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  • Events Industry 2023, Wrapped: Our Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts

    Events Industry 2023, Wrapped: Our Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts

    As we close the door on 2023 and prepare to launch into what will undoubtedly be another busy year in the events industry, we’re excited to take a look back. Throughout the year, the RainFocus blog has helped event leaders stay ahead of the curve. We provide thoughtful advice from our seasoned executives on the most impactful trends, as well as quick practical tips for navigating the day-to-day work of planning and executing events around the world. 

    To cap off our journey through the year, we’re counting down our top 10 most popular blog posts in 2023. Join us as we revisit these highlights and the trends that defined the year in the events industry: 

    10. Everything You Need to Know About Badge Printing

    Event success comes down to the details. To the uninitiated, badges may seem minor compared to elements like booking keynote speakers or planning a massive welcome party. But attendee badges perform a critical function. Is pre-printing or printing on demand more efficient? How should you differentiate access types? This quick guide helps your team zero in on the right choices.

    9.  The Path Forward: JR Sherman and Alicia Tillman Reflect on Pandemic Pivots and Events’ Value in Any Economic Climate 

    RainFocus INSIGHT gives attendees expert guidance on the most important events industry trends, opportunities, and challenges for the year. This blog post recapped the fireside chat between RainFocus CEO JR Sherman and Alicia Tillman, RainFocus board director and current chief marketing officer at Delta Air Lines. No matter the size of your company or your events, these experts’ reflections on customer journeys, budgets, the future of virtual events, and more continue to resonate.

    8. Early Bird Pricing Strategy: The Logic and Science Behind Scarcity and Value

    Another evergreen favorite, this post dives into the strategy behind offering early-bird pricing for your event. With events under pressure to deliver ROI and meet attendance goals, it’s more important than ever to hit the ground running with a strong response to your special offers for attendees who register early.

    7. Conversations: A Look at Today’s Event Trends with Ashleigh Cook 

    The Conversations series, a signature part of the RainFocus blog, features candid Q&A sessions with RainFocus’ most knowledgeable executives. This 2022 post with Ashleigh Cook, now our CMO, zeroes in on opportunities and challenges that continue to factor heavily into events leaders’ planning. Readers found valuable advice on everything from attendee engagement to smart content reuse to ongoing efforts to increase personalization.

    6. Fifteen Points of a Great Recap Video

    After an event wraps, it’s time for measurement, analysis, marketing and sales follow-up … and putting together a fun recap video to showcase your success and keep the enthusiasm going. Readers appreciated the detail in this blog post and the provided client examples.

    5. How to Structure Cancellation Fees at a Conference

    Like badge printing, early-bird pass offers, and recap videos, cancellation fees represent another event element that may seem minor but can have a big impact. Balancing ongoing relationships with financial realities — and making the whole process as efficient as possible — requires the right approach. This popular blog post covers all the nuances.

    4. What Should You Look for in a Modern Event Management Platform?

    When exploring options for any new technology, buyers often turn to leading analyst firms’ reviews and reports comparing leading platforms. This year, Forrester compared RainFocus and 13 competitors for The Forrester Wave™: B2B Event Management Technology, Q1 2023 report, and we were named a Leader. But this popular blog post is about more than boasting — it also lays out a few key recommendations from Forrester’s analysts for what to look for in any B2B event management technology.

    3. How to Supercharge Your Marketing Channel With Event Data

    Omnichannel marketing is making big waves this year in the events industry, so it’s no surprise that this blog post ranked near the top in popularity. The end of third-party cookies, meanwhile, has spotlighted the importance of zero- and first-party event data like never before. Best of all, we also co-wrote an entire (free!) e-book with Adobe if you’re ready to take the next steps.

    2. A First Look at RainFocus INSIGHT 2024: What to Expect 

    It’s clear the excitement around RainFocus INSIGHT continues to build! Since this post was first published, we’ve also released a lot more information about the event. Check out the session catalog and preliminary speaker list, bonus excursion offerings, and more. There’s still plenty of time to get the primer through this blog post and then register to join us in Salt Lake City.

    1. How to Harness the Power of Events to Drive Business Growth 

    Finally, our most read blog post in 2023 — by far — tackles a universal, timely theme. Whether or not your organization faced budget cuts and other economic challenges this year, turning to your events channel to fuel marketing and sales success is a smart strategy. Our experts delved into exactly how to make sure those events deliver maximum (and measurable) ROI. For even more guidance, check out the accompanying free e-book!

    We’re looking forward to another year of bringing you another year of thought-provoking discussion and practical guidance on the blog. We can’t wait to see what 2024 brings!

  • How to Level Up Sales Enablement Before, During, and After Your Events

    How to Level Up Sales Enablement Before, During, and After Your Events

    Event teams must ensure their sales team has multiple opportunities to connect with potential customers at events. These meetings help them build meaningful relationships that will drive purchasing decisions down the road. 

