The fourth and final reason I hear people tell me that they don’t prepare a measurement strategy for their events and trade shows is, “What if measurement shows that my event is no good?”
First of all, I doubt seriously that your entire event has been a waste of time and that nothing good is coming out of it. Measurement can just help you figure out what works best, what needs to be tweaked, and what needs to be dumped. You certainly don’t want to wait for your manager to ask you to take a look – and then find something isn’t working. You may lose her/his trust in your ability to do your job. If in measuring performance you find something isn’t working and suggest a tweak or the heave-ho, your management will know that you’re doing your job and keeping track of your program. Another perk to being proactive is that if you find something isn’t working well, you can suggest a reallocation of some of the funds into those processes that are producing better results or try something new (with a promise that you will monitor and measure results.) Your management will likely appreciate your attention to detail, and feel better about the company’s events and trade shows that sometimes feel like a black hole they just throw money in, knowing that you’re monitoring and managing the program.
Tell me if you’ve ever found out or felt that something wasn’t working in your event program – and what you did. What was the result?
About Susan Brauer
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