Scale has long been one of the main indicators of success in the events industry. More speakers, more parallel sessions, larger exhibition areas and denser programmes are often used to demonstrate the value of an event. But as events grow, another challenge is becoming more visible. Attendees have one resource that is not expanding at the same pace: their attention.
A congress offering hundreds of sessions may create a strong promise of content. But from the attendee’s perspective, too many simultaneous options can increase decision fatigue rather than value. Research conducted by the PCMA Foundation and Steelcase Event Experiences found that an abundance of choices can, in some cases, overwhelm attendees and make decision-making more difficult.
As Programmes Grow, Events Begin Competing With Themselves
If an event offers three strong sessions, a networking gathering and a sponsor activation at the same time, attendees cannot benefit from all of them. At that point, the event is no longer competing only with rival events outside the venue. Different parts of its own programme begin competing with one another. The problem is not offering more content. The problem begins when the volume of content exceeds the attendee’s capacity to process it.
Field research conducted by PCMA and Steelcase at Convening Leaders also suggests that filling a programme with hundreds of speakers and sessions is not always ideal for attendees. One of the key findings was that participants learn not only from speakers on stage, but also from one another, creating a need for intentional white space within the programme.
This raises a simple but important question in event design: Does every empty space really need to be filled?
Networking Requires Time Before It Requires Space
“Networking” is one of the most frequently used terms in the industry. But networking is not an outcome that appears automatically. When attendees are directed from one session to another from early morning until evening, the time available to build meaningful new connections becomes increasingly limited. PCMA’s event design research also suggests that simply creating physical networking areas is not enough; programmes need to leave enough space for those connections to happen.
This creates a small paradox for organisers. Adding more content may appear to create more value, while continuously intensifying the programme can weaken one of the most important benefits of live events: face-to-face connection. Industry research also shows that attendees frequently cite networking as a reason to return to events, while many organising teams still do not actively manage the networking experience.
More Choice Does Not Always Mean More Value
The challenge facing the events industry may not be a lack of content, but how to manage an abundance of it. Large programmes do not necessarily need to become smaller. But designing experiences around different attendee needs, rather than presenting the same programme to everyone, is becoming increasingly important. PCMA’s event design research also points to personalisation and the ability for attendees to build their own journeys more easily as important elements of memorable experiences.
Technology and artificial intelligence could have a more meaningful role here. At an event with hundreds of sessions, showing attendees even more options may be less valuable than recommending a smaller, more relevant programme based on their industry, role and reason for attending. The success of future event technology may depend less on producing more content and more on reducing the noise around existing content.
Session Counts May No Longer Be Enough to Measure Success
One of the issues the events industry may need to think about most carefully in the coming years is how success is measured. The number of sessions delivered, speakers on stage or registrations received will remain important indicators. But none of these measures alone shows how much value an attendee actually takes away from the event.
The true success of an event may ultimately be measured not by how many presentations an attendee attended, but by how many ideas they remember, how many meaningful connections they made and which experiences they are still talking about several days later. Events will continue to grow. But the industry’s new scarce resource may not be square metres. It may be attendee attention.