    But unfortunately, sales teams are often excluded from the event planning process. They may learn about the program shortly before the event, with little context about what sessions are planned or what attendees should expect. On-site, they’re left to locate prospects on their own, find space for impromptu meetings, and operate without visibility into how attendees are engaging. After the event, buyers’ engagement data can take weeks to reach them. By then, the momentum from those in-person interactions is gone.

    Modern event technology — along with the right sales enablement strategy — can solve these issues. Here are tips to enable your sales team at every stage of your event.

    Before the Event

    When sales teams are prepped ahead of time, they arrive with the context and tools they need to take action at your event. Here are a few ways to help them get started:

    • Define prospects’ registration experience. Consider whether certain prospects should move through a different registration path. Tailored compliance questions or a curated session selection can help you gather information your sales team needs to be successful.
    • Put together dedicated agendas for prospects. Identify sessions and tracks that speak directly to your prospects’ challenges and priorities, and share links with sales reps. Build beginner-level sessions into your program that answer foundational questions. For example, an early-stage prospect needs a different experience than a long-standing customer. Enable reps to copy pre-built agendas and adjust them as needed.
    • Plan targeted off-site experiences. Private dinners or invitation-only receptions give sellers and prospects a lower-pressure setting to begin building a genuine relationship. Use your platform’s segmentation capabilities to limit attendance to VIPs.
    • Prepare discount codes. Event platforms can streamline pass approvals and discount code distribution. When their workflows live inside your platform, requests move faster and nothing gets lost. For high-value prospects, having VIP passes ready to go means your sellers can act immediately on an opportunity.
    • Share early signals. Pre-event data is valuable to sellers. Integrate your event platform with your CRM to share intent signals like registration, session favoriting, and session scheduling. These behaviors give your sales team context to engage with prospects.

    During the Event

    At the event, sales reps need to follow up on buying signals in real time. The following tools and strategies eliminate on-site guesswork:

    • In-app messaging. While at an event, prospects might be checking their email as often, so it’s easier to reach them through the event mobile app. 
    • Meeting capabilities. Give reps the ability to request and confirm meetings directly through your event platform, with confirmed time blocks updated within attendees’ agendas. The result is a smoother experience, with less back-and-forth communication required.
    • Keep data flowing as the event unfolds. A live integration between your event platform and CRM allows the sales team to monitor prospects’ behavior in real time, adjusting their daily schedules based on what sessions someone plans to attend or what they engaged with that day. The conversation becomes a lot more relevant when it’s informed by what just happened. 

    After the Event

    Equip sellers with what they need to follow up with purpose:

    • Share metrics as soon as possible. With integrated event technology, your sales team should have a clear picture of what each prospect actually did at your event. Ensuring data is updated instantly enhances follow-up correspondence.
    • Publish on-demand content. While only a fraction of your target audience will attend your event as it happens, you can still reach them by sharing sessions on demand. Let reps know which sessions will be available on demand so they can direct prospects to your on-demand library. 
    • Map out future touchpoints. If your organization runs multiple events, informing reps of upcoming opportunities ensures the relationship continues to develop. For example, a prospect who wasn’t ready to commit at your annual conference might be exactly the right fit for a smaller executive roundtable a few months later.

    When sales and events operate in genuine alignment, your program moves beyond creating memorable experiences to generating measurable pipeline impact. RainFocus provides organizations with the tools their sales teams need to maximize event outcomes. Request a demo to learn more about our sales enablement capabilities.

  • Top Tips From Event Pros in Our “Event Perspectives” Interviews: Part One

    Top Tips From Event Pros in Our “Event Perspectives” Interviews: Part One

    The popular RainFocus Event Perspectives video series, hosted by Rodney Hart, VP of Events, launched last year to offer advice and lively discussion from innovative event leaders. In each episode, you’ll find expert takes on trending topics, stories from professionals, career paths, and learnings from some of the industry’s brightest minds. 

    Here are a few of the most interesting findings from some recent episodes: 

    Exhibitor Engagement Is About Strategy, Not Spend

    Adam Parry is the co-founder and director of Event Industry News, where he focuses on the complexities of event engagement. In his Event Perspectives interview, he explains how event success comes from strategically matching the right exhibitors with the right attendees, rather than simply selling out floor space.

    “A lot of people think selling event space is purely about filling as many spots on the floor as possible,” he says. “Our view is different. If our exhibitors don’t match the attendees we’ve got, nobody gets value.”

    He adds that proving exhibitor ROI is often a long game, particularly in the technology sector, where sales cycles can take years to mature. Re-signing exhibitors is a top priority to continue building relationships with attendees. 

    Watch the full episode here to learn how to increase the value of your showfloor for both attendees and exhibitors.

    Managing a Sold-Out Event Brings Its Own Challenges 

    Having more registrations than anticipated is a good outcome for an event, right? In her episode, Pam Corcoran, the VP of Global Events at CrowdStrike, explains the pros and cons of having too many attendees and not enough room. Having navigated rapid, massive-scale event growth for several years, Pam shares what to do when your registration exceeds your expectations.

