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Once the industry acknowledges the trust gap caused by inflated metrics, the next question emerges: what exactly are we competing against?

The answer is not just other exhibitions. It’s platforms like Meta, LinkedIn and Google that have redefined how marketing is measured. They’ve set a new benchmark for transparency, real-time reporting and accountability. When sponsors and exhibitors sit down to plan their budgets, they aren’t just comparing your show to the event down the road. They’re comparing it to campaigns that give them minute-by-minute performance data.

Meta’s power isn’t just its reach. It’s the clarity of its reporting. Marketing teams know exactly how their campaigns performed, which audiences they reached, what actions were taken and what the return looked like. That level of insight creates confidence. It turns marketing into a science and it sets the bar for everyone else competing for the same pounds and dollars.

This is the reality facing the events industry in 2026 and beyond. Attendance numbers alone no longer cut it. “We had 20,000 people through the doors” doesn’t hold the same weight when a Meta campaign can show audience targeting, click-through rates, conversion cost and engagement detail in a dashboard.

But here’s where events have something Meta never will: human connection. Real conversations. Product experiences. Relationship-building. These are intangible advantages, but they need to be made visible if events are to reclaim their place in the marketing mix.

That means adopting some of the same discipline digital marketers use.

If an organiser continues to push the conversation to a sponsor not just how many people attended the event, but:
• how many of their target personas walked the floor,
• how many interactions happened at their stand,
• how long visitors stayed, and
• what business intent those interactions carried.

Now imagine those figures are verified, not self-reported. That is a marketing conversation that earns its seat at the budget table.

Independent event auditing allows organisers to benchmark themselves not just against other shows, but against digital channels. When they can show engagement and performance data with the same clarity Meta shows campaign analytics, events stop being the “soft spend” and become the smart investment.

And unlike Meta, exhibitions give brands something else entirely: the opportunity to build trust, loyalty and memorable experiences face to face. Digital might set the rules for reporting, but live events can redefine what meaningful engagement really looks like.