Event management platform RainFocus hosted its annual flagship event, RainFocus INSIGHT, in Salt Lake City Feb. 18–20. Nearly 450 event, marketing, and technology professionals attended the three-day event, which featured 75-plus educational sessions, demos of brand-new platform features, and the annual Innovation Awards ceremony. 

The attendance figure marked a 20% increase overall year over year—fitting in a year when INSIGHT took on an “Elevating Relationships” theme. “Even more exciting was the 40% growth in attendance from our customer and prospect base, the fastest-growing segment,” said Rodney Hart, vice president of events for RainFocus.  

In the spirit of growth, the fourth-annual INSIGHT “welcomed seven brand-new sponsors, reinforcing our commitment to bringing attendees fresh, innovative solutions to enhance their event experience,” Hart added, noting that in the event also saw an increase in sponsor activations this year. 

Those sponsors didn’t activate alongside exhibitors on a traditional trade show floor, but rather at the “INSIGHT Campus,” which Hart said “serves as the ‘heartbeat’ of the event” considering it also plays host to networking-focused mealtimes as well as a kickoff reception. 

The event took place at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City, as it has for the past three years. Hart noted that the hotel’s 60,000 square feet of dedicated venue space has been the perfect home for INSIGHT not only for its photo-worthy mountain views and proximity to RainFocus’s headquarters in Lehi, Utah, but also because Salt Lake City is “a growing tech hub known as the ‘Silicon Slopes.’” The nickname “reflects the spirit of innovation that drives RainFocus forward,” Hart added. 

The biggest changes the event has gone through have been its “evolution in both scale and impact,” according to Hart, who noted that there was 50% more content than in previous years—both live and on demand. Though the overall INSIGHT theme was “Elevating Relationships”— “because it’s at the core of every event,” Hart said—recurring themes during main-stage programming included AI integration, data-driven decision making, and personalized attendee experiences. 

Keep in mind that INSIGHT was exclusively virtual in 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic. “Since returning in person in 2023, we've significantly expanded the depth and breadth of our content,” Hart explained, adding that most of the expansion was the result of feedback from past attendees. 

That feedback was showcased during the inaugural INSIGHT Premiere, the newest addition to INSIGHT’s virtual programming (that also includes INSIGHT Preparation just before the in-person event, and INSIGHT Encore, which takes place just after), which took place in November 2024 to kick off the 2025 INSIGHT agenda.  

During INSIGHT Premiere, attendee feedback from more than 80 respondents across six industries “fueled our content and the industry trends we covered,” Hart said. Among the key takeaways: The number of respondents who said they use generative AI had more than doubled since the previous year’s survey, and one-third of respondents said they expected to receive a higher budget for 2025. Aside from sharing those survey results publicly for the first time, the latest INSIGHT Premiere featured a panel discussion led RainFocus CMO Ashleigh Cook. 

Don’t miss any event-related news: Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter HERE, listen to our latest podcast HERE and engage with us on LinkedIn!