    “When you are looking at a sellout situation, you have to find a date that you decide is your cutoff,” she says. “But keep a few passes in your back pocket, because there’s always going to be really important customers that need to come but haven’t registered yet.”

    For more useful tips, watch her episode. 

    Repurpose Your Session Content for Hyper-Personalized Marketing 

    Instant session summaries are beginning to outperform full-length video replays as a demand generation tool, according to Will Curran, chairman of Endless Events. Summaries are easily digestible, which makes them a great tool for engagement and personalization. 

    “I think our speakers are probably our best marketing channel that we have available to us as event organizers, because they have audiences, they have the knowledge, and they say really smart stuff,” he says. “You need to capitalize on that and share that.”

    Will also discusses how to turn overly programmed events into more engaging experiences, making the case that “thinking outside the box” isn’t enough anymore. Instead, he suggests that planners shouldn’t be afraid to execute wild ideas (i.e., “crush the box”)  if it fits their audience.

    Watch this episode to learn more. 

    Stop Burning Out Your Attendees

    Finally, Dahlia El-Ghazar is the primary idea ignitor at Dahlia Plus Agency, bringing a vibrant energy to the events she works on. In her episode, Dahlia discussed the concept of “decision calories,” warning organizers against exhausting attendees with too many decisions and a schedule that’s too stressful to be engaging. 

    “Think about ‘decision calories’ from an attendee perspective,” she recommends during her interview. “When you’re putting together a program, especially for attendees who are already overwhelmed — such as your first-time attendees — don’t offer them the twelve concurrent sessions. That’s too many calories to intake.”

    Watch her episode for more advice and unique ideas.

    The Event Perspectives series is full of amazing insights. Stay tuned for our next post, which will share more expert advice. In the meantime, watch all episodes on YouTube to discover even more ideas.

  • How to Lead Digital Transformation Within Your Events Team

    How to Lead Digital Transformation Within Your Events Team

    Right now, digital transformation is raising the bar across every function — from the way revenue teams manage pipelines to how product teams build and iterate. 

    For teams leading events, the upside of embracing the latest steps in digital transformation extends well beyond running smoother events. It means contributing to the organization’s success and advancing individual careers.

    In this post, we’ll share step-by-step guidance for modernizing how you work as an event professional. 

    Step 1: Start With a Modern Infrastructure

    The first step in any digital transformation is eliminating legacy systems and manual processes. Your organization should use an event marketing platform designed to scale securely. Ask any other stakeholders involved in the purchase decision to prioritize having a single, integrated platform for every event over cost savings. Doing so will help you avoid data silos and lengthy procurement cycles.

    Adopting an open infrastructure will help you to see how event engagement impacts sales and marketing, as well as improve communication between departments. In turn, you can also use customer data from other platforms to further improve event experiences. 

    Step 2: Level Up AI Strategy in Your Day-to-Day Work

    You may already be experimenting with AI tools, but specialized frameworks in the event platform can help you spin up events faster and surface seemingly hidden insights. Some of the many ways that event professionals are currently using RainFocus AI include constructing registration workflows, building reports, transcribing sessions, incorporating facial authentication into check-in flows, and analyzing attendee sentiment. 

    In addition, AI helps event professionals predict and influence attendee behavior. Learning from attendees’ behaviors, AI can offer relevant session or meeting recommendations. 

    Step 3: Demonstrate Impact Through Data 

    Finally, telling effective stories with the data captured is the final step in a digital transformation. Connecting your event platform to your CRM, marketing automation, and revenue tools will help you generate evidence of event success. Metrics such as pipeline influenced, leads generated, sponsorship ROI, and attendee engagement scores illustrate the value of events. 

    Current event reporting might center on headcount, logistics, and simple standalone stats. A digital transformation requires reporting on business outcomes. This shift helps events be seen as revenue drivers.

    Undergoing a digital transformation — at the individual level and more broadly throughout the events team — keeps you moving in step with your technology and revenue teams. Selecting the right platform and embracing more advanced uses of AI will help you grow as an individual and as a team member, and give you the ability to transform event insights into actionable business intelligence. For more best practices, read our digital transformation e-book.

  • Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Webinars? 

    Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Webinars? 

    Webinars are one of the highest-performing marketing channels. Our Events and Marketing Strategy Survey found that webinars are the second-fastest-growing event type, trailing only in-person conferences. According to our benchmark data, the attendance rate for webinars has increased 9% over the last year. 

    As attendee interest in webinars grows, organizations have a significant opportunity to expand their reach among global audiences. They also must extend engagement beyond the event itself, weaving it into the broader customer experience.

    In this post, we’ll discuss what a modern webinar looks like, how to extend webinar engagement, and key opportunities that many event teams are missing out on.

    What a Modern Webinar Program Looks Like

    With so many webinars competing for attention, often during busy workdays, attendees are selective about where they spend their time. They want relevance to their role, genuine education, and engaging formats. They seek clear answers to three questions: What is this webinar about? How will I be able to participate? What will I leave with?

