The Biggest Event Planning Challenges of 2025 (and How to Tackle Them)

Event planning has always been unpredictable, but this year the stakes feel even higher. 

Attendees are signing up later, sponsors are holding back, and budgets are tighter than ever. 

Add in AI hype and tech confusion, and it’s no wonder planners feel like they’re constantly bracing for the next curveball.

Among all this chaos, “reacting fast” as a strategy isn’t enough anymore. The planners who are thriving today are those who anticipate challenges before they arise. That’s how you stay calm, confident, and in control, even when the chaos comes knocking.

In this edition, we’re breaking down the biggest headaches event pros are facing in 2025, and sharing ideas, tools, and lessons from the field to help you stay a step ahead.

Let’s dig in!

In This Issue, We Cover:

• Spotlight: The toughest event planning challenges of 2025 (and how to fix them)
• Fresh From the Pod: Beat those challenges with a strategic design mindset
• Field Notes: Content vs. networking, what should take center stage?
• Tools & Templates: Try our AI tool for a personalized run of show
• Reads Worth Your Time: Discover how to perfect your event timeline, plan outdoor experiences without surprises, and budget for an event without breaking the bank.

Spotlight: 5 Burning Challenges Planners Must Tackle in 2025

Foresight sounds great in theory, but what exactly should you be watching for? 

The reality is, certain challenges keep showing up for planners everywhere in 2025. Some are new, some are old headaches in new disguises. Together, they’re shaping what it takes to pull off a successful event this year. Let’s shed some light on each:

1. Late Registrations

Gone are the days when attendees registered months in advance. Now, most sign up in the final weeks, leaving planners sweating over fixed costs and empty seats until the eleventh hour.

Before COVID, our customers shared that 70% of registrations came months in advance. Now it’s flipped — most come in the final stretch.

Muhammad Younas

CEO at vFairs

This shift isn’t just about procrastination. It reflects changing attendee behavior. People weigh their options longer, wait for schedule clarity, or simply expect flexibility.

To counter this, start nurturing interest much earlier. Use tiered pricing or early-bird perks to create urgency, but don’t stop there; keep momentum with drip campaigns, sneak peeks of your content or speakers, and personalized reminders. Most importantly, make registration feel like a benefit, not a chore, so sign-ups trickle in steadily instead of flooding your inbox last minute.

2. Making Sense of AI

No challenge looms larger in 2025 than AI. On one hand, it promises to transform planning with predictive analytics, personalized agendas, and automated engagement. On the other hand, it brings confusion, inflated promises, and the risk of depending on untested tools.

AI is changing the way we do business. You’re not going to do business the same way — you’ll be faster, more nimble, and data will be more real-time.

Dahlia El Gazzar

Event Innovation Strategist at DAHLIA+Agency

The opportunity is massive, but so is the risk. 

With every vendor claiming “AI-powered” features, planners must separate true innovation from marketing noise and decide which tools genuinely add value versus which just add clutter.

A great approach is to start small. Pilot AI for a single use case like content recommendations or attendee matchmaking, measure its impact, and scale only what proves its worth. This helps you cut through the noise while staying agile.

3. Tech Overload & Integration Woes

With more than 400 event tech vendors flooding the market, planners face choice paralysis. Too many demos, too many features, and “native integrations” that rarely work as promised have left organizers drained instead of empowered.

This overload often happens because the search starts with features, not purpose. A better approach is to step back, define what success looks like for your event, map your attendee journey, and then explore platforms that fit those needs. 

Once you know what truly matters, it’s easier to see past flashy sales pitches and focus on tools that integrate smoothly and actually reduce your workload.

From there, dig deeper into integration claims, ask for proof, real client feedback, and examples of seamless workflows. Skip the shiny distractions and choose a platform that actually connects your systems, saves you time, and scales as your events grow.

