Stress 'triggers' higher among millennial event attendees, survey finds

Getting to and from an event location, managing complicated conference agendas with overlapping sessions, networking and not knowing anyone at an event were cited as attendees’ top stress factors, according to the recent Inside the Mind of The Event Attendee study commissioned by Cvent.

In addition, navigating the event venue and translating key conference learnings into actionable takeaways were highlighted as top stress triggers. The survey findings highlight a major opportunity for event organisers to create programs that are more customised, clear and impactful to help minimise what gets in the way of a great attendee experience.

Millennials showed consistently higher stress levels (between 10-20%) than Generation X and Baby Boomer respondents and their stress triggers focused more on the social aspect of attending events. Nearly three in ten (28%) Millennials are stressed by not knowing anyone at an event compared to just 8% of Baby Boomers. Likewise, when navigating the event venue, more than a quarter of Millennials (28%) find this stressful compared to 18% of Generation Xers and 9% of Baby Boomers. More than a quarter of Millennials (26%) stress about what to wear at events compared to just 4% of Baby Boomers.

The research, which was conducted by Edelman Intelligence, also revealed other stress factors including selecting which keynote sessions to attend and proving the value of their event attendance (ROI).

The research includes responses from 3,000 event attendees (1,000 from the UK, 1,000 from Germany and 1,000 from the US) globally who had attended at least one B2B event in the past six months. The top five industries from respondents include education, business & professional services, healthcare & medical, technology, and retail.