New Research of 841 Marketing and Sales Professionals Reveals Nearly 7 in 10 Have Reported Event ROI Figures They Don’t Fully Trust

San Diego, California, October 15, 2026—Nearly seven in ten B2B teams have reported an event ROI number they did not fully trust, according to new research from Outcomes Rocket. The findings are especially relevant for medtech and healthtech teams, where complex buying committees and rising CFO scrutiny make unproven event spending harder to defend.

The 2026 State of B2B Event Marketing report, based on a September 2026 survey of 841 marketing, sales, and business development professionals, shows the core problems are not the events themselves but ownership gaps, unplanned booth conversations, missing lead tracking, and weak follow-up systems.

Key Findings

• 68.9% have given leadership an event ROI figure they were not confident in.
• Only 39.2% tag every conference lead to its event source.
• 74.2% of booth conversations at the last major event were unplanned; only 32.0% set pre-event meeting goals.
• 28.9% have no clear owner for the event pipeline; only 29.8% run a fully integrated year-round program.
• 58.4% have recorded on-site interviews, but only 24.2% planned them in advance.
• 37.6% are shifting to fewer, higher-value events, while 37.9% face greater pressure to prove ROI.

Implications For Medtech And Healthtech

Walk-up conversations rarely reach the full buying committee of clinical, finance, and IT stakeholders. With fewer shows carrying more budget, each event must be treated as a deliberate revenue motion. The biggest near-term opportunity is planning the interviews most teams are already recording and linking them to sales follow-up.

Recommendations

• Assign one owner for the pipeline before, during, and after each show.
• Set a specific pre-booked meeting target against a priority account list.
• Tag every lead to its event source the same day.
• Plan on-site interviews with target accounts and map them to sales sequences.
• Bring original data so both press and sales have a reason to engage.

“A conference is not a marketing expense. It is a revenue event, and it should be run like one,” said Saul Marquez, CEO and Founder of Outcomes Rocket. “If pipeline and revenue are not the metric, the conference is just a very expensive trip.”

“The teams that win don’t treat the show as the event. They treat it as the middle of a campaign that started months before the booth went up and keeps working long after it comes down,” said Colin Hung, CMO and Editor of Health IT News and Editor-in-Chief of the Swaay.Health Marketing Community.

The full 2026 State of B2B Event Marketing report is available here.

Methodology: The report is based on a global survey of 841 marketing, sales, and business development professionals, collected in September 2026 via Prolific, a research platform for pre-screened professional respondents. Results are reported in aggregate.