Are your 2026 events built for the reality planners are facing this year?
Event satisfaction dropped 8% from 2024 to 2025, budgets remain tight for two-thirds of teams, and attendee behavior is changing quicker than many expected.
Even so, the broader events industry is heading in a strong direction. It’s projected to grow at a 13.5% CAGR through 2028, more than doubling from $886.99 billion in 2020 to $2.19 trillion.
When you understand what’s driving those changes, planning stops feeling like guesswork.
Here’s what’s worth paying attention to this year, and how to respond.
What are the top 2026 event trends?
Below is a breakdown of the six core trends we’re seeing, along with insights from GoGather’s event planning experts and affiliate partner network.
- Experience-first event design: How immersive, personalized, and destination-driven experiences are becoming the backbone of high-impact events.
- Sharper, smaller content formats: Why long sessions are fading and how targeted, story-driven content keeps attendees engaged.
- Attendee behavior is reshaping agendas: What late registrations, shorter attention spans, and wellness priorities mean for your schedule design.
- Technology, AI, and the data that matters: Where planners are actually using AI today, and where the next big opportunity sits.
- Production that balances tech and emotion: How thoughtful A/V and theatrical elements can create a cohesive event narrative.
- Logistics, operations & planning strategy: How to navigate tight markets, complex contracts, rising costs, and heavier workloads without burning out your team.
Let’s dive in!
1. Experience-first event design.
Attendees no longer want to sit through long sessions, eat banquet chicken, and stand around awkwardly at cocktail hours. They want experiences that feel personal and aligned with the destination they traveled to.
The strongest ROI in 2026 comes from thoughtful experience design, not throwing more stuff at your agenda.
What’s trending in 2026 event design?
- Build-your-own gifting (custom hats, tote bags, patch bars, t-shirt presses)
- Shareable activations (headshot stations, fun brand moments, live art)
- Hands-on experiences (F1 simulators, VR zones, media rooms for content creation, personal stylists)
- Late-night lounges instead of stiff receptions
- Outdoor events and destination-inspired gatherings
- Give-back activities tailored to your host city
Why does event design matter?
Experience design is about value. Attendees want their time onsite to mean something, both professionally and personally.
As Valentina Perez, a Project Manager at GoGather, explains:
“Attendees love experiences that feel tailored, not generic.”
And from Dave Wanger, President of GoGather:
“More people are asking for experiences that tie into their company’s actual purpose.”
If your 2026 events don’t offer moments people will talk about later, they risk blending into everything else.
2. Sharper, smaller, more useful content formats.
Large general sessions with 90-minute slideshows are losing their shine.
Attendees want content that is tactical, specific to their role, and so helpful they couldn’t have found it on Google or ChatGPT.
What’s trending in content formats?
- Shorter sessions with more engaging delivery
- Panel discussions featuring practitioners instead of polished executives
- Peer-to-peer group formats
- Live problem-solving with attendee input
- Theater-style, interview-style, or “fireside” formats
- Interactive moments (live polling, questions, breakouts within sessions)
The hidden shift with event content.
Attendees expect content that directly applies to them.
“Attendees have a lower threshold for content that feels too generic. They’re not here [at your event] for abstract ideas. They want real answers to real challenges.” – Katie Moser Stuck, Director of Business Development and Marketing at GoGather
How can you apply this to your events?
- Building persona-specific tracks
- Curating speakers who actually “do the work”
- Crafting session topics around real use cases
- Tightening the volume of content, not expanding it
Less content is okay, but make sure it's better content.
3. Attendee behavior is reshaping how agendas work.
Attendees behave differently than they did even two years ago, because they’re far more protective of their time and less willing to sit through content that doesn’t feel relevant.
How are event agendas shifting in 2026?
- Later registrations and room bookings
- More no-shows at ancillary events
- Demand for control over their own schedule
- Preference for wellness-focused and outdoor options
- More intentional networking (and less forced mingling)
- Greater scrutiny of whether an event is “worth their time”
The event data backs it up:
- Overall event satisfaction fell 8% year-over-year as teams struggled to adapt.
- Registration patterns keep tightening, making forecasting harder.
- Many attendees optimize their onsite time and skip anything that feels repetitive or non-essential.
As Shannon Fouts, Project Manager II at GoGather, says:
“Attendees are booking hotels later and later, right up against cutoff dates, and it impacts everything from attrition to revenue planning.”
And from Hannah Baumgartner, Project Contractor from GoGather:
“People want more networking and social time. With content available virtually, the real value is connection.”
