Events are Not a Moat
There is power in tradeshows, events, conferences, festivals, summits, fairs, workshops, salons — whatever the format and whatever they are called. They are important. They have a place in the business, commerce, and learning ecosystem. Just don’t call them a moat; they are anything but.
This term de jour — ‘moat’ is having its place in the sun alongside hot button categories “communities and events” especially in the context of F2F and as an anecdote to GenAI. Ask Google or go to LinkedIn and definitions of moats are both consistent and common.
You get the castle/fortress/drawbridge definition as part of improving one’s defense.
You get the ‘business/economic’ version of a moat — referencing five important moat categories:
1) Intangible Assets (protect a company from competitors, e.g. brands, patents)
2) Switching Costs (effort/expense to change providers)
3) The Network Effect (more users increase value)
4) Cost Advantage (structural low costs)
5) Efficient Scale (dominance in niche markets)
Suddenly moats are in and events with them. They are another aspect of painting the valuation picture that ebbs and flows like tides.
Events don’t fit well in these categories. Brand — maybe but that can be ephemeral and fleeting. Huge ‘don’t miss’ events — Cannes, Monte Carlo Yacht Show, CES, maybe. Even here at the top of the market there are always top 1, 2, 3 alternatives which means switching costs for marketers are low and for end-users too. A different sponsorship decision, a change in travel plans, the need to register. They are not guaranteed.
On the plus side, highly specialized vertical events can define a brand — think EnsembleIQ and its MURTEC or CERAWeek. Events are the best thing we have right now to bring buyers and sellers together especially when digital, Google search, and now GenAI dominate the field. They also typically deliver fabulous margins. Investors and owners have gravitated to them for these reasons. But are they a moat? Long range protection? We are not so sure.
More doesn’t always equal more in the ’show world’ either by adding adjacent shows or by driving for more audience. So, network effect? Not so much. FOMO? Yes, and that too only goes so far. Efficiency and cost advantage? Maybe if you produce a gazillion shows a year but every one of them still needs to be built up, and torn down, year over year over year.
Just about every aspect of a conference, or a tradeshow, or festival, or summit, or workshop must be redesigned each and every time.
Where is the scale in that?
- Programming, speaker invitations, speaker management ✔︎✔︎✔︎
- Sponsorship packaging, promotion, selling, and serving ✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
- Attendee marketing and registration ✔︎✔︎
- Location identification, contracting ✔︎✔︎
- Production, set up, tear down, measurement, and follow-up ✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
- Unions, logistics, signage, tablecloths, booths, AV, food, into infinity… ✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎…
- And let’s not forget all the experiences that require organizing and the event tech that needs deploying ✔︎✔︎
It is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. It never ends.
- Costs are variable.
- Revenue is variable.
- Sponsor and registrants are variable.
Add in an era where employee turnover in advanced economies hovers around 20%. Consider CMO turnover in leading companies is 32% with CROs not much better. That is a lot of cost, revenue, sponsor, attendee chasing to do year after year; show after show.
And none of this includes the expenses to fly to these shows or room at them. These expenses continue to climb while service levels decline.
And this all happens before a pandemic rips across the planet, cartels run roughshod through a region, mega storms hit, unions strike, or God forbid war breaks out. You go to bed on Saturday and your event in Dubai is on. You wake up Sunday and it is not. Ramadan or not, this is not a moat.
Am I a fan of events, yes? I love them. I have been producing world-class conferences going back to my days at Dataquest, contracting for JD Power, representing a world-class training organization in the US, and in our own company. At Outsell we pioneered CEO communities and annual events like Buying & Selling eContent, Go!, the Outsell Signature Event, Outsell DataMoney, and our Outsell Women’s Conference.
Today we host our annual Outsell CEO Summit, world class CEO Network meetings and are soon to resurrect two of our brands. And we are excited to see you in Florida at RevvedUP 2026, co-produced by H2K Labs and Outsell — a partnership we are very excited about. (Are you registered yet?)
So yes. we love events. We just don’t call them a moat.