Flagship twist for trade shows: why Informa’s SmartEvent platform matters now

Edited by ad hoc news Flagship & Bestseller Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/15/2026 at 7:46 PM ET. Details in the imprint.

Hybrid trade shows have quietly become standard in B2B industries, and Informa’s SmartEvent platform is the key layer the group uses to make its largest exhibitions work both on-site and online. SmartEvent is not a stand-alone product but a configurable toolkit that adds data capture, digital content and year-round engagement features to major shows such as Arab Health, CPHI and Natural Products Expo, and Informa now positions it as a flagship capability across its portfolio.

What SmartEvent does for large-scale exhibitions

At its core, SmartEvent is designed to extend the life and reach of a physical trade show by combining registration data, onsite behavior tracking and digital content access into one environment that organizers and exhibitors can reuse before, during and after the event. According to Informa’s own description for exhibitors, SmartEvent provides “pre-show marketing, onsite lead generation and post-show analytics” as a standard layer for key brands like Arab Health and Cityscape, effectively turning a few exhibition days into a longer campaign window that can run for several weeks around the show date. Informa’s SmartEvent overview describes these modules as part of its hybrid events strategy.

SmartEvent typically plugs into the registration process and onsite badging systems, capturing information about which exhibitors attendees interact with and what conference sessions they scan into. On the front end, visitors see this as recommendations, meeting tools and a content hub for on-demand sessions, while exhibitors get dashboards with qualified leads, contact information where consent is given, and basic behavioral metrics such as product interests and time spent in meetings. Informa points out that these tools can be customized per show, meaning a healthcare exhibition will surface different filters and product categories than a construction fair even though they share the same platform backbone.

The digital extensions built into SmartEvent also influence how content is produced for large trade shows. Sessions are planned with streaming and on-demand access in mind so that a keynote delivered in Dubai or Barcelona can later be watched by remote participants who never set foot in the venue, while still being counted in the event’s overall reach. Exhibitors are encouraged to upload product catalogs, videos and white papers ahead of time, turning the SmartEvent environment into a structured directory that visitors can browse weeks before arriving at the show floor. This combination of onsite and online touchpoints is marketed by Informa as part of its “365-day” engagement model, where communities remain active via email campaigns, content drops and targeted recommendations between annual editions of an event.

For Informa, SmartEvent also serves as a unifying data layer across its different market verticals. Instead of each trade show building its own separate system for matchmaking, content hosting and analytics, the group can deploy a shared set of tools with some customization at the edges. That is important for scaling, because Informa runs hundreds of events globally and wants to standardize how exhibitors measure return on investment from sponsorship packages and booth presence. This standardization allows the company to benchmark engagement across brands, identify shows where digital adoption is particularly high and iterate features without rebuilding from scratch every time.

Informa has highlighted SmartEvent several times in its communications with exhibitors and investors, describing it as central to how the business responded after COVID-19 restrictions and as a differentiator when selling multi-year partnerships. The company credits its investment in SmartEvent and related digital tools with helping many events return to or surpass pre-pandemic revenue levels, as exhibitors were willing to pay for packages that combine on-floor presence with data-rich digital campaigns. A recent update from Informa on its events performance noted double-digit growth in revenues in segments where hybrid formats and digital extensions are heavily used, underlining that the SmartEvent approach is not just an add-on but a contributor to overall monetization. Informa’s latest news and trading updates repeatedly reference digital and data capabilities around its major shows.

On the user side, SmartEvent changes the behavior expected of attendees at large exhibitions. Visitors are prompted to complete their profiles, select product interests and opt into meeting tools, making it easier to schedule appointments before the doors open and to navigate large halls once onsite. For time-poor participants, the on-demand content element means they can watch conference sessions after returning to their offices, while exhibitors can follow up on leads with references to specific sessions or digital materials. In sectors like healthcare and pharmaceuticals, where travel budgets and compliance checks are tight, this ability to combine physical presence with structured digital follow-up can be a deciding factor when choosing which events to prioritize.

SmartEvent is also important for Informa’s internal analytics and forecasting. Because the platform tracks engagement patterns and content consumption, it gives product managers and sales teams granular insight into which topics and exhibitor categories draw interest. Those insights feed into floorplan decisions, pricing for sponsorship inventory and even the launch of new co-located events or spin-off conferences. In effect, SmartEvent turns what used to be relatively opaque trade show behavior into a data set that can be mined year over year, which is particularly relevant as advertisers and big exhibitors ask for more measurable outcomes from their marketing budgets.

Strategically, SmartEvent fits into Informa’s broader emphasis on what it calls “specialist markets,” where the company controls leading brands in niche sectors and can monetize both live experiences and proprietary data. The event brands that already rely heavily on SmartEvent, such as Arab Health or CPHI, are often positioned as must-attend gatherings in their respective industries, and a consistent hybrid platform helps Informa protect that status as new competitors emerge. Informa’s most recent annual report points to growing demand from customers for digital services, data and E-commerce adjacencies across its portfolio, and SmartEvent is one of the concrete products that translates those themes into a usable toolset for event participants. The 2023 annual report discusses the role of digital and data in the group’s largest exhibitions.

For investors, the SmartEvent platform illustrates how Informa seeks to deepen the monetization of its flagship trade shows beyond simple booth and ticket sales. Because it is embedded primarily in the company’s largest and most profitable event brands, SmartEvent sits close to the core of Informa’s growth narrative around data-rich, hybrid formats rather than being a peripheral experiment. Shares of Informa (GB00BMJ6DW54) traded on the London Stock Exchange at around GBP 9.00 on 06/14/2026.

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.