Why Experiential Venues Are Changing the Face of Meetings and Events

For today's meeting and event planners, selecting a venue means game on. Event hosts want to give their guests experiences that will leave a lasting impression, and attendees want to go to events that will become a talking point with their family, friends and coworkers. Planners are delivering. Experiential venues have become as much a part of the meetings and events landscape as their more traditional ballroom and convention center counterparts. 

According to the Amex GBT Meetings & Events 2025 Global Forecast, planners should prioritize emotionally engaging, personalized experiences; invest in high-quality, relevant content and allocate budgets to enhance onsite experiences; and explore ideal destinations and venues that can provide unique and memorable experiences. "End to end experience is more and more important," said Emma Bason, director global venue sourcing, Amex GBT Meetings & Events. "When we looked for venues in the past, we looked at location, price and value. Now we are asking 'how does this venue make you feel?'"

The Evolution of Corporate Experiences

Corporate meetings and events began to shift with the proliferation of boutique hotels. They gave guests more of a local experience and soon, large hotels incorporated elements of the destination into the guest experience. "Even branded hotels began listing local partners where they sourced food like North Carolina poultry farms for chicken and eggs or Krispy Kreme donuts because they originated in North Carolina," said Jennifer Beam Johnson, CEO at Raleigh-based The Johnson Meetings Group.

More recently, Johnson saw a cultural shift as remote work during the Covid Pandemic caused people to shy away from the expansive, corporate settings. Amy Green, founder and partner at Los Angeles-based BDI Events said this was because there were often gathering restrictions on traditional ballrooms, forcing organizations to take a more creative approach to planning meetings and events. 

Attendees from households with high incomes also played a part in the prevalence of events taking place at experiential venues. More than 15 years ago, Mary Christian, CEO of New York City-based WMC Creative had clients asking for non-traditional events. "Their attendees are affluent, well traveled and purchase experiences on their own," she said. "Our clients needed to retain their attendees' excitement so they would come to their events." This trend continues as the 2025 Bain & Co. Luxury Study reported that in 2024, luxury spending increased by five percent on experiences whereas personal luxury goods experienced a contraction for the first time in over a decade. 

Modern Technology: A Catalyst for Live Events

Experiential venues have been attracting humans for thousands of years and they've come a long way since the ancient Romans constructed the Colosseum in Rome. Michael Dorf, CEO and founder of City Winery, believes experiential venues started gaining greater traction over the last century with the advent of television and radio. "People have always needed an alternative as technology advanced and now that includes the Internet and AI," he said. "I think there's a human need for real experiences as an anecdote to all of the technology and I believe that these experiences cannot be fully replicated by AI, at least not yet."

Straits Research similarly reported in their 2024 report Experiential Events Are Rising As People Seek Live Interaction that the rise of digital interaction has also led to an increase in the popularity of live events "where a person can employ all senses and mingle with others."

Technology has also altered people's attention spans, making it more difficult to keep an audience captivated. "We're digesting information in short clips now, so keeping people in one room can be difficult and keeping them engaged for more than three hours can be difficult," said Christian. 

The Value of Experiential Venues

While attendees relish the human interaction that live events offer, they're still connected to their mobile devices, particularly during an experiential event. When Green takes over theme parks or sports stadiums for client events, attendees are quick to pull out their phones to take photos because it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment. "When people know an event is going to be in a unique location, they're motivated to RSVP and make time in their busy schedules," Green explained. 

Attendees will also post their event photos to their social media accounts and, according to Christian, that's a boon for the event host. When attendees post event photos to their own social media channels, that's an additional return on investment for the host as it's organic brand storytelling and additional outreach to an even wider base of potential customers. 

This is just one example of how events that take place in experiential venues translate to experiential marketing. Certainly a non-traditional approach to advertising, but in their 2023 insight report "Using Experiential Marketing to Build Customer Loyalty", the Association of National Advertisers defines experiential marketing as "revolving around the creation of memorable and immersive experiences for customers…, prioritizing direct engagement, emotional connections and active participation."

