Measuring the success of event additions

“We didn’t do anything wrong but somehow, we lost” – Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO

We all know the event industry is a saturated market. As an industry we cover all markets, even going so far as having events about events. At these events, the most important thing is to stand out so attendees go home remembering you, having enjoyed the day and found value in attending.

But, how do you stand out?

Event addons such as the following could help:

  • Free drinks evening – encourage out of hours networking.
  • A competitive scavenger hunt around the city
  • Add some additional funds to your speaker budget to bring in the Thought Leaders on the event circuits.
  • Gamify your networking – helping to increase face to face time by pre-event planning/networking.

Whatever you choose, there will undoubtedly be things that do and don’t work. That’s business. The important thing is you know if it’s working!

Here are 3 top tips on measuring those event additions:

1. Set yourself smart objectives pre-event. What do you want to achieve?

A no brainer. You can’t measure success when you don’t know what success looks like! Measurable objectives are what events are all about. Examples of these objectives:

200 delegate sign-ups before Christmas,
£250,000 in sponsor revenue,
125 booth spaces sold.

2. Set actionable tasks to achieve your objectives

Objective: We need to increase our on-site rebooks by 20%
Action: A full factory tour in the local city, evening networking drinks and industry awards to recognise industry achievers at our event.

There’s no point setting an objective but then not putting in a plan to help achieve it. Set out the tasks you think you’ll need to communicate to your audience and then action them.

3. Measure results

Did it do the job? Measure it!

This is the most important part of delivering value to your event. I’m not talking about survey responses or what staff thought of the event. Get cold, hard data.

Spent more money on speakers? You should know how many more people went?
Introduced an app? You should know how many people used it – measure your downloads and app check-ins.
Moved to a new venue? How much was used?
Made your event free to attend? How many people actually showed up?

Don’t be scared to keep improving your event. The attitude of “if it’s not broke” may ultimately lead to your demise. Be proactive and proud of the new developments in your events. After all, your event’s reputation is built on the legacy you’re in control of right now. Implement and learn from your wins and failures.

To quote the Nokia CEO again – “Those who refuse to learn & improve, will definitely one day become redundant & not relevant to the industry. They will learn the lesson in a hard & expensive way.”

If you’d like to discuss your options for adding something new to your event increasing, get in touch with the Event Builder team on 0121 796 5800.

Marketing manager at VenuIQ.

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