One of the most surprising results from the recent Freeman Trends Report on 2024 Attendee Intent and Behavior was that, despite planners’ best efforts, there’s still a gap between what event organizers provide and what attendees and exhibitors say they want.

You may spend a lot of time and energy poring over past-meeting evaluations and holding focus groups to ensure your meeting will wow your attendees and exhibitors, but how close are you to hitting the mark?

According to the recent Freeman Trends Report on 2024 Attendee Intent and Behavior, there is what the report terms a “value gap” that needs tending to, even as the report also finds that attendance numbers are already reaching, or even exceeding, 2019 levels.

Planners are obviously doing a lot of things right — for example, Freeman’s survey found that even more people view in-person events as the most trustworthy source of information in 2024 (80%), compared to 2023 (75%).  Also, more respondents said they plan to attend more events in 2024 than they did in 2023, though this may have more to do with factors outside a planner’s purview, such as being less worried about decreased travel budgets, inflation, economic concerns, perceived safety in event location and decreased training budgets this year than last. Even those who cited staffing shortages and workload pressures — the most common reason they gave for not attending an in-person event in the last 12 months — was down 6% from in 2023.

But if meeting and event organizers want to keep that momentum going, they need to address that value gap, according to the report. One thing that may be contributing to that gap is that some organizations are still thinking about their attendees’ needs strictly in terms related to their profession or industry they serve. While this may have been sufficient in the past, the report says, “the research shows that age, gender, socioeconomic status and event type serve as the greatest predictors of attendee values and behaviors.”

With today’s multi-generational, increasingly diverse audience, this is even more important than it once was, the report emphasizes. Take Baby Boomers, which the report says are most interested now in mentoring and creating a legacy. The youngest generation currently in the workforce, Gen Z, tends to place the most value on work-life alignment. Millennials tend to be looking for authentic personal connections at meetings and events, while Gen X tend to focus more on bridging the generations and attaining leadership status, according to the Freeman report.

That said, there are a few things that most attendees value, regardless of their target demographics. For example, Gen Z, millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers all put a high value on personalized, individualized experiences these days. Another value that tends to span the demographic field is that attendees now tend to care about social causes.

But that common value of individualization and personalization just means that it’s even more important than ever to seek out the differences so you can hit the sweet spot for each of your main attendee niches.

To make it a bit easier to chunk the data down into understandable approaches, the report uses what Freeman calls the XLNC Framework, which stands for experience, learning, networking and commerce.

Breaking It Down Using the XLNC Framework

eXperience: Immersive experiences were the top thing attendees value now, coming in at 64%. They also value customized agenda plans (45%), technology that makes consuming the event easier (44%), and immersive, visually appealing atmospheres (43%). Games or competitions, wellness opportunities and more natural lighting lagged substantially behind these top factors, with less than 7% of respondents saying these factors were important.

Attendees also said they would much rather hear industry experts who could give them insights on how to do their work better, rather than a big-name motivational speaker. The key to a successful keynote, they said, was a speaker who would leave them feeing informed, inspired and engaged — though men leaned more toward the informed end of the scale, with 40% saying that was a top outcome for them, while women leaned more toward wanting to leave feeling inspired, to the tune of 47%.

Learning: In-person events came in at the top for training and learning professional content, said 70% of respondents. Just over half said they preferred online events for training, which was a 7% decrease from the 2023 survey’s findings. However, if you have a lot of younger attendees, note that 58% of Next-Gen Event Goers (NGEG) go to LinkedIn and YouTube for their professional content needs. And respondents also said they valued the ease of accessing content, connecting with exhibitors and sponsors, and networking with a global community in online events.

In-person demos and hands-on activities also came in at the top for education and technical information. Three quarters said this was their preferred format for learning, perhaps because more than half also valued unstructured interactions with experts.

Networking: One thing that hasn’t changed is that attendees value networking, which is a key advantage of in-person meetings and events. Specifically, a whopping 81% said they prefer speaking with experts, while 68% said they prefer meeting new contacts generally. Another 64% value peer-to-peer exchange, while more than half said they like to create unique experiences with people they know and discovering new commercial or research partners.

Commerce: A full 80% said that, while they may check out an exhibitor’s website before heading to a show, they find in-person events are the best for discovering new products and services. However, 40% of the NGEGs said they are more likely to rely on social media for this purpose, though they also would follow up in-person at a show because they, like their elders, also value those hands-on demos and ability to check out samples. And don’t chuck the tchotchkes just yet — 35% said they still like the swag.

Download the full Freeman Trends Report on 2024 Attendee Intent and Behavior here.