Postcard from Barcelona: Event industry insights

Greetings from Barcelona

Where is the event industry’s attention right now? 

Jürgen Künkel, Managing Partner, Vantage Global Event Production, shares his notes from the IBTM 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.

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"Short visit at IBTM today. Really well attended exhibition!

The vibe is very much like IMEX - definitely the territory of destinations, hotels, and DMCs.

The stage programme had some good trend talks, but from my view point, nothing revolutionary. But yeah, we cannot reinvent the wheel every year. :-)

- Meeting designers honing into audiences

- Talking agency and immersive experiences beat the traditional channels

- No novelty in tech insight.

AI shows up around metric analytics and anywhere you’ve got lots of data points or connection points.

Human factors come more into the spotlight with the AI hype.

- How to deal with “Hurry sickness” is the new version of what used to be the attention-span discussion. An important topic to conquer in event design.  

One inspiring line stuck with me:

“Be not everything for everyone — but everything for someone.” Elfried Samba

Hands down for Elfried Samba. He had a great talk about online community building.  He understands to deliver his message with storytelling and had my attention for the full time.

Oh - and then I ended up in a room full of mirrors and lightbulbs and felt I needed to make a picture and share it!

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Overall, a reassuring visit!

"At Vantage we’ve got the right spices on our shelves, and the event industry is alive even though the current global affairs and economy make some people slightly dizzy."

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In summary, 4 event-industry directions:

- audiences taking agency

- immersive beats traditional

- the human factor stepping further into the spotlight as AI matures

- thoughtful meeting and event design still matters more than novelty!