Traditionally events have dominated the B2B marketing mix thanks to their role in lead generation and maintaining relationships with clients.

However, as the marketing landscape has grown more complicated with the rise of AI and social media, both the role of events and how marketers are expected to justify events spending has dramatically shifted.

According to Marketing Week’s State of B2B Marketing data, 60.8% of marketers are investing in events and experiential, which is more than long-term brand campaigns, social, PR, advertising or sponsorships.

In large organisations the figure rises to nearly 70%. Even SMEs, where budgets and headcount are constrained, rank events just behind social as their most significant brand investment.

Events should be integrated elements of broader campaigns. Brand impact should be measured at the campaign level.

Conrad Mills, Forrester

Measurement, alignment and discipline – rather than enthusiasm – are key issues. Principal analyst at Forrester, Conrad Mills, sees the same pattern repeatedly.

“A lot of organisations treat events primarily as demand generation tools rather than brand building tools,” he says.

“When they say the primary objective is brand and awareness, they haven’t defined what that means. They don’t measure it from a brand perspective. They fall back on proxy metrics like media coverage or social engagement.”

Marketers often skip the essential first step in event planning, says Mills, who explains that if you’re trying to build awareness or shift perceptions that should inform everything from design, activation, communications and targeting.

Most organisations don’t start there, he suggests, so they can’t evaluate whether the event delivered what they hoped it would.

69% of B2B events budgets flat or down, according to research

Budget constraints have had an impact on event spending. Mills refers to data pulled from Forrester’s The Global State of B2B Events Report for 2025, which found two-thirds of organisations have a flat or declining events budget.

“The average cost to host an attendee has increased by around 100% in four years. When marketing asks for more money, the business says: ‘Show us why,’” he states.

In response, B2B firms are restructuring their event mix.

“There’s been a big shift toward smaller events,” Mills says. “About 60% of organisations plan to run more small events this year. Far fewer plan to increase large events. Small events are clearer in purpose. You know exactly who’s coming and you know what you want to achieve.”

However, even with smaller events, impact can still get misinterpreted. Large events get treated as isolated campaigns, says Mills, with marketers trying to measure them as if they’re the “single reason” someone signs a deal.

“It either massively overstates the value or massively understates it. Events should be integrated elements of broader campaigns. Brand impact should be measured at the campaign level,” he argues.

Mills also notes structural challenges within organisations.

“A lot of events happen because an executive wants them, or sales insists on showing up somewhere. Marketing or the event team then gets relegated to logistics,” he says.

“They’re not empowered to choose the right mix or set the right objectives. Then, after the event, they’re asked to justify a spend they didn’t strategically control.”

Relationship building

Of course, events can deliver a level of intimacy, emotional recognition and storytelling digital channels cannot replicate. Marketers also know the traditional model of big booths and keynote stages that result in a handful of leads is no longer enough.

At Asana, interim CMO Jess Cobarras describes events as fundamental to navigating what she calls “a world of AI-driven noise.”

“Events are more important than ever,” she says. “People have so much information at their fingertips. Brand building and deep relationship building are what differentiate you now. Events are not a random tactic for us. They’re an entire portfolio that maps to every stage of the funnel.”

That portfolio is deliberate. At the top, Asana has third-party events aimed at brand building and delivering pipeline. Then proprietary summits, characterised as “launchpads, media moments, analyst moments”. There are executive programmes that provide sales with a reason to call senior buyers, as well as user events for hands-on adoption and sharing best practice.

“When you look at all of those together, events become a core part of how we go to market,” says Cobarras.

If an event feels like a badging exercise, where any logo could be swapped with ours, that’s not for us.

Amanda Zafiris, Canva

Asana’s role as a software company is also reflected in its events mix. While securing large accounts and nurturing those relationships is obviously crucial, it is also important to educate the average user in how the software works.

“For executive programming we look at engagement from top accounts and how that feeds into open opportunities. For user events we focus on adoption, expansion, ambassadors and community,” she explains.

Cobarras describes the planning process as designed around which personas the brand is targeting.

“Every year I sit down with our sales leaders globally. We talk about personas by region. We talk about verticals,” she says.

“In Japan, it’s CIOs and technical audiences. In Germany, manufacturing. In the US, partnerships. Third-party events only make sense if they align with that.”

According to Cobarras, the goal is to build an entire campaign (with all its elements) around the event.

