The objective of the new IMEX Meetings for Success initiative is to help company executives better understand the value that meetings and events bring to their businesses.
The Forum at the 09 show concluded that convincing senior executives of the value of meetings comes down to the ability to demonstrate and actually measure results.
“Have a clear vision on what successful measurement looks like before making time and financial investments. Our advice is “Think big – start small – scale quickly”. Dev Sharma, Director Global Accounts, MCI
Didier Scaillet, Chief Development Officer, MPI reported that, “Companies that measure the impact of their events are three times more likely to expect increases in their events marketing budgets than those that do not measure.” Agreeing with this sentiment, Dev Sharma, Director Global Accounts, MCI says, “We have seen concrete cases where clients equipped with good business cases and ROI figures have received higher budgets for their activities.”
Bridge to corporate boardrooms
Rod Cameron, President, Criterion Communications, believes that we must communicate the benefits of meetings and events not only in terms of the monetary benefits but also the intangible benefits: “One of the biggest issues facing the meetings industry today is the need to be able to demonstrate value, not just in terms of traditional delegate and organiser spending but of the actual meetings outcomes themselves – the reasons those meetings are held in the first place. This is particularly important in a corporate context as meetings are only one of a number of mechanisms by which corporations address their objectives and must be weighed against alternative strategies.”
“meetings need the highest possible level of credibility in the corporate environment”
He champions Meetings for Success as a valuable tool for moving forward with these objectives, saying, “Meetings for Success could be a highly effective vehicle for helping accomplish this as it represents a bridge between industry organisations and suppliers and the corporate boardrooms where decisions on such strategy alternatives are made. Meetings, exhibitions and other business events, along with those who manage them, need the highest possible level of credibility in the corporate environment, and an effective means of calculating their ROI would help achieve this by providing solid measures that can be weighed against competing tactics.”
