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Different Ways to Measure Event Success

Different Ways to Measure Event Success

by | Oct 17, 2019 | Meetings Industry

 

Success can sometimes be a matter of perspective.  An event that fails to generate immediate cash returns could seem like a failure from a sales perspective, but if it generates a ton of targeted leads, it may be a smashing success from the marketing team’s point of view.  The point is that there are different ways to measure success.

When it comes to hosting meetings and events, it’s imperative that you find meaningful ways to measure success, not only so you can justify planning future events, but so you can find ways to improve on every experience, fueling future successes.  A reputable and experienced global event company like American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) can help you to pinpoint and track the metrics that matter to you.

How do you know what facets of your event to track so you can compile a gauge of your ultimate success?

Here are several different ways to approach the process of calculating the success of your meeting or event. 

Cash Money

Cash is king – there’s simply no denying the appeal of profit.  Some events are geared toward selling, through ticket sales, prod

Uct/service sales, or both, and in such cases, tracking profits is a major measure of relative success.

However, if you’re spending more money than you’re making, you’re going to have to work harder to find ways to label your event a success.  This is why it’s so important to work with your event management company to track other aspects of your event, as well.  Not every meeting or conference has profit as the top priority.

You may be looking to expand brand awareness with media coverage and social sharing, or you might want to generate leads.  However, if you want to prove success where your many goals are concerned, it is essential to find ways to track progress, especially if you don’t expect to break even from event registration, the sale of products or services during the event, and so on.  Regardless, you definitely need to track profits.

Event Registration

How many people are signing up to attend your event?  If it’s an annual event, did you see more people clamoring to register than in years past, or has attendance dropped for some reason?  Are you opening more spots for additional attendees?  Do you have a ballpark figure

for the number of guests that would constitute a successful outcome?  Are you tracking customers versus professionals like industry and media attendees?

Whether this is your first time hosting an event or your meeting or conference has happened annually for the last 20 years, the number of people showing up matters, as does the makeup of the crowd, including returning patrons versus new leads.  Gathering data about numbers and categories of attendees could help you to determine whether you and your event company have successfully reached certain goals.

Event Company Tabulations of Customer Satisfaction

Here’s a question you should ask after every event: did the attendees enjoy it?  If guests don’t enjoy themselves, they’re not only unlikely to attend future events, but they certainly won’t act as brand ambassadors and generate new recruits.  How can you even gauge customer satisfaction as a measure of success?  There are several ways.

You could monitor social media and see what event attendees are posting to gauge relative satisfaction.  For more direct measurement, you can create surveys with targeted questions and the option for guests to make suggestions.  Your event management company could even supply facial recognition technology, posting cameras throughout your event to assess facial expressions and chart positive versus ambivalent or negative emotions.

Says Florencia Meindl, Meeting Manager at AMI, “It doesn’t really matter how many people register or how much money you make if attendees don’t enjoy the event.  In order to create a platform for future success, you need to impress attendees so they talk you up on social media and create a level of FOMO that ensures greater demand to attend your next event.”

Event Management Tracking of Media Coverage

Not all meetings and events are open to the public or the media, but if you’re looking for coverage and sharing, you and your event company definitely need to track your presence in both traditional and social media channels.  You should track press coverage across channels (print, radio, TV, and online) and pay attention to what people are saying on social media, as well, including the stance of content and the number of likes and shares.

An expert in modern event management like AMI can help you to find the metrics that matter most to you and find the most effective and efficient ways to track them in order to measure event success and improve in the future.

American Meetings Network Prime Member: PMSI Promotional Marketing Services

American Meetings Network Prime Member: PMSI Promotional Marketing Services

by | Mar 6, 2019 | The American Meetings Network

Meet our Prime Supplier: Marty Bear, President at PMSI Promos.

Our Prime Supplier Member of the month, PMSI Promos joined The American Meetings Network as Prime Supplier in 2018 and they are already seeing the benefits of becoming a Prime Member Supplier in The American Meetings Network by meeting 1:1 with AMI’s Meeting Planner and Sourcing Managers at Global Procurement Day.

PMSI promos are one of the country’s most successful promotional merchandise facilities. For over 35 years, they had offered the meetings, events, association, and collegiate marketplace the lowest prices guaranteed on all your promotional item needs.

When event budgets are restricted, turn to AMI Virtual Platform.

When event budgets are restricted, turn to AMI Virtual Platform.

by | Mar 6, 2019 | Technology, Uncategorized

Click here to download info-sheet.

We all love to travel, but travelling can be expensive, between attendee flights and accommodations often event owners may have to reduce the number of invitees due to costs constraints.

Incorporating a virtual component as part of your project can add great savings. In this article we will share all the advantages of including a webinar element and how you could easily turn your live event into a hybrid event using AMI Virtual Platform.

Learn how by adding a webinar component to your live event you can save on travel costs while increasing your audience reach:

 

Increase Audience Reach

Traveling can be inconvenient for both attendees and colleagues. A lot of time is spent at the airport, between flights, checking in and out of hotels, waiting for taxis…..not to mention the time that is required for travel preparation, packing and so on.

