Why CMOs Need to Rethink Event Strategies

Despite a temporary disruption of service, aka a global pandemic, event marketing has been a predictable and valuable channel for marketers. From large conferences to smaller roadshows, seminars and forums, physical events have been a reliable source of lead generation and a strong business driver across almost every industry.  

The arrival of virtual technologies did not slow that growth. And despite the interruption of a global pandemic, In-person events are as popular as ever and continue to be a key channel(s) for marketing teams to drive growth. 

That said, physical events are costly, time consuming and use a lot of resources across marketing and sales organizations. Maximizing ROI is critical. Major improvements in data collection are helping, but it’s not enough. This is the age of “do more with less” and every channel needs to deliver much more value, including event marketing.  

And that’s where everything is about to change. 

And no, we are not about to say that everything is going permanently digital. Virtual event technology has gotten good, really good. Many companies are running immersive, interactive digital events that reach more people and deliver more value for less investment. And that’s great, but many companies, and industries, continue to value face-to-face opportunities and are not about to replace physical events.  

People still want to be with other people. In some distant future, when there is a real “metaverse” of some kind, and everyone lives online lives as manifestations of their physical lives, maybe then, events will reside in those virtual spaces. But we are not there yet. If Meta with all their riches and expertise can’t build and market a metaverse, then it’s probably still a long way off.  

Making events, “always on”

That said, there is a merging of physical and digital that stands to dramatically deliver much more value for event marketers, and that is turning all events into “always on” experiences, delivering far greater reach and scale.  

The idea of an event simply being a moment-in-time with a fixed audience size will soon be antiquated. Your event may be physical, but a digital manifestation of that experience can continue to live on and drive engagement long after the physical event shuts its doors.  

There are endless variations of this idea. Some conferences film every single session which can then be housed in a virtual environment for audiences to access anytime, from anywhere. Some events only capture important keynote presentations and/or other core sessions, to simply deliver smaller digital versions of a larger event. Conversely, a single individual session can also turn into standalone webinars that are later run live and then that become on-demand asset that can continue to be promoted. What’s more, AI can be applied to session recordings to add translation and closed captioning, or even AI generated voice over, to create regional versions of these events. The possibilities are limitless.   

And marketing budgets are already being moved in this direction. According to IDC’s 2026 Sponsor Survey of 150 senior marketers: 

• • 58% expect their event budgets to increase in 2026 
  • 57% of marketers chose hybrid events as their top format 

CMOs need to integrate skill sets to boost event performance 

Adding digital elements to a physical event requires a different type of expertise. Some forward-thinking event marketers are already embracing those skill sets, but in many cases that expertise already exists in other parts of a marketing department. For instance, demand generation teams are already supporting webinars and other digital experiences, and often already have contracts with digital engagement platform vendors that can support creating on-demand event experiences.  

For companies that are highly invested in events, adding digital skillsets will be essential to expanding event programs. But for many teams, simply converging skill sets that may already exists across your organization may be enough to support the expansion of your event programs. This requires new thinking when building teams to drive your event programs.  

Physical vs. digital? Why choose? 

The argument over whether, or when, digital events will replace physical events is missing the point; we can have both. Creating digital versions of physical events, even in abbreviated formats, dramatically increases the reach and scale of your best presentations and content, delivering a huge boost to event ROI.  

In this new marketing reality, why limit events to a place and time, when we can be everywhere, all the time.