Eventbrite recently released The Pulse Report: 2018 Event Industry Trends, which aggregates survey data from 1,000 event professionals within the United States and Canada. Approximately one third of the respondents organize business or professional events.

The report, positioned as a resource for any event professional looking for a deep understanding of the events landscape, covers a wide range of event types (conferences, festivals, fundraisers, concerts, charities and more), from all types of organizations and planners. As such, for corporate planners that data is most applicable to smaller firms and events with commensurately small budgets.

The Pulse Report includes information on:

• Tools event professionals consider the most and least effective
• Event budget allocations
• Investment demographics for 2018
• Industry challenges and trends

Revenue generation was the primary reason reported for most events to be held – particularly those in the B2C arena of music, arts and entertainment – closely followed by education and training, then fundraising and charitable donations.

Katie Sawyer, a content marketing manager at Eventbrite, said that the data helps both event experts and novices identify common challenges.  

“The Pulse Report gives event professionals insight about whether (and where) they should and shouldn't invest their time - and money,” said Sawyer.

Not surprisingly, social media and technology are top-of-mind for nearly all survey respondents. While social media is now seen as a “must have” communication channel, live streaming, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are at the forefront of the technologies seen as having the most potential for increased use in 2018.

Marketing and promotion accounts for forty-three percent of all event budget allocation. Yet eighty-nine percent of respondents list reaching new attendees and securing speakers and sponsors among their top challenges – across all event sizes and audience segments.

“While the events industry is booming, event marketing isn’t all easy,” Sawyer commented.

This may be in part due to the small sizes of most event teams. Forty-five percent of survey-takers said their event teams had from two to five employees, and twenty-eight percent reported that events were managed by just one person.

The larger the team, the larger the budget and events: of the eight percent of respondents with annual budgets over $30,000 per year, forty-five percent have teams of five or more and nearly half expect their budgets to increase for 2018.  

To download your free copy of the Eventbrite 2018 Pulse Report, go HERE.

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