How Planners Are Extending Impact to Justify Event Spend
Skift Take
As costs rise, meetings that keep attendees engaged beyond the opening and closing sessions are the ones most likely to win executive buy-in.
Planning an event right now likely means defending every dollar you spend. Event budgets are under increasing scrutiny.
When Skift Meetings surveyed planners in mid-2025 about their biggest concerns, 90% of respondents said they were stressed about rising costs. Fast forward to the continued pricing pressure we’re seeing in 2026, and meeting spend is being evaluated more closely than ever.
So how do you prove that your meeting delivers the kind of value senior leadership expects?
Increasingly, it comes down to what attendees actually retain — not just what they experience on-site.
“Our current macroeconomic climate is so challenging,” Michael Faulkner, general manager, United Kingdom, at ITA Group, said in a new report from Skift Meetings and ITA Group. “If you're bringing people together, you want retention and recall of information three, six, nine months down the line.”
What does that kind of retention look like in practice?
At Australia Post, for example, a year-round engagement strategy led to 89% approval of a new operating model among 65,000 employees. For another organization, it drove a 30% increase in sales revenue following a user conference. Results like these help make the case for event investment — even as costs like A/V, room rates, and F&B continue to rise.
Download the report to see how a 365-day approach can turn retention into measurable ROI and secure budget approvals for your next event.
