Two reports in a week have offered encouraging signals for the events industry. But for agencies and planners, the question is how that confidence translates into the work they are being asked to deliver.
The latest IPA Bellwether Report shows a net balance of +15.1% of UK companies revising event budgets upwards in Q3, up from +11.0% in Q2 and the highest reading in nine quarters. Events slipped from first to second place behind PR, but that reflects PR’s stronger performance rather than a slowdown in events.
That figure does not mean event budgets grew by 15.1%. It measures the balance of companies increasing budgets against those cutting them, rather than the size of those changes.
Last week, Amex GBT’s forecast offered another positive signal, with 91% of meetings professionals expecting their organisations’ meetings and events spending to increase in 2027. Yet it also forecast higher costs per attendee across every meeting type, while 27% of respondents identified reducing costs as a priority.
The research covers different markets and timeframes. Both suggest organisations remain willing to spend on events. Neither tells us whether that spending has caught up with the cost of delivering them.
Anyone pricing an event will want to know how much of a budget increase is available for something new, and how much is already swallowed by delivering what the client had last time. If expectations have grown too, a bigger budget can still leave a difficult gap.
That is where the conversation about the brief matters.
Ian Cummings, Global CEO of Nteractive, puts it plainly: “Too often, the discussion starts with the cost or budget of an event and works backwards to justify the investment.”
He argues that agencies should help clients establish what an event needs to achieve before designing it, whether that means changing behaviour, strengthening relationships or creating commercial opportunities. Success needs to be agreed at the outset.
That gives agencies a better starting point when the money will not cover everything being asked for. Which parts of the experience are essential to the result? What could change? And if the client wants to keep the full scope, what will it actually cost?
The willingness to invest is encouraging. But for agencies and planners, the benefit will depend on whether those increases leave room to improve the experience, or simply cover the higher cost of delivering it.
That is the question behind both sets of findings. Budgets may be rising, but how much more will they actually buy?