Insight
How event teams can do more with less
RODNEY HART, VP OF EVENTS, RAINFOCUS, ADVOCATES TEMPLATISATION WHERE POSSIBLE FOR INTERNATIONAL EVENTS, TO LEAVE MORE TIME AND MONEY FOR PERSONALISATION
E vent teams face increasing
pressure as timelines shorten, budgets tighten, and costs rise. Amex GBT’ s 2026 forecast reports that 71 % of meetings professionals expect higher costs in 2026, largely due to wage inflation and rising food and beverage prices. For international conference teams that pressure is more intense because one programme may involve multiple regions, languages, vendors, accessibility needs, and approval paths.
At the same time, attendee expectations remain the same – registration needs to be simple, content needs to feel relevant, and communications need to be clear.
Most event teams are having to do more with less. Event templatisation is one solution to this challenge. With an event template that supports governance, compliance, branding, and integrations, event teams can spend less time building an event from scratch, and more time on the areas that make the most impact, such as attendee personalisation.
Standardisation to avoid rebuilding International events have many moving parts, but for a single organisation, many pieces might remain the same from event to event. For example, registration questions, confirmation emails, approval steps, accessibility checks, compliance requirements, and post-event workflows can often be standardised in advance.
Creating an easily repeatable foundation gives teams more time and flexibility. If the basics are already built, planners can spend more time
on content and personalisation. Many organisations now build registration pages, attendee communications, and workflows using dynamic event variables that automatically update dates, locations, speakers, and other event-specific details, such as the agenda, speakers, language needs, audience segments and cultural context. A conference in London shouldn’ t feel identical to one in Singapore, but the team behind it shouldn’ t have to recreate every operational step from scratch. The underlying framework can remain consistent while customer stories, speakers, examples, and networking opportunities are tailored to the local audience.
For organisations running events that span multiple countries or venues, consistency matters. Without a standardised approach, teams will often create their own processes, leading to uneven branding, siloed data, and differing attendee experiences. A good template provides uniformity without taking away a team’ s power to customise the event.
Leveraging data in real time Taking advantage of the data available pre-event can support planners in understanding areas of their event that might require adjustments to ensure a successful programme.
Registration trends can show whether the right audience is engaged and session interest can help teams adjust content, staffing, or room assignments. Historical attendance patterns and current registration trends can also help teams make more accurate projections for food and beverage commitments, room capacities, and staffing needs.
Unified data collection makes those decisions easy and seamless. If every event captures information differently, teams can’ t see what is working or what needs to be adjusted.
Automation can play a critical role, removing repetitive tasks so teams can focus on building relationships and creating the moments attendees will appreciate and remember. Protect the experience when pressure hits Even when times are tough or uncertain, the attendee experience should remain a priority. The small details matter. Teams should proactively determine which aspects of the event experience are essential. For international events, that often means identifying where standardisation creates efficiency and where localisation creates value.
Doing more with less doesn’ t mean lowering standards. It means creating efficient, repeatable systems that don’ t require extraordinary individual effort each time. n
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