As the pressure mounts on live events from both Boardroom and Purchasing Department, the question of evaluating the success of an event has never been more pertinent. But all too often, failure to define the potential ‘value’ of an event leads to a half-hearted delegate questionnaire that focuses on pressing issues such as how well the prawns went down at the gala dinner!
So how do we define ‘value’ in the context of a live event?
Well, if you know what you want to achieve at the outset, the value of an event is extremely easy to define and the question that needs to be answered is simply: did it meet its objectives?
Live events are about audience transformations. They are not an end in themselves, they are vehicles that can bring about mindshifts and eventually actions that achieve a particular end. So if we can track that mindshift and the resulting effect that it has on a business – voilà – the ‘value’ has been established.So the evaluation of events must focus on the communication. Did the message achieve cut through? Are people going to think and behave differently as a result? These are the questions that the Executives in the Boardroom want answered – not whether the prawns were better-rated than the beef or whether this year’s band was better than last year’s disco !
None of this is rocket science – it’s all fairly straightforward. An event that adds ‘value’ to a business needs to be planned methodically and evaluated properly. And the root to success lies in understanding the audience and the communication objectives from the outset. A simple but effective planning process provides the building blocks for subsequent evaluation:
- Understand your audience
- Prioritise your objectives
- Shape your communication
- Match the environment and media to the message
- Deliver the right creative solutions
The question of evaluation should be raised at this planning stage and built into the programme. Simple questionnaires asking the right questions don’t need to be expensive or time consuming to analyse. And the benefits of evaluation are clear cut:
- Hard evidence, rather than anecdotal, to gauge the success of corporate events
- Access to the voice of your audience
- Not just an informative exercise for you, but one which makes your audience feel that their views are respected, helping to build business relationships
- Feedback allows continual refinement of the way in which you communicate with business audiences
At Line Up, we’ve been putting people at the heart of corporate production in this way for over 25 years, ensuring that these simple processes transform audience hearts and minds and ultimately, our client’s businesses. And, for us, that’s the definition of ‘value’ in the context of a live event.
