FOST London 2026: who came, why they came, and where they went

What did FOST London need from Sena?

One badge gave access to six conferences and 119 sessions. Attendees needed a short agenda that fit their goals. FOST needed to know who was in the room and what they came for. The registration form held a name, a company and a job title, and nothing about intent.

FOST gave Sena its attendee list, its programme and its sponsor profiles. Sena did the rest on WhatsApp and web chat, before and during the event, and attendees installed nothing. What it takes to set up Sena for your event lists what your team sends.

Who showed up?

Attendees who replied to Sena before the event missed it at 18.8%, against 43.5% for attendees who got the message and stayed silent. The comparison uses the 1,411 attendees on the list that FOST gave Sena, matched to badge scans.

What the comparison does not show

People who plan to come reply more often, so a reply predicts attendance and does not prove cause. Two details point the same way. Attendees who got the message and did not answer missed the event at about the same rate as attendees who never got it. Attendees with one or two messages came as often as attendees with five or more.

8 attendees told Sena that they had to cancel, and 7 of them stayed away. Your ticket system does not hear those cancellations. Those seats can go to the waitlist.

The full analysis is in Event no-shows: data from 1,411 FOST London registrants.

What did attendees ask Sena for?

Mostly the programme: 193 of the 268 conversations asked about sessions or the schedule. In 98 conversations, about 1 in 3, Sena guided the attendee to sponsors and exhibitors.

During the two days, 62 conversations used Sena as a live guide to the next session.

• "Do you know if [a sponsor] has a stall at the conference?"

• "Can you remind me of the address?"

• "Is there breakfast tomorrow?"

The registration form did not show two groups. 26 of the 222 people who wrote to Sena came to look for a job. 21 came mainly to sell.

Where did Sena send them?

Sena made 1,762 recommendations, and each one answered what the attendee said. 1,130 pointed to sessions, 260 to sponsors and 372 to other attendees.

Nine of the ten sessions that Sena recommended most covered AI agents, MCP or AI gateways, a brief for the next programme.

Three sponsors got no recommendation at all, because the fit was poor or the profile was thin. Fix a thin profile before the renewal talk.

Which sponsor got what belongs to FOST, so we do not publish it here, and we treat your event data the same way.

What did the organizer get after the event?

• A follow-up list of 205 attendees, each with a goal in their own words. 78 of them also have a LinkedIn profile and a conversation of three messages or more.
• The no-show comparison above, matched to badge scans from FOST.
• Sponsor results: which sponsors attendees asked for, and which sponsors Sena never recommended.
• A list of questions without an answer on the day: venue basics, session end times, the recordings policy and which sponsors recruit. Each one is a gap to close before the next edition.

See the sections of a full report on a post-event report template with a filled example.

What did attendees say?

"I'm interested to hear from people who are living the problem and solving it within their own organisational context more than I am wanting to hear from someone with a product to sell."

CTO, software consultancy · Sena built a day-two plan with no vendor sessions.

"Yes please. This is amazing!"

Junior developer, first FOST · Sena sent a two-day timetable, booths to visit and openers for talks with speakers.

"I met [a contact] from [a card network] today and forgot to exchange contact details. Can you help?"

Cloud architect, global tech company · Sena found the right person.

What did not work?

• 195 of the 1,344 attendees that Sena messaged never got the message. Most of those numbers were not on WhatsApp, so plan a second channel, such as an email with a link to the web chat.
• 178 people bought a ticket after the last attendee export from FOST, so Sena never wrote to them. A final export on the day before the event closes that gap.
• When a talk moved and the programme data in Sena did not change, Sena gave the wrong room. Two speakers got a wrong answer about their own talk. Sena needs the latest programme on each morning of the event.
• 36 attendees replied only after the event started, too late for a personal plan.

Questions about the FOST London results