Log In
Recent reports from Freeman and Maritz make the case for choosing speakers who embody expertise and authenticity to maximize audience engagement.
For large numbers of attendees, the conference main stage is not the main event. Only about half of the participants at their events attend their meeting’s primary keynotes, according to meeting organizers surveyed in Part One of Freeman’s 2026 Trends Report on adult learning. And less than half of attendees — 47 percent — said that they agreed that keynotes strongly contribute to an event’s ROI.
Booking the speakers with the biggest name recognition might seem like the best strategy for drawing an audience, but “attendees overwhelmingly said that expertise outweighs celebrity status when it comes to keynotes,” the report said. A majority — 59 percent — said they most preferred industry experts, compared with 6 percent who named celebrities as their top pick. And a little less than a quarter said that celebrity/public-figure speakers are a primary motivator for them to register for an event.
Subscribe to Convene.
Want deep-dive insights on events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletters
When asked about the kinds of topics and themes they would like to hear in a keynote, two options tied as the most preferred: purpose-driven or “impact-focused” talks and “industry trends.” Both were chosen by 34 percent of respondents.
Adding big screens and a lot of flash to the main stage doesn’t have as much impact as many meeting organizers think that it does, according to the report. Only 35 percent of meeting attendees said that those things made keynotes and plenaries a better experience, compared with 48 percent of meeting organizers who agreed that it would.
What’s more important to Gen Z audiences than a shiny surface, according to Maritz’s “NextGen-Proofing Your Events” report, is authenticity. What “trusted voices look and sound like” has changed, the report said. If a brand or speaker’s trustworthiness “used to be conveyed through status and credentials, polished delivery and pressed suits,” it now looks more like things including a delivery style that feels relatable and genuine — talking “with” audiences, not “at” them.
Barbara Palmer is Convene’s deputy editor
Meetings, Made Personal
This article and those listed below are part of Convene’s August 2026 issue cover and CMP Series story package.