As an innovation workshop, it provides an agile and creative field of experimentation, enabling marketing and communication managers from different sectors to share ideas on strategic challenges in a protected setting and to jointly develop new solutions.
 

With ROI & Beyond, we’re reframing one of the industry’s most pressing questions: How do we prove the value of business events—not just after the fact, but through strategic steering mechanisms deeply embedded in our organizational processes? It’s no longer about asking “What did it cost?” but about embracing a holistic measurement approach that makes strategic objectives, brand impact, and behavioral change both visible and actionable.

At ebx.lab 2026, we’re stepping outside our industry bubble and learning from leaders who operate at the highest level of impact measurement in their respective fields. The heart of the experience is shared learning and co‑creation during an in‑person gathering in Frankfurt—an event designed around two immersive working phases.

Day One is all about expanding perspectives: measurement experts from completely different disciplines open up their playbooks in deep‑dive masterclasses, showing how success is quantified in their worlds. In small, curated groups, participants deconstruct these measurement logics and translate them—through a Translational Hackathon—into concrete use cases for the business events industry.

Day Two turns ideas into something tangible: each group develops its own measurement system in prototype form.

• 9 July 2026, 3 to 4.30 PM (CET):
  Digital horizon scanning
• 24 September (from 1 PM) & 25 September (until 3 PM) 2026:
  ebx.lab live in Frankfurt Main
• 12 November 2026, 3 to 4.30 PM (CET):
  Digital-Meetup – Expert-Review

The insights and prototypes created during the lab flow directly into a whitepaper designed to spark fresh thinking and inspire the entire community.

Interested in taking part? Just contact our ebx.lab concierge Akram Ouzid! Please note, the event language is German.

• By enabling knowledge exchange among like-minded people, the ebx.lab supports attendees and their teams in their work and better prepares them for future challenges.

• Participating organisations are enabled to boost the position of events as part of their communication mix, to leverage unused potential and, ultimately, to make a valuable contribution to achieving management goals and the positioning of their brands.

• Innovation is based on collaboration and solutions that make a difference require more joint action than we currently see. The ebx.lab wants to be an independent platform for collective solutions and collective intelligence, to enable new ideas and a new way of thinking.

The ebx.lab is made up of several modules:

• An annual, innovative in-person event which, in addition to co-creating solutions, will focus on personal contact and informal exchange.

• A series of digital meet-ups to enable on-going discussions and co-learning in the peer group.

• A stable growing community that will become increasingly networked and is dedicated to the strategic development of business events.

The ebx.lab will bring together a diverse mix of professionals who handle strategic issues around events, brands and brand experiences. Among them are decision-makers and thought leaders from the event, marketing and communication departments of leading companies, associations and other organisations that use events as effective instruments in their communication and brand management.

They will meet with strategy experts and executives from the service provider side, such as leading experts from destinations management organisations, event agencies, venues and hotels. More key expertise will be provided by research and development professionals from event technology, gaming, big data, human resources, education and start-ups contribute.

• Co-learning in a curated, highly qualified peer group in a safe space will open up new perspectives, promote inspiration and provide actionable know-how for you and your team.

• You will develop new solutions for the strategic challenges of your organisation in a networked and growing community.

• Equipped with a new mindset, you will be able to shape the future of business events, using synergies and collective intelligence.

Meetings, conferences and congresses are platforms for the exchange of knowledge. They promote innovation and set essential impulses in business, science, politics and society. As one of the world's leading destinations for business events, Germany stands for innovative strength, sustainability and comprehensive expertise in key sectors of business and science. Strengthening this top position is one of the GCB's core tasks.

In 2015, the GCB founded the Future Meeting Space (FMS) innovation together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, with the aim of strengthening the role of business events as a driver of innovation and a key corporate communication tool. The ebx.lab builds on the FMS research findings and, through systematic co-creative processes, wants to provide a space for bold transformations and customised solutions in the changing ecosystem of business events.