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There’s always another event to plan.
But deciding what kind of event makes sense? That’s the part that takes a little more thinking.
Sometimes you’re aiming for leads. Other times, it’s community, brand awareness, or just bringing the right people into the same (virtual or physical) room.
So, which event format should you pick? It comes down to understanding how different events work and what it takes to run each one successfully.
We’ll walk you through the different types of events by format, audience, and purpose. You’ll also get tips on the event tech that can help make each one easier to manage.
The format of your event is the foundation of your planning process. Will people gather in a physical space, join from their devices, or experience a blend of both? Your decision will shape everything that follows.
In-person events are one of the most effective types of events to host when your goal is to build genuine connections. According to a LinkedIn poll by vFairs, 67% of respondents said in-person events are extremely important, while another 25% found them fairly significant.
You’ll find many different types of events fall under this category. Some of the most popular ones include:
Conferences and conventions are in-person events popular among the B2B crowd. Organizers use them to bring professionals together, share insights, and create space for collaboration. Most include keynotes, panels, and networking opportunities designed to build real-world connections.
You can plan a conference to build thought leadership or foster professional networking. Conventions, meanwhile, work great for community engagement or promoting a wider range of products and services.
Need help organizing your next business event? Here’s a guide to corporate event planning to get you started.
Trade shows give you a chance to show off your newest products and introduce your brand to other businesses or the general public. Since the point of a trade show is to showcase products, it usually takes place in a large space that can fit multiple vendors.
Trade shows are especially effective for achieving business goals like:
Sometimes the most productive business happens in casual settings. Social gatherings help companies build stronger connections with clients, partners, or internal teams in a relaxed environment.
These events can take many forms, from invite-only luncheons to informal mixers after a product launch or major announcement. For example, at vFairs, we host customer dinners after events to encourage networking and collect feedback in a more personal setting.
Social gatherings are commonly used for:
Want to do something similar? Take a look at our comprehensive guide to luncheon events for tips that can help.
Festivals bring people together in a way that feels easy and welcoming. Music, art, culture, or food give your audience something to enjoy while creating space for conversation and connection.
Many organizations use festivals to connect with their audiences in memorable ways. For example, Something Fest in Brisbane combines tech industry networking with a festival atmosphere through its five-day talks, panels, trade shows, and the River Rival pitch competition. This festival format turns professional development into an engaging experience that attendees look forward to.
Festivals can help you:
Concerts deliver powerful in-person experiences that create lasting impressions. Live music creates a unique atmosphere that brings your audience together, and companies of all sizes can adapt the concert format to align with their specific brand message.
For example, Techapella brings together a cappella groups from major tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Apple for annual Christmas concerts in San Francisco. Employees from different departments rehearse weekly before performing two public shows in celebrated music halls across the Bay Area. It showcases a different side of Silicon Valley’s competitive industry while creating meaningful connections that transcend corporate rivalries.
You can use a concert to promote a product launch by tying the performance to the reveal, offering exclusive access, or building hype before the drop. It can also boost campaign attendance by making the event feel less like a promotion and more like an experience.
Virtual events have been around for years. But they especially came into the spotlight after the pandemic and the rise of remote work in corporate spaces. These events make it easy to connect global audiences while offering benefits like lower costs and greater accessibility.
There are different types of virtual events you can host to meet your goals:
Conferences got an upgrade when event tech providers decided to integrate them into virtual platforms. Online conferences feature keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities, just like traditional conferences..
These digital events work especially well when powered by a robust event management platform. For example, SAPHNA used vFairs to host an engaging virtual conference for school nurses across the UK. The platform made it easy for them to organize live webinars and showcase student work in a dedicated poster hall, increasing overall engagement in the event.
With a virtual event, vFairs offered a robust platform that other video conferencing platforms couldn’t match, ensuring seamless navigation and impressive engagement. We were thrilled to have 200+ members present at our virtual conference, which was a great achievement. –Sallyann Sutton, Interim Professional Officer, SAPHNA.
Online conferences are well-suited to achieving goals like:
Webinars remain the most accessible entry point into virtual events. These single-session presentations typically run 30-60 minutes and focus on sharing expertise, demonstrating products, or exploring industry trends.
What makes webinars especially powerful is their flexibility. You can run them as standalone events or incorporate them into larger virtual conferences. Whether you want to generate leads or build thought leadership, webinars can help you get there.
Digital workshops give your team hands-on learning experiences without anyone boarding a plane. Unlike webinars, where people passively listen, workshops demand active participation, making them perfect for skills training that sticks.
What makes digital workshops so effective is their interactive format. Participants can work through problems together, share their screens for feedback, and break into smaller groups for focused practice.
