’ll show. If empathy is missing, stereotypes creep in.
This year’s IBTM World Trends Report frames the aging population not as a challenge to be managed, but as an opportunity to future-proof events through more inclusive design.
Don’t overclaim the power of your event
One of the other themes that Turner returns to is the industry’s tendency to over-claim impact. Simply calling an event “immersive” doesn’t make it meaningful, any more than handing out lanyards creates transformation on its own.
Turner uses the phrase “imagination poverty” to describe an industry that sometimes mistakes activity for impact, and surface-level creativity for genuine change.
Transformation, he argues, only happens when people feel seen, challenged, and emotionally engaged. That’s what leads attendees to leave changed, even slightly. The only way to get there is to start with the audience, and design with intent.
That’s particularly true when audiences span decades in age, experience, and expectation.
“AI slop” is why events must stay human
Referencing both the IBTM report and wider cultural backlash, Turner warns that lazy use of AI leads to “slop”, content that is technically competent but emotionally empty. In the events environment, the warning is stark. Our industry’s superpower is not automation, it’s human connection.
Turner summarizes it neatly: “The future isn’t AI replacing event professionals. The future is a combination of AI, plus demographic understanding, plus experienced organizers. Remove the human translator, and what’s left is efficient, but hollow.”
Alistair’s core insights
Turner’s research can be used to plug the gaps that he’s identified in the following ways:
1. Aging audiences bring opportunities
Older delegates are a growing, affluent, digitally savvy, and time-rich audience. Planning based solely on age stereotypes misses opportunity.
Immediate action: Audit your attendee data today. Map out how your content, networking, and logistics cater to the preferences of older delegates. For authentic insights, involve older professionals in planning.
2. Inclusion is how we grow
Diversity isn’t just about race, gender, or culture. Age is increasingly a critical factor in audience engagement and workforce retention.
Immediate action: Ensure your organizing team represents the demographics you want to attract. Review agendas, content, and accessibility features with an age-inclusive lens.
3. Content needs to do more than entertain
Transformational experiences only happen when attendees feel seen, challenged, and engaged, not just entertained.
Immediate action: Audit all content. Does each piece speak to multiple generational mindsets? Include formats and energy levels that allow participants of different ages and backgrounds to engage meaningfully.
4. Make sure you understand your audience
Delegates of all ages need to feel seen, from registration to sessions to social activities. If they feel invisible, even exceptional logistics fail.
Immediate action: Map the attendee journey. Include elements like tailored signage, accessibility, captioning, and room layouts that allow all delegates to participate fully.
5. Human oversight is essential with AI
AI can amplify creative output, but it can also generate generic content when used without context or human oversight.
Immediate action: Use AI to support ideation and personalization, not to replace strategy or empathy. Test outputs for emotional intelligence and delegate relevance before rolling out.
6. Get your core message in place at the start
Events often fail because logistics come first; content and ideas come second. Starting with an agenda or venue alone risks disengagement.
Immediate action: Define the core message, narrative, or transformational goal before selecting dates or locations. Build decisions around this central idea.
Understanding your audience is the key to event success
Turner’s message isn’t pessimistic. It is a warning delivered with optimism and passion.
The events that succeed in 2026 will be shaped by a deeper understanding of lived experience, shifting expectations, and the realities attendees bring with them.
The greater risk is not falling behind on technology or trends, but it’s when planning becomes lazy, formulaic, or generic in how audiences are understood and served. When that happens, an event doesn’t just feel out of date, it feels irrelevant.
Al Turner is Managing Director of EI8HT PR & Marketing, a specialist research, marketing and creative agency specialising in the event and experience industry. He has over 20 years’ experience in PR, working closely with consumer trend agencies, trade associations as well as international government.
For more insights into the forces shaping 2026, download the latest Cvent Trends Report.
