Report Finds Event Professionals Slow to Expand

According to a new survey, meetings and events leaders are restraining their ambitions in the face of political and economic headwinds, looking to derive more value from current offerings rather than expanding.

The BCD Meetings & Events 2026 Global Client Survey, released last month, is based on responses from 240 global meetings professionals surveyed between January and March. Larger proportions of respondents said they expected budgets and volume to remain flat compared to 2025. Currently, 57 percent of respondents expect budgets to remain flat; 56 percent expect event volume to remain flat and nearly 70 percent expect event size to remain unchanged.

"Organizations are concentrating on making existing programs work harder rather than expanding them," said Shauna Whitehead, SVP of Commercial Strategy at BCD Meetings & Events. "This means being more selective about the types of events that receive the most investment across their portfolio, strengthening ROI measurement, leveraging technology and AI for efficiencies in the sourcing and planning phases, forming more strategic supplier partnerships and aligning meeting objectives more closely with business outcomes."

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