LASSO PRESENTS
2025 State of the Events Industry Report
We’ve taken a deep dive into the industry's latest trends to give you the insights you need to stay ahead in 2025. From financial trends to operational strategies, this report is packed with actionable takeaways to help you tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.
The live events industry continues to prove its resilience, with professionals adapting to tighter timelines, rising costs, and ever-changing client demands. While labor shortages and software inefficiencies remain pain points, there’s no shortage of innovation driving the industry forward.
Key Trends & Insights
1. The industry’s adaptability continues to shine, with professionals navigating a dynamic environment shaped by tighter timelines, increased costs, and evolving client expectations.
2. Challenges such as labor shortages and software inefficiencies persist, but innovation is creating new opportunities for growth.
3.People are the backbone of every event and ensuring they have the right gear at the right time is crucial to their success. 65% of respondents cited scheduling challenges with either people or gear, highlighting a major operational hurdle. Leading event companies are investing in smarter scheduling and inventory management tools to streamline operations, prevent disruptions, and better support their teams.
We surveyed a diverse mix of professionals from across the live events industry, and here’s what we found. While this provides a valuable snapshot of what’s top of mind for event pros today, it’s important to remember that these insights represent a slice of the industry—not the entire picture. Let’s jump in!
Who We Surveyed
What role best describes you?
What type of event best represents the majority of your business?
How many events do you produce each year?
What is the biggest challenge facing the event industry?
Project Management
What is the average lead time you receive for your events?
How have lead times changed in the last two years?
- Less lead time in the last two years 47.3%
- No change in lead time in the last two years 34.9%
- More lead time in the last two years 17.8%
Have you ever had a mishap because your team manages projects from different systems/sources of truth?
On a scale of 0–10 (10 being very satisfied), how satisfied are you with your access to the data and insights needed to do your job?
Takeaways
Geographic Reach: 44.7% of companies focus on local events while 55.3% travel for their events.
Tool Overload: Almost half (49%) of companies are juggling at least 4-9 software applications per event. That’s a lot to manage (especially when it’s possible to get all of your tools on one system).
Fragmentation Woes: 72% of respondents report system inefficiencies, showing that disconnected tools are still a major hurdle.
Investment Reality: Only 31.4% are spending more than $25,000 annually on software—running multi-million dollar operations with relatively low tech investments.
Room for Improvement: Respondents reported their level of satisfaction with access to data a 6.6 out of 10, there’s clearly an opportunity to turn data into better insights.
Single Source of Truth: 33% of same-company respondents provided differing answers on where they produce events, highlighting a great opportunity to align teams and establish a single source of truth. The industry still has plenty of room to evolve by adopting integrated platforms that bring project management, quoting, and inventory under one roof.
Financial Management
How many pieces of software does your company use daily?
What would you estimate the annual cost of that software stack to be?
What percentage of business that you quote do you win?
Do you currently use software to create your proposals?
How have your bill rates to your clients changed over the last two years?
- Significant increase 8.7%
- Moderate increase 72.4%
- Stayed the same 19%
- Moderate decrease 3.9%
- Significant decrease 0%
What payment terms do you most often offer to your customers?
What do you expect your gross profit margin to be in 2025?
Are you currently using a payments solution integrated with event management software?
How often do you experience delays in payments from clients?
- Never 11.1%
- Rarely 46.2%
- Occasionally 37.6%
- Frequently 5.1%
How do you currently manage employee expenses?
Takeaways
Rising Rates: 72.4% have upped their bill rates, following market trends.
Profit Margins: 32.7% expect gross profit margins of 10-20%, while 21.2% are targeting 31-40%.
Tech-Enabled Proposals: About 52% of the industry is using a software tool to generate their proposals rather than just “quoting” the opportunities.
Payment Terms: 29.8% of invoices are due on receipt, while 63.7% are net 30. Cash flow is improving.
Companies are finally gaining confidence to raise their prices, but operational efficiency remains key to profitability. Standardization, better data management, and smarter financial processes are key to staying competitive.
Win Rates: 81% of executives report winning more than two-thirds of the business they quote, yet only 40% of sales people say the same—highlighting a potential disconnect in how win rates are perceived across roles in the event industry.
Digging deeper, only 22% of respondents report closing 80% or more of their quoted business, while 79% secure at least half. However, a surprising 25% of sales professionals don’t know their win rates at all. This presents a major opportunity for event companies to track and analyze their sales performance more effectively. Understanding how often they win is the first step toward identifying why and when they win—key insights for improving sales strategies in an increasingly competitive industry.
Crew Management
What percentage of your event labor do you outsource to third parties?
How have your pay rates to your crew changed over the last two years?
- Moderate increase 62.8%
- Significant increase 27.1%
- Stayed the same 10.1%
How often do you travel crew?
Do you outsource your payroll?
How often are you onboarding new crew?
Do you primarily hire 1099 or W2 crew?
Responses are mixed! While many companies prefer 1099 workers, reflecting the freelance and project-based nature of the events industry, others lean toward W-2 employment to maintain consistency and compliance with labor laws.
How often are you paying your crew?
How do you expect crew costs to change in the next year?
- Significant increase 4%
- Moderate increase 78%
- Stayed the same 18%
- Decrease 0%
Takeaways
Direct Hiring: 70.5% of companies are keeping their labor in-house, which means recruiting, onboarding, scheduling, time tracking, and payroll need to be spot on.
Pay Bumps: 62.8% reported moderate pay rate increases, while 27.1% saw significant increases—up from 44% last year.
Travel Insights: 62.3% travel their crew.
Payroll Challenges: 61.3% outsource payroll, and 51.2% still rely on manual expense submissions. There’s a big opportunity here to streamline processes.
Hiring Patterns: 63.5% are adding new crew regularly, reflecting steady demand.
Pay Frequency: Just 18.7% are paying their crew weekly—offering faster pay could be a competitive advantage.
The focus is shifting from gear to people as the industry’s most valuable asset. Investing in pay, good software tools , and efficient operations is crucial.
Inventory Management
How many warehouses does your company have?
On a scale of 0–10 (10 being very satisfied), how satisfied are you with your quoting process?
How often do you ship gear out of market per month?
What’s your average monthly shipping cost?
Do you plan to purchase more gear in 2025 than you did in 2024?
Takeaways
Warehousing Trends: Nearly half (47.7%) operate one warehouse, with just 6.2% managing more than five.
Shipping Frequency: 33.1% of event companies never ship gear out of their local market, while 32.3% do so 1-2 times per month. The remaining 34.6% have more varied shipping practices, ranging from occasional to frequent out-of-market shipments. This diversity in shipping frequency highlights the need for flexible and efficient logistics solutions to meet the varying demands of different events and clients.
Buying More: 42.1% plan to invest in more gear next year. This indicates a growing focus on expanding and modernizing equipment to support business growth and meet the evolving needs of the event industry.
Successful event companies are putting emphasis on how and where they are managing their gear in order to scale their operations. By investing in modern, efficient inventory management solutions, these companies can handle larger and more complex events. And, that flexibility will enable companies to better serve the needs of their clients of any scale.
So, what's next?
As we look ahead to 2025, the live events industry stands at a crossroads—facing persistent challenges while embracing new opportunities for growth and efficiency. From tightening lead times and rising costs to the ongoing struggle with fragmented software and crew management complexities, it’s clear that the path forward requires innovation, adaptability, and a focus on operational excellence. Companies that invest in streamlined processes, integrated technology solutions, and their most valuable asset—people—will be best positioned to thrive. We hope these insights will help provide a roadmap for navigating these complexities, helping event pros like you turn challenges into opportunities and ensuring long-term success.