Event budget crisis needs ‘robust measurement system’

Event organisers need a “really robust measurement system” to justify spending amid growing financial restraints and global challenges in our industry, according to an industry analyst.

Chloe Richardson, VP of senior corporate relations at Explori, believes soaring costs have contributed to “event budgets being absolutely squeezed within an inch of their lives”.

This has led to organizsrs having to be more reliant on hard evidence to support the need for their output, demonstrating the value it brings.

She said: “The only way to justify the spend and justify getting an increased budget is to be able to use robust, tangible data to back up your spend. 

“The way everybody should be doing that is by asking their attendees – their audiences because after all, they’re the only reason why we put on these shows.

“Particularly for events where they’re employee events or they’re not revenue generating events. 

“It can be really difficult if you don’t have the right metrics to demonstrate, justify and prove the impact, the value and the benefit of having an events function. 

“What we suggest is that organisers of events make sure they have a really robust measurement system in place.

Chloe added: “We suggest that event planners first make sure that they’re asking their attendees the right questions, based on event objectives.

“What do you want attendees to think and feel by the end of the event? How do you want them to act? How can internal KPIs reflect this? 

“This initial sense check will make sure planners are getting the right insights and metrics from attendee responses.

“They can then use those scores to really understand how well the event is performing.

“The right metrics robustly and proactively examine how propensity to purchase has increased, how buyers’ behaviours are changing, year on year trend analyses, the shift in brand awareness or brand perception, increased employee retention and customer satisfaction – all thanks to event attendance.

“If measurement is done properly and we can demonstrate impact in all of those areas, it’s the real evidence senior leadership need to sign off event budgets, allowing teams to continue changing hearts and minds with events – in short, justifying why we do events in the first place.”

Explori works to help event organisers demonstrate the impact of their offerings. 

It includes a survey platform specifically for the live shows industry, with a focus on making reporting more efficient.

Annual inflation has slowed following a rise in Feb 2023:

▪️ Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 8.9% in the 12 months to Mar 2023, down from 9.2% in Feb 2023
▪️ CPI rose by 10.1%, down from 10.4%

➡ https://t.co/xKfB2k07mc pic.twitter.com/Ab0eVpqiiN

— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 19, 2023

Chloe’s comments come as the UK’s Consumer Prices Index rose by 10.1% in the 12 months to March, down from 10.4% in February and from a recent peak of 11.1% in October.

Data for April is expected to be released later this month, but rising costs have hit organisers across markets.

Latest preliminary data suggest the eurozone’s headline inflation rate rose last month.

Figures from Eurostat show it came in at 7% for April, having dropped to 6.9% in March.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, stood at 5.6% in April — down from 5.7% in March.

Meanwhile, Chloe set out three types of data an organizer should be gathering for an event to demonstrate performance. These are: 

• Demographic data – collected from your registration tool.
• Engagement data – this can be made easier through event tech because you can understand more behaviours.
• Sentiment data – how people feel about their experience with your production.

This final category is most effectively collected through consistent and strategic feedback surveys.

It was claimed that it is the only way to understand the thoughts and feelings of attendees, but methodologies tend to fall short.

Chloe believes the approach to gathering feedback in the event space sometimes consists of asking questions that are “irrelevant to any strategic analyses” – such as attendee gender.

Other issues include lengthening surveys unnecessarily, which can potentially put off participants. 

It was set out that these questionnaires should be designed with the overall event objective in mind.

Another common survey design mistake highlighted is the lack of follow-up questions to certain key components – critical when using them as a strategic analysis tool.

Chloe added: “What we need to do is make sure that our surveys are the right length, they’re sent at the right time and before we send them, we make sure that our attendees understand why we’re asking for their feedback. 

“We want to close that feedback loop, we want to adapt our event design and our strategies to appeal to our audiences and make sure they’re having the best experience possible. 

“Once you tick all of those boxes, typically you’ll start to see that more people start filling out your surveys.

“But they also start filling them out deliberately, they start sharing things and they start really making sure they’re clear on what they liked, what they didn’t like, how they perceive your brand and how they intend on behaving after the event.”

Another crucial challenge facing our industry is how to make shows more sustainable while delivering value to clients. 

A report by American Express GBT revealed 80% of event professionals said their organization considered this area while planning shows. 

Of these, 76% said they had a sustainable meetings program strategy in place.

Chloe told how some planners are now introducing a “carbon budget” into their decision-making process.

This could include measuring the amount of emissions produced by teams traveling or whether that can be justified.

She said: “What we’re seeing in the corporate space is that a lot of corporate event organisers are starting to have a carbon budget, as well as an event budget. 

“So moving aside from just dollar spend and also looking at their carbon spend – ‘can we justify spending this amount of carbon on this journey to this meeting, or to this event or for our 5,000 employees that we’re sending out on an incentive trip? If we can’t justify the carbon spend, we won’t do it’. 

“What that means is event organisers are paying much more attention to where they’re going, making sure they’re flying in the most sustainable way so that they don’t use up all of their carbon budget. 

“I do know people in the corporate space who have hit their carbon limit by July, so they’ve not been able to travel for the rest of the year. 

“It’s a really interesting thing that I think is going to start to become much more common and probably needs to be – it’s a different type of budget, but I still think it is linked to finances.”

Event technology has emerged as one way for organisers to reduce their carbon footprint and create a green roadmap to achieve net zero emissions.

It allows for automation and streamlining of entire processes, from registration and networking to setting up hosted buyer programs and lead intelligence solutions.

This reduces manual work, saving time and resources so planners can focus on other aspects of the event.

Even mobile apps make it possible to cut out the need for single-use physical materials – used in check-in, onsite engagement and post-event feedback.

Meanwhile, ExpoPlatform offers a carbon offsetting program through its Meetings Make Trees initiative.

Every time a demo request is made or a meeting is booked through our technology we will plant a tree on your behalf.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful. At ExpoPlatform, we want to help you build better events and communities. Please get in touch and ask for a demo here. Thank you ?