New IMEX report reflects on 2025: 25 trends

17.12.2025

A new report from IMEX, 25 in 2025, offers event industry professionals around the globe a fresh, thought-provoking look at the ideas, movements, and cultural shifts that defined the past year—and a glimpse of what’s coming next.  

The IMEX Talking Point for 2025 was Impact 2.0: Activating the Future. True to that theme, the new report highlights 25 ways the events industry—and the wider world—changed over the past year, from the rise of “return on relationships” to designing for joy, neurodivergent inclusivity, and even the curious phenomenon of “sofa rotting”.   

Highlights from 25 in 2025:   

Events as medicine: Live experiences are increasingly seen as antidotes to disconnection, loneliness and stress, with wellness activations designed to heal and energize.

FriendshipRocks: From “frolleagues” to friendship as the ultimate bio hack, relationships are being redefined as one of the true ROIs of events.

Impact as a metric: IMEX’s dedicated Impact team is developing baseline measures to track return on time, attention and carbon for international events.

Designing for joy: Emotional enrichment is becoming a KPI, with planners measuring passion, awe and excitement alongside traditional outcomes. Design by humans, for humans.

Cultural shifts: From alcohol-free networking to nostalgia-driven experiences, planners are adapting to new attendee expectations and behaviors.

 “We love a trend, but more than anything we love seeing constructive, life-affirming ideas turn into lasting impact,” says Carina Bauer, CEO of IMEX.  “This year’s reflections may be subjective, but they’re undeniably optimistic—and that’s the common thread (I think we can all agree that world could use more of that right now!). Our learnings celebrate the positive impact of events—how they can repair social fabric, foster belonging and drive change. They remind us that every step forward makes the next one easier—for each other, and the industry.”   

The report doesn’t stop at reflection—it also points forward. As we step into 2026, expect more emotional design considerations, richer multi-sensory experiences, and deeper measurement of impact across the event ecosystem.