Most marketers expect to attend in-person conferences by early 2022 But as employers once again allow staff to travel, professionals are also growing fonder of virtual events. Henry Powderly on April 28, 2021 at 10:22 am More Mayur Gupta, former CMO of Freshly, speaks at the 2019 MarTech conference in San Jose. For organizers forced to abandon conference centers for digital consoles, here’s the good news: The majority of marketers are ready to come back to in-person conferences by the start of 2022. But improvements in virtual conferences and lingering uneasiness about the pandemic will likely mean smaller shows at the outset. About 38% of the nearly 250 marketers we surveyed in March said it is extremely likely that they will attend an in-person show in the first half of 2022, while about 45% gave the prospect a moderate to somewhat likely possibility. The numbers shrink as you get closer to the present, with only 21% saying it is extremely likely they would attend in-person events in the fourth quarter of 2021 and an even smaller 17% saying it is extremely likely they’d attend in the third quarter.