Past Event Data Should Impact Future Strategies

As an event organizer, you want nothing more than to achieve a high level of success. After all, everything will fall back on you in the end.

Rather than look at the event planning process as a blank slate, it would be in your best interest to examine the past. Ask these questions:

• What were the successes and failures of your last event?
• Looking back, what would you change about how you marketed the event?
• Are there any changes you can make this time around to avoid the same mistakes?

As you address these types of questions, make it a point to review any data you have collected from past events. Here are some ideas for getting started.

Marketing Budget

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to spend a single dollar to drive people to your event. In the real world, however, you know this will never happen.

Examine the budget you used in the past, focusing on:

• Total amount spent
• Return on investment
• Types of marketing strategies you employed
• Types of marketing strategies that yielded the best results

How are Attendees Spending their Time?

For small events, this may not be an important question to answer. It may not even make sense. With larger events, those in which there is a lot going on at the same time, it is important to collect this data.

Which speakers attracted the largest audiences? Which workshops brought in the most people? How many companies purchased booth space?

Knowing how attendees spent their time at past events will allow you to adjust your strategy in the future.

Attendee Information

You can learn a lot about your audience without doing much work. The registration process should collect the following information:

• Name
• Contact details (phone, email, address)
• Company name
• Job title

There are many reasons why this information matters. You may find that a large percentage of attendees are from the same area. Or maybe you learn that most people shared the same few job titles.

Moving forward with your next event, this data will help you narrow your target audience from a marketing perspective.

Final Word

Any data you collected from past events can be used to your advantage when planning your next event.

Start with the ideas above and branch out from there. It won’t be long before you find yourself immersed in more data than you ever imagined.