CHICAGO — Freeman released its End-of-Year Trends Recap report at PCMA’s Convening Leaders in Philadelphia, reflecting on the findings and insights that came from 2025 research and previewing what’s on the horizon for 2026.
Based on Freeman’s 2025 research reports, despite headwinds, face-to-face remains the most trusted marketing channel and in-person event participation held steady throughout the year. But, while participation was consistent, and 51% of attendees plan on going to 2-3 events in the next 12 months, the gaps between what attendees are looking for at events and what show organizers are focused on remained.
Despite those misalignments though, looking ahead to 2026, Freeman reports that attendees and exhibitors are up to 20% less focused on event headwinds, which reflect greater confidence in the future.
To find out more about Freeman’s End-of-Year Trends Recap and learn what’s ahead for the trade show industry, Trade Show Executive caught up with Ken Holsinger, Senior Vice President of Industry Research and Insights at Freeman.
“I want to pat them [show organizers] on the back for their resilience navigating 2025,” Holsinger said. “We found our sea legs … and we leaned on our resilience, and I’m proud of the industry for that. We navigated a tough year and came out looking good, and that’s part of the optimism going forward.”
Key Findings to Keep Top of Mind
The Freeman Trends Reports and the End-of-Year Trends Recap is packed with useful insights and key statistics to keep top of mind when organizing your events in 2026. To help organizers keep their eye on the most impactful findings, TSE pulled out some of the key stats from Freeman’s reports:
- 50% of events were behind their regular registration pace (End-of-Year Trends Recap, 2025)
- 85% of attendees who have a “peak moment” at an event are likely to return; but only 40% say they experienced a “peak moment” (Freeman Experience Trends Report, 2025)
- 54% of attendees are willing to share their on-the-job challenges if it helps point them toward better networking (Freeman Networking Trends Report, 2025)
- 57% of attendees state that hands-on opportunities or demonstrations are most useful for product/solution evaluation and decision-making (Freeman Commercial Trends Report, 2025)
- 84% of attendees said connecting with subject matter experts is extremely or very important at the most valuable event they attended (Freeman Commercial Trends Report, 2025)
- 51% of attendees say that successful networking is a reason to return to an event (Freeman Networking Trends Report, 2025)
- 20% of attendees don’t believe their objectives are being met at events (End-of-Year Trends Recap, 2025)
Expectation Gaps Remain a Challenge
Data throughout 2025 showed that attendee expectations and needs did not always align with what B2B event organizers were most focused on.
For example, 51% of attendees prefer industry topic-specific discussions as a networking format, and 63% say subject matter experts (SMEs) are the most important contributors to a successful networking experience. When organizers were surveyed, only 14% said it was their responsibility to attract SMEs to the event who are available for networking, and 10% said it was their responsibility to determine the topics around which networking occurs. Gaps like this are problematic because 51% of attendees say that successful networking is a reason to return to an event, and when meaningful connections are made, networking is the No. 1 reason attendees will return to an event.
These kinds of gaps were found across Freeman’s research on networking, commerce and experience.
“We started this [research] a year ago, and launched what we call the ‘boss deck’ at PCMA last year, which basically is the data you should take to your boss to get permission to make the changes. This year has been a process of collecting the notes and the receipts, and we’ll finish that out mid-year with our learning study in 2026,” Holsinger said. “But why aren’t they making changes? This is tough to navigate because some of the meeting planner’s job is to de-risk everything they do. Taking a big risk to shift is hard. This year, we’re really going to home in on this conversation around retention. It’s going to take a bit of a healthy narrative of scare that says there’s pain here, and if you don’t do this [make changes], retirement is going to outstrip your retention rates.”
The focus on retention is coming to the forefront in 2026, because the workforce is facing significant shifts, as Millennials and Gen Z are poised to make up 75% of the workforce by 2030. In 2025, those two groups made up only 58% of the workforce. Organizers will need to make changes to their events that will retain their Millennial and Gen Z audiences in order to remain stable or grow amid a large swath of Boomer and Gen X retirements.
Related. New Joint Study Explores Trends in Attendee Acquisition and Exhibit and Sponsorship Sales
What’s On the Horizon?
In the year ahead and beyond, the events that are focused on meeting and exceeding attendee expectations are going to win the retention game as generational shifts exacerbate the gaps between attendee expectations and organizer priorities.
“Here’s some perspective: Our industry’s blended retention rate is barely above 30%. That means 70% of people aren’t coming back to events,” Holsinger said. “And we looked at data since 2008; this is not just last year’s data. We also looked at it in three-year rotations …. the best and most generous data we could find puts it in the low 40s. Everybody wants to talk about rising costs, and we should because they’re painful, but do you know what’s really costly? Attendee acquisition; and it’s easier to retain a customer than it is to attract a new one.”
To combat this low retention rate and make changes that will help create loyal event-goers, Holsinger suggests organizers survey their attendees in a way that’s focused on their objectives for coming to an event.
“It’s not the rate that we survey them; it’s the reason,” Holsinger said. “We’re putting this model forward that says to ask in registration what the attendees’ core objectives are. That should be reflected in the survey at the end of the event. It should say, ‘You told us learning was your core objective, and networking was your second. Please tell us about which content really resonated with you, and did you make the connections you were looking for? If not, how can we help you with that?’”
Aside from more intentional surveying, Freeman shares six adjustments for organizers focused on retention in 2026 in the new report:
- Show people what they’ll take home: Connect takeaways to attendee objectives to make the value of an event obvious.
- Focus on active participation: Implement hands-on opportunities, peer learning and real interaction.
- Count retention in your KPIs: Focus marketing investments and planning toward retention, and not just on recruitment.
- Curate and design for facilitated networking: Understand if your existing format is successful, and build networking opportunities around shared challenges, roles and purpose.
- Expect later registrations: Attendees register when event benefits are tied to their business goals, and they aren’t concerned with registration timing like organizers are.
- Organize the floor for ease: Lean into grouping exhibitors by communities or problem spaces to help attendees determine what’s most relevant for them.
Next Freeman Trends Report
The next Freeman Trends Report, which will focus around the learning element of the XLNC framework, will be released in early spring.
“Our studies on learning coming up are really breaking down what’s happening in the classroom, what’s happening on the general session stage and the keynote stage, and what’s happening on the trade show floor around learning.”
To read the full report, click here.
To get more events industry news, subscribe to TSE’s free e-newsletter on LinkedIn or through your email.
