According to RainFocus' 2026 Mid-Year State of Events Report, average session attendance per attendee fell from 5.3 in spring 2025 to 4.2 in spring 2026. Over the same period, participation in scheduled meetings climbed as much as threefold year over year. 

"Attendees want conversations, not just presentations," said JR Sherman, CEO of RainFocus. "This data supports the shift that we had already been observing."

Brent Turner, EVP of Strategy and Solutions at Opus Agency, calls this an event's "interactive life"—the moments "that cannot be recorded or summarized by AI."

This shift forces event leaders to answer two distinct questions:

1. Why hold a live event at all?
2. Why get people in a room together?

Read the full article on Skift for insights on how smaller, more gamified design approaches could be the answer.  

Stay tuned to Happenings for more perspectives from the leaders fueling the future of brand movements.