"Show me the money"

Last month, Brightcove held it's annual PLAY conference targeted towards all things online video. This was our 8th year putting on the show, and my 4th year producing it. The whole thing is a huge undertaking, as you can imagine. Not only is it costly, but the event requires many people from various internal departments putting time aside to work on the event. Thus, the pressure is high to not only create the very best event every single year, but to provide the executive team with proof that this event moves the needle.

A lot of us who produce events struggle with proving the ROI on an event. Let's face it! We simply don't put on events that sell vacuums. We produce customer conferences, industry events, trade shows, etc., and the ROI of these events often cannot be measured immediately, unless you are lucky enough to have a prospect sign a contract at the lunch table. (Full disclosure: this has never happened to me.) So, what to look for? Let me share some of the data I collect, and, hopefully, you have some additional ideas to share in the comments.

Quantitative

I consider quantitative measurements to be the basics:

• How many customers attended?
• How many prospects attended?
• How much did we get in sponsorships?
• How much did we spend on the event?
• How much did we earn in ticket sales?

On their own, these numbers can often paint a very one dimensional view of the event, but they are great to give someone a basic understanding of the overall scope of the event. And because the answers to these questions are all numbers, it is easy to set goals against them, to measure success. And yes, one of these goals should be to NOT spend more than the budget allows. So, don't piss off your CFO by not meeting your goal.

Qualitative

Qualitative measurements are great, because they often paint a larger picture of how the event was perceived. I gather most of my qualitative measurements through surveys:

• Customer/prospect attendees before and during the event. These are very quick and short surveys that are done through the event app. They engage and excite attendees, but they also give you a quick glimpse into attendee satisfaction. This year, we surveyed our attendees three times: (1) Ahead of the event, e.g. what were they looking forward to?, (2) After day one, e.g. what they enjoyed most that day, (3) After day two, e.g. did they enjoy day two more than day one.
• Customer/prospect attendees after the event. This is done through Surveymonkey, a tool I absolutely love. We did a very comprehensive survey, which ended with two questions that are absolutely crucial: (1) Would you recommend the event?, and (2) Will we see you next year?
• Employees. This is a very important to me personally, as we gather data on employee participation, their perception of the event, and their satisfaction as it relates to their sales and account management activities.
• Sponsors. Again, this is a very comprehensive survey that helps us create sponsorship opportunities, and price sponsorships. The most important question in this survey is: Are you planning to sponsor again next year?
• Speakers. Speaking at events is a time consuming task, and if you are not getting paid to speak, we want to make sure you have a great experience. I often use this survey to follow up personally with people.

The BIG guns

These are the stats and numbers that are not easily measurable, but luckily I have a team of sales ops and business analysts, who, through various tools, have helped me create reports that are forward thinking, prove ROI, and help me plan for the next year.

• Year over Year. I look at numbers year over year. I compare simple stats like attendee numbers, e.g. Did we grow? In which region did we grow most? Which business unit brought more attendees? What is the split between customers and prospects?
• Cost per attendee. This is a simple calculation that takes the cost of the event and divides it by the number of customer/prospects. I use this number to show "customer maintenance cost" for customer attendees, or "customer acquisition cost" for prospect attendees.
• Renewals. We run a report in Tableau that shows booking numbers for each attending company. I can see if a company renewed at the same booking number, if they went up in bookings, or even if they cancelled. I use this report to show the "influence" of the event on renewals.
• Acquisitions. The second report I run in Tableau is new acquisitions. This is a report that shows who converted from a prospect to a customer. Over the last couple of years, we have seen a trend that prospects in late sales stages attending the conference, converted to a customer after the event. This is a powerful way to show ROI for an event.

Altogether, these various ways of looking at our event have helped raise awareness internally. I create a comprehensive report for the executive team, and share selected stats with the sales and marketing organizations. Not only do these reports make everyone feel like they were part of the program, but they help get everyone excited about next year's event. And what gets a sales person more excited than telling them that the prospect they will bring to the conference has a 80% chance converting to a customer?

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