intelligent measurement

Evaluation of events and conferences

May 12, 2006 at 2:36 pm 2 comments

I’ve written in previous posts about my work in evaluating the impact of events. A very interesting paper on this subject “A Guide to Measuring Event Sponsorship” has been published by US-based Institute for Public Relations. The title is misleading as the paper focuses on how to measure the effectiveness of an event and not on sponsorship evaluation (a separate subject, don’t get me started on it…).

The guide states:

“There are four central questions to keep in mind concerning
event evaluation:
1. How effective was the event? To what extent did the event impact the target public in the desired manner?
2. Did the event change the targeted public in unexpected ways,
whether desirable or undesirable?
3. How cost effective was the event?
4. What was learned that will help improve future events? “

The Guide goes further than I have done in event evaluation by looking at calculating ROI and at the impact on sales (applicable for a commercially focused event). It also confirms my general opinion on event evaluation – we have to go further than simply counting attendees, general reactions and press coverage – we have to look at the impact on attendees’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and anticipated behaviour (e.g. intention to purchase a product).

Glenn

Entry filed under: Conference / event evaluation, PR evaluation, Trainings, Seminars & Conferences.