‘Why stop at $2m when the marketing pie is $10m?’

The balance of power in marketing is shifting toward in-person events – and those who can capitalize on their data will reap the rewards, according to an industry leader.

Paul Miller, CEO of Questex, argues smart organizers are waking up to a world where they aren’t just selling booths – they’re now data engines with serious clout.

Those who are gathering insights and who can actually listen to their audience needs will be able to create tailored content, sharper agendas and premium sponsorship opportunities powered by their audience databases.

This will produce increased ROI for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) who are spending more time and marketing dollars with live events and want to engage with their prospects beyond the three-day event.

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Paul – who is an expert contributor in the Event Tech Forecast 2026 – said: “In general, today, companies spend more of their marketing dollars on digital marketing – in its entirety – than anything else. 

“If the event slice of the pie is $2 million and the total marketing budget pie is $10m – why am I just fighting for the two?”

CMOs are the executives who can reveal key issues, new products they want to promote, tough points of pressure and how they want to get their stuff out there.

An organizer who listens properly will be able to offer digital content to address these issues through their event audience database.

This could involve delivering them a daily newsletter about industry affairs or a podcast highlighting solutions to emerging challenges, or a webinar discussing the benefits of a new solution but importantly – it creates a sponsorship sales opportunity. 

It creates the ability to “extend the event” into associated revenue streams for organizers.

Paul takes this a stage further and highlights a strategic advantage called “negative cost of customer acquisition (CAC)” where using this digital consumption directly shapes live event programming and builds a database of potential prospects with insights for companies exhibiting at an event.

He said: “Digital advertising is challenged at the consumer level. But at the B2B level – where we know our audience – it’s dynamic and targeted.

“We know what people are reading. We know what subjects they’re attracted to. We know what’s trending. 

“We can bring that into our events as conference tracks and topics. Our conference producers look at what content people are really engaged with and say, ‘we should probably ask her to come and speak on a panel or ‘we should have a session on this topic’.

“An industry colleague highlighted the term ‘Negative CAC’, where we’ve got this data engine that produces revenue whilst building our database of attendee customers – resulting in the negative cost of customer acquisition.”

The 2026 forecast data shows 82% of respondents view data collection and analytics as a top opportunity, but this strategy demonstrates how to move beyond mere collection and toward active application.

‘Control what you can control’

Meanwhile, a return to focus on core business values was highlighted as key to growing amid a “tricky” period of volatility in the US events market.

Paul argues organizers must pivot toward a “back-to-basics” strategy which prioritizes customer ROI over external uncertainty.

His comments come amid new figures from the Event Tech Forecast 2026 which show organizers are growing more reliant on technology to create efficiencies.

He said: “Uncertainty is the new certainty. This is the new US – like it or lump it, we’re in an era of change, uncertainty, posturing.

“But the posturing doesn’t always come forward as real policy. You’ve got to try to read between the lines a little bit. 

“It behoves us as an industry to be aware of the macroeconomic environment. 

“You can’t ignore it, but at the same time if you’re very reliant on international visitors to your USA based show, I’d be thinking very quickly about pivoting to build a local audience – while making sure that you are doing what you can to make international visitors and exhibitors as comfortable as possible. 

“However, I would not waste infinite cycles on this as there is a vibrant USA-based customer set that you can target.”

This shift forces a transition in events leadership focus – moving away from the pandemic’s “existentially shutdown” mentality. 

Paul set out that the “post-World War Two” era of US business has changed to one where organizers must now look past political posturing to find real policy.

This focus has already paid off for Questex, which has been able to continue growing by refusing to let outside “chaos” freeze their operations. 

Paul suggests those who react quickest to this new reality will thrive.

He said: “The US is a big market. It’s still growing. It’s still the best economy in the world. 

“There is definitely a change. It’s not the US of post-World War Two at the moment, but business is still business.

“People still want to do business, sellers want to connect with buyers so let’s get back to the basics of finding signals not the noise and focusing on the customer. 

“I know it sounds boring and a bit ‘mom and apple pie’ – but actually it’s really paid off for us.

“Those of us who got there quicker ended up having a relatively good year. 

“Things are a bit frozen around M&A right now. As companies are looking for the perfect target. We were a little more kind of counter, the sort of the behaviour and the Gestalt, if you will.

“We just said, ‘there are good assets out there – let’s go find them, let’s go talk to people and let’s get some deals done’. 

“We did. We got three deals done – and we’re looking for more.”

‘Humans are reaching capacity’

Questex is moving past speculative experimentation in this new era of AI innovation toward an organizational model where humans work alongside AI co-pilots. 

This responds to fundamental capacity challenges – technology that bridges the gap when human staff reach their limits.

Paul said: “Humans are reaching capacity in what we’re asking them to do – and leaders/managers are constantly asking those people for more. 

“So if your capacity is maxed and I’m asking for more, then what’s the answer? You either hire more people and/or technology has to help people become more efficient. 

“The challenge is that people see technology as a threat to their job. Actually, it’s a key route to ensure that you can be successful.”

An internal generative AI committee is one of the ways Questex has worked towards progressing with innovation successfully.

It has already piloted initiatives in sales, marketing, creative and finance.

Paul said: “We’ve given every employee an agent ‘colleague’ in the company. 

“The challenge is that people can see the technology as a threat to their job – our take is to experiment, learn and share the positive outcomes – of time saved, reach increased – as examples of where everyone can benefit if they embrace the change.”

The Event Tech Forecast 2026 reveals 82% of professionals have used AI for individual time optimization.

However, Questex is looking for broader organizational impact with their AI-driven sales development representatives who qualify inbound leads automatically.

Paul added: “We’ve got a bit of an internal competition going on right now: Can AI forecast better than humans? I have a feeling the answer is going to be yes.”

A further 38% of respondents to the forecast said they have used AI to create new revenue opportunities, while lowering costs is also a priority for 32% of organizers.

Meanwhile, more than 40% told the forecast they integrate new tech several times per year. 

A dedicated 20% of organizers introduce new tools at every single event, while another 22% do this on an annual basis. 

But Paul urged organizers to maintain discipline in this “Wild West” world of technology.

He said: “The leader of the business has to really lead the atmosphere of how you’re going to engage with tech. 

“You’ve got to be disciplined around tech, because vendors are relentless and they will eventually find somebody in your organisation to sell too

“Embrace the technology, but be very disciplined about not having sprawl. 

“Once we make a decision, we say to our tech vendors, ‘we want to be on your tech roadmap committees so we can learn where we’re behind or drive you to where we need the tech to go’.”

Thank you for reading. Get more insights from Paul, other expert contributors and analysis of the global survey data in the Event Tech Forecast 2026.