Event organizers fall in love with their “solutions” or dream of building industry ‘ecosystems’. The event format. The networking platform. The sexy keynote speaker. The flashy exhibit hall with all the bells and whistles. The team gets jazzed. Marketing spins up a campaign. Sales pushes exhibitor packages.
And then… crickets.
Why? Because what you’re building is your solution, not theirs. And your attendees and exhibitors didn’t ask for a solution. They have problems. And if your event doesn’t solve those problems, they’re not coming.
Let me be blunt: No one cares about your event. They care about what it does for them.
Your Job is to Be a Problem Solver, Not a Party Planner
Too many organizers operate like decorators—focused on logistics, programming, and design—rather than event strategists who exist to solve their customers’ biggest pain points.
Attendees don’t register because you’ve got a nice registration flow and a colorful brochure. They register because they’re stuck. They want to grow. They want to stay ahead. They want to meet the right people. They want an answer they can’t get anywhere else.
Exhibitors don’t buy booths to support your brand. They buy because they’re struggling with pipeline, market reach, or brand visibility—and they think your audience might help.
Your event must be the bridge between those problems and their solutions.
The Fatal Mistake: Building Before Listening
Here’s what I see behind most failing events: the team builds the agenda, exhibitor prospectus, pricing model, and even branding before they talk to customers.
It’s the old Field of Dreams mentality: “If we build it, they will come.” But that’s not how real business works.
The best organizers are pain detectives. They ask questions like:
- What’s keeping you up at night?
- What’s something you’re struggling to solve that we might help with?
- What would make this event a no-brainer to attend or sponsor?
They listen, deeply. And then they reverse-engineer the event based on what they hear.
How to Shift from Event-Centric to Problem-Centric
Here’s your quick checklist to make the shift:
- Interview 10 of your top attendees and exhibitors. Ask about their current challenges, not about your event.
- Map their problems to your event offerings. Where do you provide real solutions? Where are you falling short?
- Kill features that don’t map to core problems. Strip the fluff. Make room for what matters.
- Reframe your marketing. Stop selling the event. Start selling the outcomes.
- Train your sales team. Teach them to speak in terms of solving the customer’s pain, not in terms of square footage or sponsorship levels.
Final Word
You are not in the event business. You are in the problem-solving business. Events are just the vehicle. When you start thinking like that, everything changes—your strategy, your messaging, your revenue, and your impact.
So, stop building solutions in search of problems. Start with the pain and build backwards.
That’s how you win.