For 2027, cost drops to fifth place among planners' challenges, and the attendee gains ground

If you’re finalising budgets for next year right now, your first conversation with your client was probably about money. Hotel, catering, AV. That’s normal. But on meeting professionals’ list of concerns, money has just dropped a few rungs.

That’s what Amex GBT Meetings & Events’ annual forecast for 2027 shows. It’s based on a survey of 500 professionals in eleven countries, carried out in August. A year ago, in the edition for 2026, cost was the most-cited challenge: 38% named it as one of the challenges of planning meetings. For 2027, cost has fallen to fifth place.

You can look at both reports in Athena, Sinapser’s free search engine for events industry studies: the 2027 forecast and the 2026 one. One caveat: the sample isn’t the same from one year to the next, so it’s best to read the change as a trend rather than an exact measurement.

The money hasn’t gone anywhere

Cost slipping down the list doesn’t mean it has disappeared. Reducing costs is still a priority for 27% of respondents, and the same share (27%) name finding more cost-effective venues. When choosing a venue, 31% say cost per attendee is the factor that matters most. And 91% expect their budgets to increase in 2027.

In other words, the budget still drives many decisions. What has changed is where it sits among their concerns.

What’s rising: the attendee

While cost goes down, the attendee experience goes up. In the edition for 2026, 33% named improving the attendee experience with more memorable events as a priority. For 2027, 42% choose it, and it stays at the top of the list for the third year running.

It isn’t a new concern. A year ago, 31% already saw designing events that meet the needs of today’s attendees as a challenge. What’s new is how much weight it has gained compared with money.

Optimistic, but more cautiously so

The same report has another nuance. 93% are optimistic about the health of the sector in 2027. So far, good news. But the share who call themselves ‘very optimistic’ has fallen from 62% to 45% in a year.

The survey doesn’t measure what lies behind that cooling, but the authors link it to growing awareness of geopolitical uncertainty and rising costs. Curiously, cost slips down the list of challenges and yet turns up in the explanation of the mood. Our reading is a practical one. With a more cautious mood, every budget line will need a better justification for the client. And what attendees experience is the most visible part of any event.

What a ‘demanding’ attendee actually means

The word gets used a lot and says little. Fortunately, the report pins it down. Professionals were asked what attendees have increasingly been looking for over the last two years. 35% mention more personalised interactions. 31% point to richer social and curated networking. And another 31% to hands-on, interactive sessions and workshops.

This will sound familiar. It’s the attendee who asks you at the coffee break who they should talk to. Or the workshop room that fills up while the plenary is half empty. It isn’t just your impression: in RainFocus’s mid-year report, 60% of the professionals surveyed say they are increasing networking time at their events.

What you can do about it at your next event

The first idea is simple: ask before you design. A few questions at registration about what each person is coming for will tell you far more than any general trend. With that you can group tables, suggest sessions or introduce attendees who have something in common.

The second: don’t leave networking to chance at the coffee break. If a good part of the sector sees attendees wanting better-curated networking, it deserves a slot in the programme and someone to run it. Here are some networking formats you can borrow as they are.

The third: review the agenda through the attendee’s eyes. Is there a talk that would work better as a workshop? Sometimes it’s enough to shorten a session and leave time for questions or group work. We’ve already seen that audiences want the keynote shorter and more useful.

And the fourth, the most strategic: when you talk budget with your client, talk about experience too. Which items actually reach the attendee and which don’t. That conversation will help you defend where each pound or euro goes.

In 2027 the budget will still matter. But the question gaining weight in the sector is a different one: do you know what the people coming to your event actually want?

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At Sinapser we build EVA (Event Virtual Assistant), a virtual assistant for events that chats with your attendees on WhatsApp and helps you learn what they’re looking for, before and during the event. If you’d like to see it with your next event, book a demo.