ROI Survey

their educational impact on attendees by survey- ing them before, during, and after the event. “Our meetings are CE-based,” said one respondent, “so with accreditation, you send out a pre-meeting survey, an on-site survey, and then a six-week post-event survey. We ask questions like ‘How did attending the conference change your current job/ knowledge?’ and ‘What are you doing differently?’” Some meeting professionals said they are try-

ing to do things differently to reinforce the value for attendees. One respondent noted, “We do a takeaway session at the end of each day with our program committee members facilitating this (they have each gone to different sessions and come up with some takeaways). Then we follow up with attendees via email to see what they have used and possibly write an article for our journal.” You’ll find select comments from respondents throughout the survey results. From them and from the data itself, it’s clear that the need to make meetings more valuable and to quantify that value is only going to increase. “A lot of money is spent on events and exhibitions,” a survey respondent acknowledged, adding, “but it is difficult to come up with an effective method to gather and measure information.” But gathering and measuring is a must. As another respondent summed up: “If there is no value to the stakeholders, there is no point to holding the meeting.”

. —Michelle Russell, Editor in Chief

‘Due to the economy, both vendors and delegates require more ROI to justify the expense of exhibiting or attending our annual conference.’

‘Exhibitor dollars are stretched, and they have to decide where to spend their marketing dollars and what medium to use to connect with buyers.’

70 PCMA CONVENE SEPTEMBER 2013 HOW DO YOU MEASURE EXHIBITOR ROI?

528+272= 66% Post-event evaluation 368+432= 46% Post-event follow-up/direct contact with exhibitor

232+568= 29% On-site survey 152+648= 19% Monitor social-media conversations 112+688= 14% Do not measure exhibitor ROI 96+704= 12% Other

OTHER WAYS OF EVALUATING EXHIBITOR ROI = Exhibitor task force/advisory board/committee = Hits to relevant website = On-site face-to-face discussions = Post-con meeting with key stakeholders regarding overall event

= Re-signs

HOW DO YOU MEASURE ATTENDEE ROI?

640+160= 80% Post-event evaluation 312+488= 39% On-site survey 248+552= 31% Monitor social-media conversations

200+600= 25% Post-event follow-up/direct contact with attendee

200+600= 25% Ask for meeting-participation feed- back as part of overall membership/ employee survey

56+744= 7% Do not measure attendee ROI 48+752= 6% Other

54d+ 100a+ 1748+75625262217+653547100 50b+ 3040+3020

PCMA.ORG

12d+ +45+55+27+80