From conferences and product launches to team-building retreats and client-appreciation events, business gatherings can have a big impact on your brand’s reputation, company culture, and bottom line. But how do you know whether or not your event was truly successful?
We’ve all been to underwhelming corporate events. Dull presentations, disengaged audiences, and lackluster decor and audio-visual (AV) technology can ruin an otherwise well-planned event. So how do you measure event success in a meaningful way? It goes beyond counting the number of attendees or asking guests to rank their experiences. It’s a holistic, strategic process that measures your event goals against real data and translates insights into actionable plans for improvement.
This guide will explore how to measure event success in an evidence-based and people-focused way to elevate future occasions.
You can’t measure the success of an event unless you have a clear definition of what success actually looks like. You need a scale on which to evaluate each element of your event. What are you hoping to achieve? What do you want to avoid?
Start by identifying what your primary goals are. Examples might include:
As you develop your event objectives, rank them in order of importance. You should also collaborate with key stakeholders (executives, account managers, etc.) to ensure everyone’s on the same page and objectives align.
Keep a close eye on pre-event metrics, as these can be compared to post-event performance to get a clear picture of overall success and ROI.
Gather data on your audience demographics. Are your guests social-media-savvy Gen-Z professionals? Tech entrepreneurs? New employees at your company? Understanding your audience is key.
Ideally, you'll have a combination of short-term and long-term goals. But each short-term goal should be paired with a key performance indicator (KPI) so you can measure success quantitatively. For example, if your objective is lead generation, your KPI might be the number of qualified leads you secure during your event.
It’s important to track attendance both before and after the event starts. For example, the number of registrations or ticket purchases can be an important indicator, but pre-show numbers don’t always reflect actual attendance.
Consider implementing strategies to accurately track the number of real guests. You can do this through sign-in methods like QR codes, ticket scanners, clicker counters, and even facial recognition. This allows you to evaluate the success of your marketing strategy and gain insight into which demographic groups are most represented.
Don’t just keep track of the number of guests, but also measure how engaged they are throughout the event. There are many ways to evaluate engagement, often through utilizing digital tools and platforms to make tracking easier and more accurate.
Here are some methods for measuring audience engagement during a corporate event:
Taking surveys of guests, presenters, and other stakeholders can give you valuable insights into the experience of attending your event from different perspectives. But when conducting a post-event survey, you need to be strategic. Send surveys out promptly after the event, when the experience is still fresh in people’s minds.
Don’t just ask “On a scale from one to five, how much did you enjoy this event?” Go deeper than that. Here are a few example questions to help you get started:
Use the responses you get and measure these qualitative results against your quantitative KPI results.
While event planners, guests, advertisers, and presenters put a lot of heart into planning for a big business event, corporate stakeholders ultimately want to see how the occasion affects their bottom line.
ROI is expressed using the following formula:
ROI (%) = [(Total Value Generation - Total Cost) / Total Cost] x 100
Events can generate a significant amount of monetary value under the right circumstances. Examples include:
It can be difficult to measure ROI from a corporate event, because much of the critical value is generated over time. But it’s still helpful to consider what monetary value can be gained from hosting corporate events in both short- and long-term contexts.
At Catalyst, we’re dedicated to ensuring that the tech at your event doesn’t just get the job done, but actually elevates the audience experience and helps you reach your goals.
We provide cutting-edge equipment, expert on-site support, and unmatched AV designs to help you put on a spectacular show and measure your success with digital tools that work.
Get in touch with our incredible team and tell us about your event goals today!
From conferences and product launches to team-building retreats and client-appreciation events, business gatherings can have a big impact on your brand’s reputation, company culture, and bottom line. But how do you know whether or not your event was truly successful?
We’ve all been to underwhelming corporate events. Dull presentations, disengaged audiences, and lackluster decor and audio-visual (AV) technology can ruin an otherwise well-planned event. So how do you measure event success in a meaningful way? It goes beyond counting the number of attendees or asking guests to rank their experiences. It’s a holistic, strategic process that measures your event goals against real data and translates insights into actionable plans for improvement.
This guide will explore how to measure event success in an evidence-based and people-focused way to elevate future occasions.
You can’t measure the success of an event unless you have a clear definition of what success actually looks like. You need a scale on which to evaluate each element of your event. What are you hoping to achieve? What do you want to avoid?
Start by identifying what your primary goals are. Examples might include:
As you develop your event objectives, rank them in order of importance. You should also collaborate with key stakeholders (executives, account managers, etc.) to ensure everyone’s on the same page and objectives align.
Keep a close eye on pre-event metrics, as these can be compared to post-event performance to get a clear picture of overall success and ROI.
Gather data on your audience demographics. Are your guests social-media-savvy Gen-Z professionals? Tech entrepreneurs? New employees at your company? Understanding your audience is key.
Ideally, you'll have a combination of short-term and long-term goals. But each short-term goal should be paired with a key performance indicator (KPI) so you can measure success quantitatively. For example, if your objective is lead generation, your KPI might be the number of qualified leads you secure during your event.
It’s important to track attendance both before and after the event starts. For example, the number of registrations or ticket purchases can be an important indicator, but pre-show numbers don’t always reflect actual attendance.
Consider implementing strategies to accurately track the number of real guests. You can do this through sign-in methods like QR codes, ticket scanners, clicker counters, and even facial recognition. This allows you to evaluate the success of your marketing strategy and gain insight into which demographic groups are most represented.
Don’t just keep track of the number of guests, but also measure how engaged they are throughout the event. There are many ways to evaluate engagement, often through utilizing digital tools and platforms to make tracking easier and more accurate.
Here are some methods for measuring audience engagement during a corporate event:
Taking surveys of guests, presenters, and other stakeholders can give you valuable insights into the experience of attending your event from different perspectives. But when conducting a post-event survey, you need to be strategic. Send surveys out promptly after the event, when the experience is still fresh in people’s minds.
Don’t just ask “On a scale from one to five, how much did you enjoy this event?” Go deeper than that. Here are a few example questions to help you get started:
Use the responses you get and measure these qualitative results against your quantitative KPI results.
While event planners, guests, advertisers, and presenters put a lot of heart into planning for a big business event, corporate stakeholders ultimately want to see how the occasion affects their bottom line.
ROI is expressed using the following formula:
ROI (%) = [(Total Value Generation - Total Cost) / Total Cost] x 100
Events can generate a significant amount of monetary value under the right circumstances. Examples include:
It can be difficult to measure ROI from a corporate event, because much of the critical value is generated over time. But it’s still helpful to consider what monetary value can be gained from hosting corporate events in both short- and long-term contexts.
At Catalyst, we’re dedicated to ensuring that the tech at your event doesn’t just get the job done, but actually elevates the audience experience and helps you reach your goals.
We provide cutting-edge equipment, expert on-site support, and unmatched AV designs to help you put on a spectacular show and measure your success with digital tools that work.
Get in touch with our incredible team and tell us about your event goals today!
Are you planning a shareholder meeting, conference, product launch, trade show, or other type of major event? You need to make sure the production value matches the quality of your event’s content. Working with a reliable, proven leader in audio visual event production like Catalyst ensures your event runs smoothly, exceeds the expectations of your audience, and has the impact you want.
Get in touch today to schedule a free consultation, learn more about our services, and tell us about your event.
We work events both nationally and internationally. No matter where you are, Catalyst can come to you.
(818) 818-6117
info@thecatalystcompanies.com