Charlie Le Rougetel, founder and managing director, Big Top
So, a few weeks ago, we asked a load of exhibition and event marketers what 2026 is looking like for them. What’s shaping their decisions right now? What’s defining their strategies for the year ahead?
We expected to be smacked in the face with ‘AI this’ and ‘AI that’. And yes, that did happen. Over 80% said AI was on their minds. The increasing use of it, when and where to integrate it wisely, how to ‘beat the bot’.
But AI is only one of a handful of trends quietly needling marketers this year. Another big theme? So-called ‘unshittification’. The antidote to enshittification (Cory Doctorow’s term for the slow, deliberate decline of online platforms), unshittification is the mission to ditch the soulless, one-size-fits-all, commercially-driven marketing that creeps in when time and resources are tight and you’re juggling an entire portfolio of events with seemingly little respite.
The obvious response to that is: ‘Isn’t that exactly the kind of bland, beige, swipe-left content that AI churns out?’ Yes, it is. The two are absolutely connected. And according to our smart pollsters there are ways to do both better. In fact, if you want to expand your visitor/exhibitor/geographical reach this year, it’s quite important.
What’s keeping marketers awake at night?
The top five trends keeping our marketers awake at night – and not necessarily in a bad way – are:
AI
Using AI for event marketing feels like a no brainer. Email copy in seconds, an instant website refresh, media partner contacts at your fingertips.
But a word of caution: use sparingly, and always with human oversight. Automation can save time and spark ideas, but it can’t deliver a human voice, creativity, originality, nuance or genuine personalisation. Lean on it too heavily, you’re heading right back to “enshittification” territory and your audience will scroll right past. For now, treat AI as a junior member of the team; helpful but not ready to run the show.
Where AI is starting to shine is in event planning itself. Digital twinning is emerging as a way to predict audience behaviour and needs before an event even exists. But that’s a tangent for another time.
Authenticity
We’ve talked about authenticity for years. And for over 70% of our marketers, it’s still non-negotiable. They emphasised the need for human-led marketing; for truly understanding your audience and delivering messages that are simple, real, considered and genuinely helpful. High production values for your content are not essential – but trust and value are.
Personalisation
In recent years, streaming and e-commerce have made hyper-personalisation feel like a basic human right. No surprise then, that more than 40% of our marketers say it’s a priority for them. Personally (no pun intended), that number feels very low. There’s no going backwards. Audiences will continue to expect more, not less, and younger audiences, in particular, demand messaging that feels personal, relevant and meaningful if it’s going to cut through.
Community voices (the ultimate content)
Over 35% of our marketers said UGC (user-generated content) and real people will be central to their 2026 campaigns. Again, I feel that figure should be much higher. After spending 30+ years in PR, I can confidently say: no one sells your event better than the people who already attend it and love it. So, use them. In everything: ads, PR, social, emails, on the website and at the event itself.
UGC is authentic, credible, original, raw, true, relevant and personal. It ticks every box on the 2026 event marketer’s wishlist. It’s the ultimate influencer content. These people know your market and your audience sometimes better than you do. And they are free! Let them help you build a community (isn’t that what events do best, after all?). A glorious pyramid of advocates doing your job for you – isn’t that the dream?
Being wary of relying too heavily on AI
The message we got back from our marketers was clear: AI works best when it supports good thinking, not when it replaces it. Use automation tools but apply them intelligently and always with a human filter. Because if AI is going to help you deliver creative, authentic, relevant campaigns that stop the scroll and achieve your objectives, then human judgement has to lead.