By webcasting your live event, you could recapture the audience that might have travel restrictions, or do not have time to travel to an event outside their city.  This audience could join from the convenience of their office or home, allowing your event to have a regional, national or event global impact.

With the AMI Virtual Platform, you have 1,000 remote attendees included in the standard package and larger audiences are easily supported, indeed the platform supports up to 100,000 remote viewers.

 

Audiovisual       

Now let’s discuss Audiovisual setup. The good news is most of a standard live event setup can be re-purposed for the live webinar stream. More and more companies are now broadcasting their live speaker events as such audiovisual vendors are becoming proficient in providing this service and the additional equipment required.

This equipment includes a professional video camera, an encoder, slide control and monitoring of the webcast transmission. By requesting these from the event AV company directly, they will often bundle them with the other required equipment at lower cost.

Most event AV company’s equipment will be compatible to stream live to the AMI Virtual Platform. Our platform is encoder agnostic which means it supports both hardware and software encoders. To verify compatibility simply contact BD@americanmeetings.com and have your existing AV vendor on-boarded into the AMI Virtual Platform.

 

Save on Travel Costs

It is not uncommon for companies to restrict travel costs, in a bid to cut budgets. An average national ticket can cost around, 500 USD per attendee, that is before you factor in the additional costs of ground transport, accommodations and food & beverage, etc.

The cost of the equipment and labor needed to broadcast your live event equates to approx. the same cost of just 10 attendees. Not only could these 10 attendees still join the event remotely, but you could invite as many as 100,000 attendees to watch remotely by increasing your audiovisual overall cost by a small percentage.

 

Detailed Analytics and User Feedback

Client feedback is invaluable, but getting and audience to fill out and return feedback forms is not always easy. Capturing questions submitted from live audiences can be challenging.

 

Translations

On the topic of translations…Live simultaneous translations can add huge expense to your live events, requiring additional equipment, tables and head counts to distribute the translations head sets to attendees. When streaming your event these translations can be broadcast for a translated live stream, reaching not just a few international attendees at the venue but an entire market.

Alternatively, if at the live event all attendees listen to the presentations in one language only, incorporating a remote translation solution will not only save you money it means you can still reach multiple markets.

 

Support Team

AMI has a team of dedicated project managers that can guide you to turn your live event into a hybrid event leveraging all the benefits of the AMI Virtual Platform. Just email BD@AmericanMeetings.com to request a Webcast component for your events schedule a qualifying call with a dedicated project manager.

For these and many more reasons AMI Virtual Platform is a great complement to your events. With a fraction of the investment you could add 1000 attendees or more to your next live event.

Important Roadblocks to Avoid when Marketing a Global Event

Important Roadblocks to Avoid when Marketing a Global Event

by | Dec 12, 2018 | Attendee marketing

The world is shrinking as connections are more easily made.  We are increasingly becoming a global market in which the old boundaries between our worlds are blurred.  Certainly, the growth of online and mobile technologies over the last few decades has made it easier than ever before for people to connect on a global scale, and for businesses to reach consumers around the world.  At AMI we understand these global changes and have adjusted the planning of client events to be more successful.

Businesses such as yours who are interested in exploring new markets should absolutely consider global events as a way to make and solidify partnerships, better understand cultures and markets, and expand operations on an international scale.  That said, our project managers have learned there are hurdles to overcome when planning global events, starting with marketing.

Before you even begin to deal with the headaches of international travel and planning all the details from afar, you and your convention planner will have to figure out how to market the event to a culturally diverse audience. Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at AMI,

“It’s not easy to navigate the waters of a cultural differences.  You can make small but damaging errors with the words and images you choose if you fail to account for cultural context or poor translation.  These blunders can taint your marketing efforts and tank your event before it even begins.”

This is why it’s so important for you and your event organizer to take the time to ensure that you have every detail right.  If you want to avoid sparking an unfavorable climate leading up to your global event, here are a few common mistakes with marketing you should be aware of.

  • Not Letting Your Convention Planner Work with Locals

The price for global events can quickly skyrocket.  Even if you have a decent budget to work with, you may be looking to minimize costs wherever possible.  However, you cannot afford to skimp when it comes to overseas marketing for your global event, at least not if you want to entice international attendees.

You need to work with local consultants to craft marketing that speaks to an audience you’re unfamiliar with.  Unless you grew up in or spent significant time in the culture you’re marketing to, you might not understand nuances of linguistic and cultural norms that could make a difference in how your audience receives your message.  You might unintentionally end up insulting entire cultures with the words, images, or concepts you introduce through your marketing efforts.

At the very least, your efforts to localize language could read like a foreigner wrote them or they simply won’t have the same engagement factor as they do in your native language.  A local consultant can help you and your event organizer to craft marketing materials that translate appropriately and speak to the local audience.  The right professional may even be able to help you pinpoint the search terminology that will elevate SEO, coming up with effective, targeted keywords that you would never concoct on your own.

