Cost Cliffs, One-Team DMOs, and Micro-Moments: The 2026 Trends Shaping Meetings

If 2025 was the year meetings finally stopped holding their breath, 2026 is the year they start stretching their legs again—cautiously, creatively, and with a healthy suspicion of anything that smells even remotely like AI-generated “workslop.” Planners are optimistic (at 85% optimism, the highest in five years, according to the Amex GBT Global Meetings and Events Forecast 2026), but they’re also under pressure to deliver more meaningful, hyper-localized ROI- (or ROE: Return on Experience-) justified experiences with fewer dollars, fewer staff, and tighter approval windows than ever before.

For destination organizations, that’s not a warning. It’s an opportunity.

Below, we break down the biggest 2026 trends shaping meetings and business events and share exactly how DMOs can position themselves as indispensable partners in a year where planners need support, speed, authenticity, and clarity more than ever.

The Macro-Trend Outlook: Slower Growth, Higher Stakes

The major forecasting engines all agree: meetings demand is stable, slightly rising, and overwhelmingly in person. But the breakneck post-pandemic rebound has officially cooled. More planners than ever expect to host “about the same” number of events in 2026 rather than dramatic increases.

The optimism is real, but so are the constraints:

What This Means for DMOs

DMOs must prove their value faster. Your messaging should answer a planner’s silent question before they ask it: “Will this destination save me time, money, and headaches, without sacrificing attendee experience?”

Think “Live, Local, and Unfakeable”

With the rise of AI-generated content, planners are leaning hard into what can’t be cloned: human-heavy, sensory-rich, locally immersive event design. Skift calls it the rise of the “unfakeable moment”—live events as antidotes to AI.

In-person is firmly dominant: 92% of event programs include live components, while virtual and hybrid formats continue their drift into niche support roles (41%)

Planners are also:

What DMOs Should Do

Intellectual Capital as Part of a Meetings Marketing Strategy

Planners are dangling off what Skift calls the Cost Cliff, squeezed by rising prices and risk-averse approvals. F&B, room costs, and AV are the biggest culprits, with more than two-thirds reporting higher-than-expected expenses.

Meanwhile, political unpredictability, shrinking timelines, and venue availability challenges layer on the pressure.

What DMOs Should Do

The Talent Gap & The Rise of the One-Team DMO

Planners are over-tasked, understaffed, and often undertrained—with nearly half of sourcing organizations new to Cvent’s Supplier Network this year, and many individual planners new to their roles (including first-time planners in the Gen-Z range).

DMOs have never been more necessary.

What DMOs Can Do to Win

Let’s Talk Values, Perception, and Political Risk

The top concerns rising year over year show that planners increasingly factor political, cultural, and social issues into site selection.

International attendance is especially sensitive this year, and looking ahead, at least for the near future.

What DMOs Can Do

Tech & AI: Not the Star of the Show, but Definitely the Stage Crew

AI adoption in sourcing has officially crossed the mainstream threshold: 75% of planners use AI and expect usage to increase.

Planners currently use AI to:

But here’s the twist: audiences don’t want AI on stage. They want it in the background. And as the star? They want human storytelling, human texture, and human presence.

What DMOs Can Do

2026 Predictions from Go Fish Tourism + Business Events (Write These in Ink!)

Here’s what we’re seeing firsthand across clients, campaigns, and sentiment in our planner-focused customer advisory board.

1. Destination Content Will Become the Differentiator

Content is still king, and refinement is the royal advisor. But instead of puff pieces, planners want actionable planning tools. Expect demand for interactive itineraries, workshops and experiences, ROI-forward pieces (case studies, convince-my-board microsites or landing pages, one-sheets, etc.), and budget-smart programming roadmaps.

2. Micro-Events Will Become Essential, Not “Extra”

Planners will ask DMOs for help identifying intimate off-sites, community-based experiences, and curated networking micro-moments—especially for high-profile or high-stakes groups.

3. Safety and Trust Messaging Will Move Above the Fold

Destinations that handle risk communication well will win. Planners want transparency and authenticity (without the drama). As far as AI is concerned, the human needs to stay in the loop 100% of the time to build that trust.

4. DMOs Will Be Judged on Speed + Helpfulness

You can have the best content in the world, but if you can’t get a coordinated response to an RFP in under 48 hours, you’ll lose the business. Period. Planners not only want DMOs to acknowledge RFPs but also to engage consistently and directly, while providing vetted offsite and partner options.

5. Authenticity (and Emotion) Will Outperform Production Value

Expect a creative shift toward raw, local, human-centered storytelling, especially on social, where planners increasingly source ideas. Emotion is key to connecting with people in the B2B meetings and conventions world. 

Final Thought: DMOs, This Is Your Moment

Planners are overwhelmed. Budgets are tight. Expectations are sky-high. AI is loud. Political landscapes are messy. And yet, planners are more optimistic than they’ve been in half a decade.

The destinations that win in 2026 will be the ones that cut through the noise with clarity, creativity, and genuine partnership.

Be their extra team member. Their local insider. Their shortcut. Their advantage.

Let us help you build a strategy that supports planners and attendees and empowers your team. Reach out!