By Warwick Davies, The Event Mechanic!

Most event leaders assume their biggest challenges are attendance and exhibitor/sponsor revenue. They aren’t.

Those are surface indicators. The more meaningful shift is happening underneath, in the economics of events themselves: who creates value, who captures it, and how success is actually measured.

For years, the model was straightforward: Organizers built platforms. Attendees came for connections and learning. Exhibitors invested for visibility, access to buyers, and measurable business outcomes. Growth followed scale.

That model is now under pressure — not because interest in events has declined, but because the assumptions that once defined value no longer hold in the same way.

Attendance Is No Longer a Proxy for Value
Attendance still matters, but it’s no longer a reliable measure of impact. Large numbers can mask shallow engagement, limited business outcomes, and declining exhibitor confidence. A full room doesn’t automatically translate into relevance, influence, or return.

As audiences become more selective with their time, relevance matters more than volume. Events that continue to equate success with headcount often discover the gap too late.

Scale No Longer Guarantees Stability
Scale once provided security. Bigger events meant more revenue and more margin for error. Today, scale often introduces risk.

Larger events carry higher fixed costs, longer sales cycles, and significant contractual commitments, from room blocks to convention center agreements, all of which increase pressure to justify results. Exhibitors still rely on events for demand, but they are far more selective about where they invest and far less patient when the return isn’t obvious.

What once looked like momentum can quickly become inertia.

Engagement Isn’t the Same as Loyalty
Engagement is easy to generate. Loyalty is not.

Attendees can participate, download content, or walk the floor without forming any lasting connection to the event itself. Engagement metrics often look healthy even when long-term commitment is weakening.

At the same time, content is abundant, and access is no longer exclusive. Events now compete not just with other events, but with everything else demanding attention.

The Quiet Risk Many Events Face
Most events don’t fail suddenly. They drift.

Exhibitor contracts become harder to renew. Growth slows. Programming expands to compensate. Costs rise. The experience becomes more complex but not more valuable.

This isn’t an execution problem. It’s a model problem.

The Question Worth Asking
The most important question for event leaders today isn’t how to optimize what they already have. It’s this: Does your event’s model still reflect how value is actually created today?

That’s not a tactical question. It’s a strategic one. And it’s increasingly the difference between events that adapt — and those that slowly lose relevance without quite knowing why.

If this question resonates, it’s likely worth a broader conversation. The most productive discussions right now aren’t about tools or tactics. They’re about how events evolve to remain economically meaningful in a very different landscape.

Warwick Davies is the founder of The Event Mechanic!, an advisory practice that helps event and association leaders improve profitability, strengthen audience value, and adapt their business models to a changing market. He is also the founder of The Annabelle Project, a nonprofit initiative that supports college students from underrepresented backgrounds as they enter the events profession.