Event planning and organization will never be the same after the changes that happened in 2020 and 2021. Event industry statistics suggest that the sector will see full in-person events recovery sometime in 2023 but the new trends of merging video and live attendance will stay and incorporate new ways of doing things with the help of new technologies.
So, with events having moved online due to necessity and with a new foundation laid, let’s see what the industry stats look like.
Event Planning Industry Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
- The events industry will grow to $1,552.9 billion by 2028. (Allied Market Research)
- The US party planning market is valued at $3.2 billion. (Ibis World)
- Sponsoring is a priority for 85% of marketers. (Splash That)
- The US has 7,426 trade show and conference planning companies in 2022. (Ibis World)
- 97% of media marketers claim in-person events are crucial. (Bizzabo)
- 90% of Fortune 500 companies use more than one video platform. (UC Today)
- 64% of event speakers in the US and Canada are men. (Bizzabo)
- There are 923,341 wedding services workers in the US. (Ibis World)
- Cancellation costs of 10 tech conferences were over $1.1 billion in 2020. (Data Connectors )
Event Management Industry Statistics
1. The events industry is expected to reach $1,552.9 billion by 2028.
The global event management industry was worth $1,135.4 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.2% over the next seven years. The top events market stakeholders include corporations, public organizations, and NGOs.
(Allied Market Research)
2. In the US, the party and event planning market size is worth $3.2 billion in 2022.
The market had grown by 4% by the start of 2022 after a negative -9.1% annualized growth from 2016 to 2021, a decline larger than the economy’s overall average. The areas expected to improve, according to event industry statistics, include corporate events, holiday parties, and professional social occasions such as company picnics and similar.
(Ibis World)
3. 85% of marketers report that their companies treat sponsoring events as a priority.
Up to 70% meanwhile say that the need to confirm the results from sponsorships has increased in the last two years. Still fewer than half have a standardized way of measuring event sponsorship and 25% don’t analyze the sponsorship data for future events spending.
30% plan to increase sponsorship spending, and 75% of sponsors on the event planning market are searching for new partners.
The most sponsored events are trade shows and conventions, followed by one-day conferences and seminars, according to event industry statistics.
(Splash That)
4. Around 54% of event organizers in the professional services industry use events to increase brand awareness.
Using events to promote brands, products, and/or services seems to be a no-brainer for marketers. It’s no wonder then that as many as 64% cite brand awareness as the primary reason for hosting events for the company they work for.
(Bizzabo)
5. 97% of media marketers said in-person events greatly affect business goals.
Event marketing statistics indicate that around 24% of media industry companies spend over 51% of their marketing budgets on in-person events. The majority (48%), however, spend 1% to 20%.
(Bizzabo)
Event Planning Industry Statistics
6. There are 7,426 trade show and conference planning companies in the US in 2022.
Event planning market research shows that the event industry segment of trade show and conference planning is up by 11.8% in 2022. Looking at the years between 2017 and 2022, the annualized growth is 8.2%. The biggest concentration of trade show and conference planning businesses is in California — 932, followed by Florida with 468 businesses, and New York with 429.
(Ibis World)
7. 31% of event marketers see trade shows and conferences as essential for business.
Conventions and channel events fall into the same category. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ expectations were that conventions and events would expand by 44% from 2010 to 2020, according to event industry statistics.
(Splash That)
8. The trade show and conference planning segment has 77,816 workers in the US in 2022.
The industry has seen remarkable employment growth of 15.3% from 2021 to 2022, especially against the background of the ongoing pandemic. Event planning industry analysis meanwhile points to a negative 3.4% growth in trade show and conference planning in the US.
(Ibis World)
9. Only 33% of event speakers in 2019 were women.
Event industry statistics about the gender of speakers by event type show that summits were the least diverse type of event (85% male vs. 15% female speakers), while education management saw a party of genders. Job search and info sessions meanwhile stand out with the biggest percentage of female speakers (69% female vs. 31% male speakers).
(Bizzabo)
10. There are 335,785 wedding planning companies in the US in 2022.
Event planning industry statistics show the overall wedding services industry growth in the years from 2017 to 2022 has suffered a 0.9% decline, but currently, this event planning segment shows good signs of recovery with a growth of 1.6% in 2022.
Most of these businesses are located in California, a total of 59,077, followed by New York with 36,716, and Texas with 34,365.
(Ibis World)
11. There are 933,341 wedding services workers in the US in 2022.
Wedding services recorded a 1.1% employment growth in 2022, marking an improvement compared to the annualized negative growth of -4.8% in the past five years. Event planning industry statistics, however, also show that the revenue per employee for the average business in this sector has dropped between 2017 and 2022.