    High-performing, modern webinar programs share a few key traits:

    1. Targeted content. The topic, speaker, and follow-up questions are all tailored to specific needs and personas. 
    2. Seamless, branded experiences. From registration to on-demand replay, every touchpoint reflects the company’s brand.
    3. Strong engagement. Polls, live Q&A, and/or chat allow attendees to communicate with one another, resulting in more than just one intent signal (attendance) for the event team hosting the event.
    4. Integrated data. Webinar engagement should feed into the same attendee record as your in-person events, so sales directors always know how their contacts are interacting with your brand, and other stakeholders have universal visibility.

    How to Extend Webinar Engagement

    A successful webinar extends its value long after it ends. The secret to maximizing webinar value is repurposing the content. Transcripts, clips, on-demand access, and relevant follow-up assets extend the life of your webinar while offering several new touchpoints for customers to get engaged. Working with the marketing team to track post-webinar engagement will provide critical insights for planning your next webinar. 

    The Webinar Opportunity Most Event Teams Are Missing

    Despite the potential for strong ROI, most organizations are still running webinars as standalone events, disconnected from the rest of their event program and their broader marketing stack. This creates data silos that make it nearly impossible to understand how customers are engaging across multiple events. 

    On the flip side, event teams that have connected their webinars with their other events have a clear picture of how webinars fit into the buyer’s journey. They use webinars as registration drivers for their larger in-person conferences or roadshows. After their in-person events, they use webinars to reinforce messaging and increase engagement. When all of the touchpoints are designed to work together, engagement compounds and loyalty increases.

    Maximizing Webinar Value

    Webinars are a primary driver for growth, and evidence proves that audiences are interested. Mastering the ability to extend webinar engagement will result in greater marketing effectiveness and more sales opportunities for your organization. Learn more about our webinar tools, and discover how you can use webinars as a springboard for customer engagement at other events.

  • Small Events Are Surging — Here’s How to Boost Engagement Impact

    Small Events Are Surging — Here’s How to Boost Engagement Impact

    Small events are in demand. In fact, so far in 2026, the number of companies hosting smaller ancillary events, roadshows, and webinars has increased 36%, according to our benchmark data. 

    Creating new opportunities for attendees to join events in a location convenient to them has proven effective in boosting customer engagement and attracting prospects. In this post, we’ll dive into engagement trends surrounding small events and share why it’s important to consolidate events into one platform to maximize your small events’ impact. 

    Latest Data Signals

    As small events become more popular, they are producing more data for teams to incorporate into their dashboards. For example, session attendance has grown 27%, offering new insights into customer interests. 

    Overall, audience acquisition has surged by 48%, providing sales and marketing teams with more prospects to engage with in a personalized setting. Furthermore, meeting attendance has increased 37%, highlighting the value attendees place on face-to-face interactions. 

    Organizers creating these events aren’t the only ones who have realized their value. Exhibitor participation at small events has seen a 43% uptick in the past year, with exhibitors capturing 26% more leads than before. These increases represent a significant source of revenue for event organizers and their exhibitors. 

    The Importance of Having a Single Platform

    Despite the increasing significance of these events, many organizations are missing out on the opportunity to tailor customers’ experiences based on past event engagement because they’re still hosting small events on a separate platform. Connecting events of all sizes on a single platform delivers numerous benefits: 

    Unified Data: A consolidated platform ensures all of your event data is stored in one place, making it easier to analyze events as a whole and in comparison to each other. This unified approach facilitates a deeper understanding of attendee behaviors and preferences. As AI becomes more embedded in workflows, the need for interconnected data is imperative. And by integrating all of your events with your CRM and other systems, you’ll be better equipped to harness agentic AI for greater optimization and personalization throughout your buyer journey.

    Optimized Templatization: As you increase the number of events you manage, maintaining governance through a single set of standardized templates is essential. Templates and pre-built project plans can help you replicate successful event formats quickly, ensuring a consistent experience for attendees across different locations and types of events. Templates also help prevent delays. However, if those templates are built on separate platforms, their utility is more limited, and you may experience data silos, inconsistency, and poor version control. 

    Efficient Management: Managing events with a single platform saves time and reduces complexity, allowing your organization to focus on delivering exceptional attendee experiences. This streamlined approach also makes it easier to repurpose event processes for greater efficiency and more value from each event, large and small. 

    Loyalty Gains

    Based on our data, further increased interest in small events is likely. As organizations continue to add events in different locations, they’ll see steady gains in brand loyalty. In the current environment, attendees have demonstrated a deep desire for genuine interactions. As a result, we anticipate meeting participation and exhibitor interaction to continue growing, especially in small-event settings where deep connections may be easier. 


    Small events are a proven tool for driving engagement and brand loyalty, and RainFocus’ Base Module is designed to equip organizations to hold events that cover the globe. Teams are supported by AI as they enjoy the benefits of a single-platform approach, complete governance, and a guided setup experience. Request a demo to learn more about the Base Module.

  • Selecting the Right Event Platform in the Agentic AI Era

    Selecting the Right Event Platform in the Agentic AI Era

    The increasingly sophisticated AI-powered workflows taking hold in the events industry — and nearly every other sector — now introduce two new areas of high importance to keep in mind during the event platform selection process.

