Right now, event planners design experiences without considering attendees’ end goals – and that’s setting everyone up for failure. Different attendees desire different outcomes at different types of events – and attendees are telling us how to optimize for impact.

Based on decades of extensive research that sought to uncover why people attend events, Freeman has boiled it down to four primary reasons: to have fun, to learn, to network, and to do business.

These goals translate to eXperience, Networking, Learning, and Commerce, and it’s these underlying motivators that unlock the true drivers we must focus on. So we developed a framework for planning, executing, and evaluating events based on these drivers. This year we took a deeper look at why and when attendees get the most value from each event element.

This report offers an inside look at experience, learning, networking, and commerce insights and shows you how to execute and assess your event with those insights as your guide.

Experience: To have fun and feel emotionally fulfilled.

Learning: To be Inspired and discover something new

Networking: Socialise with peers and develop relationships with attendees/partners

Commerce: Build awareness, introduce products/services, generate leads and complete sales.

1. Executive Summary
2. Attendees of all Kinds
3. Attendee Priorities must drive results
4. In-person attendance trends looking promising
5. Keeping up with the business environment
6. Events solve top professional challenges
7. So, what now?