How planners should respond to shifting attendee behavior:
- Add choose-your-own breakout blocks
- Mix deep-dive content with wellness or creative options
- Include more small-group formats
- Recalibrate schedules to avoid overwhelm
- Use destination features to your advantage
Attendees are more selective, but they’re also more appreciative when your event truly fits their needs.
4. Technology & AI: helpful behind the scenes, promising on the horizon.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now, but most of the adoption is happening backstage, not in the attendee journey. With only 45% of planners using AI to improve operations or personalize experiences, many events are missing easy wins.
Where AI is already useful in event planning:
- Drafting agendas
- Summarizing RFP comparisons
- Rewriting emails
- Analyzing post-event survey data
- Repurposing content
- Creating mood boards or visual concepts
- Assisting with vendor contract language
Shannon Fouts, Project Manager II at GoGather, shared:
“AI note takers help us stay more present on-site. We use them constantly.”
Valentina, Project Coordinator at GoGather, adds:
“AI is useful for explaining contract clauses or researching a destination before sourcing.”
Where AI isn't regularly used yet in event planning (but should be).
- Attendee-facing personalization
- Real-time networking tools
- Smart session routing
- Behavioral insights tied to badge scans or app use
But it’s coming. AI will eventually help attendees:
- Build their own agenda
- Connect with similar peers
- Get custom recommendations based on interests
- Navigate conference campuses without friction
Our prediction? 2026 is the bridge year.
5. Production that balances tech with human emotion.
If the last decade was about giant LED walls, 2026 is about thoughtful production that helps tell a story.
Our event production partners at Tallen put it best:
“Technology is incredible, but pairing it with theatrical and emotional moments of human connection is what makes an event unforgettable.” – Tamesis Batiste, Director of Enterprise Events, Tallen
“The real magic happens when you blend theatrics with thoughtful design. A quick shift in lighting, staging, or layout can completely change the energy in the room and create those unexpected ‘wow’ moments attendees remember.” — Victor Johnson, Production Designer, Tallen
Where event production is heading in 2026:
- Scene changes that refresh the room throughout the day
- Thematic lighting tied to mood and content
- More intentional walk-in moments
- Varied seating zones for different energy levels
- Blending digital assets with physical design
- Subtle but impactful features that create delight
Why this matters for your 2026 events:
Event attendees are harder to impress, but they’re also more emotionally attuned. A well-designed room can:
- Set the tone
- Reinforce your message
- Support the speaker
- Keep people energized
- Make transitions feel intentional
Production is becoming less about maximum intensity and more about resonance.
6. Logistics, operations & strategy: planners need sharper systems, not more hours.
2026 still carries many of the constraints of recent years. There are still tight markets, rising costs, limited availability, complex contracting, and leadership pressure.
Planners are being asked to manage:
- More responsibility
- More tools
- More stakeholders
- More expectations
But there are only so many hours in the day for smaller, internal planning teams.
What’s making event logistics tougher for planners?
- Short booking windows
- High-demand markets
- Complex contract clauses (especially around taxes, service charges, and minimums)
- Teams relying on outdated budgets
- Incomplete use of planning tools
- Under-resourced in-house planning teams
Leslie Taborga, Director of Strategic Partnerships at GoGather, shared one of the most common issues:
“If not reviewed carefully, people often miss the fine print in contracts (service charge taxability, bartender fees, waste removal); those small things can blow up your F&B budget.”
The biggest planning mistakes we saw in 2025.
- Repeating last year’s program without reevaluating goals
- Choosing venues before defining the event strategy
- Reusing old budgets without adjusting for destination
- Not centralizing tools (Airtable, Smartsheet, etc.)
- Under-investing in attendee marketing
- Overshooting expectations without the budget to match
What event planners should do instead in 2026.
- Speak up when something isn’t realistic
- Lean on trusted partners
- Build the right internal/external team
- Keep priorities clear and aligned to goals
- Use tools that save time instead of adding work
- Protect your bandwidth. Burnout leads to planning mistakes
As Sierra Gillis, Project Manager at GoGather, put it:
“Lean on the people around you. Surround yourself with good support and rest, otherwise it’s easy to get overwhelmed.”
Ready to plan your 2026 events?
Need support aligning your budget, goals, audience needs, and destination into one cohesive plan? Our team would be happy to help shape your 2026 or 2027 event strategy. Schedule a meeting with us to talk through your goals.
