
One of the most provocative questions one can ask an event professional is, “how will this experience be measured?” The question puts our back up for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that most of us got into this business because of the creativity and excitement of ‘live’ – not for a love of data.
And yet as marketing in general becomes a more sophisticated practice and as digital marketing tends to output all kinds of data, the event industry must step up its measurement game to ensure it remains a viable channel for brands and organisations to impact audiences both virtually and in-person.
The not-for-profit Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition (EMMC) has coalesced to take on event measurement. The growing group of industry experts and organisations on both sides of the Atlantic (including DRP, Smyle, VMLYRCommerce and Opus, to name a few) has come together with a common set of goals: to establish straightforward measurement standards for the industry, to develop shared benchmarks that allow event professionals to compare their results against others, and to promote credible measurement practices across all events and experiences. To that end, the group has partnered with the UK Centre for Events Management at Leeds Beckett University to develop a certification approach to ensure that people and teams measuring events are adhering to best practices.
But above all, the EMMC is focused on getting more event professionals to do more measurement of business, consumer and employee events (physical, digital and hybrid) – driven by the belief that measurement will preserve and grow our industry under the intense scrutiny of budget stakeholders.
The EMMC launched in February 2021 and is recruiting agency, corporate and individual members at eventmeasurement.org.