How to Choose the Right Event Tech for the Size of Your Event
The worst kind of event tech? The one that’s too small to support you — or so big it buries you.
Most organisers don’t choose tech. They inherit it. Platforms forced on them by venues, agencies, or internal “this-is-what-we’ve-always-used” inertia. The result? Overbuilt systems that confuse attendees. Or brittle setups that collapse under pressure.
The right event tech matches your event’s scale and ambition. But size doesn’t just mean headcount. It’s about flow, complexity, frequency, and the kind of experience you want to build.
Here’s how to choose tech that actually fits:
1. Boutique Events (<150 attendees)
- Focus: intimacy, elegance, seamless UX
- Tech should: feel invisible, work instantly, elevate the experience
- Watch out for: bulky platforms with too many features
Reality check: Most apps are overkill here. A smart, elegant interface that handles agendas, 1:1s, and quick updates is all you need. When the attendee knows everyone in the room, the tech should fade into the background.
Strategic layer: Think of tech here as an extension of the host — not a feature list. Anything that slows a human interaction is friction.
2. Midsize Events (150–500 attendees)
- Focus: structured networking, scheduling flow, live engagement
- Tech should: unify comms, bookings, and feedback into one system
- Watch out for: duct-taped tools that don’t talk to each other
Pro tip: Integration isn’t a bonus — it’s the baseline. At this size, one missed message or unconfirmed session can throw the entire rhythm off.
Strategic layer: The event itself becomes an ecosystem. You need tech that supports choreography, not just coordination. Clean transitions between sessions. Real-time agenda logic. Seamless access control. And a comms layer that doesn’t depend on attendees checking their email.
3. Large Events (500–5,000 attendees)
- Focus: orchestration, segmentation, real-time content updates
- Tech should: handle layered tracks, attendee tiers, dynamic routing
- Watch out for: legacy SaaS with generic UI and clunky UX
Don’t settle: If it looks like a spreadsheet with buttons, walk away.
Strategic layer: Here, your event tech is operational infrastructure. It must accommodate different attendee types, map content to cohorts, and adapt on the fly. Think less in terms of "features" and more in terms of systems that support behaviour at scale.
Also: this is where passive data becomes mission-critical. You need insight into not just what attendees said they’d do — but what they’re actually doing.
4. Mega Events (5,000+ attendees)
- Focus: infrastructure-grade tech, on-site integrations, live support
- Tech should: scale effortlessly, sync with ops teams, manage data pipelines
- Watch out for: anything marketed as "self-serve"
Reality check: No mega-event should rely on software that isn’t backed by an engineering team.
Strategic layer: At this level, your event is a city — and the tech is its operating system. Flow mapping, hardware support, failover systems, in-app comms redundancies — these aren’t extras. They’re survival architecture.
Your attendees aren’t browsing. They’re navigating. They need tech that shows them where to go, when to move, and how to connect — all without asking.
6 Red Flags Your Tech Stack Is the Wrong Fit:
- Takes longer to configure than your venue
- Makes attendees download three different apps
- Fails when Wi-Fi gets spotty
- Can’t adapt to your event’s structure
- Designed like a B2B dashboard
- Puts support on you, not the vendor
If your event tech doesn’t adapt to your scale, it’s not infrastructure — it’s interference. Every decision should reduce friction, not just add functionality. That’s why every PEA™ we build starts with your event, not our product. No templates. No overbuild. Just precision-fitted tech for the event you’re actually running.