    First, the rise of AI has made genuine human connections and relationship-building a top priority. Events have become even more valuable. With so much more potential positive impact on the organization’s sales and marketing success at every event, ensuring that the right technology is powering that event now has higher stakes.

    The “AI factor” also reshapes evaluation of the platforms themselves. Organizations considering their options should take a careful look at each contender’s current offerings and roadmap. Given that AI technology — particularly agentic AI — is advancing fast, a top-performing event platform needs to keep pace while maintaining the utmost security and flexibility. The company also should properly prioritize future development, rather than checking a box and moving on.

    With this context, we’re excited to announce that RainFocus was just recognized as a Leader by Gartner in the 2026 Magic Quadrant. This is our third consecutive placement in the Leaders Quadrant. According to Gartner, “Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.”

    Platform selection considerations

    Of course, AI-related innovation isn’t the only major aspect of a top event platform. In the report, RainFocus also has the furthest position for Completeness of Vision among all evaluated vendors. Additional highlights included exceptional customer service, robust feedback channels, one-time implementation, and flexibility to support a diverse range of event strategies. 

    Research reports like the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Event Marketing and Management Platforms serve as a knowledge mainstay during the vendor selection process. When learning about various offerings and launching into more thorough investigations of the top contenders, we recommend asking the following questions:

    • What is on the vendor’s innovation roadmap? Assess the vendor’s commitment to future-proofing your investment in the platform, particularly with AI functionality. Will you be able to easily work with your current tools and AI models? Are the new capabilities being built natively, or bolted on (which can introduce threats to functionality)? How is data protected?
    • How does the pricing model work? Determine whether additional fees may lurk under a deceptively low base price. Investigate exactly what type of service, level of support, and feature set will be available with each purchase option.
    • What implementation options are available? Every organization is different, as is every event. Examine whether your event strategy needs extensive guidance and managed services during adoption for a complex event, a simple one-time implementation that you’ll duplicate on your own via templates, or something in between. Match your needs to each vendor’s available implementation offerings.

    To access the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for Event Marketing and Management Platforms and research the current platforms in greater depth to discover which is right for you, click here.

    Gartner, 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Event Marketing and Management Platforms, Christy Ferguson, Halle Stern, Amy Jenkins, March 26, 2026. Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

  • Conversations: How Rodney Hart Connected Journeys (And People) at INSIGHT 2026

    Conversations: How Rodney Hart Connected Journeys (And People) at INSIGHT 2026

    After the RainFocus INSIGHT program concludes each year, one of our favorite traditions is speaking with Rodney Hart, head of events at RainFocus. As an event for event leaders, INSIGHT is uniquely positioned as a rich laboratory for innovation. 

    Plus, the RainFocus platform provides Hart and his team with volumes of instantly accessible data on what’s working, what can be better, and what he might want to try next year. Our candid reflections on INSIGHT covered everything from major trends to tiny logistical tweaks. You’ll find plenty of actionable takeaways for event leaders in any industry.

    This year’s INSIGHT theme was “Connecting Journeys” — what are some of the ways you saw that theme expressed during the conference? 

    One main way of connecting journeys was bringing in data from past events to make the experience more personalized, such as through session recommendations. 

    Connecting journeys also means understanding who our attendees are and making sure we have people from the right accounts present. It’s important to tie your systems together and be able to identify people associated with each company and the buying group members. 

    A key INSIGHT metric is how much of the annual pipeline target is in the audience, and which deals they are associated with. This year, we had 85% of these people in the room, compared to 70% last year. 

    We’ve heard a lot about how the rise of AI has increased the importance of in-person relationships. INSIGHT seemed to be even more about connecting people this year. Was this an intentional strategy? 

    The schedule was designed for connection. After the morning keynotes, breakouts didn’t start until 2 p.m. or later. We positioned meetings as opportunities for deep-dive conversations. People can reflect aloud about how they get things done at their job. 

    We designed the layout to bring everyone together, with one main campus and the keynote area flowing into it. 

    What were the results? Any specific metrics or attendee feedback to share? 

    We increased the time spent in meetings per attendee by 32% year-over-year. That figure doesn’t even reflect things like impromptu hallways meetings, which also add to the experience. 

    Our overall Net Promoter Score® also increased from 55 last year to 67 this year. INSIGHT has an audience that truly knows events, so it’s especially impressive. 

    Big Braindate boost

    Last year, the AI-generated session summaries from Voxo were one of INSIGHT’s big hits. What stood out this year as especially popular or successful?

    The Experience Profiles, which we offer through our partnership with Storycraft Lab, were a big success again. This year, we integrated the profiles more fully within the RainFocus platform. We mapped filters in the session catalog and the attendee list. 

    There was an 11% jump in the number of Experience Profile quizzes taken. Attendees could add their results to their conference badges, and 72% of people took the quiz before the event. This way, we could dial in the session recommendations even more. 