“It’s not just a booth. It’s speaking, PR, social, executive dinners, pre-event sales alignment, post-event SDR [sales development representative] sequencing. We run it like a business,” she explains.

Over half of B2B brands ‘fail to understand’ marketing’s potential beyond lead gen

Measurement is equally multifaceted. For Asana, third-party events focus on pipeline, leads, conversion and media. For events the company hosts, the goal is getting prospects in the room, deal-size uplift, velocity and earned media. After the firm’s recent summit in Europe, deal sizes grew 30% among engaged accounts, which Cobarras describes as a metric the business understands.

However, she acknowledges the limits of the numbers.

“Some of the value is brand and that’s not always what a CFO wants to hear,” she says. “We measure unaided brand awareness. We measure consideration. Twice a year we ask whether seeing us at an event makes people more likely to consider Asana. It’s not perfect, but events add up. And we can show that cumulatively.”

AI complicates the landscape. Cobarras explains website traffic has “decreased dramatically” as people use AI tools to get information without clicking through. That said, the traffic Asana does receive is “more qualified”.

“When we wrap brand campaigns around events, we see clear spikes – billboards, out-of-home, social. During our London summit we had huge tube ads. The impact was visible in the numbers,” she adds.

Brand and audience fit

For Canva, its positioning as fun and easy-to-use design software has shaped how the brand approaches events.

“Everything we do has to feel creative and integrated,” says head of marketing for Europe, Amanda Zafiris. “Our platform is about making design accessible. We want that surprise-and-delight feeling to come through. If we show up at an event, it has to feel uniquely Canva.”

This means Canva opts out of more opportunities than it accepts.

“We get so much inbound for booth sponsorships, but we can’t be everywhere,” she says. “Not in a way that matches our bar. If an event feels like a badging exercise, where any logo could be swapped with ours, that’s not for us. When we invest, we want an experience people will talk about, post about, remember.”

Events are not a random tactic for us. They’re an entire portfolio that maps to every stage of the funnel.

Jess Cobarras, Asana

This kind of approach led to a partnership with festival SXSW London in June. As it was the event’s first year in London there was room for Canva to shape the partnership.

“The audience alignment was perfect. Our HQ in Hoxton Square became one of the venues. We had speakers in our space. We delivered the keynote. We built a print station people loved. Canva was present in every touchpoint,” Zafiris explains.

Measurement mirrors this focus on resonance. Audience fit is the first metric for Canva, followed by conversations, reactions, organic social and earned reach.

“If people are posting about the experience, we’ve done our job. With owned events, we use pre- and post-event surveys to understand satisfaction and what people felt,” she says.

Embedded within regional teams, Canva’s events and experiential experts are primed to understand business goals.

“We bring them in early, set clear objectives, set realistic budgets and ask the same questions we’d ask of any marketing investment: What do we want people to think, feel and do?” Zafiris explains.

Data and alignment

In Mills’ view, alignment is the biggest gap in most organisations. Event teams often work in silos when they need to partner with sales and customer teams, he suggests. 

“You want everyone aligned on targets, audiences and goals. You also need the data to bring into those conversations. If you have that, you’re treated differently,” Mills argues.

Data is where he sees the largest missed opportunity. Events produce “extraordinary amounts of data”, he explains, pointing to one Forrester client which generated more than 650,000 “engagement signals” from a single conference.

“But three-quarters of organisations haven’t integrated their event platform with their CRM or marketing automation. That data stays locked away. Sales can’t use it. The wider business can’t use it. It’s a huge waste,” he notes.

Audience expectations are shifting just as quickly. Pre-pandemic, learning was the top reason people attended events. Now, Mills says, the primary motivation is interacting and engaging with others.

“If all you want is education, you can do that in a virtual environment. If people take the time to attend in person, they want meaningful connection,” he suggests.

That means rethinking formats. Guided group work, roundtables and “facilitated networking” are good ideas, says Mills, with stage content available but not the dominant format. He also advises B2B brands to invest in technology that helps people find others with shared interests and not “leave it to chance”.

Smaller companies may lack the budgets for advanced technology, but Mills insists they still have opportunities.

“Smaller organisations with lower-profile brands will be more reliant on third-party events, but they can rethink their stand design,” he says. “Create space for real conversations. Make it easier for attendees to engage. Move beyond demos and giveaways. You don’t need a huge budget to create a better experience.”

We will continue reporting from our State of B2B Marketing survey over the coming weeks. Read our coverage so far here.