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Flat event budgets, rising costs: what to cut and what to protect

Fewer organisers expect their event budget to grow this year, and the ones who do are watching costs rise about as fast. The squeeze rarely arrives as an announced cut. It shows up as one fewer event, a smaller venue, a sharper question from finance.

The Aurentex Team
1 October 2026, 6 min read
A corporate roadshow dinner in a hotel ballroom with Mumbai and Delhi city skylines on stage screens and guests seated at round tables
A multi-city roadshow is where a flat budget is felt first: the same plan, one city fewer.

The loud conversation in events this year is about AI. The quiet one, underneath almost every other conversation, is about money. Budgets have stopped growing for a lot of teams, and the costs they pay for have not stopped with them.

What the numbers say

Bizzabo, an event platform vendor, asked organisers about 2026 budgets: 40% expected growth, 40% expected them to stay flat and 20% expected a decrease. A year earlier, 53% had expected growth. Plans for event volume fell further: 40% plan to run more events than last year, against 66% the year before.1

Not every survey is as gloomy about budgets. The Northstar Meetings Group and Cvent PULSE survey found 64% of planners expecting budgets to rise 5 to 14% in 2026, but 58% also expected costs to climb by about the same amount.2 A bigger budget that buys the same event is a flat budget.

40%
of organisers expect budget growth in 2026, down from 53% a year earlier1
40%
plan to run more events than last year, down from 66%1
70%+
of meeting professionals expect meeting costs to rise in 20263

Where the pressure lands

Mostly on the physical event. In the PULSE survey, 78% of planners called out rising travel and lodging costs, 69% food and beverage, 63% higher room rates, and 50% less flexible contract terms.2 American Express Global Business Travel's forecast, a YouGov survey of 601 meeting professionals, found more than 70% expecting meeting costs to rise, with 38% expecting cost per attendee to be up slightly and 27% a moderate increase.3

Venue, catering and travel are negotiated per event and are hard to move once contracted. That is why the adjustment tends to happen earlier, at the planning stage, in the number of events rather than inside any one of them. For a multi-city roadshow the effect compounds, because every city is its own venue, catering and travel contract.

The mood is careful rather than grim. The same PULSE snapshot found 63% chasing savings that do not dent the attendee experience,2 which is the right instinct and a hard brief.

What to cut first, and last

Cut first: the weakest eventsMerge two regional meets into one, or drop the one whose outcomes nobody can name. One fewer event saves a whole venue, catering and travel line, which trimming inside ten events rarely does.
Cut early: duplicationTwo tools doing registration, a spreadsheet reconciling them, a person retyping badge names. Overlap costs money every month and staff time every event.
Renegotiate: venue and catering termsWith 50% of planners reporting less flexible contracts,2 attrition clauses, minimum spends and cancellation windows deserve the attention once reserved for the headline rate.
Cut last: what attendees experienceArrival, the core content, the follow-up. A cheaper venue is often invisible to guests; a forty-minute queue at the door is not, and it is what they will remember when next year's invitation arrives.
A cheaper venue is often invisible to your guests. A forty-minute queue at the door is not.

The arrival point matters more than its line item suggests. Check-in is cheap relative to the venue, and it is the first thing every guest experiences. Our check-in sizing guide shows how to work out the capacity that keeps the queue short.

Showing the spend was worth it

Flat budgets bring sharper questions about what each event returned. There is some good news: in Bizzabo's survey, 40% of organisers reported difficulty proving event ROI in 2026, compared with 70% in 2025.1 Measurement is getting easier for those who set it up.

The practical point is to agree what "worth it" means before the event, not after, and to capture it as you go: who registered, who attended, which sessions, which follow-ups were opened. We separated the three different numbers people call "event ROI" in measuring event ROI.

When a flat fee is the wrong shape

A flat-fee platform is not automatically the cheaper option, and in a cautious year it is worth doing the arithmetic honestly. A per-ticket percentage costs little on a small event and a lot on a large one. A flat fee is the reverse.

The comparison is a single number: the ticket revenue at which the percentage equals the flat fee. As an illustration, a 3% ticket fee equals a ₹75,000 monthly fee at ₹25,00,000 of ticket sales in that month. Below that, on fees alone, the percentage is cheaper, before you count any setup fee. If you run one or two modest paid events a year, a per-ticket platform may simply cost less, and that is the right choice. We set out the pricing models in what event registration software costs.

Flat pricing earns its place when ticket volume is high or events are frequent. For free, invitation-only events, a per-ticket percentage costs nothing, so a flat fee has to be justified by something else, such as your own domain, branding and data, not by fees.

Where Aurentex sits

Aurentex charges a one-time setup fee and a flat monthly fee, and takes 0% of ticket sales, with no attendee caps on any plan and prices published on our pricing page, plus applicable taxes. Paying yearly gives two months free, and the setup fee is covered by a money-back guarantee.

In a year when every line is questioned, the useful property is predictability: the software cost does not rise because an event sold well. Your first event is free, so you can test it against your current costs on a real event before committing.

Common questions

Are event budgets growing in 2026?

For fewer organisers: 40% expect growth, down from 53% a year earlier.1 Surveys that find budgets rising also find costs rising at about the same rate.2

Which costs are rising fastest?

Travel and lodging, food and beverage, and room rates, along with less flexible contract terms.2

What should you cut first?

The weakest events and duplicated tools or work. Protect arrival, content and follow-up.

Flat fee or per-ticket fee?

Find the ticket revenue at which the percentage equals the flat fee. Below it, on fees alone, the percentage is cheaper.

Planning next year's events on a flat budget?

Flat monthly pricing, 0% of ticket sales and no attendee caps, on your own domain and branding. Your first event is free.

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References

  1. Bizzabo, "Event Industry Trends 2026: What Event Professionals Are Reporting," 18 February 2026, summarising Bizzabo's 2026 State of Events Benchmark Report. 40% of organisers expect budget growth, 40% flat, 20% a decrease, against 53% expecting growth in 2025; 40% plan to run more events, against 66% in 2025; 40% report difficulty proving event ROI, against 70% in 2025. Bizzabo sells event management software.
  2. Cvent, "What's Trending: Taking the Pulse of the Meetings Industry," 4 February 2026, reporting the December Northstar Meetings Group and Cvent PULSE survey. "64% of planners expect budgets to rise 5–14% in 2026, and 58% expect costs to climb by about the same"; 63% are chasing savings that will not dent the attendee experience; travel and lodging costs (78%), F&B (69%), higher room rates (63%) and less flexible contract terms (50%).
  3. Business Travel News, "Amex GBT Meetings Forecast Shows Rising Optimism, Costs," 7 October 2025, reporting American Express Global Business Travel's 2026 Global Meetings and Events Forecast, a YouGov survey of 601 meeting professionals in eight countries. More than 70% expect meeting costs to be up in 2026; 38% expect cost per attendee to be up slightly and 27% a moderate increase.

The surveys cited use different samples, regions and questions, so their percentages are not directly comparable. The ticket-fee break-even is an illustration using a hypothetical 3% fee and Aurentex's published Premium monthly price; it excludes setup fees and taxes.