Article actual date: Sep 22, 2021

‍
‘I want my event to succeed.’

This statement is (and always has been) the one common goal shared by every event organiser throughout the vast landscape of business events. The differences, however, become apparent when we dive deeper into the specifics: what is success for your events?

Historically, events had associated success with basic metrics like square metres of exhibition space sold or total number of registered attendees. But in today’s context, there exists data-driven return on investment (ROI) indicators that are able to more accurately portray an event’s performance. For instance:

• Today’s exhibitions can gauge their success off of the total number of 1:1 meetings and even include the average closed deal price amongst their attendees.
• Conferences, on the other hand, can measure total engagement and fall-off rates for every one of their content sessions.

These indicators enable you to specify and highlight key operations that can truly make or break your events, but there’s one major roadblock in the way: What kind of data is needed to fuel your ROIs?

‍

‍
Let’s illustrate this with a banner on a sponsor’s booth. How can the organiser determine the number of people who have seen this banner? Or better yet, how many people actually took interest and followed through to inquire about the sponsor’s products?

Proving ROIs: Pre-digitisation

In the days before the pandemic, the most enterprising of organisers would deploy beacons, which would interact with the attendee’s event badge and capture their footfall as they pass certain landmarks.
‍

‍

These can be used to map out an activity heatmap, showing an approximate number of people who passed by the banner across a certain time frame.

We can term this type of data as basic data — providing a general overview of the bigger picture at hand, basic data is what we come into contact with on a daily basis (think spreadsheets) and are largely dormant, as it is processed and siloed away from other datasets.

On its own, basic data is sufficient to power simple metrics like total footfall or attendee demographics, but don’t make the mistake of being content with basic data as the be-all-end-all solution in proving ROIs in its entirety; we still can’t prove the amount of follow-throughs and leads that the example’s sponsor banner had generated.

In fact, it goes beyond just using a single dataset to effectively prove the ROIs of an event. Other industries have caught onto the big data trend of connecting large datasets to uncover new insights, and that’s what our world of business events should strive for.

Of course, big data has immense requirements to kickstart, but the idea of connecting data still holds value for any organiser.

Proving ROIs: Post-digitisation

Connected data, as the name suggests, amalgamates basic datasets from varying sources to create an all-encompassing analysis of your event. While you can obtain connected data from live or virtual events, the concept truly shines in hybrid situations where data from both online and offline sources are incorporated together to greatly enhance the amount of insight at one’s disposal.

‍

‍
In the case of the sponsor’s banner example, online platforms would have banner advertisements that are able to capture the number of click-throughs on top of total views.

Couple this with the beacon capabilities mentioned earlier, countless data possibilities are now within reach. One such example involves computing the banner’s engagement efficacy by taking the total number of exposures and click-throughs over the total number of impressions.

With this, we can now categorise booths or ad placements depending on their engagement rates. This provides a reliable gauge for organisers to optimise benefits by reserving the best outlets for top-tiered sponsors.

Data-driven Success

Through the interconnectedness of diverse and dynamic datasets, hybrid formats empower organisers with an unparalleled level of data intelligence that reinforces an event’s offerings. When used correctly, this opens up new monetisation opportunities as part of an organiser’s initiative to better engineer audience ROIs.

On the same note of interconnectivity, insights shouldn’t be chained to a specific platform. That is why industry-level initiatives like VSef help to strive for a data-driven future with common data standards amongst event tech providers, encouraging organisers and their events to draw the maximum potential from their datasets, and Jublia is proud to be part of it.

Want to learn more about how hybrid data can benefit organisers or your clients? Perhaps you’re curious about the most recent developments in the hybrid event sphere? If so, check out our newest white paper on deciphering hybrid opportunities now!
‍

‍
Prefer a more personal approach to hybrid formats? Speak to our Hybrid Specialists at Jublia by simply emailing us at info@jublia.com or send us a message on our Linkedin!