2026 is shaping up to be the year businesses rediscover the power of shaking hands, clinking glasses, and actually meeting their prospects in person. Don’t take my word for it – nearly 80% of event organizers say in-person events are their most effective marketing channel. And it’s not just organizers: almost 90% of marketers call events critical for business growth.
In other words, if you’re still addicted to automated email campaigns and LinkedIn spam, you’re missing the boat. As the CEO and Founder of both Eventful (an event management platform) and RevOps Co-op (the largest RevOps community on Earth, where we hosted 100+ webinars and 50+ in-person meetups last year), I see firsthand that live events aren’t just back – they never left, and they’re more important than ever.
The Great In-Person Comeback (Backed by Real Stats)
First, let’s cut through the hype: in-person events are roaring back. In fact, 82% of event attendees say they prefer attending events in-person. (Shocker: humans like being around other humans. Who knew?) People are Zoom-fatigued and craving real connections. 65% of consumers even say they understand a product better after experiencing it at a live event – because seeing is believing, and perhaps a few free cocktails don’t hurt either.
The business case is just as strong. 66% of marketers who ran events in multiple formats said their in-person events drove the most revenue in 2024. Read that again. When two-thirds of marketers see the best ROI from live events, it’s a glaring sign. Companies seem to agree – 53% of organizations had plans to increase their event budgets for 2025. Why? Because event leads convert. Over half of marketers say at least 50% of their closed deals last year originated from events, and 72% report that prospects close faster after attending an event. You can’t get that kind of impact from a banner ad or yet another “personalized” email drip – no matter what the AI “gurus” tell you on LinkedIn.
Not Just for Big Budgets: Small Teams, Big Events
“But we’re a startup, we can’t afford a flashy conference!” – I hear this a lot. And it’s dead wrong. You don’t need a Coachella-sized budget to pull off highly effective in-person events. In fact, 58% of event teams plan to host more small in-person events (under 200 people) going forward. Intimate is in. At RevOps Co-op, we’ve run incredible small-group dinners in New York City on a scrappy $2,000 budget. That’s not a typo. It can be done – and it can have a huge impact.
Ditch the Booth – Build an Experience Instead
One of my biggest pet peeves: companies that equate “in-person marketing” with “buying a booth at MegaConference X and praying for leads.” Newsflash: just showing up with a booth and a bowl of free swag isn’t a strategy; it’s wishful thinking. In-person events only pay off if you put in the work — you can’t just write a check for a trade show booth and pray people show up.
A smarter approach? Run your own sidecar events. If you know your target customers will be at Big Industry Conference™ in June, skip the $50K booth (and the stress of praying someone actually stops by). Instead, invest a fraction of that in a private dinner, roundtable, or happy hour near the conference. It’s your party, so you control the guest list, the conversation, the vibe – and you actually get quality time with people. We do this at RevOps Co-op all the time: rather than fight for attention on a noisy expo floor for something like Dreamforce or INBOUND, we invite the who’s-who of our industry to drinks or dinner down the street. The result? Real conversations and real relationships.
These fringe events (call them “field events,” “satellite events,” whatever you want) let you piggyback on the big conference’s draw without the big cost. Plus, attendees will remember your dinner at that cool speakeasy long after they’ve forgotten booth #427 in the convention center. The trust and goodwill you build in a relaxed setting are priceless – actually, scratch that, they’re measurable. 77% of consumers say their trust in a brand increases after interacting with it at a live event. Try getting that kind of trust boost via a booth pitch or a marketing email.
Sounds great right? But not sure how to actually execute on a sidecar event like that? Here is what you need to think through:
How to Execute a Sidecar Event (Step-by-Step)
- Select your city and date(s) – might sound obvious, but you need to know where you want to host your event and when in order to start you search
- Use AI to do venue research – skip the endless hours of Google research, and use your favorite AI assistant (e.g. ChatGPT, etc.) to do the research for you. Be sure to use the “deep research” capabilities and describe the venue you are looking for, including all the key characteristics (e.g. your $ budget, does it need to be walking distance from a landmark, requires A/V support, etc.)
- Select your venue – after you get your venue recommendations from AI, you’ll need to request a proposal from those venues, which you can easily do by navigating to their website (they typically have a private dining or events section) and completing a simple form fill.
- Create a registration page – this isn’t a college house party where you can just tell people what you’re doing and expect them to show up. You need a public landing page for your event, and can do this with a variety of free products or your current CMS or website provider. This should be a public URL so you can share it with people and they can register for the event, which also makes it easy for you to track who has expressed interest in your event.
- Send invitations – you should invite current customers, prospects in pipeline and net new prospects. Use whatever channels you have available and make the most sense for you – things like LinkedIn, e-mail, texting, etc. and always include a link to your event page in your invites.
- You need more registrants than you have available space – trust me on this, if you have 15 seats available but only have 15 registrants, I guarantee you will not have a full table. There are always going to be no-shows, and while show rates vary, you can generally expect a 50%-65% show rate for small group in-person events.
