Epic Events Podcast with
Peep Laja

Event Marketing Strategy: Why Most Conferences Fail to Sell Tickets (And How to Fix It)

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  • Peep Laja

    Peep Laja is the CEO of Wynter, a B2B market research company, and a three-time founder with nearly two decades of conference experience. He organized his first event in 2008 and has run multiple flagship conferences since, including Elite Camp in Estonia, CXL Live (2014–2024), and now the Spryng Conference. He's known for building intentional, high-quality events that prioritize attendee experience over sponsor volume.

About the Episode

The events space has never been more crowded, and that’s not changing anytime soon. So how do you build an event people actually choose?

In this episode, Muhammad Younas sits down with Peep Laja, serial founder, conference veteran, and the organizer behind the Spryng Conference, to dig into what actually drives ticket sales, attendance, and word-of-mouth in a hyper-competitive events market.

Peep shares why 80% of tickets are sold in the final two months before an event, why hotel conference centers are a budget trap, and why having a great speaker lineup still isn’t enough if your event looks like every other event. He also gets into the philosophy behind Spryng: a 200-person, brewery-based conference with open-bar-since-noon, food available all day, and structured peer discussions that replace the traditional booth- and-keynote format.

Whether you’re running your first event or your tenth, this conversation is a practical reset on what makes events worth attending and worth buying a ticket for.

Key Takeaways:

  • Lead with differentiation. In a crowded market, “another conference with keynotes and drinks” is dead on arrival. You need a clear, specific answer to why someone should pick your event over everything else.
  • Avoid hotels if you can. Hotels are experts at nickel-and-diming organizers: AV, Wi-Fi, catering all add up fast. A non-traditional venue can cut costs significantly and differentiate your experience.
  • Choose your city carefully. Destination matters. Hard-to-reach cities with limited direct flights make it harder to sell tickets, regardless of how good the event is.
  • 80% of tickets sell in the last two months. Don’t panic in month one, but do plan for the late surge and avoid financial structures that punish you if you don’t sell out early.
  • Food and coffee aren’t perks, they’re signals. Charging for water or skimping on food tells attendees you’re in the business of making money off them. Providing it freely tells them you want them to have a good time.
  • Structured peer discussions outperform open networking. Grouping attendees by title, company size, and interest, then giving them a prompt and a moderator, creates more valuable conversations than leaving people to figure it out themselves.
  • Sponsors work best when they fit the format. Traditional booths feel out of place at casual events. Creative activations (espresso bars, moderated discussions, side events) add value without making attendees feel like they’re being sold to.
  • Event value shifts by career stage. Early-career attendees come for knowledge. Senior professionals come to talk shop, reconnect, and have fun. Design your event with both in mind.
  • The event is the marketing. For Wynter, Spryng isn’t a revenue play; it’s brand exposure, relationship-building with customers, and word-of-mouth seeding. A two-day event delivers more brand touchpoints than any ad spend.