(Ibis World)
12. 85% of event planners are still optimistic about their job security.
Up to 89% of event planners say they love their jobs and are not losing hope. The event industry outlook is positive overall as the job market is expected to grow at a rate of 11% and reach 5.9 million jobs as Covid restrictions get lifted and the pandemic slows down, according to event industry statistics.
(In Event)
13. Concert and event promotion businesses are up 9.1%.
There are 73,414 Concert and Event Promotion Businesses in the US in 2022. They show bigger growth this year than the annualized one from 2017 to 2022 which stood at 0.3%.
The States with the most concert and event promotion businesses are California — 1,104, New York — 794 businesses, and Florida — 603 businesses, according to event management industry statistics.
(Ibis World)
14. There are 231,778 concert and event promotion workers in the US.
The growth of the concert and event promotion segment in 2022 is 28.1% while the annualized growth over the past five years is -1.4%.
Wages of the employees amounted to $5.7 billion in the US in 2021, according to event management industry statistics, which is a significant growth of 30.6% compared to the annualized negative growth rate of -1.4% from 2017 to 2022.
(Ibis World)
15. There are 61,047 party and event planners businesses in the US.
This segment has suffered a negative growth of -3.5% in 2022 as the changes brought by the global pandemic are still ongoing. But it is not possible to blame it all on the Covid-19 crisis, as the tendency is there for the past five years showing a -14.3% annualized growth between 2017 and 2022.
Most party planners are located in Florida, a total of 2,208 businesses, followed by California with 2,154, and Texas with 1,262, event industry statistics show.
(Ibis World)
16. Around $781.5 million is going to party/event planners’ wages in the US in 2022.
This year, the wages of party and event planners are seeing a small increase — 0.9%. Still, it is better than the situation employees faced over the last five years when the wages declined by -7.3% on average in the years between 2017 and 2022.
Event management industry statistics reveal the average salary for this industry segment was $66,822 in 2022.
(Ibis World)
17. The cancellation costs of 10 major tech conferences were over $1.1 billion in 2020.
Ticket prices for the most popular tech conferences were expected to cost up to $4,000 in 2020. But the reality was different as many events were postponed or canceled with huge losses.
Let’s look at some of the losses in event planning industry statistics:
- Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which had 109,700 attendees in 2019, suffered $480 million in direct losses
- SXSW in Austin, Texas, had $350 million in direct losses
- E3 in Los Angeles, California, saw $75 million in direct losses
- Google I/O in Mountain View, California, with 7,000 in-person attendees in 2019, streamed to 530 events worldwide, had $20 million in direct losses
Missing even one conference for event management companies, vendors and attendees is a massive loss in future business chances and so missing, missing a single conference can mean huge losses in income and future opportunities. Event management industry statistics show that missing SXSW led to around $4,285,037 in lost income for businesses.
(Data Connectors)
The Bottom Line
The events industry has suffered unexpected blows with the pandemic but has also gained valuable new experiences and skills for the years to come.
Travel costs are drastically reduced and the number of virtual attendees is on the rise. Still, face-to-face events are something everyone is eager to return to and their big comeback is expected to happen in 2023, event industry statistics indicate. In the meantime, employment and wages data point to a gradual recovery as the industry adjusts to the post-pandemic reality.
FAQ
How much is the event industry worth?
The event sector was worth $1,135.4 billion in 2019, according to one event industry report, and is expected to grow to $1,552.9 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of 11.2% from 2021 to 2028, according to event planning industry statistics.
(Globe Newswire)
How much does the events industry contribute to GDP?
The events industry contributed $1.5 trillion to the GDP in 2017, generating more sales than consumer electronics, computers, and office equipment.
(Event Council)
How much is the event industry worth in the UK?
The events management industry in the UK is worth £42.3 billion ($57.4 billion). The contrast of per pandemic and endemic year is very stark in the UK event industry statistics. The number of business events fell from 1.4 million in 2019 to barely 195,000 in 2020.
(Statista, Eventbrite)
How many people are employed by the events industry?
The events industry employs around 1,000,000 workers directly in the live events sector and supports around 2.5 million jobs indirectly.
(Quadrant 2 Design, Ibis World)
Sources: Allied Market Research, Ibis World, Splash That, Ibis World, Bizzabo, UC Today, Ibis World, Data Connectors, Ibis World, Ibis World, In Event, Ibis World, Ibis World, Ibis World, Ibis World, Ibis World, Globe Newswire, Event Council, Statista, Eventbrite, Quadrant 2 Design
