Every stakeholder involved in a corporate event wants to ensure a successful event for all participants. The natural question becomes: how do you accurately gauge whether an event succeeds or falls short. The solution lies in knowing the right event success metrics to gauge how well you’ve done and being able to apply them to assess how you delivered against these performance measures.
Success for Stakeholders
To start, it’s helpful to explore what event success looks like from the perspective of four key stakeholders: event planners, executives, sales and marketing, and attendees.Event Planners
For many event planners, tracking event ROI is a top priority. Common strategies to reduce costs are reining in food and beverage costs, negotiating venue rates, and pursuing reduced room prices. They seek to boost event attendance to grow top-line numbers. They’re creating stronger connections with attendees through mobile app downloads and real-time attendee feedback capabilities.Executives
Executives are looking for event marketers and planners to deliver ROI through top-line revenue growth, event attendance, and leads generated. Success considerations for this group include gaining greater insights from meetings and events, deeper customer engagement, and improved revenue results from sponsorships and exhibitors. Key metrics for executives are new lead numbers, direct business wins, and customers retained.Sales and Marketing
Equally concerned with driving ROI, sales and marketing stakeholders view success in terms of optimizing customer engagement, generating leads, and building relationships. They want to understand the attendee journey, interact with the right customers and prospects, and attract attendees who are inclined to buy, based on purchase intent. They also hope to close new business opportunities.Attendees
Ultimately, the perspective of event attendee is the most important. Understanding the full range of their expectations from an event requires access to specific insights before, during, and after the meeting. On the front end, attendees value an easy and seamless registration and check-in experience. At the event, they want engaging content and speakers, as well as the chance for real-time interaction and networking with their peers. After the event, the takeaway they prize is the ability to gain fresh insights from new and helpful information. For more information on gaining the tools and metrics to gauge event success, download our infographic here.