Digital workshops can help you achieve these goals:
Virtual networking happens through events such as online meetups, industry webinars, virtual conferences, and even LinkedIn discussions. These events can help fulfill different business goals depending on how they’re used.
For example, a company that wants to attract talent can host an event that encourages potential candidates to network with its hiring team. Features like live Q&As and 1-to-1 meetings can be used to spark real conversations and give candidates a feel for the company culture.
For companies that want to expand their reach while keeping costs manageable, hybrid events make perfect sense. Going hybrid with your event means you can welcome in-person attendees while still engaging remote participants. It’s a flexible format that works across time zones, team sizes, and audience needs.
Your event’s success also depends on understanding who you’re trying to reach. Different audiences have different expectations, which means you’ll need to tailor your approach accordingly. Here’s how to think about events based on who they serve.
Internal events are company-hosted experiences designed for employees. They offer many of the same benefits as in-person events, but often at a lower cost and with greater flexibility for remote or hybrid teams.
Popular internal events to host:
Team-building activities are a type of internal event that helps employees connect and work better together. The goal with these is to improve how teams work together and build a strong company culture.
There are several approaches to team building, from in-person collaborative charity projects to virtual team building exercises like online scavenger hunts and virtual escape rooms. Choose based on your team’s location, preferences, and goals to create the most effective bonding experience.
When the goal is to keep everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction, company meetings step in to help. This internal event gives leadership a chance to share priorities and explain where the business is heading.
Company meetings can take different forms based on how you prefer to convey your message. For example, you can do an all-hands meeting where the whole team hears from top leadership, a department-level check-in to track progress, or a kickoff meeting to set goals for a new project. Choose based on what your team needs to hear and how much collaboration is required.
R&D events give your teams a platform to showcase innovations and share knowledge with colleagues. These internal gatherings spark collaboration and drive problem-solving across departments.
Cadence Design Systems used vFairs’ technology for their CadenceLIVE event, bringing together over 2,100 attendees to connect and share ideas. With features like personalized mobile apps and onsite support, they created an engaging experience that freed organizers to focus on content rather than logistics.
We told vFairs we needed everything—badge printing, session scanning, mobile app, lead capture, and customer service. And they took care of all of that for us. We love that we can ask their CEO directly for improvements, and it’s done. That’s one of the reasons we stick with vFairs, because they listen to our feedback so well and implement it and improve. – Colleen Neubauer, Events Manager
R&D events help you with:
Summits bring thought leaders together to tackle industry trends and challenges. They’re ideal when you want to position your organization as a leader in your field while creating valuable content and connections.
For example, a leading Canadian telecom company used vFairs’ technology to host their internal sales summit for 2,000+ attendees and 70+ sponsors. They created a central mobile app hub for communication, implemented engaging gamification features, and streamlined registration and check-in processes. Make sure your event tech includes features like these so you can enrich the attendee experience.
“99% of attendees loved the app. One even said that this is the easiest app they’ve ever used. Most people appreciated its engagement features, like chat and discussions. The scavenger hunt got people up, around, and talking. It was a huge piece to promote conversation and have different business units meet with each other. It was valuable for the business.”- Event Marketing Manager
Symposiums are small, topic-specific events where experts and professionals come together to share knowledge. You can host one by inviting a few industry leaders to speak, then open it up to others in the field who want to learn or contribute.
Symposiums are typically used for:
Company retreats are a popular event that brings employees together outside of the daily work setting. These are usually hosted away from the office, either in a nearby city or at an international destination, to help the team disconnect from routine and recharge in a new environment.
Company retreats can help you achieve business goals like:
Department gatherings bring together specific teams for focused collaboration, planning, or celebration. Unlike company-wide meetings, these smaller events address the unique needs and challenges of individual departments.
These gatherings might take the form of quarterly planning sessions, team lunches, or specialized workshops. The smaller size creates space for more candid conversations and focused problem-solving than larger company events allow.
21. Corporate Celebrations
Corporate celebrations are events meant for marking major successes. For instance, if your business hits a big milestone, closes a major deal, or celebrates an anniversary, this is the kind of event you plan to recognize.
For example, vFairs hosted our Eventeer Awards ceremony to celebrate client achievements. This virtual gala featured a red carpet entrance, virtual auditorium, and even a wrap party with a DJ, creating an engaging experience for 700 attendees while highlighting successful client events.
Corporate events like these are great for:
External events are planned experiences created for people outside your company. Your customers, leads, partners, and even the media can fall into this category. External events are ideal for generating business demand and building long-term brand visibility. External events can be organised as:
From tech startups to fashion brands and snack companies to car makers, many businesses use marketing activations to build brand awareness and spark interest in new products. These experiences are often part of broader field marketing events, where brands bring their message directly to where their audience lives, works, or shops.
