We cancelled our own show for low turnout: how to increase virtual event attendance with scarcity

Sunny Ray · Jun 30, 2026 · 5 min read

A half-empty live event costs you more than a cancelled one. On June 30 at 4:30 in the afternoon, our live pitch show, Spark Tank, did not have enough founders and investors in the room. So we called it, on air, and moved it two weeks out.

It turned into the most useful strategy conversation we had that month, and the answer to how to increase virtual event attendance: make the seats harder to get, not easier.

Calling it live

The facts first. Spark Tank is a live show where founders pitch to a panel of investors. On June 17 I had been telling a friend it was pulling five or six strong investors a show. On June 30 the room was thin. We rescheduled to July 14 and Charles took on relaunching the campaigns that fill it.

The honest cause was not mysterious. I had been away for ten days, and the campaigns that drive attendance had slowed while I was gone. Turnout follows the invitations. When the invitations pause, the room empties two weeks later.

Why low turnout signals low value

Running a thin session anyway is the instinct. People showed up, so give them a show. But think about what the founders and investors who did show up just learned. They learned your event is easy to get into and not many people bother. Every one of them will be a little less likely to come back and a little less likely to invite a friend.

The notes from that call put it plainly: low-turnout sessions signal low value to the people who attend. A cancelled session with a clear reschedule says you have standards. A half-empty one says you do not.

Harder to get on means more demand

Right after we called it, the conversation turned to scarcity. My words on the call: "I like the idea of creating a bit of scarcity around the show because the goal of the show is for us is for top of funnel and it's working like a charm."

Scarcity works on both sides of a pitch show at once. Founders want in more when fewer founders get a slot. Investors come more reliably when they know the founders were filtered. Each side's demand feeds the other.

Later that evening, in a catch-up with a partner, I landed on the version I wanted: reduce Spark Tank to once a month. More scarcity, better production quality, and in the weeks between, rotate our other shows, the sales show and the exit show, so the weekly rhythm continues without diluting the flagship.

Monthly, fifteen founders, two minutes each

The format we sketched: once a month, about 15 founders, two minutes each, rapid fire. Fewer sessions, more founders per session, much tighter pitches.

That is the counterintuitive bit. Most people respond to low attendance by adding sessions, more chances to attend, more convenience. That spreads the same audience across more rooms, which makes every room emptier. One great session a month concentrates everyone in the same place at the same time, and that is what makes it feel like an event.

The show still did its job: calls on the calendar

Here is why I was not worried. The show exists for top-of-funnel meetings, and that day the numbers were the best in a long time:

• Five calls generated from the show that day alone.
• Nine leads from campaigns, the highest volume in a long time.
• The calendar booked solid for the next two weeks.
• About 50 follow-ups queued to review and send.

And the pattern behind them, in my words that afternoon: "lots of deals that are taking a month two months but if I stay on top of it they're closing."

That is the real lesson about live events for B2B. Attendance is not the goal. Meetings are. A thin room on one day does not mean the event failed, as long as the conversations it creates keep turning into calls. But a habit of thin rooms will eventually stop creating those conversations, because the people worth meeting stop coming.

The calendar being full brought its own risk, which we flagged too. When high-quality leads have to book two weeks out, momentum fades. Scarcity is great for an event. It is dangerous for a sales calendar.

What the people who do show up should get

Scarcity only works if the seat is worth having. So the other half of the fix is what happens in the room. Our sales show, which premiered on June 11 with ten founders attending, used a three-minute pitch with real feedback from the panel. Founders leave with notes they can use the next day, not just airtime.

And everyone who comes through gets the same treatment from us, which I described in that evening catch-up: a brief introduction, then a two-minute explanation of what we do, to every founder and investor. Not a hard sell. Just enough that each person knows exactly what we offer and who to send our way. A small room where every attendee gets attention beats a big room where most of them are an audience.

That is also why the shows are split by offer. The pitch show feeds our fundraising business. The sales show feeds the sales one. Each room has one kind of guest and one next step, which makes it easier to fill and easier to follow up.

How to increase virtual event attendance

• Never let the invitations pause. Attendance follows campaigns with a lag of a week or two.
• Cancel and reschedule a thin session rather than run it half empty.
• Run fewer sessions with more people in each.
• Filter who gets in, and say so. A selective room is a reason to attend.
• Measure the meetings the event creates, not the head count.

If you want a show that fills its own seats and books calls from every episode, start your show.

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