Skift Research: Deal-Breakers and Deal-Makers When Sourcing Event Tech

The event tech landscape is changing fast, with new developments in AI emerging left and right. But while technology advances, attendees (who are coping with these changes, too) are coming back time and time again for that irreplaceable, tried-and-true value that only events can deliver: face to face connection.

event organizers are faced with an important challenge: how do you distinguish essential, needle-moving features from flashy bells and whistles? How do you get the most value from your event tech budget? And, most importantly, what do attendees truly care about?

Skift’s Event Tech Almanac 2025 provides one of the most comprehensive updates on the state of the market, based on detailed input from 85 leading event tech providers. Here’s what the research says about which features are genuine deal breakers, which ones can be deal makers, and which are merely nice-to-have extras.

Research Overview: What’s the Data Based On?

The Almanac’s data is grounded in an April–May 2025 intake survey of 85 providers. The research focused less on universal baseline features and more on differentiators that separate platforms from one another. For example, custom branding is offered by 88% of providers and white labeling is offered by 72% of providers. These are considered baseline expectations rather than deal makers. Not having these features is a deal breaker for many eventprofs.

Skift also notes that, while widespread availability suggests planners should expect these features, not every purchase automatically includes them and event planners need to evaluate feature competitiveness within their budget. Many features are packaged as add-ons or bundled in tiers, influencing overall cost.

Essential Features for Attendee Networking

Deal Breakers

The must-have networking features are well established. Peer-to-peer direct messaging and meeting booking are standard across nearly all platforms. Gamification capabilities are similarly present in almost all event management platforms. Without them, a platform is unlikely to meet attendee expectations.

Learn how gamification helps to boost attendee engagement.

Deal Makers

Features that truly add value include AI matchmaking, offered by only 48% of providers. While not universal, our clients have found that this capability can dramatically increase the quality of connections, matching attendees based on shared interests, goals, or behaviors.

Bells and Whistles

While AI-powered matchmaking can add a lot of value, event organizers should take caution when choosing features that remove agency from their attendees and other stakeholders. Given the rise of AI, this is especially true of untested features that some may be rushing to implement before fully thinking through the use case.

Experimental tools like immersive 3D social spaces may capture attention for some but others – for example casual gamers – may find they lack the sophistication they are used to. To ensure a really captivating virtual experience, it’s best to speak to your provider. 

Stova has facilitated thousands of virtual experiences from simple stream-based events to rich, fully immersive experiences. We would be happy to help you execute your virtual vision. Book a demo.

Essential Features for Sponsor Engagement

Deal Breakers

Sponsors expect basic visibility tools like listings, logos and inclusion in session agendas. Without these, a platform risks alienating its revenue-driving stakeholders.

Deal Makers

More advanced features include self-service exhibitor data portals (offered by 71% of vendors) and engagement scoring (64%) within provided analytics. While lead retrieval is offered by all comprehensive event management platforms in one form or another, a comprehensive tool that streamlines lead scoring and plays well with all marketing and CRM tools is still a strong differentiator. 

A growing trend is AI-powered lead recommendations, analyzing attendee behavior to connect sponsors with the most relevant prospects. While Stova’s AI matchmaking capabilities are focused on networking, they can also benefit sponsors and exhibitors.

Bells and Whistles

Features that experiment with AR/VR experiences or novel sponsorship formats remain optional rather than essential.

Essential Features for Delivering Content

Deal Breakers

Every platform must reliably support session streaming, agendas and access to on-demand content. These are now baseline expectations.

Deal Makers

Skift’s research highlights AI-powered session or content suggestions (offered by only 44% of vendors), which personalize learning journeys. AI features that support curating and repurposing content, offered by just a quarter of vendors surveyed, are also notable for their ability to combine engagement data with automated actions to extend the lifecycle of an event.

Find out how you can turn your event content into an engine for engagement year-round. Book a demo.