Marketing activations give you the chance to connect with people through pop-ups and other immersive events. To make the most of them, remember to keep the experience fun, focused, and easy to share.
Career fairs, also known as job fairs, are popular events that companies host to meet and recruit potential candidates. If your company is actively hiring across departments, this can be the perfect event to help you connect with talent.
Career fairs can be enhanced with features like custom booths, live chat, and resume uploads. For example, Unilever Turkey used vFairs to host a virtual career fair where each department had its booth, and recruiters could interact directly with candidates and collect resumes in real time.
Career fairs are especially useful when your goal is to:
Beyond the standard formats, several specialized event types serve unique business purposes. These event types are designed with specific goals in mind and can be adapted to in-person, virtual, or hybrid formats depending on your needs
VIP experiences give your most important clients or prospects the red-carpet treatment they deserve. Think exclusive dinners, premium event access, or behind-the-scenes tours that simply aren’t available to everyone.
Companies host these events to:
Exclusive product previews let select audiences see what you’re working on before anyone else. These sneak-peek events generate excitement while gathering valuable feedback that can improve your final offering.
Businesses organize these previews to build anticipation before public launches and identify final tweaks based on user reactions. They also create a group of early adopters who feel special having seen it first, and who often become your most enthusiastic supporters when the product officially launches.
Events that feature celebrities are usually designed to endorse or bring visibility to the sponsoring brand.
Celebrity appearances work best when the guest is well-researched and aligns with the audience’s interests. You can use event tech to broadcast their session live and create interactive moments, like audience Q&As or social media shoutouts.
Charity events connect your organization with causes that matter to your community. From donation drives to silent auctions, these gatherings demonstrate your values while engaging different audience segments.
For example, the American Muslim Community Foundation used a silent auction feature during its Annual Symposium to collect donations for those in need. With the right platform, your events can combine fundraising with awareness-building, as they did by including educational sessions alongside their auction.
Charity events can help you:
More and more companies are hosting experiential marketing events, and it’s not hard to see why. These events allow businesses to engage customers in ways that other marketing methods just can’t.
Experiential marketing events support business goals like increasing brand awareness and fostering customer loyalty. For example, Tesla hosts product launch events where its customers can experience its cars firsthand by test-driving them. Such immersive experiences drive excitement and create emotional connections with the brand.
Satellite events (also known as micro events) extend the impact of your main conference or gathering. These supplementary experiences orbit around your primary event, allowing you to reach specific audience segments, introduce specialized content, or maintain momentum across different locations or timeframes.
Popular satellite event formats include :
Pre/post conference workshops are specialized training sessions held either before or after your main conference. These focused educational experiences offer deeper dives into specific topics, hands-on training, or skill development that complement the broader content of your primary event.
For example, HubSpot’s INBOUND hosts pre-conference happy hours for attendees to network and connect in a casual environment before the official programming begins. It also offers post-conference workshops where marketing professionals can get hands-on practice implementing strategies they learned during the main event.
You can use pre/post workshops to:
Regional extensions are smaller versions of your main event held in different geographic locations. These satellite events bring your content and experience closer to audiences who can’t travel to your primary venue, while maintaining the core elements that make your main event valuable.
Let’s say you’re based in New York but have customers across the country. You could host your main conference in NYC while setting up smaller regional events in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. Each location would livestream your keynote presentations while offering local networking and discussions tailored to regional interests.
These satellite events work great for expanding your brand’s reach and deepening customer relationships in key markets.
Virtual components are digital elements such as livestreams, webinars, or online sessions that complement an in-person gathering. A company may use these elements to enrich the attendee experience and to highlight sessions like keynotes or product launches.
For example, HubSpot’s 2024 INBOUND conference featured a 3-day YouTube livestream. With keynotes, product demos, and live chat, it gave attendees a chance to follow major sessions in real time and engage with the event from anywhere.
You can use virtual components to support goals like:
Industry meetups are sector-specific gatherings that focus on particular aspects of your main event’s theme. These targeted sessions create dedicated space for deeper discussions on specialized topics like emerging technologies, regulatory challenges, or market trends that might not receive enough attention in your general programming.
You can use industry meetups to:
Community events are less formal gatherings such as networking mixers, hackathons, creative workshops, or social activities. These events allow businesses to strengthen relationships with their community while creating fun, engaging experiences for attendees.
For example, the Starknet Winter Hackathon by StarkWare brought together blockchain enthusiasts who spent a weekend building innovative projects. Participants enjoyed collaborating with peers while competing for prizes, and the hosting company discovered fresh talent and ideas.
You can host similar events to build brand loyalty, identify potential talent, and generate creative solutions to business challenges.
