Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: B2B Event Management Technology, Q1 2023

How does Forrester define the B2B Event Management Technology market in 2023?

The B2B event landscape has undergone profound transformation over the past three years. The pandemic forced rapid adoption of virtual and hybrid events, and while in-person events have returned as a core component, marketers must now plan and execute attendee-centric digitally driven experiences across all three formats. Short-term priorities include managing costs in an inflationary environment with flat or reduced budgets. Long-term considerations include accessibility, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability. Selecting the right event management technology provider has become more complex as the market evolved rapidly with outside investment and vendors broadening capabilities across in-person, virtual, and hybrid event types.

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: B2B Event Management Technology, Q1 2023 in 2023

How did the B2B Event Management Technology market evolve in 2023?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the B2B Event Management Technology space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates 14 B2B event management technology providers across 28 criteria grouped into three categories: current offering, strategy, and market presence. The evaluation assesses vendor capabilities for supporting in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, including event organization and management, audience engagement, data management, professional services, product vision, innovation roadmap, execution roadmap, market approach, performance, and commercial model.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: B2B marketing professionals should use this research to select the right event management technology provider for their needs. The report helps organizations identify providers that can drive digital engagement with attendees across a range of event types, prioritize event data capture, and offer deep, seamless integrations with sales and marketing ecosystems including MAPs, CRM systems, and CDPs.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: All vendors included in this evaluation must have: (1) More than $10 million in annual revenue directly from B2B event management solutions, (2) Demonstrated capabilities to support clients across in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, and (3) Received significant Forrester client interest through inquiries, advisory sessions, and consulting engagements.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Annual revenue from B2B event management solutions below $10 million threshold
  • Inability to demonstrate capabilities across all three event types (in-person, virtual, and hybrid)
  • Insufficient Forrester client interest, inquiry activity, or evaluation requests
  • Solutions focused primarily on internal events or specific verticals outside B2B enterprise marketing
  • Vendors that declined to participate or provided only partial participation in the evaluation process

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • Ability to drive digital engagement with attendees across a range of event types (in-person, virtual, and hybrid) from a single platform to avoid working with multiple event partners
  • Strong event data capture capabilities across event marketing, registration, check-in, mobile app activity, session attendance and engagement, surveys, and on-demand engagement
  • Event benchmarking, ROI analysis, and native business intelligence tools for deeper analysis
  • Deep, seamless integrations with marketing automation platforms (MAPs), CRM systems, and customer data platforms (CDPs) at the opportunity and buying group level
  • Budget management capabilities to address cost pressures in the current inflationary environment
  • Support for accessibility, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability measurement
  • Professional services and support quality for implementation and ongoing operations

Q: How has the B2B Event Management Technology market evolved in 2023?

A:

  • B2B marketers must execute a mix of attendee-centric digitally driven experiences across in-person, virtual, and hybrid event formats
  • 86% of reference clients struggle to manage in-person event costs due to inflation and flat or lower budgets compared to 2019
  • Growing emphasis on events that are more accessible, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable
  • The pandemic turbocharged the B2B event tech market with outside investment pouring into the sector
  • Post-pandemic vendors concentrated on broadening capabilities, adding support for new simpler virtual event types, and refocusing on in-person event functionality
  • 75% of marketers rate the ability to seamlessly collect data about event attendees' explicit and implied interests as essential or very important
  • Stricter regulation of third-party data sharing, new privacy features, and imminent deprecation of cookies make event data increasingly critical
  • Tier-two and tier-three events growing in relative importance alongside tier-one events

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Current Offering evaluates the strength of vendors' existing capabilities across event organization and management, audience engagement and interaction, data management, and professional services. Strategy evaluates future-focused elements including product vision, innovation roadmap, execution roadmap, market approach, performance metrics, and commercial model. Offering focuses on what vendors can deliver today, while Strategy assesses their direction and ability to evolve.

Reference

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