While many event organizers are watching attendance — and budgets — fall as a result of the recession, others are actually seeing growth. The key: creative thinking. One b-to-b publisher saw growth from events in 2009 and is predicting 10 percent growth from events in 2010. “Based on the way people got squeezed this year, marketers are going into 2010 with compromised budgets,” says Nancy Hammervik, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Everything Channel Events. “One of the positive outcomes of a challenging market is that it causes you to think smarter. You get as tight as you can while evaluating everything you do.” Here are some of the steps Hammervik is taking:

1. Hosted buyer/seller events. Much of the reason Everything Channel Events is up in 2009 is its hosted model, in which the publisher qualifies a very specific audience and guarantees deliverability by flying out buyers to meet with vendors. “The conferences are smaller but they deliver higher ROI for clients,” Hammervik says.

2. Re-evaluating the lifespan of legacy events (including the hosted model) and emphasizing scale. Everything Channel is assessing which legacy events have run their course. “That’s something we’ve never really had to do before,” Hammervik says. That includes scaling back the hosted model in favor of events that can produce larger margins. “The thing about hosted models is they don’t scale,” she adds. “The bigger they get, the more they cost. The way you grow is to do more — we went from six events to 24. The margin for hosted events is typically half your revenue. At first, that sounds great: If you do a $2 million event, you make $1 million. But if you have a $500,000 event, it’s $250,000 to just recruit and host.” Everything Channel has had a stand-alone channel for the Latin American community and did hosted events that put buyers and sellers together in Miami. “It’s been five years; it matches the budgets vendors will spend on second- or third-tier emerging markets, but it requires a lot of energy and resources without offering a lot of return on margin,” Hammervik says. Folding four events — two retail XChanges, the Latin America XChange and Project Portfolio & Management — into other events will save Everything Channel almost $4 million in expenses next year, according to Hammervik.

3. Launching new events. Still, Hammervik recognizes that saving on expenses doesn’t equal generating revenue. “We all realize that with co-locating events, one plus one plus one will never equal three,” Hammervik adds. “Vendors won’t spend what they did at an individual event. If we combine XChange Latin America with the U.S. event, it may equal one and a half out of two. We’ll lose 50 percent on revenue, but we’re saving significantly on expenses.” Everything Channel is rolling out a series of regional events around the emerging category of cloud computing. “We did something similar five years ago with managed services — people didn’t really understand what it was about — and we responded with road shows,” Hammervik says. “We’re rolling out at least six oneday regional events. We’re being more cautious about not doing three-day events. That makes it easier for attendees and vendors to manage.” The publisher will also launch a series of events recognizing women executives in high tech, including a Top 100 Women channel. The program will include three events for women executives including a three-day conference and two one-day awards shows on the East and West Coasts. Everything Channel will also take a similar approach recognizing the Top 100 CIOs.

4. Custom events will drive half the growth next year. Hammervik is making an aggressive push into custom event services. “We’ve been doing that on the side, but we’re making a significant investment next year in staff and marketing to try to make it a big business,” she says. “We think half our growth next year will come from custom event services.” While marketers have increasingly taken on publishing duties for themselves — including events, Webinars, even magazines — Hammervik sees an opportunity for publishers to win that business back. “Vendors themselves have lost headcount and resources,” she says. “Their core competency is making and selling technology, not doing events.”

5. Complementing live events with virtual events. Many publishers have experimented with virtual events in place of their traditional live event this year. Everything Channel sees an opportunity in offering Web services around live events as both a preview and community-builder. “A month before the live event, the virtual event will be active,” Hammervik says. “Sponsors can prequalify attendees and schedule live meetings with prospects.” Hammervik is looking at charging an additional $5,000-$10,000 to add virtual components to live event sponsorships. “If we have 100 vendors, that will be a significant revenue stream,” she says.