The tech you choose should match the kind of event you’re hosting. Be it a physical trade show, virtual workshop, or hybrid conference, each event format comes with its setup requirements. In-person events, for instance, need tech that can handle on-site check-ins, badge printing, and lead capture to keep things smooth at the venue. Virtual events require tools that support live sessions, interactive chat, and virtual booths to keep online audiences engaged.
To ensure you can host any type of event, choose an event technology partner that can support all your needs. This saves you time and the cost of vetting new vendors for each event and keeps your planning process smooth across different formats.
Your registration system is often the first thing attendees interact with, so it needs to work well. Look for something that lets you create custom forms, offer different ticket types, and process payments securely.
It’s also helpful if your registration data connects with your marketing tools so you’re not constantly importing and exporting information. This makes follow-up much easier after the event.
Keeping people interested during your event means giving them ways to participate. Live polls, Q&A sessions, and networking features like chat help turn passive listeners into active participants. Mobile event apps are great for this, too. They give attendees easy access to schedules and speaker info, plus ways to connect with other attendees, like scheduling meetings. Some even include fun elements like scavenger hunts to boost participation.
After putting all that work into your event, you’ll want to know how it went. Leading event platforms show you which sessions were popular, how engaged people were, and what they thought about the experience. This information helps you prove value to sponsors and make better decisions for future events. Focus on metrics that connect directly to your goals, whether that’s generating leads or educating attendees.
Your event platform should play nice with your other business tools. Look for something that connects with your CRM, email system, and other marketing technology.
This prevents you from having to manually move data between systems and helps you get a complete picture of how your event fits into your broader marketing efforts.
Selecting the perfect event format requires careful consideration of several factors. Here’s how to make the right choice for your organization’s needs:
First, get crystal clear on what you’re trying to achieve. Want to launch a new product? A hybrid event might be your best bet. Looking to build strong industry connections? In-person conferences or trade shows usually work better for meaningful networking. Make sure your event type matches what you’re trying to accomplish.
Your budget is going to be a big factor in what kind of event works for you. Costs vary significantly with each format.
In-person events are generally more expensive as you need to cover venue rental, catering, videography, hotel accommodations, and commute expenses. Virtual events usually require a marketing budget and event technology investment, plus some setup costs for speakers, like lighting and microphones.
For better planning, I recommend creating a budget sheet with sections like overview, detailed expenses, and expense tracking. That way, you can compare event costs and make informed decisions at a glance.
Different attendees have different preferences for how they want to experience events. Corporate executives often prefer hybrid events that enable them to participate without extensive travel commitments.
Clients, meanwhile, prefer more engaging in-person experiences where they can interact with the brand directly. Directly. Consider the type of audience you want to attract when selecting an event format for your business.
If you care about your carbon footprint, virtual events produce about 99% less emissions than in-person gatherings, according to IEEE research. When you do need people physically present, consider smaller regional events instead of one central location. Try to find venues with green certifications, use vFairs’ Green & Global Emissions Calculator to measure your impact, and opt for digital materials instead of printed ones..
Most businesses don’t host just one type of event. You might run internal meetings, public webinars, and hybrid conferences all in the same quarter. Switching tools for each slows you down and makes it harder to stay consistent.
vFairs is an all-in-one event management platform equipped with specialized features for every use case. From on-site check-ins and badge printing to virtual exhibit halls and live session hosting, our platform offers everything you need to plan and execute successful events. With a simple setup and scalable infrastructure, you can save time planning and focus on delivering exceptional experiences to your attendees.
Examples of events that can help you achieve certain business goals include gamified workshops (e.g., team-building challenges), immersive experiences (e.g., virtual escape rooms), and virtual reality demos (e.g., 3D product walkthroughs). These events require more effort and planning to set up, but the payoff often makes them worth the investment.
A hybrid event gives you flexibility. People can attend in person or join from anywhere. That means more reach without doubling costs. Moreover, you get better data from virtual tools and can still offer real-time engagement.
Enhance your virtual event by adding interactive elements like live polls and Q&A sessions. These features help keep things lively and allow personnel to contribute to the event. Businesses can also use virtual breakout rooms to foster social interaction, as well as try team challenges and games to improve participation.
Event tech providers like vFairs offer features like AI matchmaking, breakout rooms, and chat networking. These tools make it easier for participants to engage in meaningful discussions while boosting attendance and engagement rates for organizers.
Start with a timeline activity where you ask employees to share a photo from their phone that sparks a story or memory. Then switch to a group challenge like a mobile scavenger hunt that gets teams working together in real time. Wrap it up with a reminders session where teams turn shared values into calendar nudges they can carry forward.
Maham Ali
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