4. Engagement Drop-Off

Capturing attention is hard; sustaining it is harder. Audiences are quick to disengage if sessions feel dull or irrelevant. Virtual attendees multitask, in-person attendees zone out, and content that doesn’t resonate is forgotten minutes after it ends.

The fix? Start by understanding what your audience truly values, through polls, registration data, or past feedback. Then, build moments of interaction into every stage: live Q&As, breakout sessions, gamified polls. Partner with tech that makes it easy to personalize content tracks and measure engagement in real-time so you can adapt on the fly.

5. Speaker & Vendor Management

Speakers confirm late, cancel at the last minute, or delay sending slides. Vendors juggle their own schedules and often miss deadlines. With so many external players, even one weak link can derail months of planning.

Instead of chasing people over endless email threads, centralize communications and automate your follow-ups. Build in buffer timelines, set clear deliverables early, and keep all files, contracts, and updates in one shared platform so nothing slips through the cracks.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. Explore our full guide to uncover more challenges shaping events in 2025, along with step-by-step solutions to tackle each one.

️ Fresh From the Pod: Turning Challenges Into Design

When events feel overwhelming, the answer isn’t always to try harder; it’s to design smarter.

That’s where the Event Design Canvas comes in. Created by Ruud Janssen, it’s a strategic visual tool that helps event planners map out the entire event experience before diving into logistics. It brings clarity to complexity and helps you design events that drive real behavior change.

Here’s how Ruud puts it into practice:

• Map stakeholders: Understand what attendees, sponsors, speakers, and organizers each need from the event.
• Define change: Identify the specific shift in behavior you want to see before and after the event for each stakeholder.
• Work with constraints: Use limits like time, budget, or tech as creative inputs, not blockers.

Hear Ruud’s full take on the Epic Events Podcast

Lessons From the Trenches: Do Attendees Come for Content, or Connection?

Katherine Tooley | VP of Global Events at HubSpot

Every planner faces the same dilemma: people sign up for content, but once they’re on site, are they really there for the sessions, or the chance to connect?

Few people understand that balance better than Kat Tooley, VP of Global Events at HubSpot, who oversees Inbound, a conference that draws over 12,000 attendees and is known for being both massive and surprisingly easy to navigate. Her perspective? You can’t win by leaning on just one side.

If you had asked me three years ago, for sure, I would have said content. I think that we're seeing like a big shift to more of our attendees wanting networking… there is just a growing sense of wanting human connection, and wanting to find their people or their communities or expand their communities.

Katherine Tooley

VP of Global Events and Experiential Marketing at HubSpot

Here’s what she’s learned from the trenches:

• Content draws people in: Fresh, relevant sessions and standout speakers are what convince people to register.
• Connection keeps them coming back: Curated meetups, lounges, and community spaces are what attendees rave about after.
• Balance builds momentum: Mixing programming with social moments, like networking, meals, or wellness breaks, creates energy and lasting engagement.

When you nail both, the real win isn’t just happy attendees, it’s a community that keeps growing long after the event ends. 

Curious how HubSpot pulls off Inbound? Learn 9 tactics behind their 12,000-person success.

Tools & Templates to Make Your Life Easier

Even with the best strategy, execution on event day is where things can fall apart.

That’s why a Run of Show is essential. It’s the behind-the-scenes timeline that keeps your team aligned with a clear, minute-by-minute plan.

Our AI-powered Run of Show Generator helps you create a personalized version for your event in minutes. Try it now!

Reads Worth Your Time

Need fresh ideas to sharpen your event strategy? These quick reads pack a punch:

• Planning outdoors? These 10 steps will keep your event on track.
• Need a clear roadmap? Here’s how to design an impactful event timeline.
• Tight budget? Here’s how to plan an event without breaking the bank.

2025 isn’t exactly going to be easy on event planners. But with foresight, smart design, and the right tools, you don’t just survive, you pull off events that feel seamless on the outside (even if they’re a little messy backstage).

Until next time, stay sharp, stay ready, and keep proving that planners can handle anything 2025 throws their way.

See you next month ✨