In these cash-strapped times, the value of meetings and events is coming increasingly under the microscope. William Maxwell investigates
The events industry's increased focus on return on investment (ROI) helped legitimise the sector in the eyes of the government and big organisations, showing the world that events mean business. Of course, the frivolous imagethat the sector has been lumbered with was always far off the mark, but proving a strong business case, using increasingly sophisticated methodologies, has helped corporate event departments justify their activities’ relevance.
Deciding what to measure, however, is critical and, increasingly, an event is about more than just settling a balance sheet, and more about delivering a given objective as best you can. This has given prominence to the term return on objective (ROO).
SEEING RESULTS
For Canon, ROI is still-all important, and an event is considered a success the moment it can be provably demonstrated that it has generated a financial return via sales results. Linda Hedlund-Klein is European event and hospitality manager at Canon Europe. She says objectives can differ depending on the event, and that customer surveys are now becoming vital in measuring success. “An event is successful within Canon if we have reached or exceeded our set sales objectives for the event and got very positive customer feedback from the post-event surveys,” she says.
John Lewis Partnership also has its eyes on how events can affect its wallet. The company recently carried out research at its Billericay Waitrose store (John Lewis is the parent company) on how to make savings via events, and found that its staff leisure events programme helped cut staff turnover by 10 per cent in a year. The company said the costs saved in recruiting and retraining new staff was around £150,000 to £200,000.
Corporate events specialist Bluehat, meanwhile, says a tight focus on ROI has helped one of its largest clients achieve a great position in The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list. However, the company’s head of marketing, Steve Perkins, says business models vary so much that ROI and ROO should be handled on a case-by-case basis and a company must decide what the desired outcomes are pre-event.
“The best way to understand ROI is to ask your organising party what you can expect to achieve from the event. Be strategic. Make sure you aren’t just sold a jolly and ask for evidence of return – case studies, examples of long-term results, or proper feedback that goes into detail of what the event achieved,” Perkins says.
Bluehat’s Indicator measurement assesses teams’ and individuals’ thoughts, feelings and perspectives on many common teamwork issues, which translates into ROI in the long-term, according to Perkins. “We have put a large emphasis on measuring ROI. Our ROI tool, Indicator, asks the same questions before and after an event,” he says.
Indicator is used to measure increases in teamwork and performance according to the pre-identified criteria. A Measured Outcome Report is thenproduced to track what each individual has gained from the corporate’s investment in them. Meanwhile, suggestions for further team development to build on this progress are put forward.
TEAM DYNAMICS
Frauke Ion, a motivationalconsultant to companies including Coca-Cola, 3M and Deloitte, agrees that measuring objectives is crucial, but says that to truly measure an objective involves going under the skin of employees and understanding their motivations. She points to the Steven Reiss model for analysing staff satisfaction levels. Ion bases her recommendations on Reiss’s tool, a diagnostic born out of “extensive” scientific research. Motivation is a complex and varying measurement, with 16 so-called basic desires, or human needs, identified and prioritised on a case-by-case basis.
In practical terms, Ion says this means that a company director should not assume their own motivations will be shared by the team and would benefit from conducting third-party analyses of what makes their team tick, rather than second-guessing its motivations.
She says: “Understanding a team’s often varying psychological dynamic, and how to tailor an event to their desires, is the best way to identify anobjective in the first place.” Ion says that outcomes from such an analysis may mean a variety of options are built into a motivational event to suit varying staff motivations.“It’s about ensuring the surveys that occur post-event come back with better approval ratings,” she adds.
THE ROI (RETURN ON INVESTMENT) METHODOLOGY
Elling Hamso is managing partner at the Event ROI Institute. His ROI Methodology is a step-by-step process for planning meetings and events, and measuring results against objectives. Corporates including American Express, Barclays and Cadbury areamong those who have benefited from Hamso’s expertise.
TOP TIPS FROM HAMSO
• ROI is another way of expressing the contribution to profit made by an event; the profit is the net value created by the event, minus the event costs. ROI is the profit expressed as a percentage of the cost of the event. If ROI, or profit, is the first planning objective, how much do we expect the event to contribute to the bottom line or the mission of our organisation?
