Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Informa CMO Jill Dougan recently urged the event industry to move beyond raw attendance metrics. Learn how tracking audience value impacts field operations.
On September 14, 2026, TSNN published an interview with Informa Group CMO Jill Dougan that addressed the future of event marketing. The conversation took place during Connect Marketplace and centered on how data and artificial intelligence will reshape live event operations. Dougan joined Informa in June 2024 after more than 30 years in marketing, sales, customer insight, and brand roles. Her commentary signals a shift in how large event organizers plan to measure success on the trade show floor.
The core of Dougan's strategy involves the "One Informa" transformation program. TSNN describes One Informa as an initiative intended to bring together the company's brands, data, and capabilities. The goal is to make interactions more seamless for both exhibitors and attendees. Dougan views Informa's people, events, and data as commercial assets that the marketing division should connect more effectively.
Informa operates B2B Live Events businesses that include Informa Markets, Informa Connect, and Informa Festivals. TSNN reports that the division produces more than 450 large-scale events annually. Approximately 140 of those properties generate more than $1 million in revenue each. The portfolio features major properties such as Natural Products Expo West and CPHI Worldwide. Other massive shows under the umbrella include Black Hat USA, Cannes Lions, and Money20/20.
According to figures reported by TSNN, Informa generated $5.38 billion in 2025 full-year revenue. The B2B Live Events business then recorded 8 percent underlying growth in the first half of 2026. TSNN explicitly discloses that it is owned by Informa, which provides context for the article's positive descriptions of the company's strategy. These growth figures illustrate the massive scale of the operation.
Despite this financial success, Dougan argues that performance reporting must evolve past raw revenue. She stated that event success should include commercial results alongside audience engagement, customer satisfaction, and value delivered. She also noted that marketing is going to be impacted by artificial intelligence. Her position is that marketers need the right technology to track these varied metrics rather than just accumulating software.
For consumer packaged goods and beverage brands relying on physical activations, this conversation validates a hard truth. Raw attendance numbers do not automatically translate into qualified pipeline. An activation at a major show might draw thousands of passive looks from passing foot traffic. If those interactions fail to produce verified retail movement, the field budget is wasted on vanity metrics.
Brands must stop judging a live activation by how busy the footprint looks. Many marketing teams struggle to measure real Return on Investment from live events. We see this gap consistently when brands rely entirely on badge scans without tracking the actual customer experience. The goal must be turning a physical interaction into a trackable business asset that supports future sales.
We provide clear reporting on reach, trials, leads, and sales to guide next steps in campaign optimization. Our measurement approach tracks awareness, engagement, and conversion to prove actual performance. This method turns brand moments into actionable data that demonstrates business impact. When event producers begin prioritizing audience value over pure volume, exhibiting brands must adapt their own tracking frameworks.
Over thirty years of specialized national execution experience has shown us that hope is not a strategy for live events. You cannot launch creative, street-level ideas that surprise and delight unless you have a mechanism to track the resulting word of mouth. Marketers face intense pressure to prove event success through qualified pipeline rather than just counting the crowd. The industry is moving away from passive observation and toward active, measurable participation.
Executing this level of measurement requires specialized focus on the nuances of CPG, food, and beverage sectors. Low quality leads from crowded trade shows often result from scattered attention and poor booth flow. You have to capture the data accurately before the attendee gets distracted by a competing display. Measuring engagement means establishing strict boundaries around how a consumer interacts with the sampling product.
This shift toward comprehensive measurement changes how field teams must operate on the ground. You cannot wait until the trade show opens to figure out how you will measure satisfaction or engagement. Field managers must design data capture protocols before the first brand ambassador clocks in. Every physical touchpoint must align with a specific reporting objective.
Structuring an event for data collection impacts booth layout, permitting, and footprint flow. To measure trial-to-purchase behavior, the physical space must guide attendees toward a structured opt-in point. This requires disciplined staging, clear signage, and trained staff who know how to close a conversation. Navigating complex event logistics, permits, and staffing is mandatory to build an environment that actually supports data collection.
Stricter success criteria also force marketing teams to plan their technology investments carefully. When you maintain structured event KPIs, you can forecast outcomes with precision based on historical data. Teams must connect digital and real-world touchpoints to boost visibility and spark measurable brand conversations. This alignment ensures that every dollar spent on physical infrastructure contributes to the final measurement goal.
Artificial intelligence will likely play a role in processing this complex post-event data. AI applications can help teams segment audiences, research prospects, or analyze engagement patterns after the event concludes. A scalable event operations model must integrate these tools without slowing down the actual consumer interaction. Technology should support the human connection rather than interrupting the natural flow of a retail demonstration.
Inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing will ruin even the best live activation. If your ambassadors collect great feedback but the data sits in a spreadsheet for three weeks, the pipeline goes cold. Brands need end-to-end integrated services from permitting to CRM reporting to ensure continuity. Capturing audience value requires treating the logistics of data flow with the same rigor as shipping the physical booth.
Logistics play a massive role in ensuring the data capture actually works on site. We store your sampling product and event gear, then ship, track, and coordinate delivery nationwide so every activation stays on schedule. If a custom scanning kiosk arrives late or a venue delays a power permit, the entire measurement framework collapses. Operational excellence is what allows advanced data models to function accurately in the real world.
The risk of relying entirely on commercial metrics is that teams lose sight of the actual attendee experience. If a brand pushes too hard for a sale without providing a meaningful interaction, the relationship stalls. Dougan offered a concise warning regarding customer satisfaction during her interview. She said, "If they don't see value in it, they won't come back."
That simple statement is the foundation of effective experiential marketing. Whether you manage a massive expo footprint or a targeted mobile sampling tour, the participant must receive immediate value. Delivering relevant content, a useful product demonstration, or a frictionless next step builds the trust required for future sales. Consumers trade their data for experiences that actually matter to them.
Trade shows and consumer events are crowded environments where attention is fiercely contested. If an activation feels like a mechanical lead-generation trap, attendees will avoid the space entirely. Brands must design memorable live experiences that bring people together through authentic interaction and emotion. The physical environment has to prove its worth to the consumer before the brand can extract any business value.
This dynamic is especially obvious during high-volume regional roadshows. We manage end-to-end Costco roadshows that bring brands to shoppers through live demos, real conversations, and measurable sales impact. If the shopper feels rushed or pressured, they will simply walk past the demonstration cart. Securing their attention requires a highly trained ambassador who knows how to deliver value before asking for a purchase.
Measuring audience engagement and customer value requires a tighter grip on field operations. Live events offer the best opportunity to build pipeline, provided the execution matches the strategic intent. Marketers must build real-time first-party data collection directly into their physical builds.
Are your field marketing operations structured to capture trackable business value, or are you still just counting the crowd?
Shifting event measurement from raw attendance to tracked audience value requires precise data capture at the physical point of interaction. When difficulty measuring real Return on Investment from live events challenges your reporting, Makai builds the controlled environments needed to verify performance. Through our Experiential Marketing capability, we create hands on brand moments that connect emotionally and turn customers into ambassadors.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
