Chapter 5

Conferences and Consulting

Gartner's two non-Insights segments are about a fifth of segment revenue and roughly an eighth of its gross contribution, so they will never move the enterprise value the way the research franchise does. But in 2025 they read as an independent gauge of the stall. Conferences grew 11% to a record $645 million with 2026 bookings running ahead of last year — engagement did not collapse. Consulting held flat only because lumpy fees masked softer underlying labor demand.

Where the two segments sit

Insights carries the economics. The three reportable segments generated $6,270 million of revenue and $4,399 million of gross contribution in 2025; Conferences and Consulting together were 19% of that revenue but only 12% of the gross contribution, because their combined 43% contribution margin sits far below Insights' 77% [1] [2].

Source: FY2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K), MD&A Reportable Segments — Insights p.51 [3], Conferences and Consulting p.53 [4].

Source: FY2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K), MD&A Reportable Segments p.51 [5], p.53 [6]; shares of gross contribution derived from the three reportable segments.

The former fourth segment, Other — the Digital Markets business — sat outside these three and is being divested, covered in Capital Allocation. What remains is a research engine, a conference business, and a consulting arm, in that order of importance.

Conferences: the recovery and its quality

Conferences is the clearest post-pandemic recovery in the portfolio. Gartner relaunched in-person destination conferences in the second quarter of 2022; revenue has since compounded from $389 million that year to $645 million in 2025 [7] [8]. Management guides to $695 million or more in 2026, roughly 7% FX-neutral growth, based on 56 planned conferences and advance bookings it describes as ahead of the prior year, with a majority of the guide already under contract [9].

Source: derived from reported segment results, FY2021–FY2025 Form 10-Ks (FY2023 10-K p.49 [10]; FY2025 10-K p.53 [11]); 2026 is company guidance of $695M or more [12].

The quality of the 2025 growth is worth reading closely, because it cuts two ways. The 11% reported increase (9% FX-neutral) came primarily from a 15% rise in exhibitor revenue, not from more bodies in seats: Gartner held two more conferences (53 versus 51) but attendance fell 3%, to 83,727 from 86,625 [13]. Growth driven by what exhibitors — largely technology vendors — will pay to reach Gartner's audience is real revenue, but it is a different signal than growth driven by more executives choosing to attend. On a same-conference basis, fourth-quarter revenue grew about 8% FX-neutral, so the underlying event economics were still expanding, not merely lapping new additions [14]. Contribution margin held at 50% [15].

Conferences matter more than their 7% share of gross contribution suggests, because they feed the subscription flywheel described in The Subscription Engine. Management frames destination conferences as a primary way clients engage with Gartner's insights, and ties rising engagement to renewal: a client whose engagement climbs is more likely to renew when the contract comes up over the following 12 to 24 months [16]. To extend that reach to clients who cannot travel, Gartner launched local, one-day "C-level communities" in 2025 and plans to expand both formats [17]. On this read, a growing conference business with strong advance bookings is evidence that enterprise willingness to engage with Gartner did not fall away in 2025, even as research renewals softened.

Consulting: a flat headline over softer labor demand

Consulting is the smaller, lower-margin, and more volatile of the two. Revenue slipped 1% to $552 million in 2025, but the flat headline hides a divergence: labor-based consulting fell 5% while contract-optimization revenue rose 11% [18]. Contract optimization — fees tied to helping clients negotiate technology contracts — is the lumpy piece; management states plainly that it "may vary significantly and, as such, 2025 revenues may not be indicative of future results" [19]. Strip it out and the recurring, people-driven core of Consulting shrank.

The operating metrics corroborate the softening. Backlog fell 7% to $174 million, consultant utilization dropped to 61% from 65% — its lowest since the 2020 pandemic year — and average billable headcount edged down 2% [20]. Contribution margin compressed two points to 34% as revenue fell against higher personnel expense [21].

Source: derived from reported segment results, FY2021–FY2025 Form 10-Ks (FY2025 10-K p.53 [22]); 2026 is company guidance of $570M or more [23].

Source: FY2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K), MD&A Reportable Segments p.53 [24], and prior-year 10-Ks for FY2021–FY2024.

The softness carried into 2026. First-quarter consulting revenue fell to $119 million from $140 million a year earlier, with labor-based revenue of $90 million and margin down to 31% [25]. That print prompted a direct question on the call: was the labor-based slowdown a normal macro effect, or "something structurally worse going on right now given AI." Management rejected the structural reading — "I don't think there's something structurally worse" — attributing the weakness to clients postponing decisions amid a changing environment in March, which delays revenue recognition on both labor-based work and contract optimization: "more timing-related than structural" [26]. That is management's characterization, and the metric that would settle it — a rebuild in backlog and utilization through 2026 — is not yet in hand; backlog did rise seasonally to $201 million at March 31, which is the direction a timing explanation predicts [27].

What the non-Insights segments say about the stall

Set against the report's central question — whether the 2025 research stall is cyclical or structural — the two segments pull in opposite directions, and the honest conclusion is that neither absolves nor condemns.

Conferences argues for the cyclical, Insights-specific reading. A business built entirely on enterprises choosing to spend discretionary budget and executive time to engage with Gartner grew double digits, held its margin, and entered 2026 with bookings ahead of the prior year. If enterprise-technology demand were broadly collapsing, the conference calendar would be among the first places to show it; instead it expanded.

Consulting argues, more quietly, that the caution is broadening past the US federal shock. Its recurring labor-based core shrank in 2025 and again in the first quarter of 2026, utilization fell to a five-year low, and backlog declined over the year — the same client hesitation that hit research renewals, now visible in a second, unrelated revenue line. Management calls it timing rather than structure, and the flat-to-up contract-optimization fees and seasonal backlog rebuild are consistent with that. But contract optimization is explicitly not indicative of future results, so it is a thin cushion.

The net: the pullback that opened below-100% wallet retention in Insights is concentrated there and in federal, not a franchise-wide demand failure — Conferences is proof of that. It is also not purely a federal one-off — Consulting's labor softness shows enterprise decision-making slowed more broadly at the margin. Both segments will be worth watching in 2026 for the same reason the research book will be: whether the hesitation was timing, as management holds, or the leading edge of something that lasts.