Bells and Whistles

Novel but less essential features include automated podcast generation from session recordings and interactive slide conversion into polls or quizzes. These add value but are not yet core requirements.

Essential Features for Event Management

Deal Breakers

Fundamental functions include registration, check-in and badging, polls and feedback, and mobile apps and virtual options. Without these, a platform cannot claim to deliver comprehensive event management.

Deal Makers

Differentiation arises through more advanced integrations, robust customization, specialized workflows (e.g., abstract management for academic events) and targeted offerings for specific industries like finance or pharma.

Bells and Whistles

Highly specialized tools, such as advanced translation services, complex VR venue models and facial recognition services are interesting but uncommon, and attendees are by-and-large not expecting them.

Essential Features for Data Management

Deal Breakers

Data is the backbone of event success. Universally offered tools include real-time dashboards, CSV exports and report templates. Most platforms also comply with GDPR, provide single sign-on (SSO) options and offer user roles and permissions to limit admin access. Over 75% provide encryption, SOC 2 compliance and business continuity measures.

A note about data ownership: A key dividing line is a vendor’s philosophy when it comes to data ownership. Most vendors (including Stova) act as data processors, giving clients full ownership of their data. Others operate on a shared data ownership model that gives them direct control over attendee data once they become platform users. While this may offer certain convenience for those users, it poses serious questions and challenges for organizations with strict data policies.

Deal Makers

More advanced event intelligence makes a difference, especially for clients with larger event portfolios that need more sophisticated benchmarking. Cross-event reports are offered by most vendors (61%) along with year-on-year reports (61%) and custom report builders (68%). 

Features such as self-service exhibitor data portals (71% of vendors) can both lower the reporting burden on event professionals and increase transparency. 

Bells and Whistles

Less common features like trend/pattern recognition (21%), forecasting (21%) and benchmarking (14%) are attractive but not yet standard – likely because these are analysis-heavy tasks with a large margin for error and require a lot of human oversight and correction to do well. However, this may change as AI improves.

What’s Coming Next?

AI continues to be the most important driver of new functionality: 76% of platforms report using AI in one way or another. In terms of the most popular models, 52% rely on OpenAI models and 24% use Amazon or Anthropic. Stova is among the few (30%) to have developed proprietary, purpose-built AI models to deliver real, event-specific value.

The most common applications are in data analytics and reporting (56%), networking (or more specifically matchmaking) (48%), session/content suggestions (44%) and content enhancement in the forms of writing assistance (44%) and captioning/transcription (41%).

Up-and-coming applications include smart language detection that enables dynamic translation services that can switch mid-conversation, virtual assistants integrated with WhatsApp for attendee support, AI-driven sourcing solutions and content generation (e.g. automated podcasts).

But Skift cautions event organizers to be conscientious of AI in marketing. “The future of event tech isn’t all about AI. It will play a major role but much of that will be unseen by the end user,” says Aaron Dorsey, VP of product management and info security and privacy at Maritz. Practicality is key. As registration expert Leanne Velky advises: “Sometimes the ‘less advanced’ solution is the right one if it meets your compliance needs and your team can actually use it.” The main takeaway is that any new technology should address specific challenges or serve precise goals rather than being implemented for its own sake.

Conclusion

Sorting through event tech features requires a sharp focus on event goals. The Skift Meetings Event Tech Almanac 2025 makes clear that while the rise of AI has led to a number of shifts and advancements, true differentiation comes from thoughtful applications and attendee-centric tools that respect the stakeholders’ core objectives: networking, sponsor engagement and content delivery. 

By focusing on deal breakers and deal makers – and resisting the pull of flashy but impractical bells and whistles – organizers can invest wisely in technology that strengthens connections, improves outcomes and delivers measurable value.

Per Skift’s research, Stova ranks in the top three in terms of feature richness out of 80 providers surveyed (top two if you care about owning your own data). Book a demo to learn more about how we can outfit your toolbox.