  • Urging Your Event Organizer to Stick with Generic Messaging

This may seem like a good strategy, but the truth is that an American market is very different from a French, Japanese, or Brazilian audience, just for example.  Even if all the people attending your event are in similar industries, they’re from different cultures, and they respond to different types of messaging because of that.  If you and your convention planner create a generic message instead of tweaking it to better connect with local audiences, you’re basically throwing money away.

  • Failing to Develop Mobile-Friendly Marketing Materials

It’s a mobile market, whether you’re in the U.S. or abroad.  Not only do individuals and professionals across the globe rely on mobile devices to conduct business, but Google has adopted a mobile-first mentality that means mobile-friendly content gets preferential placement.

You cannot afford to ignore these factors when planning your global marketing campaign, at least not if you want to cater to a modern audience.  Responsive design and consistency across platforms will ensure that every prospective attendee has the same incredible experience when interacting with your content.

  • Utilizing Unsecured or Limited Payment Platforms

Once you’ve effectively conveyed your message, you have to make it convenient for attendees to sign up and pay for your event.  In other words, you and your convention planner must account for a variety of secure payment methods.  This could mean using different platforms in different locations, so make sure to research options and choose the best ones for each international group you’re marketing to.

It’s easy to stumble when marketing a global event, but when you team up with a reputable global event organizer like American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) you can avoid these issues and create targeted messaging that speaks to diverse populations.

How to Improve Intergenerational Interaction at Meetings and Events

How to Improve Intergenerational Interaction at Meetings and Events

by | Dec 4, 2018 | Networking

There are significant differences between the generations now participating in the working world, from millennials to Gen Xers, to baby boomers.  Each generation has its own ideals, expectations, proclivities, and modes of operating, and sometimes, they are at odds with one another, each thinking itself the wiser or more intelligent branch.  This can make it very hard for meeting hosts and their partners in event management to cater to different groups and create an atmosphere that appeals to them all.

Even more difficult can be finding effective ways of convincing members of different generations to interact with one another, networking, and sharing ideas in creative and constructive ways.  For example, you and your event company might be keen to add group gamification challenges via social media as a way to facilitate interaction in a fun and casual way.  While this will likely play well with the younger, tech-savvy millennials, you can’t reasonably expect the same level of participation from baby boomers.

How, then, can you take strides to help these different groups connect in meaningful and productive ways?  Here are just a few strategies to employ in the interest of improving intergenerational interaction at your meetings and events.

Gain Insight into Different Perspectives

Says Josie Rubio, Director of HR and Global Acquisition, “The place to start when encouraging intergenerational interaction is by realizing that nobody adheres to a stereotypical group dynamic 100% of the time.  Individuals make up any group, and instead of ascribing broad attributes to members of a group, you need to find ways to help people connect as individuals, regardless of the generation they belong to.”

The best way to find out more about individuals attending your event is to have them provide more than just standard personal information when they sign up.  Knowing whether attendees are millennials or baby boomers only paints them in broad strokes.

For example, baby boomers lived through the Vietnam War while millennials were probably deeply affected by 9/11.  This tells you about a shared experience, and maybe even provides a basis for common ground, but it doesn’t tell you how individuals feel about these events or the impact to their lives.

Experienced event management professionals can help you to come up with targeted questions that provide important insights into how your event attendees see the world, how their experiences have shaped their expectations, and ultimately, what they have in common with attendees from other generations.  This can provide new insights and give you the tools to plan for successful interactions between generations and individuals attending your event.

Consider the Impact of Environment

While the majority of working professionals could be considered relatively mobile and able-bodied, it’s important to understand that different environments will appeal to their sensibilities and cater to their particular needs.  For example, twenty-somethings can be on their feet all day, roving exhibit halls and jetting from one activity to the next.  Those in their fifties might not be as keen take on the same physical challenges.

How does this impact your ability to encourage intergenerational interaction?  You’re going to have to create an environment that is exciting enough for younger attendees but also provides adequate comfort and consideration for older professionals.  Where is the intersection that appeals to all groups?  You and your event company will have to consider how your environment strikes a balance that helps to facilitate productive interactions.

Find Common Ground, Then Focus on Unique Contributions

Although generations are set apart in a number of ways, there are also many ways in which they are alike.  There are universal commonalities that span generations, from the search for love and meaning in life to the value of financial security to the desire for work that is not only financially rewarding but also personally fulfilling.

Because all generations want these things, there is common ground for connection.  However, creating a value proposition for intergenerational interaction means more than bringing people together – you also have to determine what individuals can add to the equation.  You and your event management team can only do so much to bring people together and then they have to find a way to engage and share their unique experiences and perspective.

Collaborate with Event Management to Create Opportunities for Mentorship

Everyone can do at least one thing well, and often myriad things.  In other words, they have something to share with others.  Creating opportunities for mentorship goes beyond asking the older generation to share the wealth of their long experience with youngsters.  Mentorship can go both ways.

While a baby boomer or Gen Xer could help millennials work on appropriate face-to-face interactions with coworkers and bosses, millennials could turn the tables and help older generations better understand mobile apps that add convenience and connectivity.  Your event company can not only help you find ways to learn about event attendees but also to help them connect in meaningful ways and offer unique and valuable contributions.