08/04/2026
Have Events Become Too Expensive?
We were talking with someone recently about the final bill for an event they had produced. The number was enormous. But what stayed with us wasn’t that we were shocked by it. It was that we weren’t.
Five or six years ago, a bill like that would have stopped the conversation. Today, it sounds like the cost of producing a professionally executed corporate event.
Somewhere along the way, numbers that once would have seemed absurd became normal.
According to Maritz, event costs have risen approximately 40% since 2019. They increased another 4% in 2025, while corporate event budgets failed to keep pace.
In practical terms, an event that cost $100,000 in 2019 could now cost roughly $145,000 to produce, without necessarily becoming bigger, better or more ambitious.
Some of that increase is easy to understand.
Food costs more. So do transportation, insurance and utilities. Statistics Canada reported that restaurant prices rose another 2.6% in 2025, following a 3.6% increase in 2024.
Staffing costs also needed to increase. Too many people in this industry worked long, irregular hours for wages that failed to reflect the difficulty or skill involved. Better pay for event staff isn’t the problem. It was overdue.
But accepting that some costs needed to rise does not mean every increase should go unquestioned.
Ask anyone producing events where they are feeling the greatest pressure and the same categories come up repeatedly: AV, venues, event technology and rentals.
Anyone who has produced an event knows what it can cost to rent a couch for one evening. We understand that we aren’t paying only for the couch. The price includes storage, cleaning, maintenance, transportation, installation, removal, staffing and the risk of damage.
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