Event-Led Growth and the Discipline of ROI: Cvent Connect Europe 2025
In November 2025, I was invited to speak on two panels at Cvent Connect Europe, joining marketing leaders from across Europe to explore how events can deliver genuine, sustained return rather than short-lived activity.
Cvent Connect has always been an interesting forum because it sits at the intersection of strategy, execution, and accountability. The conversations are not about whether events matter — that debate is settled — but about how leaders ensure that time, attention, and investment compound rather than dissipate.
The first panel focused on marketing leadership — specifically how senior marketers make decisions in environments where certainty is rare, scrutiny is high, and trade-offs are unavoidable. What struck me was how consistent the challenges were across sectors: aligning events to commercial outcomes, resisting vanity metrics, and maintaining strategic clarity when teams are under delivery pressure.
The second panel explored maximising ROI on event spend, a topic that often attracts simplistic answers. The discussion moved quickly beyond tools and dashboards into more uncomfortable but more useful territory:
What problem is this event actually solving?
What behaviour do we expect to change as a result?
How will this investment compound over time rather than peak on the day?
My contribution centred on a belief I hold strongly: events should be treated as platforms, not moments. When designed properly, they can create learning loops, relationships, and commercial momentum that extend far beyond the physical or virtual experience itself. When designed poorly, they become expensive theatre.
What I valued most about Cvent Connect Europe 2025 was the quality of the dialogue. There was little appetite for buzzwords, and a strong shared interest in effectiveness, discipline, and long-term value creation. The room was full of leaders who understand that ROI is not just measured — it is designed.
I left the event encouraged for event-led growth. Not because the challenges facing marketing are getting easier, but because the conversations are getting better and in the age of artificial intelligence it is even more important to come together in our communities..
