Top 10 KPIs for your next successful event

Planning events and bringing them to life are part of the job. But experiences are intangible so it becomes a bit hard to measure the benefits they bring! We know that your superiors need tangible evidence of an intangible experience that is events. It is important to keep in mind what the event objectives are and give weight to certain metrics over others for the event. The following 10 KPI’s are the ones most used in events. This way, you can produce credible and tangible results to your superiors.

1. Event registration and attendance

The first metric is obviously the amount of people who registered and who are interested in your event! For public events, a conversion rate could be a great metric. The following could be possible conversion rate formulas:

• How many people visited your event website/those who registered
• those who opened the invitation/how many were sent the invite.

The No-show rate could also be a good indicator to add as it lets you know what factors came in between the people interested and your event. This way, you can be aware of possible changes to make for your future events.

Then you could also go a step further and see how many registered on the website came from your email campaign or just by searching, so it gives you a better understanding of where your attendees are coming from.

However, company’s private gatherings for example require a more focused metric such as the amount of invited/ amount of registrants.

2. Social media stats

We live in a very connected and face paced world. The usage of social media in events is a phenomenal method for getting live feedback on the event and a great indicator on the success of it. This is because attendees felt it was great enough to snap, tweet, insta, or post about it!

The engagement stats you find on your event page are very important as they show how involved your audience was in the event and what they said about it.

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3. App data

An event app is perfect to be able to truly see how involved your invitees were in the event. The data allows you to see the effectiveness of the event. You can for instance evaluate their interest in a speaker by measuring the amount of people who registered for it, how engaging the audience were on the app, the amount of questions that have raised, and much more.

The app enables you to create live polls and surveys, with the ability to collect results in real-time. This enables you get data and also react to the stats accordingly. You are able to ask attendees anything (within reason of course).

In app data a lot more things are visible for example sessions and sponsor data. This data is very important as you can see and analyze the decisions and choices made in the event planning process. These stats are crucial for future event decisions. The session statistics will help you see which one was the most popular and which session your attendees gained the most benefit out of. It will also allow you to analyze the speaker that everyone liked and the one that everyone was looking forward to meeting.

To be able to prove to event sponsors that their investment in the event brought them a certain amount of visibility and awareness. It is important to collect sponsor statistics. Some examples are sponsor session views, attendance, views on the app.

These are just a few insights of what an app can give you. Hence, I emphasize the importance of an app at the event, not only for data but also for giving attendees a go to place for information and help the ? and reduce paper!

4. Post event surveys

These are a great way to get event data. However, you must create questions that require an easy and quick response. Also, at the end of the event or even during a session, leave some time for attendees to answer the questions on the spot to ensure you get the most responses possible. As according to a study, the response rates of surveys are around 30-40%, but we know why! You need to get the attendee to do it there and then!

It is helpful to ask both qualitative and quantitative question but keep it multiple choice!

This data is the most helpful and honest one about the event as the attendee has just lived the experience. It is like a reflection about it so use the opportunity to its fullest!

5. Your ROI

This is one metric that superiors love! However, the bottom line always needs a bit of context. It is a lot more long term thinking process, as it is something that takes times to develop. After event follow-ups are for instance necessary to get better precise statistics.

A very important metric for your event but it is very vague to most. The calculation is as follows:

(the event’s total event figure — event costs / event cost)

However, this calculation needs to be justified and explained, as depending on the event objective the ROI can be determined with other methods.  Giving context to this number is extremely important.

This metric can be an important KPI for the event as it allows you to know what you got out of it. In order to realize this, a good budgeting tool will ensure your best asset to get as much precise information as possible. There are great ones available, especially in integrated solutions like Eventdrive.

6. Intangible measures

We all know that KPI’s aren’t always quantitative they are also qualitative. These measures also play a big part in understanding the success of your event. For example attendee testimonials and verbal feedback about the event will give you an understanding about the event strong points or new perspective on things you might have missed out on.

It is also important to know and measure new opportunities created thanks to the event and also look at strengthened business ties. These need you to use more abstract means. Like how many business cards received, new contacts added to your CRM and the value in €€€ they can bring you.

7. Timeline

This KPI is specifically for you as an event manager. It is on the time you spent planning the event and solving “hitches” in the process. Event managers are simultaneously working on several events. This creates time lost in task-switching activities. Also in you being able to see how much time you spent in each task you will see where you can increase efficiency in the process.

8. Follow-up activities

This is a very crucial part of the event cycle; it determines further sales and also brings the event to a real end. These activities will allow you to keep the event fresh in people’s minds.

This could be important to know as you already get an idea of the attendee count for the next edition of the event, by advertising the next edition and making pre sign up available. Also, it gives you a chance to see that these are the people who really enjoyed the event and can count on them to be your event ambassadors!

9. Communication email reporting

The open and click rate in all mailings is important to see if it is the most effective method of communicating with attendees or if another method must be employed.

This metric allows you to see that and analyze it. Depending on the attendee and the event, that method of communicating will also differ.

It will give you opportunities to A/B test the emails you send and see their effectiveness.

10. Networking contacts

It is important to analyze the amount of meetings and exchanges the event had, as one of the objectives is not only to see how well it went in the emotional sense but, to be able to see how many new relationships were created thanks to the event.

This allows event managers to further analyze the most effective zones or times in the event that attendees are networking. For example, it could be during sessions as attendees in the same session get talking, or the networking time allotted to attendees if it was effectively used, etc.

Theses are quite a few KPI’s that we see in events, you may have more to share with us? Don’ t hesitate to send us a message to give us feedback!

Overall, each event has their own set objectives and therefore their own KPIs. It is up to you to see the most suitable ones that will help your event stakeholders understand the importance and impact of your event! We have listed a few above but, I’m sure you have many more up your sleeves! I would love to know more! You can send us some feedback in the comments!