There are dozens of metrics that can measure meeting and event success, from registration numbers, social-media mentions, and gross revenue to sales-leads generated, returning-attendee numbers, and attendee-satisfaction scores. Almost any key performance indicator tracked consistently over time can provide a host organization with useful data.
However, two KPIs are applicable across many meeting types and worthy of consideration when deciding which measurement tools to use for an event: Net Promoter Scores and Targeted Attendee Participation.
Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score, or NPS, measures an attendees’ satisfaction with one question, which he or she is asked to respond to on a scale of one to 10: How likely are you to recommend this event to others?
The question is simple for attendees to understand, quick for them to answer, and can easily be deployed through the conference app or via email after the meeting. An NPS score is also a measurement that the C-suite can easily relate to. It’s been in use for 20 years and is now a standard metric for how businesses track customer perceptions of them.
NPS survey respondents are categorized as detractors (rating 1-6), passives (rating 7-8), or promoters (rating 9-10). An NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, resulting in a score that ranges from -100 to +100. (So, for example, if a 200-person meeting had 50 detractors (25 percent), 70 passives (35 percent), and 80 promoters (40 percent), the NPS score would be 15 (40% - 25% = 15%). A score between 0 and 30 is generally considered good, with room for improvement.
Targeted Attendee Participation
Naturally, most event organizers are squarely focused on tracking overall registration numbers, as attendance may affect room pick-up, F&B minimums, and registration revenues. But a deeper dive into who exactly is registering can deliver insights about changing audience demographics, the effectiveness of event-marketing campaigns, and even the health of an event in future years.
To develop KPIs for targeted attendee participation, the event organizer needs a vision of the ideal attendee mix for that event. This should be considered on multiple levels; it could include goals for the distribution of job roles represented, the ages represented, the diversity of genders or ethnicities, the number of international attendees, or other demographics. If the majority of an event’s attendee base are Boomers, for example, the organizer’s goal may be to shift the demographic younger.
Only when goals are established and the metrics tracked over time can planners know if their attendee-participation metrics are trending in the right direction, which can help them to make smart decisions about deploying future marketing and messaging resources.
Net Promoter Scores and Targeted Attendee Participation probably won’t be the only KPIs for your event, but they deserve strong consideration as you plan the measurable, objective metrics for evaluating success and planning for the future.