• Look at what the guests or participants at meetings and events need to do, during and after the event, in order to create value for the stakeholders. The answers may well be different for different categories of participants. Some actions may be significant (eg buy the product) whereas others only make a small contribution to value, perhaps increasing the probability of a purchase.
• Ensure that the right people are attending – do they have opportunities to apply what they learn to the benefit of the stakeholders? Are they learning something new, whichwill change their behaviour?
• Data on ROO may be collected from the delegates themselves, for example by questions such as: “To what extent is the topic of this session relevant to your job?” or: “How much of what was covered in this session did you know already?”
• Questions after an event should include: was transportation available on time; was climate control in meeting rooms satisfactory; did sessions cover the topics as announced; were speakers communicating effectively; was time allowed for discussion and questions; and was networking facilitated in order to be most beneficial?
• Internal events, such as team-building, are likely to reduce costs as a result of their business impact. If a group of people work better and more efficiently together as aresult of the teambuilding, the same work can be done in less time, which is a cost saving for the company. Time is money.
• Meetings and events are one of the last major items of controllable expenditure still avoiding management accountability. Many meeting planners are already finding that procurement and finance take a greater interest in how they spend the money. This is a great opportunity, not a threat, because procurement and finance are familiar with ROI measurements in many other areas of management decision. They will probably be very interested to join your event ROI measurement project.
ROO (RETURN ON OBJECTIVE) IN ACTION
Company: Office Depot
Event: Office Depot annual sales conference
Agency: DRP Group
Date: January 2012
THE OBJECTIVES
The Office Depot UK and Ireland annual sales conference is one of the most important events in the organisation’s calendar. It brings together more than 700 delegates in order to motivate and inspire, and share in the organisation’s success. Most importantly, the event aims to create an experience where the delegates leave with a full understanding of the “deliver, develop, transform” business message, and with the company’s priorities and key initiatives for the coming year.
Nick Ruffles, senior project manager at DRP Group, said: “It was imperative that each and every delegate at the event left with an in-depth understanding oftheir role within the plan, and how they can help deliver Office Depot’s initiatives and priorities for 2012. In line with this objective, there was the need for delegates to interact with key vendors and internal stakeholders to expand product and service knowledge, and further enhance the interactivity of the event.
“Finally, the milestone of OfficeDepot’s 25th year also needed to be celebrated and recognised, with delegates feeling part of the organisation’s success over the past quarter of a century.”
HOW?
Prior to the event, Office Depot worked closely with agency DRP Group to manage delegate logistics and registration. A bespoke online registration platform was launched to manage all logistical aspects while also delivering a pre-event pulse check survey to determine the current understanding of the “deliver, develop, transform” message.
To deliver the event successfully, messaging and content needed to be delivered in a creative and engaging way to ensure that all delegates left with a clear understanding of the priorities and their role in the future plans of the business.
“Creative and strategic planning was carried out by Office Depot and DRP Group to ensure that a high impact event was delivered with clear and concise objectives throughout,” says Ruffles.
WAS ROO/ROIACHIEVED?
DRP Groupreported “fantastic” results on the event’s desired outcomes in terms of delegate understanding. When asked prior to the event to rate their understanding of “deliver, develop, transform” on a scale of one to ten, only 52 per cent of delegates responded with a score of eight or above. Post event ,this result had shifted to
95 per cent.
When asked if they had a comprehensive understanding of their department’s role in the business objectives,
80 per cent responded pre-event indicating they had a good or clear understanding, but with 99 per cent of delegates feeling this post event. When asked to rate on a scale of one to ten if they understood their individual role in the organisational priorities for 2012, 61 per cent of delegates replied with a score of eight or above pre-event, with 95 per cent scoring eight or above post-event.
CLIENT VERDICT
Sophie Christopher, head of services, events and external marketing communications at Office Depot UK and Ireland, says: “It is a constant challenge for event professionals, particularly those working in-house, to raise the standard, add in an element of surprise and exceed expectations every year. The annual sales conference is by far the most important internal event that we organise in the year and I can confidently say this year’s conference was the most successful in the company’s history and exceeded all expectations.”
She cites benefits from the event, including “proactive and informed selling, an increase in levels of employee interaction, and teams becoming more integrated and working together with each other and our vendors to achieve greater results.”