Every year, the Business Information & Media Summit brings together business information leaders to discuss marketing, data, strategy, digital sales and more. 

Using both internal research and insight from industry sources, MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman presented a compelling case for B2B event marketing at BIMS this year. 

The headline is that event marketing is a growing channel for advertisers and a growing revenue stream for publishers. But how is this growth taking shape? 

If you weren’t a BIMS attendee this year, these are the highlights: 

• 30% of marketers say they will definitely increase spend on sponsored events in the next year.
• Two-thirds of attendees at a conference represent a new prospect for a potential customer. 
• 92% of trade show attendees say their main reason for attending is to see the products featured.
• 82% of trade show attendees have the authority to make a buying decision.
• 38,000 brands sponsored or exhibited across just 60 B2B events in 2018. This represents a 6 percent growth YoY. 
• More brands are exhibiting at or sponsoring multiple events per year. The majority still only go to one event each year, but the percentage is increasing. 
• 8.2% of brands were sponsors at a B2B event in 2019
• The percent of brands sponsoring an event has increased 1.7% over the past 2 years.
• A little less than 1 in 5 of sponsor brands sponsor multiple events — slightly up in the past two years.
• Large events average 2800 exhibitors or sponsors. The space saw just a 3% increase from 2017 to 2019.
• But small events are growing at a faster pace, up 50% in the same three year span. 
• Exhibitor and sponsor spend on the average B2B event was up 12% in 2018. 
• Only 10% of events are considered large, but capture 68% of the dollars

The cost of event sponsorship and exhibition is rising as more brands start to treat event as a marketing opportunity, a higher percentage of these brands are buying sponsorships, and the cost of exhibitor and sponsorship fees increases. 

Taken altogether, this translates into higher revenue for publishers from events. IIt also means publishers don’t have to be intimidated by the cost of entry for event marketing, since smaller events seem to be poised for the most amount of growth. Long story short: the degree of events as a revenue driver for B2B publishers will vary depending on the event size and space. 

Publishers face a huge opportunity to grow revenue, particularly as they focus on smaller, niche events.