- Sweat the details and over communicate – when it comes to in-person events, the little things make the biggest difference. Over communicate with your registrants on event details (e.g. date and time of event, location, etc.) and think about all the little things that people typically take for granted when they attend events – like where people can park, who to ask for upon check in with the host, having printed name tags (so folks don’t need to write their own), etc. These are the things that will deliver the best experience.
- Keep the momentum going post-event – your work doesn’t stop when the event is over! Keep that momentum going by following up with those where you had great conversations – keep those conversations going with a focus on how you can help them. The more you give, the more you’ll get. And focus your efforts on the highest quality engagements you had – this will deliver the most value for you (and for them).
Go Where Others Aren’t: The Small City Hack
Another myth: you have to host events in San Francisco, New York, or another over-saturated (and overpriced) metro to be taken seriously. Guess what? Your buyers live everywhere (especially in this “remote-first” world) – and many of them are starved for in-person events because everyone else ignores “secondary” markets. There’s huge opportunity in going where your competitors aren’t.
If your ideal customers are in cities like Minneapolis, Charlotte or San Diego, plan an event there. When you’re the company that actually shows up in Omaha or Cleveland, you instantly stand out.
I’ve seen it firsthand – host a casual meetup in an off-the-radar city and people will flock to it, simply because nobody else does. You’ll earn goodwill and brand recall that’s hard to beat. And here’s a bonus: everything from venues to catering tends to cost less outside the usual hotzones. Smaller city = smaller bill. Big impact for a lower cost.
Quality Over Quantity (Escaping the Digital Noise)
With all the AI-generated slop flooding inboxes and social feeds, digital marketing has become a broken firehose – lots of volume, very little substance. Everyone’s getting numb to the cold emails and LinkedIn spam (I bet you ignored at least five automated messages today alone). This is where in-person events give you a serious edge: you’re trading quantity for quality. Think about it: 10,000 random people might glance at an online ad, but 20 hand-picked prospects fully engaged at your event will beat that any day.
In-person interactions cut through the noise because they’re inherently exclusive and high-touch. The person who takes the time to show up in person is invested – they’re giving you their precious time and attention. And because the setting is face-to-face, you’ll hold that attention far better than you ever will over Zoom or email. No surprise that 80% of attendees say in-person events are the most trusted way to learn about new products and services. When someone can experience your solution live, ask questions, and swap stories with peers, you’ve got their attention and their trust.
Keep in mind: 15 engaged people in a room can beat a 10,000-person email campaign that never sees the light of day. It’s the classic quality-over-quantity play.
Play the Long Game: Relationships > Instant Sales
Let’s set realistic expectations though: hosting an event is not the same as flipping on a “Closed Won” switch. Don’t treat an in-person dinner like it’s a demo request form. The people you meet at events aren’t all ready to buy on the spot – and that’s okay. The real value of in-person is accelerating relationships. You’re moving prospects along the trust curve much faster than any email nurture sequence ever could. After an event, your follow-up calls aren’t cold outreach – they’re picking up a conversation.
One pro tip: mix your customers and prospects at the same event. Happy customers will often do the selling for you (nothing beats hearing, “Oh, we use Eventful and it’s been great,” from a peer over dinner). Prospects hear real stories from people like them, customers feel like VIP ambassadors, and you barely have to say a word.
Another way to elevate your event: add a learning component. For example, host a short panel or workshop before the dinner or happy hour. Pick a hot topic related to your industry (and by extension, your product) and have a couple of customers or experts share their insights. No one wants a disguised sales pitch, so keep it genuinely educational and thought-provoking – attendees will love that (after all, 70% say in-person events are the best for professional learning).
Plus, when the panel wraps and everyone moves to mingling, they already have a conversation starter. The discussion naturally flows to the challenges and solutions highlighted – which (surprise) happen to be what your product tackles. And with customers sprinkled among the crowd, you get organic mini-testimonials popping up. That kind of peer-to-peer influence is a secret sauce no email campaign can replicate.
The Bottom Line
In-person events aren’t just back for 2026 – they’re becoming a must-have in your go-to-market playbook. The companies that win will be the ones willing to get out from behind the keyboard and actually show up where their audience is. Sure, it’s a lot of work – but it pays off in real relationships, faster sales, and pipeline that won’t vanish with the next forecast update.
So go ahead – close the marketing automation dashboard for a minute and sketch out an event idea. Maybe it’s a 15-person dinner in a city you normally ignore, or a customer panel plus happy hour alongside your industry’s big conference. Whatever it is, commit to it and make it awesome. Your future self (the one hitting quota thanks to a network of real human connections) will thank you. And hey, if you need help making it happen without pulling your hair out – you know where to find me (I’ll be the guy running Eventful, doing my damnedest to make events easier for all of us).
In 2026, the marketing leaders aren’t the ones with the best automation – they’re the ones out there shaking hands and creating memorable experiences. Don’t get left behind staring at your screen. See you out on the road!
