Event Tech: The Emerging Category Leading the Transformation of B2B Events

Events are becoming the focal points for year-round lead nurturing campaigns, and intangible brand impact is now measurable pipeline impact. A paradigm shift is underway in the event industry, and B2B event tech is at its core.

The $30B+ event market¹ has undergone significant disruption over the past few years and is experiencing a paradigm shift that we expect will benefit emerging event technology (“event tech”) companies. The pandemic forced businesses to rethink the approximately $1 trillion spent on meetings,² accelerating the adoption of software that could enable virtual events and justify spending with advanced attribution data. While in-person events have made a comeback, the lasting impact of event technology is ushering in a new era in the B2B event world.

In this article, we will delve into the pivotal trends driving this paradigm shift in B2B event strategies and examine why LLR believes software companies are uniquely poised to benefit.

Events are mission-critical for companies of all sizes

B2B events have long served as critical platforms for connecting businesses with their customers, partners and prospects. They have a significant impact on brand perception and lead generation, often representing the largest line item in marketing budgets. Event Tech vendors recognize this fact and aim to optimize and amplify the impact of events.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of event tech

The pandemic forced the event industry to rapidly shift to virtual formats, leading to a surge in VC investment in virtual event vendors. These vendors not only facilitated virtual and hybrid formats, but also introduced a new era of event data capture and ROI tracking. Suddenly, event marketers could host engaging virtual events and justify spending during a period of sweeping austerity measures.

We’re back to in-person, but Event Tech is here to stay

While events have shifted back to in-person, and vendors like Hopin have come back down to earth, the adoption of technology has left a lasting impression and should continue to reshape the B2B event industry. Annual spectacles are shifting to frequent, intimate gatherings with hybrid formats. Events are becoming the focal points for year-round lead nurturing campaigns (“event-led growth”), and intangible brand impact is now measurable pipeline impact. A paradigm shift is underway in the event industry, and event tech is at its core.

Event Tech is now massive market primed for disruption over the next five years

We believe emerging event tech vendors are well positioned to ride tailwinds and disrupt a large, fragmented market. The billions of dollars spent on event agencies should gradually shift in-house, enabled by DIY event software vendors, similar to what we are witnessing in the research technology space. Large incumbents like Cvent will face increasing pressure from emerging vendors and could gradually lose market share. From our perspective, the event technology space is set to expand over the next five years, and the emerging players today are best positioned to likely benefit.

Here’s the bottom line.

We are seeing the B2B event space undergo a profound transformation. The pandemic jolted the event industry out of its inertia, putting it on a tech-first trajectory that helps benefit all stakeholders. Events are becoming more intimate, engaging and relevant for attendees, while offering greater value to event marketers. LLR believes companies that grasp the impact of events and embrace technology are poised to reap significant rewards over the next five years. We anticipate a surge in capital investment in the event tech space in the next 12 months, further accelerating the impact of this emerging software category. I am excited to lead LLR in building on our experience with customer, employee and brand experience software to pursue investments in the B2B event technology providers that are helping companies maximize the ROI of their virtual and in-person events.

Learn more about the LLR team, relevant investment experience and our focus on the Event Tech sector.