Some 59% of Gen Z respondents would not attend an event without knowing anyone else attending Photo Credit: iStock/ViewApart
For meeting planners, the question to ask is no longer why people are attending events, but why they are not, according to the newly published NextGen-Proofing Your Event report by Maritz.
With associations typically seeing only 10-20% of members attend their flagship annual events, the remaining majority represents a sizeable audience who are not properly compelled to attend.
Much of the discussion centres on Gen Z, a socially anxious group expected to make up 35% of the workforce by 2030.
Social anxiety
For younger generations especially, the decision to attend is often tied to whether the experience feels personally relevant and emotionally comfortable.
While 95% of Gen Z recognise the importance of business connections for career success, 82% want to feel more comfortable with face-to-face interactions.
Some 59% of Gen Z respondents said they would avoid an event if they did not know anyone else attending – significantly higher than other age groups – while only two in five felt confident networking within their industry.
Importantly, over half (52%) of Gen Z considers business travel very/fairly stressful – well above older generations.
What planners can do: Increasingly, attendees are seeking spaces where connection happens more naturally. They are drawn to micro-communities and shared-interest environments built around passions, hobbies and identities rather than broad industry demographics alone.
The Maritz report suggested that activity-led formats such as gaming sessions, creative workshops, wellness gatherings, fandom communities and culinary experiences can create softer entry points into interaction.
Personalisation ≠ more choices
Against this backdrop, personalisation is becoming a critical differentiator – though not necessarily in the way many organisers assume.
The report argues that personalisation is not about offering attendees endless choices. In fact, too many choices can increase decision fatigue, anxiety and dissatisfaction. Instead, attendees want to feel understood well enough for the most relevant options to be surfaced intuitively.
“Consumers don’t want more choice. Choice is a tax. They want confidence in the choices presented. They want someone else to do the research and curate options for them.”
Marketing professor Scott Galloway
How planners can respond: This creates an opportunity for organisers to rethink the role of registration and attendee profiling.
Rather than collecting only standard demographic information such as role, tenure or budget, planners can use registration journeys to better understand attendees’ motivations, interests, preferred learning styles and personal goals. Interactive quizzes and preference-based prompts can help generate richer behavioural insights while simultaneously creating a more engaging onboarding experience.
That information can then be used to deliver tailored recommendations ranging from suggested sessions and networking introductions to exhibitor matches, wellness activities and local experiences aligned with individual interests.
Work-life flexibility as a default
Personalisation is not an unfair expectation when considering how the “great reset” brought on by the pandemic unleashed a new normal of work flexibility in which professional and personal lives became intertwined like never before.
“This caused us to reckon with whether we’re spending our time in the ways we value. It opened up previously restricted possibilities of how we configure our work and our lives, from the hours we work to where we work, to how we collaborate and learn. A work week that was previously 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in an office for five days might now consist of a blend of coming to an office for meetings, working outside at a café, and flexibility to walk the dog, do a load of laundry or meet with a child’s teacher over Zoom,” the report’s authors stated.
Now, bleisure opportunities and schedule flexibility have increasingly become expected even as employees attend work events.
Research cited in the report found that 89% of attendees want leisure time built into trips, while 73% view bleisure opportunities as an employee benefit.