Are Events Still Relevant in Professional Services for Business Growth?
As digital transformation reshapes how firms connect, a question often surfaces in our strategy sessions with firm directors: as LinkedIn and Zoom dominate professional communication, are in-person events still a justifiable investment?
For professional services, particularly in high-stakes sectors like finance, law, and accounting, the answer is a resounding yes. While digital marketing provides the reach, events provide the depth. As referral pipelines evolve, the ability to transition a digital connection into a face-to-face relationship remains one of the most powerful catalysts for business growth.
At Excelerate Marketing, we don’t see events as isolated line items in a budget, but as high-impact touchpoints within an integrated marketing strategy. When executed with precision, events do more than just fill a room; they build the "trust equity" required to close high-value engagements.
Why Events Matter in Professional & Financial Services
The professional services model is built on a foundation of expertise and trust. Unlike a retail transaction, choosing a financial advisor, a mortgage broker, or a consultant involves a high level of perceived risk for the client. They aren't just buying a service; they are buying into you.
Events provide a unique platform for:
Humanising the Brand: While consistent digital content showcases your knowledge, a live workshop or networking forum showcases your personality and core values.
Shortcutting the Trust Cycle: Face-to-face interactions allow for the kind of nuanced, high-level conversations that take months to achieve via email or social media.
Demonstrating Authority: Hosting a seminar or speaking at an industry conference positions your firm as an active leader rather than just another provider in a crowded market.
In finance, where trust and referrals drive growth, events act as a catalyst. A well-designed client dinner or curated networking forum creates space for satisfied clients to make introductions organically, enabling business development to unfold naturally rather than transactionally.
Industry research reinforces this strategic importance: approximately 90% of marketers say events help their company stand out and are critical to growth, and 52% attribute at least half of closed-won deals to event participation. Additionally, 72% report that deals close faster after prospects attend an event, with many seeing meaningful reductions in sales cycle length (Splash 2025 Outlook on Events Report).
Beyond performance metrics, event design itself is shifting. Organisations are moving toward more intentional, purpose-driven experiences. Research from Bizzabo shows organisers are placing increasing value on meaningful in-person engagement, with 78% identifying in-person events as their most impactful marketing channel. This points to a growing preference for experiences that foster real connection, learning, and relationship-building over broad, generic formats.
Strategy Over Logistics: The EM Approach
At Excelerate Marketing, we often see firms fall into the trap of "event fatigue", attending everything but achieving nothing. Our expertise lies in moving beyond the logistics of invitations and catering to focus on the strategic alignment of the event.
We partner with our clients to curate and recommend event strategies that serve their specific business goals. This includes:
Selection & Curation: We help you identify which industry conferences actually hold your target audience and which are simply "noise."
Strategic Hosting: If hosting your own event, we ensure the format, whether a niche roundtable or a large-scale webinar, matches the expectations of your high-net-worth clients.
Pre- and Post-Event Integration: An event doesn't start when the guests arrive or end when the lights go out. True growth happens when events are supported by data-driven SEO, social media storytelling, and purposeful follow-up campaigns.
The Future of Events: Quality Over Quantity
Attendance trends also reflect this shift, with many organisers noting renewed demand for in-person experiences among professional audiences. Rather than focusing on scale alone, organisations are investing in formats that prioritise depth, relevance, and higher-quality interactions.
Hybrid models also continue to play an important role, allowing firms to host physical events for key local stakeholders while extending insights to wider audiences digitally. The common thread in successful future-focused events is value. If the event feels like a pitch, you’ve already lost the room. It has to offer something useful, memorable, or genuinely valuable to the people attending.
Conclusion: Making Events Work for You
Are events still relevant? Absolutely. But they are no longer a "nice-to-have" social outing. In a competitive market, they are a strategic necessity for any firm looking to differentiate itself through relationship-led growth.
If your firm’s event calendar feels disconnected from your business goals, or if you are looking for the right platform to showcase your expertise, Excelerate Marketing is here to help. We specialise in aligning your events and marketing strategy to ensure every handshake leads to a measurable outcome.
The firms seeing the strongest results aren’t attending more events, they’re attending the right ones, with a clear strategy behind every interaction.
Ready to elevate your presence and grow your client base through strategic events?
Book a discovery session with Excelerate Marketing today. During this session, we’ll review your current marketing mix, identify the highest-value event opportunities for your industry, and outline a roadmap to align your events with your 2026 revenue goals.