    Usage of the Voxo session summaries also saw a jump — around a 70% increase in downloads. Also, we once again offered facial scanning for check-in instead of a QR code, and there was an incremental increase in that choice, from 51% last year to 62% this year. People are getting more comfortable with that authentication technology. 

    Going back to the major theme of connecting journeys and the increase in meetings, how about Braindates? We saw the Braindates listed in the session catalog reach capacity early on.

    Braindates were very big again. We intentionally included a selection in the session catalog to make them more visible because attendees typically orient themselves around the catalog. 

    Seeing those sessions already filled supported interest in other Braindates. We saw a 300% jump in Braindates held vs. last year, and twice as many attendees participated. The catalog inclusion doesn’t account for the entire massive jump in participation, but it did increase the visibility of the offering. 

    Many clients have already told us they want to try something similar. Braindates also serve as a secondary offering for speakers you couldn’t fit on the session schedule. And because of the small group size, people could really get to know each other. 

    Virtual event metrics

    As a hybrid event program, INSIGHT has also always had a strong virtual component. What trends and metrics did you see this year on the virtual side? 

    The number of people dialing in was second only to what we saw in 2023. There was a slight drop in the number of sessions offered virtually, but we gave virtual attendees the ability to participate alongside those in the room, such as by submitting questions to panelists. 

    Our virtual audience had a lot of early-stage prospects. We want them to learn more about who we are and tune into the keynote. Our “mega keynote” approach this year, anchoring the usual executive address to our major announcement of RainFocus Nexus, worked well. 

    It’s important to have virtual touchpoints that anyone can engage with for free. We want to develop a relationship with a low barrier to entry. Those virtual attendees may be future in-person attendees. 

    Within our in-person audience, 56% of them were first timers. Ten percent of those had attended virtually in the past. That is a number I pay attention to — that is significant. 

    On the content and schedule side, what major changes were made this year? How did they work out?  

    We intentionally reduced the number of concurrent breakout sessions. Last year, we ran more sessions, including in the mainstage area during times when there was no mainstage session. 

    Eight concurrent sessions last year proved to be too much for the size of the conference, and it spread audiences thin. This year, the number of breakout sessions and their locations worked much better.

    We’ve continued to iterate on our deep-dive content. This year, it took the form of “Share and Compare” sessions. We created 75-minute session blocks guided by an expert and invited attendees to come prepared to also share how they are using the RainFocus platform. I think we found a format that really resonated with our audience. 

    Working around a holiday in the schedule was tough, but avoiding ending on a half-day helped with engagement and prevented attendee dropoff. Last year, we were forced to end on a half-day, and it is something to avoid — engagement ending on a half day is definitely poorer than when you start on a half day.

    Measurement lessons

    Finally, given all the new learnings on connecting journeys from INSIGHT 2026, any additional advice you would give other event leaders? 

    Always continue to experiment and measure. Sometimes you have theories about how things might work better. Sometimes you’re forced to shift, and even if it doesn’t work out, it provides an opportunity to measure the impact.

    Plus, there are always new technologies to measure in new ways. For example, this year we used Zenus scanners to evaluate the “energy” in the room during each session and map it to session transcripts to gauge content success and patterns of engagement. We’ll continue to experiment. 

    Attendee surveys are important, but they only capture a small percentage of information, so it’s always important to see what other data sources you can find. I am a big believer in the adage: ‘You can’t improve what you don’t measure.’

    Catch up on INSIGHT sessions you missed (free!) with RainFocus On Demand!

  • Everything You Need to Know About Event Integrations and AI

    Everything You Need to Know About Event Integrations and AI

    Event integrations connect key business systems, extending the value of events to multiple departments and enabling event professionals to draw upon existing knowledge for greater personalization. 

    With AI, these integrations become even stronger. AI can decipher unstructured data passed through integrations into actionable insights. Understanding the basic structure and flow of integrations can help you think through how you might use AI and elevate your event strategy.

    This post provides a comprehensive overview of event integrations, highlights which are most important, and describes best practices for setting them up. 

    Basic Terminology: Integrations vs. APIs

    Event technology providers often refer to integrations and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) throughout event implementation. Though closely related, the two concepts differ in functionality. Integrating is the process of connecting different software systems, and APIs are the set of rules and protocols that allow systems to communicate. They define how requests and responses should be formatted. In short, integrations focus on the end result of connecting systems, while APIs serve as the means to achieve those results. 

    Understanding the Flow of Data Between Platforms

    APIs can be configured to push or pull data into your event marketing platform. Some integrations, such as a CRM integration, are considered bi-directional, meaning they send and receive data. Understanding the nuances of pushing and pulling data is crucial for setting up integrations that support seamless data flow and enhance event operations.

    Pushing Data: Pushing data sends it from one system to another, such as attendee details collected during event registration automatically pushed to a CRM, ensuring real-time synchronization and updates. This approach allows marketers to trigger personalized follow-ups or qualify customers based on their actions at events.

