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When companies build a marketing budget, the event is usually first in line to be cut. It sounds expensive, it’s hard to measure, and you don’t see the result right away. After years in this business I see it the other way. An event isn’t a cost. It’s an investment, and it pays back differently than we expect.

The difference is in what you count. Count only one day, the venue and the catering, and the number always looks high. Count the relationships, the trust and the content that lives on for months, and the picture flips.

The numbers back it up

I’m not alone in this. In 2025 HockeyStack analysed event marketing across 198 B2B companies. 72 % of marketers named events their most effective channel, and more than half credited events with at least half of the deals they closed that year. Event-sourced opportunities also close at a 40 % rate, the best result of any channel. So the event isn’t the most expensive line in the budget. It’s often the one that pays back the most.

Why live still wins

A live meeting builds trust, and trust can’t be downloaded or forwarded. David Csino, Marketing Director at Alanata, said it plainly on our podcast: „We’re not a product company. We build relationships and trust.” Relationships can’t be bought in a single day.

And once you stop seeing an event as a cost, the way you prepare it changes too. The camera shouldn’t be filming the catering. From the speakers, the panels and the topics you build articles, videos and newsletters afterwards, so one day turns into months of content.

At Creative Pro, that’s how we work. We build an experience with a clear point, one that keeps going in content and in relationships.

So next time you open the budget with „how much will this cost us”, flip the question. What will it bring us, and how long will we live off it? The answer usually surprises people.

Listen to the full conversation with David Csino on the Deje sa to! podcast (in Slovak language): https://youtu.be/Qz2BMcwotd8

Štefan Hric, Managing Partner, Creative Pro Group

I believe events can change the world. For the better.

Data source: HockeyStack, State of Event Marketing 2025: https://www.hockeystack.com/lab-blog-posts/the-state-of-event-marketing-in-2025-so-far