There are 52 events on Skift Meetings’ 2025 calendar of industry shows, many of which are put on by associations. Dozens of CVBs and tourist boards host familiarization trips (fams), and suppliers from Marriott to Cvent to Conference Direct hold conferences and customer events. On top of that are all the hosted buyer events organized by the industry media. (Skift Meetings holds its Skift Meetings Forum every September in New York City.)
Betsy Gonzalez, AVP, manager, events & sponsorships at FM, estimates she gets at least three to five invites per week. “It seems like everyone wants a piece of everyone and it’s just impossible,” said Tavar James, vice president of global events at Forrester.
Suppliers are inundated too, says Joe Fijol, principal of Ethos Event Collective. So he decided to do an informal survey on LinkedIn, asking “Do you believe there are too many industry events that not only consume your time, but your financial resources?” Out of 150 respondents, 88% said yes.
Unqualified Buyers
“The problem that I am seeing is that at a number of these events you have the same planners and the same hoteliers and DMCs,” Fijol said. “Vetting attendees is critical. Do they have the ‘right’ business? This is going to be more important for all of the sponsors that are paying hefty prices to attend.”
There’s also a subset of planner attendees who treat fams and hosted buyer/customer events like vacations, or who inflate their meeting history to qualify to attend industry events.
James reports being invited to events where he had to decline because of other obligations, then never heard from the hosts again. “So, it raises the question, was this invite genuine or did you just need to fill a spot?
“Then, there are some who invite me every time they have a new opportunity, even if I had to decline or cancel last time — which, to me, speaks to their genuine desire to have me there and the value they think I can bring to the experience.”
Why Planners Say Yes
Busy work schedules mean planners must plan around their own events. For Agnès Canonica, event marketing manager at Amplity, the summer is the best time; April to June and mid-September to mid-December are too busy.
The last fam she attended was in Indianapolis, and it was a home run. “It hit all that I was looking for: It was the right season, a quick 3 days/2 nights, we received industry certification, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of an incredible art festival (Butter), the education was relevant, and we did some networking while painting our own kicks,” she said. “That destination is always at the top of my mind when an opportunity to place business comes up.”
For Angie Ahrens, head of global events at Intuit Mailchimp, the reasons she attends events have changed as her career has advanced. “Earlier in my career, I was open to attending more as a learning opportunity — to be a sponge and gain as much knowledge as I could.”
Now, she is looking for specific things. “I want to be with senior planners or people working in an industry similar to mine for cross-collaboration. Suppliers are important as well, but they need to be the destinations or businesses that are things I would use in my business specifically.”
Karen Heslin, senior manager of global travel & events at Dynatrace, typically only attends events that are relevant to what she’s currently working on, “whether that is seeing hotels, building relationships, or looking for best practices. I just attended a Marriott event in Boston for their convention hotels, which was a perfect fit for what I am currently sourcing.”
Quality Education Counts
The educational program can be the tipping point in attracting top planners. Gonzalez considers the dates, length of the trip, and the audience, “but most important is the quality of the speakers and their relevance to me and my team and what we face on a daily basis.”
Planners who’ve been attending industry events for years point to a certain amount of repetition in the education. “I look at the programs, and if I think it’s just repeating the same old content I’ve heard before, I skip!” said Clare Melton, interim event lead, EMEA and APAC, at Advent.
The education matters to suppliers, too. “It comes down to asking: Will this event give me the right connections, education, or opportunities that justify the time away from clients and family?” said January Cantrell, account executive, client experience, M2 Events Group. “I try to remind myself that being intentional is more impactful than being everywhere.”
