The Business Event Value Measurement Paradox:

‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure’

But

‘Not everything that counts can be counted’The Value of Meetings

JMIC Workshop 14 May 2015

Professor Leo Jago

Presentation Overview

• Tourism Value of Business Events

• Beyond Tourism Value

• Studies to Assess Value

• Ways Forward

Importance of Business Events

• Growing recognition of the BE contribution to host destinations

• Focus since the turn of the century on their national economic contribution

• UNWTO published a methodology:– Measuring the Economic Importance of

the Meetings Industry: Developing a Tourism Satellite Account Extension

National Economic Contribution Studies

Tourism-only Value

• Agreement that the tourism value of BE is large

• Reasons why tourism has been the focus:– There is a universally accepted approach to

measuring this contribution;– The contribution can be assessed almost

immediately after the event has taken place;– Many of the key stakeholders promoting BE are

aligned with the tourism sector – Focused on destination

Historic Assessment of BE Value

Overnight Expenditure & Daytrips > 50

KM

Day Trips < 50 KM

Organiser & Exhibitor Expenditure

Not strictly part of tourism

Host Destination Focused

Reasons for Staging a BE

Core Motives or Needs

· Develop and share ideas·Educate/inform·Promote·Network / socialise·Change attitudes / behaviour·Sales and performance

Core Motives or Needs

· Develop and share ideas·Educate/inform·Promote·Network / socialise·Change attitudes / behaviour·Sales and performance

Business

EventBusiness

Event

Key Outcomes

· Knowledge creation / innovation· Knowledge dissemination·Improved organisation performance·Personal development·Increased productivity·Increased sales·New skills and knowledge·Awareness·Investment in destination·Business development in destination·Enhanced destination profile/image

Key Outcomes

· Knowledge creation / innovation· Knowledge dissemination·Improved organisation performance·Personal development·Increased productivity·Increased sales·New skills and knowledge·Awareness·Investment in destination·Business development in destination·Enhanced destination profile/image

Tourism Impacts

•Direct spend

•Job creation

•Infrastructure investment

Tourism Impacts

•Direct spend

•Job creation

•Infrastructure investmentTourism is a by-product not a

key outcome

Beyond Tourism Value of BE• Growing recognition of the

‘beyond tourism’ contribution of BE– Delivering Innovation,

Knowledge & Performance: The Role of BE (2010)

– MCB study in 2010– BES study in 2011– JMIC Workshop in 2011– Future Convention Cities

Initiative in 2014

The BE Value Triangle

Overnight Expenditure & Daytrips > 50

KM

Day Trips < 50 KM

Organiser & Exhibitor Expenditure

ROI for Delegates & Employers

Other Delegate and Destination Benefits (Knowledge Creation & Dissemination, Investment)

Event Focused

Return on Investment (ROI)• Long-standing technique that has been adapted to

BE

• Can assess the value of the event overall to the organiser or to delegates or to employers

• Prompts respondents to think about what they want from the event beforehand

• Worth doing on a regular basis to ensure that event is delivering on objectives

Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) Study

• Aim was to track the ‘beyond tourism’ benefits of 4 events for 2 years after the event

• Involved delegates, exhibitors, sponsors and organisers at each event

• Online surveys of participants and in-depth interviews were conducted each 6 months for 2 years

Key MCB Findings

> 50% of respondents from each of the four BE said the event benefits were:– Developed new business relationships (>54%)– Increased profile of expertise (>69%)– Personal profile was enhanced (>63%)– Obtained important knowledge (>50%)– Built relationships (>82%)

Key MCB Findings

> 50% of respondents from three of the four BE said the event benefits were:– Received EOIs from from potential customers– Increased market intelligence– Experienced innovation or improved business

practices

Key MCB Learnings

• Wide range of beyond tourism benefits experienced by most participants

• Many of the benefits take time to be realised

• Ability to attribute benefits to the event greatly diminishes over time

• Very difficult to quantify the benefits

Business Events Sydney (BES) Study

• Surveyed at five international congresses

• Collected 1090 online responses from delegates, sponsors, exhibitors & organisers

• This study was subsequently replicated in Seoul, Durban and Toronto in FCCI study

Key BES Findings

Benefits for the host destination– Enhanced Sydney’s reputation as a global business

events destination (87%)– Exposed local delegates in the conference

destination to cutting edge research and world’s best practice (82%)

– Showcased local talent from the conference destination (75%)

– Enhanced the capacity of the academic sector in the conference destination (68%)

Key BES FindingsBenefits for the delegates– Congresses facilitated the dissemination of

new knowledge, ideas, techniques, materials and technologies (90%)

– Shared information with colleagues and peers (97%)

– Provided new professional insights (87%)– Shared information with students (64%)– Contributed to building the knowledge and

capabilities of young people (85%)

Key BES FindingsBenefits for exhibitors and sponsors– Gained product exposure/ awareness (90%)– Obtained leads for future business (90%)– Improved brand awareness (78%)– Contributed to developing the sector (73%)– Increased domestic sales (56%)– Increased export sales (49%)

Key Overall Learnings

• Overwhelming evidence that business events make a substantial ‘beyond tourism’ contribution

• Much of the ‘beyond tourism’ contribution leaves the host region

• It is extremely difficult to quantify this broader contribution (time, attribution)

Conclusions 1

• Whilst ‘measuring helps managing’, there are some things that are problematic to measure

• Valuable resources will be wasted in continuing to seek the ‘magic measure’

• Accept that some things that ‘count can’t be counted’

Conclusions 2

• Identify case study examples for host destinations

• Identify the drivers of the key ‘beyond tourism’ benefits

• Devise strategies to leverage these benefits

• Seek to measure the value of the leveraging activities

• Clarify focus of benefit – event or host destination?

Key ‘Beyond Tourism’ Benefits

General• Formed / enhanced

relationships• Built personal /

company profile• Formed sales leads /

made sales• Disseminated

knowledge• Created knowledge

Key ‘Beyond Tourism’ Benefits

Destination Specific• Enhanced image / reputation• Showcase local talent

Summary of Key Beyond Tourism Benefits

Measuring these Benefits• The non-destination benefits can be measured

via ROI– However, some benefits take time to be realised

• Some of the destination benefit can be measured via ROI

• Difficult to identify some of the destination beneficiaries– Hence, hard to capture the benefits

Benefits Measured by ROIROI can be used to measure the dimensions shaded in yellow

Issues• ROI requires effort to administer– Enhanced with a pre-event survey

• More effort required to identify the range of local beneficiaries outside the event

• Need to be clear about the focus of the benefits– Delegates– Event overall– Host destination

Suggested Way Forward

• Accept that not everything that counts can be counted

• Undertake some ROI studies of sample events in each jurisdiction

• Collect exemplar case studies of the benefits to host destinations

Suggested Way Forward

• Identify the drivers of the key ‘beyond tourism’ outcomes, for example– Sales & sales leads– Personal & professional profiles– Knowledge dissemination– Enhanced destination profile

• Develop strategies to enhance the contributions made by these drivers