Driving Commercial And Educational Momentum: How EHS Tech Firms Use Events To Underpin Their Strategies And Enable Knowledge-Sharing

EHS practitioners attend industry events to stay informed on best practices for maintaining safe, sustainable and compliant operations. These forums not only provide education on evolving regulations and emerging industry standards, but also connect practitioners with the people, services and solution providers that can help them drive more efficient and effective EHS management. Recognizing the value of these touchpoints, many EHS vendors make significant investments in event participation.

Vendors have a broad choice of event formats to engage in, ranging from large, in-person exhibitions and smaller executive-level conferences to webinars and virtual roundtables, each offering access to distinct audiences and engagement depths. As firms differ markedly in their event strategies, the main approaches are:

• Making bold investments by hosting their own in-person conferences.

  Just under half of the vendors benchmarked in the 2025 EHS Software Green Quadrant host one or two proprietary externally facing conferences. Three of these vendors held their conferences in 2025, while six are planning their conferences for 2026. All of these events have been or are based in North America and Europe. Although they are high risk, firm-led in-person conferences can be highly effective at engaging prospective and existing customers, partners and investors to which the firm already has access. Avetta, a supply chain and contractor safety software specialist, has doubled down on this strategy, with in-person conferences planned across North America, Australia and the UK in 2026. This approach aligns well with Avetta’s business model, which depends on sustaining a large, highly engaged network of hiring clients, contractors and suppliers operating on the platform.

• Leveraging the value of external in-person conferences.

  External in-person conferences are smaller than exhibitions but more targeted towards specific job roles, seniority levels and industries. Of all event formats, they facilitate the most intimate and high-quality interactions with stakeholders beyond a vendor’s immediate network. External in-person conferences can also be a good tool to engage existing customers, partners and investors, and strengthen relationships. EHS technology vendors such as Avetta, Benchmark Gensuite, Cority, Ideagen and Wolters Kluwer Enablon are all participating in Verdantix Transform, taking place on 17-19 March 2026 in Amsterdam. Further Verdantix Transform summits focused on EHS and industrial transformation are planned for North America in March 2027.

• Gaining broad exposure by sponsoring exhibitions.

  By sponsoring external in-person events, whether exhibitions or conferences, vendors can access customers, investors and partners within and beyond their ecosystem. Sponsoring – rather than hosting – limits an organization’s risk exposure, as a third party takes on the risk of organizing the event. Many EHS technology vendors participate in exhibitions like the NSC Safety Congress & Expo – as does Verdantix. Such exhibitions attract thousands of people of various industry backgrounds and seniority levels, giving vendors broad exposure – but not necessarily to their ideal customer profiles.

• Innovating their virtual events portfolio.
  During the COVID-19 pandemic, events became virtual by necessity. In the ‘new normal’ post-pandemic, webinars have remained a popular means for sharing information en masse. Most EHS software vendors produce webinars on areas of functional expertise such as control of work, training and compliance management. They often involve existing customers as co-presenters to demonstrate that their solutions are credible. But some vendors are becoming much more targeted in their webinar strategy, especially as consumers are oversaturated with webinar content. In 2026, for example, UL Solutions is planning webinars directed at the fashion industry and EHS practitioners in Latin America. Vendors are also using virtual events to facilitate product feedback. As part of VelocityEHS’s AI strategy it hosts periodic “AI in Safety Coffee Chats”: virtual interactive conversations between VelocityEHS and existing and prospective users.
  

Each of these approaches has benefits and drawbacks, and EHS tech vendors should think carefully about what kind of event participation will best serve their organization’s strategy. The only 'wrong' move is to do nothing – as working in isolation means a lack of exposure to new ideas, people and growth opportunities.

To optimize your EHS marketing strategy – including the role of events in gaining brand recognition and new audiences – set up an analyst inquiry call to discuss and gain feedback on your plans.