For decades, success in the live events business has been measured by how much gear you owned. Bigger warehouses, deeper inventories, and higher CAPEX were seen as signs of scale and stability.
As we approach 2026, that mindset is rapidly changing.
Event companies today face tighter margins, unpredictable demand, faster technology cycles, and clients who expect more gear and more flexibility without higher costs. In this environment, owning everything is no longer a competitive advantage.
Instead, the industry is moving toward a smarter model:
Cross-rental as the default!
Full ownership comes with hidden costs that go far beyond the purchase price:
Much of the gear sitting in warehouses today is only used a fraction of the year as utilization is high on part of your inventory, but sub-50% on the rest.
By 2026, tying up large amounts of capital in underutilized inventory will be seen as inefficient, not ambitious.
Cross-rental allows companies to access what they need, when they need it, without carrying the long-term financial burden of ownership.
The biggest limitation for growing event companies has always been capital.
Winning larger shows often requires:
Traditionally, the solution was to buy more.
Cross-rental changes that equation.
By leveraging shared inventory across trusted partners, companies can:
Growth no longer depends on how much gear you own, but on access to gear.
The Industry Is Moving Toward Shared Ecosystems
Cross-rental is no longer an informal, relationship-driven workaround. It is evolving into a structured, technology-enabled ecosystem.
Leading event companies are shifting toward:
This shift mirrors what has already happened in other industries, including home rental - where shared use replaced siloed ownership.
In 2026, collaboration will outperform isolation.
One of the traditional objections to cross-rental was reliability. That concern is quickly disappearing.
Today’s equipment cross-rental networks are built on:
With the right platform, cross-renting is not risky. It is predictable, professional, and scalable.
GearShare is where the industry is heading.
Built specifically for event professionals, GearShare enables companies to:
GearShare turns individual inventories into a collective advantage. By reducing friction and increasing access, it sets a new standard for how event companies operate.
By 2026, the most successful event companies will not be the ones with the biggest warehouses.
They will be the ones that:
Cross-rental is no longer a backup plan. It is the default business model for the future.
And platforms like GearShare are leading that shift not as an alternative, but as the standard.
GearShare represents where the industry is headed. Built for the realities of modern live production, GearShare enables professionals to access, share, and deploy gear across trusted networks without the friction of traditional ownership. It transforms isolated inventories into a connected ecosystem, allowing businesses to scale faster, operate leaner, and stay flexible in an unpredictable market. As cross-rental becomes the default way of working, GearShare isn’t adapting to the future, it’s defining it.