I've been hearing the whispers.
People are asking which conferences are still worth attending and which ones aren't. Some have even gone so far as to say the tradeshow industry is dying.
I don't believe that's true.
I believe it's evolving.
Since COVID, attendee expectations have changed dramatically.
At CE Zoom, we've watched this shift happen in real time. Before the pandemic, our platform served about 40,000 users. Today, more than 250,000 professionals rely on CE Zoom to earn their continuing education online.
That growth tells me something important. Professionals have become comfortable completing their required CE from the convenience of their home or office.
If required CE is available anytime, anywhere, why would someone spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars on registration, airfare, hotels, meals, and time away from their practice?
The answer is simple.
They won't, unless the conference offers something they can't get online.
Today's attendees aren't just looking for education. They're looking for experiences.
They want to build relationships with peers, meet industry leaders, exchange ideas, discover new opportunities, and learn practical business and leadership strategies they can immediately apply. They want conversations that help them grow professionally and financially, not simply another certificate.
One trend I've noticed is that many of today's most successful conferences focus less on clinical CE and more on business growth, leadership, networking, and building community. Meanwhile, many traditional association meetings still rely on the same formula they used 10 or 20 years ago by filling classrooms with clinical lectures and expecting attendees to come.
My perspective comes from the conferences I've attended over the past six months.
Events like DEO, Dykema, ADSO, and Inner Circle were incredibly successful. Not just for CE Zoom, but from what I observed among attendees as well. Social media was filled with people sharing new connections, fresh ideas, and meaningful takeaways from the experience.
By comparison, my experience at meetings like the Chicago Midwinter Meeting and the Texas Dental Association Annual Meeting felt very different. While attendance may have been strong, the exhibit halls seemed much quieter, and many exhibitors I spoke with questioned whether the investment had paid off.
Of course, that's just my personal observation, not a definitive measure of either event's success. Still, it reflects a trend I've been noticing and one I continue to hear discussed by colleagues across the industry.
The conferences that continue to thrive will be the ones that give people a compelling reason to leave their office.
The value proposition can no longer be, "Come earn your CE."
Instead, it has to become, "Come experience something you can't get anywhere else."
Ironically, I don't believe virtual CE and in-person conferences are competitors. I believe they're complementary.
That's exactly how we think about it at CE Zoom. We help professionals complete the CE they need from the comfort of home, saving them time, money, and the hassle of travel. That allows them to be more intentional about the conferences they choose to attend, investing their travel budget and valuable time in events that offer exceptional networking, business education, leadership development, and experiences that simply can't be replicated online.
The future of conferences isn't about competing with virtual education.
It's about delivering what virtual education never can.