This is important to note when considering the cost of an experiential venue compared with a traditional meeting or event space. When considering budgets, Johnson suggests cutting back on expenses like keynote speakers and instead, giving attendees and event hosts more time to engage and build relationships.

Experiential Venues: Varied Shapes and Sizes

There's no ambiguity when it comes to traditional meeting and event spaces — ballrooms, convention centers and boardrooms. However, experiential venues can be well-established spaces like the Detroit Science Center where one of Johnson's clients hosted a private dinner for a group of doctors at an exhibition on the human body. She explained, "the client wanted an unusual space because they knew these doctors were invited to steak houses all the time."

But experiential venues can also be more out-of-the-box. Christian once took over a Milan showroom of household fixtures for a client's fashion show, creating a runway and filling the bathtubs with ice to make self-serve bars. "The client loved it because it was unlike anything they had ever done before," she said.

Scott Mifsud, president of Orlando-based Just Right Destination Management, does an annual multi-day event for a professional sports association, including nightly concerts. Mifsud builds a concert venue in the middle of a cow pasture every year.

"You still have to look at these locations with a critical eye and think about risk management, accessibility and inclusion for attendees who may use wheelchairs or have vision or hearing impairments," advises Johnson. "You can request all of this information during the discovery conversation with the venue and know that might involve their risk management or security teams." 

 Sponsored Content

City Winery Elevates Events and Adds Value

CEO & Founder Michael Dorf likes an oxymoron. He named his New York City nightclub The Knitting Factory when he founded it in 1987 and for the last two decades, he's also organized an annual charity concert, "Music Of", honoring a rock artist at classical music venue Carnegie Hall. But the name City Winery is deceiving. The brand has a dozen locations across the U.S. These spaces are not only urban wineries, but also welcoming concert venues. "When I launched the first City Winery in 2008, I knew New York City needed a sit-down concert venue that was luxurious, intimate and served good food alongside a great wine list," he explained.

Initially, Dorf created the space for busy New Yorkers who wanted to know they could purchase a concert ticket with a guaranteed seat and still order dinner and drinks, even if they arrived late from work. However, the concept has taken off in the meetings and events industry.

"There are so many factors that can raise costs at most locations, but City Winery stands out because we never have to install A/V and our clients can do a full buy-out if they have a larger headcount or just rent a single room," said Casandra Mead, CEO and co-founder of New York City-based BlackHouse.

Mead organized an annual fundraising gala of 350 guests for non-profit organization The Waterfront Alliance at City Winery. Her team entered the space at noon to set up a casino and an installation showcasing the event's honorees, in addition to a sound check for the band. The venue features a permanent stage, Barrel Room and outdoor space. But the A/V set-up is a major selling point for most planners.

Walls, ceiling treatments and the bar fronts are covered with sound absorption panels that are hidden behind old wooden wine barrels. Dorf said, "the space was designed with sound in mind, so acoustically it's really terrific, especially in contrast to other private event spaces that use building materials like marble, which reflects sounds."

Christian has organized events at City Winery that have included awards dinners, panel discussions and podcasts, as well as Coachella and Studio 54-style events. She's leveraged the wine experience for activations and engagement, both for small VIP groups and crowds of more than 300. Christian also notes that the sound set-up allows for attendees to have conversations while a performance is taking place on stage. Her company has worked with City Winery on multiple occasions because the venue delivers value to her clients. "More and more, I'm finding that clients are mindful of where and how their budgets will get the most impact and City Winery has a certain level of built-in production that includes rigging points, which my clients don't always know to look for," Christian explained.

Mead is currently pitching the space to a streaming service client for an upcoming film premiere, both for its A/V technology and two green rooms, one for talent and another with a boardroom-style design for executives. "Those are things that I often have to build into spaces, which costs money, and they aren't as nice," she said.

With built-in ambiance, creative flexibility and built-for-storytelling design, an experiential venue such as City Winery is redefining how audiences connect.

To explore how City Winery can elevate your next event, visit citywinery.com or contact the events team directly at eventsnewyork@citywinery.com.