Event ROI
What an Event Actually Returns
Attendance is not a result. Yet most post event reports lead with it, because it is the easiest number to collect and the hardest to argue with.
By Sultan Hakeem ·
I have sat in a lot of post event reviews. The pattern is almost always the same. Someone presents the footfall, a photograph of the stand at its busiest moment, a note that the leadership was pleased, and a recommendation to return next year at a slightly larger size. Nobody asks the obvious question, which is what the organisation actually got.
This is not because the people in the room are careless. It is because the objective was never written down, so there is nothing to report against. And once you are past the event, it is too late to invent one.
Attendance is an input, not an outcome
Ten thousand visitors walked the hall. Fine. How many of them were buyers of what we sell? How many did we speak to? How many of those conversations are still alive four weeks later? Footfall belongs to the organiser. What we do with it belongs to us.
The same applies to the photograph. A busy stand at 11am on the opening morning tells you the hall was busy at 11am on the opening morning. It is evidence of nothing else.
Set the number before you book the space
The discipline is simple and almost nobody applies it. Before any contract is signed, agree what the participation is for and put a figure against it. Qualified leads. Booked meetings with named accounts. Senior visitors hosted. Agreements advanced. Media placements in target titles.
Three things happen when you do this. The stand design changes, because you are building for conversations rather than for photographs. The team briefing changes, because everyone knows what they are there to achieve. And the following year's decision becomes a calculation rather than an argument.
At one recent exhibition we set out to open the carrier market in a region where we had no physical presence. We came away with 363 leads, of which 53 were genuinely qualified, 46 scheduled meetings, eight senior decision makers hosted at the stand, and a signed acceptance letter. Those numbers made the case for the next three years of international participation. Footfall would not have.
Report honestly, including the misses
A report that says everything went well is not a report. If the leads were thin, say so and say why. If the location on the floor plan was wrong, record it so the next negotiation starts from a better position. The value of measurement is not that it proves you were right. It is that it makes next year's decision better than this year's.
The organisations that get real value from events are not the ones with the biggest stands. They are the ones that treat participation as an investment with a return, and are willing to look at that return clearly, even when it is disappointing.
Where to start
Take the next event on your calendar. Before anything else is decided, write one sentence describing what the organisation gains by being there, and put a number on it. If you cannot write that sentence, you have your answer about whether to go.
Sultan Hakeem is Director of Events and Protocol at SAL Saudi Logistics Services in Riyadh. Get in touch.