Introduction A common real-time method for sharing and watching video content is live streaming. Live streaming has grown to be a go-to resource for many people, whether they use it for entertainment, education, or personal expression. However, one of the most prevalent and annoying problems individuals run into while watching live streams is buffering. Buffering […]
You can sell out an arena and still have an event flop. Don’t believe me? Let’s get into what counts as a successful event these days and let me change your mind.
As in-person events are creeping up to that sweet spot again, event professionals now have an opportunity to demonstrate the value of all types of events— whether it be in-person, virtual, or hybrid. Racing to fuel revenue, of course. Always the bottom line. But with all the changes we’ve had to face up to, it’s about time we re-evaluate the definition of event success.
Metrics for measuring event performance have really changed during the previous two years. The pandemic pivot to virtual events has completely changed the connection between events and data. Driving that point further, organizers are now even utilizing new data-gathering techniques for in-person and hybrid events. That is to say, today’s definition of event success has evolved to focus more on QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY.
This change in success parameters is very important because how your company defines event success will inform your event marketing strategy moving forward. In the past, all these companies used registration and attendance to measure an event’s success. And that’s all well and good, but now we’re realizing that the traditional attendance metrics we held on to before were really just VANITY metrics. They may look and sound good, but they’re not as indicative of revenue success as metrics related to ATTENTION or ENGAGEMENT are. Sure it’s always impressive to say that a record 10,000 people attended your event, but really how did those 10,000 attendees drive and accelerate your company’s pipeline? It’s not about how many people came, it’s how engaged those people were, and how you as the event organizer pulled all the right strings to show up for them.
If there’s one more takeaway from the many lessons of the previous years, it’s that the technology we use has to be flexible with its solutions. And we see it, with all the big analytic groups scramming to implement technology to make it easier for teams to draw and act on event data. Because DATA IS KING now. I mean how do you think all these tech giants make their billions… yeah DATA. And knowing WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
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Now granted, in-person events have a special superpower: QUALITATIVE DATA. No other tool in your company’s marketing arsenal can offer your team a front-row seat to your attendee’s discussions, reactions and perspectives. But now with hybrid events, tying both in-person and virtual attendees to the digital platform with all its real-time polls, Q&As, reaction stream, etc. you’re getting all these data to work with. Think about it, with all the attendee activity data—from the sessions people attend to the polls they answer—all of these enable sales teams to segment participants based on engagement level and customized post-event outreach. During outreach, teams can determine whether high engagement levels translate into a sales-qualified lead, maximizing conversion success and informing future sales strategies.
Events, whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, have returned in force and are bringing greater opportunities to connect event experiences and revenue goals. Redefining the meaning of event success, working with the right technology, and acting on data gathered, now hold more power than just the seats you sold. Because the level of engagement is now directly proportional to how good your event is and we now know what to do with that information. We’ve transcended.
