Event Measurement Fundamentals: Installment 1

Welcome to Event Measurement Fundamentals - an educational series from the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition. The EMMC is a non-profit organization focused on improving measurement across the event marketing industry. 

Through this series we will cover a variety of topics, including:

  • What is event measurement

  • Defining common terms in event measurement

  • Types of data

  • Event measurement process

  • Why invest in event measurement

So let’s dive into our first topic: What is event measurement? 

The EMMC strives for clarity - which at times means clarifying the definition of even the most basic of terms. Let’s look at the word “measurement” in this first installment of Event Measurement Fundamentals.

Event measurement is the analysis of data from a variety of sources to understand the impact of an event on objectives.

Let’s dissect a few of the phrases in this definition to further clarify.

Analysis of data: We have noticed the word “data” is often used synonymously with “measurement”. Measurement relies on data, of course, but the reporting of raw data (a “by the numbers” exercise), isn’t enough to gain true understanding. For example, an event marketer may collect data about how people move through a physical environment. But that data isn’t very useful without an understanding of the environment and how people used it. That requires a layer of human analysis to bring the data to life.

Variety of sources: data collected from one source tends to paint less than a full picture of what happened at the event. An example: a post event survey should provide insight into how an audience felt about the event. But deeper insight will come from conducting surveys before and after the event to measure changes in audience perception.

Impact of an event on objectives: Objective-setting is a critical part of measurement - marketers need to know what the goals are in order to evaluate impact. For example, an exhibitor might collect qualified leads and report on the number of leads captured at a trade show, but without a specific target goal, it is difficult to know if the number of qualified leads gathered was successful or not. 

We hope this quick tutorial was useful. As always, the EMMC welcomes your questions and comments.

Dax Callner