Freeman’s latest 71 page Trends Report on Learning at Events is eye opening to say the least.
There’s a scary gap between the value that events think they’re delivering with their education and what attendees actually want.
It’s likely contributing to the industry's 27% average attendee retention rate pointed out in Freeman’s 2025 End-of-Year Trends Recap.
However, despite the economic and geopolitical challenges events are facing, learning is still a top reason to attend. Especially for the growing Now/New/Next Generation of event attendees (Millennials and Gen Z).
70% of attendees surveyed in the research say In-person Conferences, Tradeshows, and other events are their primary source for professional learning.
But, there’s heavy competition for similar education:
48% say Online events (webinars, livestreams)
32% say Professional and Trade Organizations (Associations)
29% say Online/On-demand training (LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
Most events try to differentiate with content programming and session format.
83% of organizers think content programming is a value differentiator that makes attendees want to return to the event.
In contrast, only 42% of attendees agree!
On top of that, only 19% say session format makes in-person learning/education sessions unique compared with online learning/education.
So what do your attendees want from your event education?
And how do you deliver it to meet their expectations so they choose your event and keep coming back?
In short, attendees are there to learn to meet their objectives and outcomes.
Measuring whether or not your education is delivering on these expectations is another challenge. More on that later…
Either way, most organizers have recognized these goals for learning. So they’ve increased session volume as a value-add.
Except it’s created an overprogramming trap. Attendees can’t be everywhere at once, and they don’t want to miss out.
91% of attendees say that access to on-demand session recordings is important.
Yet, 72% of organizers say budget is an issue slowing change.
Although, recording and/or live streaming sessions doesn’t have to be a big expensive production.
Using software instead of cameras and techs makes it scalable, affordable, and far more valuable.
But, dumping hours of recordings on attendees creates “content fatigue” and low engagement.
83% of attendees say they want AI to summarize key highlights with bookmarks/chapters/search.
Then again, not all AI summaries are created equal. Most solutions only capture the audio transcription. They miss the important visual content and provide little value beyond glorified session descriptions.
However, recording and using AI are only part of a successful content strategy because they only focus on post-event value. They completely miss the learning strategy opportunity to engage attendees during sessions, when it actually matters!
89% of attendees say better interaction, impact, and enhanced engagement is the biggest differentiator for in-person learning/education sessions compared with online learning/education.
You would have to "Frankenstein" a solution with 4-5 vendors at 4-5x the cost to engage attendees during and after sessions:
• Visual+Audio Recording/Live Streaming
• Interactive Note-taking
• Multilingual Live Captioning
• Q&A + Live Polling
• AI Summaries
…and it still wouldn’t deliver a seamless and comprehensive learning experience that can measure real attendee engagement across the entire solution, during and after the event.
Freeman’s research shows the importance for content strategy to include a learning strategy that engages attendees onsite and differentiates their experience so they choose your event and keep coming back.
See how NoteAffect’s event-engage personalized interactive learning experience + AI-powered content strategy turns your event education into a strategic advantage to anchor attendance, extend content value, and future proof your event.