    Pulling Data: In contrast, pulling data involves retrieving information from another system as needed. An event marketing platform might pull customer data from a CRM to personalize registration flows or tailor session recommendations to specific personas. Pulling data ensures attendee information is always current and relevant.

    Key Integrations for Every Event

    There are hundreds of possible integrations for an event marketing platform. Deciding which systems to integrate is an important step in the event planning process. Consider company and event goals, partner solutions, stakeholder preferences, and platform capabilities. Generally, the following three types of integrations that are important for any event: 

    1. Marketing and sales integrations. Establishing bi-directional marketing and sales integrations is key to driving pipeline, accelerating conversions, supporting customer retention, and demonstrating event ROI. CRMs and MAPs provide valuable customer data to fill in attendee records. Event data can bolster customer records, offering key insights into an individual’s interests and behaviors.
    2. SSO. SAML or OIDC allow you to authenticate customers and sign them in with an existing external account, creating continuity between the event website and your event platform. Establishing SSO can reduce cart abandonment and streamline registration for returning attendees. 
    3. Payment integrations. When processing payments for an event, your team must integrate with a secure platform that will protect your attendees’ PII and adhere to your organization’s security regulations. 

    Best Practices for Setting Up Event Integrations

    No matter your level of expertise on these integrations, the following best practices will ensure you are getting the most out of your integrations and aligning them with your overall event strategy:

    1. Work cross-functionally. First, meet with all stakeholders to learn what they need to be successful. Plan data mappings to address those needs. 
    2. Establish governance. Decide early on who will build, test, and manage each integration. Documenting everyone responsible also provides a point of contact in case of any issues that need to be immediately fixed. 
    3. Validate your data before integrating. Optimal integrations require high-quality data. Avoid a “garbage in, garbage out” scenario by cleaning up records before adding them to your event marketing platform.
    4. Standardize your data formats. Whether you are using JSON, XML, Javascript, or another language, standardizing your data format facilitates smooth integration, preventing errors during data transfer.
    5. Plan for future configurations. Design data mappings to be easy to update, allowing the team to accommodate future needs.
    6. Identify the tools you’ll use to monitor integration performance. An integration dashboard provides visibility into the integration’s success rate, volume of data, queue size, and other information. 
    7. Conduct testing. Validate that data is correctly mapped before launching registration. As best practice, use a sandbox environment to test the integration and troubleshoot any errors. If data isn’t flowing as expected, check for formatting errors. 

    The Role of Integrated Data When Using Agentic AI

    Once you’ve set up each integration and have proven that everything works the way it should, you can take them to the next level with AI enhancements. 

    As more people become accustomed to communicating with AI in their daily lives, attendees will also come to expect AI support at events. Agentic AI in particular will enable attendees to get the most out of their experience, such as by helping them fill their agenda with the most relevant sessions, activities, and meetings. Integrating customers’ data into your event marketing platform allows AI agents to identify patterns and trends, offering attendees a personalized experience based on their preferences and behaviors. 


    RainFocus is actively preparing event leaders for the agentic web with RainFocus Nexus, a system of AI agents that integrate with your existing tech stack to automate event setup and enhance the attendee experience. Request a demo to learn more.

  • Advancing Your Event Career in the Age of Agentic AI

    Advancing Your Event Career in the Age of Agentic AI

    Although AI agents cannot replace the human leadership of events, they are becoming increasingly more important for managing events. During the recent RainFocus INSIGHT 2026 conference, our speakers emphasized that professionals who master AI-powered technologies will advance in their careers, while those who cling to legacy systems and processes will lose their edge. 

    Event industry leaders at INSIGHT discussed the impact that AI will have on event careers and what event professionals should do now to climb the corporate ladder during this monumental shift. Here are the top three recommendations for growing your career in the age of agentic AI:

    Create an AI-Powered Workforce 

    If it isn’t already, AI will soon be integrated into your daily routine. Taking command of AI agents is the key to advancing your event career, explained Marius Milcher, VP of platform strategy and AI at RainFocus. 

    “By letting AI handle mundane tasks like drafting abstracts or managing schedules, you free up your time to focus on human connection, creativity, and strategy,” he said during an INSIGHT session. Use AI to solve big challenges, not just small ones. For event professionals, experimenting with AI for tasks like building schedules or sending recommendations demonstrates the forward-thinking leadership needed to get ahead in your career.

    Strategize Like a C-Suite Member

    Because AI is capable of streamlining event execution, business strategy becomes more important. The key to becoming a strategic advisor requires framing conversations with C-suite members around business trade-offs, risks, and impacts rather than event technology, said Nicola Kaster, CEO of Event Leaders Exchange. 

    Similarly, INSIGHT keynote speaker Sasha Frieze, author of the Chief Event Officer’s Playbook, recommended that event professionals investigate what their CEO cares most about (e.g., product launches, renewal cycles) and then design events specifically to support those goals.

