Key takeaways
• Editorial teams are smaller and publishing cycles are faster than ever, making it incredibly difficult for journalists to justify spending a full day away from their desks.
• When press releases, technical specifications, and high-res imagery can all be delivered instantly online, physical events must offer what digital formats cannot.
• To earn an RSVP, an event must offer distinct reporting benefits: unedited observation, spontaneous insight, efficient information gathering, and proprietary content creation.
• Value is measured not by overall attendance numbers, but by the depth of journalist engagement, the quality of subsequent coverage, and the long-term relationships created.
A decade ago, attending a press event in person was often the easiest way for trade journalists to access breaking news, technical insight, and visual assets.
However, when interviews and product demonstrations can easily be carried out via video link, and high-resolution images are delivered straight to email inboxes, physical attendance becomes harder to justify.
To convince an editor to leave their desk in 2026, an event needs to offer what a digital press kit cannot.
Seeing the product properly
Conversations that wouldn’t happen remotely
Getting the whole story in one afternoon
Stories and imagery competitors won’t have
Rethinking how we evaluate the success of press events
Across many industrial sectors, smaller attendance numbers are becoming the norm. But that doesn’t mean press events are becoming less valuable.
A highly targeted group of journalists who engage deeply with the technology, ask granular questions, and shoot their own photography or videography to create detailed, more original features can generate significantly more commercial value than a crowded room of attendees who do nothing more than copy and paste a press release.
Furthermore, the value of a physical event is rarely limited to that immediate wave of coverage. More often, it is the familiarity and trust built gradually over repeated face-to-face interactions – at trade shows as well as standalone launches. When editors know your technical experts can explain complex topics clearly and communicate openly, they are far more likely to give you editorial opportunities over time.
The bottom line
Ultimately, the goal of a press event is to facilitate stronger understanding, more in-depth reporting, and better media relations over the long-term.
So before planning your next launch, instead of asking:
“How do we persuade journalists to attend?”
The more useful planning question is:
“What will journalists gain from being there that we cannot send them in an email?”
The answer usually determines whether attendance feels worthwhile long before invitations are ever sent.
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
