B2B events are no longer just spaces for brand exposure and networking. Increasingly, companies need to understand how face-to-face meetings can contribute to generating business, building customer relationships, and advancing their sales pipeline.
This was one of the main points discussed at the “Field Marketing iTalks – From Presence to Revenue: Measurement, influence and real impact of B2B events”, an event that brought together professionals from companies such as IBM, Udemy, Oracle, TP and Denodo in São Paulo to discuss field marketing strategies aimed at increasing results.
The main conclusion? There is no ideal format! The event needs to start with a more important question: what result does the company expect to generate with that initiative?
The event begins before the event.
One of the most recurring concerns in B2B events is no-shows. For Samia de Felice, from the consulting firm TP, the solution lies in making clear, from the first contact, why that experience deserves the audience's attention.
“The value of the event needs to be very clear. We work a lot with a cadence of invitation, registration, and confirmation. Registration is not an invitation. The person registers, we do an evaluation, and then we inform them that they have been selected to participate. This creates a certain exclusivity and makes the person understand that it really has value,” said Samia.
Claudinei Gonsalves, Sales Manager at R1 Luxury Hospitality, emphasized that, especially at events aimed at executives, the relationship needs to begin before the meeting. A personal message sent by one executive to another, for example, can make a difference in the guest's attendance.
“We work a lot on rapport (a psychological technique that means creating a relationship of empathy, harmony, and trust with another person) before the event. In a B2B committee, for example, we have a list of 30 people we really want to work with. The director talks to the director, the CEO talks to the CEO. An informal message a week before saying 'I'll be there, I hope to see you' makes a huge difference, because that lead is already in the funnel,” the executive revealed.
The choice of audience, therefore, is just as important as the number of participants. In many cases, a smaller, highly qualified event can generate more value than a large-scale initiative.
Smaller events are gaining ground in the B2B market.
Changes in audience behavior have also altered the format of events. Large trade shows remain important for brand building and reach, but smaller gatherings allow for a more personalized approach.
Flavia Perssonelli, Marketing Director at Denodo, highlighted that even seemingly operational factors, such as location and time of day, can determine the success of an initiative.
“Sometimes you spend a little more to have a more attractive location, a better experience, and you get 20 people instead of 50. It's much more efficient. We've held events in a beautiful, inexpensive place, but on the other side of town, at 18 pm. People aren't going to cross the city at that time. So it's not simply about spending less. It's about understanding where your audience is and what makes sense for them,” he revealed.
For Samia, networking is one of the main assets of an in-person experience. “With so much free content available online, nobody leaves home anymore unless they see value in it. And, in B2B, one of the greatest values is networking. It's about being able to be with people who have similar challenges, exchange experiences, and create connections that wouldn't happen in a webinar.”
Another strategy highlighted by participants was co-marketing, bringing companies and partners together around a common value proposition. In addition to expanding reach, the initiative allows for shared audiences and strengthens the experience offered.
Content is part of the experience.
Events can also be used for much more than lead generation. “It’s very powerful for cross-selling and upselling. Especially in the enterprise sector, relationship building is very important. Sometimes a client visit, a meeting with a C-level executive, or a more individualized conversation generates far better results than simply putting someone in an event,” stated Flavia Perssonelli.
Logic also appears in TP's strategy, which uses content to attract the right audience before directly presenting its solution. "We bring in people from the market to talk about the pain points. People come to listen to that content, identify with the problem, and then we show them the platform. The connection begins with the content and the identification with the pain point, and this generates much greater engagement from the first contact," said Samia.
From event to pipeline: the work continues afterwards.
If the event is just the beginning of the journey, the post-event phase needs to be connected to other marketing and sales actions.
At IBM, this process is particularly important given business cycles that can last for months. Pedro Amaral, Director of Field Marketing, explained that each interaction helps build an account's journey.
“We have solutions whose sales cycle can take eight, ten months. So we need to map various points of contact with different stakeholders. The person downloaded material, went to the website, participated in a webinar, a podcast, went to an event, had a meeting with an executive. All of this builds the journey of that account,” Pedro explained.
Technology helps to navigate this path, but it doesn't eliminate the need for human oversight. Ana Carolina Almeida, Marketing Director at Udemy, drew attention to a common problem: the loss of information when marketing and sales don't work in an integrated way.
“The challenge is to make the process foolproof. If a person participates in an event, enters the CRM, but the salesperson creates a new lead instead of converting that contact, we lose the entire history. That's why, in Enterprise, there's very close monitoring with sales,” the executive emphasized.
ROI for events requires integration between marketing and sales.
Measuring the return on investment of an event means tracking what happens afterward. How many leads progressed? How many meetings were held? Was there a demonstration? Was an opportunity created? Did the event influence a sale?
According to Flavia Perssonelli, marketing and sales need to work together to monitor these stages. “After the event, we follow up with BDRs, sales, and the technical team. We check if the salesperson made contact, if the BDR called, if there was a technical demonstration. This is what allows us to prove the ROI. In the end, everyone has the same goal: to sell,” stated Flavia.
When a company measures the return on investment (ROI) of an event, it's not enough to track leads and opportunities. It's necessary to know precisely how much was invested to generate that result.
Location, food, suppliers, materials, travel, accommodation, gifts, and experiences can represent dozens of different expenses within a single initiative. Without visibility and control, the budget can deviate from the plan and make it difficult to accurately analyze the return on investment.
This is where financial management connects to field marketing strategy. Solutions like those offered by PagCorp allow the use of physical and virtual corporate cards with defined limits, real-time expense tracking, and centralized information about company spending.
In practice, this helps marketing teams have more control over the resources allocated to events, while financial managers can see where the money is being used and relate the investment to initiatives that generate results.
There is no single format for a B2B event.
For Flavia, the trend is not to replace large events with smaller gatherings, but to combine different formats according to the objective. “There is no magic formula. It’s a mix. The large event is important for brand exposure, while smaller events ensure you are speaking to the right audience. The hardest thing today is getting the audience right.”
This combination needs to begin in the annual planning phase, but remain open to adjustments. Samia argued that the format should align with the business goal.
“If the goal is retention, smaller, recurring meetings may make more sense. For large-scale acquisition, major trade shows remain relevant. When the priority is relationship building or expanding the customer base, more exclusive experiences can deliver better results,” stated the TP executive.
The future of B2B events will be more strategic.
The discussion at Field Marketing iTalks 2026 points to an important transformation: events don't necessarily need to be bigger, more sophisticated, or more expensive. They need to be more relevant to participants and more aligned with the company's objectives.
This means combining relationship building, content, data, technology, marketing, and sales into a single strategy. It also means tracking results and controlling the resources used in each initiative.
Ultimately, turning presence into revenue depends less on the size of the event and more on the ability to connect each stage of the experience to a business strategy. And, in this process, measuring results and controlling expenses are parts of the same equation.
Images: PagCorp