    Master the Art of Gathering and Sharing Data

    To think like a C-suite member, you’ll also need to capture the right data. During our industry expert forum, several panelists mentioned the importance of determining return on objective. For events, this means moving beyond vanity metrics like registration numbers and focusing on pipeline influence, deal acceleration, and customer retention. To capture these data points, set up integrations with your CRM and marketing automation platforms. Once you’ve established a bi-directional flow of data, you can give your leadership compelling proof that your event is driving business and, in turn, illustrate your value as an employee.

    AI can make these processes much easier. RainFocus Nexus agents enable strategic collaboration with the company’s leadership team by surfacing important event metrics at a moment’s notice. With this data, you can inform sales and marketing of event-generated opportunities, which directly impact closed-won business. 


    Read more about RainFocus Nexus here or request a demo for more information. For more INSIGHT content, visit RainFocus On Demand.

  • INSIGHT Strategy Scoop: A New Way to Streamline Staff Scheduling

    INSIGHT Strategy Scoop: A New Way to Streamline Staff Scheduling

    All hands on deck! As an event approaches, organizations often turn to one of their most valuable on-site staffing resources: internal employees from the events team and beyond. 

    To make the most of their time at the event, employees often pitch in for the myriad on-site roles needed for successful event execution. They may be asked to distribute badges, scan booth visitors, monitor breakout session seating availability, support audience Q&A operations, or even spin the prize wheel at the gamification station. 

    Plus, with their knowledge of your organization’s latest offerings and pride in the company, employees are natural ambassadors. They make attendees feel connected and can effortlessly answer questions. Event leaders depend on these “temporary staffers” to fill in operational gaps and bring their events to the next level.

    But what’s the best way to get everyone signed up for shifts … without drowning in spreadsheets? How can you avoid time conflicts? What are the secrets to ensuring employees show up for all of their shifts over the course of a busy event?

    The Dreamforce inspiration

    As part of the “Behind the Scenes” series at RainFocus INSIGHT 2026, our own configuration experts and other team members shared an insider perspective building the innovative new staff scheduling solution they debuted this year at INSIGHT. 

    The previous approach to employee scheduling at INSIGHT was built on spreadsheets, which presented limitations and required significant ongoing manual work.

    “The spreadsheet might not have always shown the most up-to-date version,” noted Kristi Nybro, principal project manager at RainFocus. “And people did not have their scheduled sessions appear as shifts on their calendar, so a lot of them needed to have reminders sent.” 

    With the RainFocus platform already serving as the source of truth for event content and other core scheduling elements, using it for staffing instantly made sense for providing a seamless operation. 

    Better yet, Salesforce had already successfully run its internal staffing within the RainFocus platform at its massive Dreamforce event. A post-Dreamforce learning session with the Salesforce team gave Nybro and her colleagues an informative jumpstart on building something similar for INSIGHT. 

    Staffing “session” buildout process

    The scheduling system used RainFocus’ existing session catalog functionality, with each employee shift built as a “session.” 

    Each employee could view available shifts organized by date and time and apply filters to see which still needed to be filled, explained Usamah Rao, solution consultant at RainFocus. 

    This setup not only made signup easy, but it also ensured work shifts appeared alongside session attendance and other INSIGHT commitments in each person’s agenda to prevent accidental double-booking. 

    “The process was about using the tools we are already using,” added Gabe Fernandez, senior solution consultant at RainFocus. “There was nothing new to learn, and everything was in one place, with no need to manage multiple spreadsheets anymore.” 

    Whether a shift was individually selected or pre-assigned (e.g., by a manager), it was automatically populated into the employee’s daily agenda and mobile event app for quick viewing on-site. 

    Quick deployment tips

    Building the staffing system within RainFocus offered plenty of built-in advantages, as seen by Salesforce and our own team at each organization’s respective events. 

    But regardless of the platform, here are a few guidelines to start streamlining employee staffing sign-ups and on-site operations at your next event: 

    • Include layered access safeguards. When staffing sessions are built the same way as regular content sessions open to attendees, it’s important to make sure only employees can see them. The RainFocus team used widgets with filters, attribute values, and employee-limited visibility to maximize security. Session catalogues for non-employee attendees contained only the expected menu of sessions for a clean, confusion-free experience. 
    • Share the dashboard with people leaders. Once initial shift sign-ups are launched, keep managers in the loop. An automatically updated dashboard can show them which days and tasks still need the most staffing. It can also list which of their direct reports attending the event have not yet volunteered where needed. 
    • Make “Add to Calendar” easy. An email confirmation with a universal .ical file helps employees continue to prioritize shift attendance. You’ll increase the chances that everyone shows up as planned, even as their event agendas inevitably become more jam-packed as the event nears.
    • Send day-of reminders. Finally, timely reminders for shift attendance — through emails, mobile push alerts, or a combination of both — tame on-site schedule chaos and provide that last gentle enforcement step. Staffers reminded of their commitments can make sure to avoid scheduling last-minute meetings or other activities over their critical duties for helping make the event a success.

    If you couldn’t make it to INSIGHT this year or want to revisit the key learnings, here’s a quick recap of the most important takeaways.

    Better yet, we’ve made select sessions available free. Log in here to browse at your convenience.