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Most event marketers who weathered the recession will tell you, there are no sacred cows anymore. Even the industry’s oldest legacy shows and events are being reevaluated. And that’s nowhere more evident than in the world of customer and user conferences where brands ranging from high-tech to heavy equipment are realizing that it’s more cost efficient to either streamline multiple annual events that reach the same audience into one, or combine similar audiences at the same event and share expenses.

Virtual events rose to prominence out of need, and now they are as ubiquitous as branded swag at a tradeshow. These days, most brands look at how they can pair a virtual component with an existing live one, in what has become known as the ”hybrid” event, creating a one-off virtual experience tied to that specific event. In the last year, however, there has been a rising tide of “always-on” virtual environments, owned by a brand and through which all of that brand’s virtual experiences flow, like owning its own conference center.

You might say it takes a village to pull off an event as big as the reveal of the newest Boeing airplane, the 747-8 Intercontinental, which also happens to be the largest commercial aircraft built in the U.S. and the longest passenger aircraft in the world. At least that’s how David Okrent, brand manager for the new plane, puts it.

Yes, budgets are ticking back and trade show attendance is up. But we’re hardly where we need to be.

The experiential marketing revolution is now creating an experiential marketing evolution—as traditional media companies use healthy doses of face-to-face strategies to reinvent their own business model.