Midwest Meetings

A recent survey commissioned by Cvent, a meetings, events and hospitality technology provider, has found a gap between event marketers’ confidence in building audience trust and the number of professionals actively measuring its impact.

The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) recently launched the first three of its new specialty certifications, expanding its professional development offering with focused, on-demand education in incentive travel psychology, risk management and wellness.

The Incentive Research Foundation recently announced the release of “Maximizing CVB/DMO Value for Incentive Travel Programs,” a new study examining how CVBs and DMOs support incentive travel programs.

Research reveals attendees place equal value on learning from exhibitors, peers and the expo floor, challenging the traditional event design model.

While most organizations expect budgets (57%), event volume (56%) and event size (70%) to remain stable, more than a third (36%) now identify demonstrating return on investment as a key internal influence shaping meetings and events programs.

Legislative Action Day focused on three issues from the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance’s 2026 public policy agenda critical to the future of trade shows, conferences, meetings, conventions, and other business and professional events: trade and tariffs, future workforce development and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) — all central to the industry’s ability to continue serving as a growth engine for entrepreneurs, small businesses and communities nationwide.

This new survey of event professionals shows what’s driving attendance, engagement and trust. Nearly half of planners rank attendee-to-attendee connection as the top driver of event success, yet few program enough time for it. Face-to-face networking tops the trust hierarchy, reinforcing why experience design choices matter more than ever.