Your Content Isn’t the Problem—It’s the Lack of a Content Strategy
Why even great content falls flat without a clear plan to connect, engage, and deliver impact.
“Content is king.” We’ve all heard it. But in the world of meetings and events—where content should reign supreme—it often feels more like a court jester: overlooked, underfunded, and expected to perform without much direction.
Event professionals spend months perfecting logistics, lining up speakers, wooing sponsors, selecting venues, and refining mobile apps. But too often, the core of the event—the content itself—is treated like an afterthought. The result is all too familiar: sessions that feel interchangeable, themes that don’t quite cohere, and learning experiences that fail to deliver lasting value.
That’s not just a missed opportunity—it’s a strategic misstep.
Content strategy, when done right, has the power to transform events from one-off experiences into engines of relevance, connection, and long-term impact. And yet, it continues to be one of the most overlooked elements in event planning.
The Business Case for Content Strategy
We know that events matter. Research from the CMO Council and E2MA found that nearly 90% of marketers believe meetings and trade shows are valuable to their organizations, with almost a third calling them critical. Events are where strategies are launched, communities are built, and real business gets done.
At the heart of these events is content—formal and informal, spoken and written, planned and spontaneous. Content is what drives the learning. It frames the networking. It shapes the stories attendees take home. And yet, without a guiding strategy, content often becomes generic, redundant, or irrelevant.
Too many events promise “education and networking”—and then deliver the same sessions with slightly different titles, year after year. Attendees may not say it directly, but they feel it. Engagement fades. Loyalty erodes. ROI drops.
A well-considered content strategy helps prevent this erosion. It ensures that what’s being shared—on stage, in the app, on signage, or over coffee—serves a clear purpose, speaks to a real need, and connects to the event’s larger goals. Without that clarity, even the most well-produced events risk becoming just another date on the calendar.
What Content Strategy Really Means
Let’s be clear: content strategy is not just picking topics or filling slots on an agenda. It’s about making intentional choices about what content gets created, who it’s for, when it’s delivered, and how it aligns with the event’s purpose and audience expectations.
In the event space, content strategy touches everything—session descriptions, speaker onboarding, calls for proposals, learning formats, signage, digital displays, onsite experiences, and post-event communication. It even shows up in the informal conversations between attendees. All of that is content. And without a plan for how it fits together, it quickly becomes noise.
In practical terms, content strategy means taking a holistic view of your event content: how it’s sourced, how it’s shaped, how it’s delivered, and how it lives on after the event ends. It’s the connective tissue between intention and impact.
Why Event Professionals Need to Own This
One of the biggest challenges is that no one really owns event content strategy. Marketing owns messaging. Education owns session planning. Logistics owns everything else. And yet, content lives at the intersection of all these functions.
Event professionals are uniquely positioned to bring these threads together. They understand the audience. They see the big picture. They’re responsible for orchestrating the experience. And whether they realize it or not, they’re already making content decisions every day—about speakers, formats, flow, themes, and timing. The opportunity is to elevate those decisions from reactive to strategic.
When content strategy becomes a shared priority, the experience becomes more intentional. Sessions connect to each other. Themes are reinforced rather than repeated. Attendees leave with insights they didn’t expect—but deeply needed. That kind of resonance doesn’t happen by accident. It’s designed.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
Without a clear content strategy, even well-intentioned events can go off-course. Topics may be timely but irrelevant. Sessions may be polished but empty. Speakers may be impressive but misaligned with the audience’s needs.
And worst of all, the event’s content may not extend beyond the few days it’s delivered. When there’s no plan for repurposing or reinforcing key ideas, the impact ends when the badge comes off.
The result? A costly, complex event that under-delivers—not because it wasn’t well-run, but because it wasn’t well-shaped.
A Smarter Way Forward
Over the years, I’ve found it helpful to think of content strategy across three phases: before, during, and after the event. Each phase has its own purpose, its own set of design considerations, and its own opportunities for impact.
Before the event, content strategy is about discovery and design—identifying the needs of your audience, defining learning objectives, sourcing ideas, and aligning content to broader organizational goals. This is where we move from “filling the agenda” to creating a purposeful learning journey.
During the event, content strategy becomes about delivery and experience. It’s about format choices, speaker preparation, and crafting learning environments that promote participation and connection—not just consumption.
And after the event, content strategy is about extension and amplification. What gets shared? What gets archived? What conversations continue? What gets measured and learned from? This is where the value of the event lives on—and where future events begin to take shape.
I’ll be exploring each of these phases in greater detail in the coming weeks, along with updated examples, lessons learned, and best practices from organizations that are leading the way.
It Starts with a Conversation
If content is the currency of events, then strategy is how we spend it wisely. And yet, content strategy is still treated as a luxury—or worse, ignored entirely. That needs to change.
It doesn’t require a complete overhaul or a massive new investment. It starts with a simple shift in mindset: from execution to intention. From filling the agenda to designing the experience. From doing what we’ve always done to doing what works for who our audience is now.
Content strategy is all about delivering the right message - to the right people - at the right time - using the right channel.
Most of all, it starts with a conversation—about what we want our events to mean, and how our content can get us there.
John Nawn is a business strategist who has spent his career helping organizations transform events into high-impact learning experiences. He has advised Fortune 500 companies, global associations, and event producers on how to make content more relevant, more engaging, and more strategically aligned. John is a frequent speaker, writer, and consultant on the intersection of learning, community, and experience design.
You can find the lead article and the 3-part series here...