Events are the most effective marketing channel available to marketers right now. The evidence is strong: our own 2026 Event-Led Growth Report found that 81% of marketers tie their events to business growth, and 82% expect their total marketing budget to rise over the year ahead.
The reason behind such confidence is straightforward: nothing else creates the kind of genuine human connection that builds trust, accelerates deals, and grows lasting customer relationships.
Strategies like event-led growth (ELG) matter more than ever. Audiences are harder to reach, attention is harder to hold, and the pressure on marketing to demonstrate real commercial impact has never been greater. In that environment, how events are run has to evolve.
Rather than running events as isolated campaign moments, ELG treats them as a connected, intentional program of human experiences designed to deepen relationships, build pipeline, and drive long-term customer value.
Teams using this approach consistently and significantly outperform their peers. The data shows why.
Key takeaways
- Events are the top-ranked marketing channel. 68% of marketers say events are their most effective marketing channel, and 83% report that events generate a steady flow of revenue.
- Events are a direct line to pipeline and revenue. 72% of marketers say deals close faster when prospects attend events, and 74% can trace pipeline directly to event touchpoints, making events one of the most measurable channels available.
- Event-Led Growth (ELG) is the approach separating top performers from the rest. Among marketers using event-led growth, 88% say events generate steady revenue and 46% say events drove more than 40% of their closed-won deals in 2025.
Marketers are moving from scale to significance
In 2024, companies planned an average of 29 events. In 2025, that number dropped to 16, bringing event volume closer to pre-pandemic levels. At first glance, that might look like a setback. But the 1,000+ marketers surveyed for the 2026 Event-led Growth Report suggest the decline is intentional.
Faced with rising supplier costs, C-suite pressures to prove ROI, and customer expectations that demand high-quality, engaging experiences, marketers have become more selective about where they invest time, budget, and attention.
Events tied to business outcomes, purpose and proven results don’t need to be flashy or fill the largest conference halls. They now need to deliver on what really matters to the company's CFO and CMO.
Importantly, performance has not declined alongside volume. In fact:
- 68% of marketers say events are their most effective marketing channel
- 83% say events generate a steady flow of revenue
- 71% hit their revenue goals in every quarter of 2025
Marketers are moving away from more events and toward better events; experiences designed to create deeper engagement, stronger relationships, and more meaningful interactions.
Community is becoming the centerpiece of event strategy
How marketers design their events speaks volumes about where organizations see the value of getting face-to-face with their customers.
According to the report, 55% say they prioritize community-building elements such as peer groups and meetups when planning events.
At the same time:
- 49% prioritize content and speaker quality
- 42% prioritize elevating customer voices in programming
- 40% prioritize venue selection and venue partnerships that support stronger attendee experiences
Marketers are embracing event design that focuses on participation and relevance and prioritizing customers over prospects and pipeline as the primary audience across the most common event formats.
It’s a move that places greater importance on retention and community building, as demonstrated in the table below, which shows how marketers rank the purpose of each event in their programs.
The highest-performing events prioritize interaction
Events evolving from campaign moments into relationship ecosystems is a trend that also influences which formats marketers opt for to deliver the strongest return on investment (ROI).
Hands-on and interactive formats outpace traditional panels and roundtables, while the top three formats are:
- Workshops (51%)
- Dinners (43%)
- Experiential pop-ups and activations (41%)
These smaller, more interactive formats create environments where attendees actively participate rather than passively consume content, fostering more opportunities for conversation, collaboration, and engagement.
Smaller, more immersive environments make it easier for attendees to build relationships and engage directly with brands and peers. That matters because audiences expect experiences that feel personalized and participatory.
The events that stand out are the ones where people feel involved, included, and part of something meaningful. In that environment, connection becomes a differentiator.
Events drive measurable business outcomes
Marketers need to make the case that events build face-to-face connections that deliver measurable business impact.
According to our data:
- 72% say deals close faster when prospects attend events
- 74% can directly trace pipeline creation back to event touchpoints
- 49% attribute at least 21% of their total pipeline directly to event activity
If you're making the argument internally for event investment or deciding where to allocate budget, this is the data that changes the conversation.
It shows that events are a direct lever for pipeline and revenue and they have evolved beyond awareness tactics or standalone brand campaigns, becoming integrated growth channels that support every stage of the buyer and customer journey.
ELG outperforms on effectiveness, revenue, and success
ELG treats events as a connected system designed to drive retention and customer acquisition, allowing organizations to span beyond marketing.
Our report found that among the 53% of marketers currently using an ELG approach:
- 47% ranked events as their most effective marketing channel
- 88% said events generate steady revenue
- 46% said events drove more than 40% of their closed-won deals in 2025
ELG is effective because it creates connected programs where relationships can develop more quickly, trust can deepen more naturally, and communities can form around shared experiences.
In a market increasingly shaped by digital overload and declining attention spans, human connection itself is becoming more valuable.
Integrated tech that powers connection is key
Marketers need visibility into what audiences respond to, which formats drive retention, and how engagement translates into pipeline and revenue over time.
They rely on technology-driven tools such as engagement scoring, reporting and integrations to understand what drives engagement, measure impact, and create more personalized experiences.
When we asked marketers about their event technology usage, they said:
- 71% use an event platform integrated with the rest of their marketing technology stack
- Centralized event technology helps deliver more consistent experiences, according to 74%
- Better technology would make it easier to repeat what works, say 76%
The goal is to build a trusted data foundation that enables marketing teams to replicate what works and prove the value of every event.
At the same time, fragmentation remains a major challenge:
- 64% of marketers use multiple event technology platforms
- 57% rely on disconnected systems
- 56% struggle with data quality
These operational gaps make it harder for marketers to understand which experiences genuinely drive engagement and long-term value. As event programs become more relationship-focused, the need to unify event data and processes within a single tool grows.
What event strategies look like in 2026
As we’ve seen, events are more intentional, and marketers recognize that trust is not built through scale alone. It is built through experiences that make people feel seen, involved, and connected to something larger than the event itself.
That has practical implications for how events are being designed in 2026. The most effective event strategies prioritize:
- Participation over passive attendance
- Interaction over presentation
- Community over scale and reach
- Long-term relationships over short-term lead capture
Scale may still matter to many marketers, but scale without connection is being phased out. The strongest event programs moving forward will be those that make people feel connected to ideas, to communities, and to each other. The events that build the most trust are also the ones driving the strongest business outcomes.
The 2026 Event-Led Growth Report goes deeper — covering how top-performing teams structure their event programs, which formats drive the strongest results, and the benchmarks you can use to evaluate your own performance. If you're shaping your events strategy for the year ahead, it's the data worth having. Get the 2026 Event-Led Growth Report here.
