Event Measurement

Measure the event on qualified meetings and cost per qualified meeting. Report the same shape every time, including the times it looks bad.

When to use

• Before the event, setting up the instrumentation. This is the correct time
• At 30, 60, and 90 days after
• Annual planning, comparing formats across the portfolio
• When somebody asks whether to do it again

Inputs

• Reads: workspace/events/<event>/budget.md, meetings.csv, followup/, workspace/program/charter.md
• Needs from user: CRM access or the pipeline export, and the historic cost per meeting from other channels for comparison

Workflow

1. Define qualified before the event

In writing, strict enough to hurt:

A scheduled 1:1 with a C-level, Head-of, or Director-plus person at a company inside the ICP, that ends with a named next step and a date.

Adapt the seniority bar, keep the three properties: a named person, an ICP company, a next step with a date. A conversation that ends with "send me something" is not qualified, and counting it as one is how event programs lose credibility in year two.

2. Instrument before the event

Confirm you can read every number you plan to report:

• An event field on the account or contact record, not just a campaign
• The meeting tracker, with a qualified flag
• Cost lines captured as they are committed, not reconstructed later
• The room composition count: target accounts present

Instrumenting afterward means reconstructing from memory, and reconstruction always flatters.

3. Build the scorecard

EVENT           <name> · <date> · <format> · Owner: <name>
COST            Sponsorship $n | Travel $n | Staff days $n | Production $n | TOTAL $n
ROOM            Attendance n | Target accounts present n (n%) | Senior ICP pool n
MEETINGS        Pre-booked n | Held n | Qualified n     ← graded on this
PROGRESSION     Second meetings n | Opportunities n | Pipeline $n
EFFICIENCY      Cost per qualified meeting $n | vs outbound cost per meeting n%
CONTENT         Recap live? y/n | Assets produced n
RISK            <what went wrong that will go wrong again if nothing changes>

The efficiency line ends bad habits. Cost per qualified meeting against what a meeting costs from outbound is far harder to argue with than a feeling about the event.

4. Report at 30, 60, and 90

Event pipeline matures slowly. The 30-day number always looks bad, and teams that report only at 30 days talk themselves out of formats that were working.

5. Build the portfolio view

Once a few are done, the comparison across formats is the real output:

This table usually shows something uncomfortable and useful: the expensive conference produced fewer qualified meetings than three dinners at a fraction of the cost, or the webinar program everyone dismissed produced the cheapest meetings in the portfolio.

6. Stop reporting the misleading metrics

Badge scans, registrations, impressions, "leads generated", cost per attendee, and social engagement on event posts. docs/metrics.md has the replacement for each. If a metric cannot change a decision, it does not belong on the scorecard.

7. Bring the risk line every time

One line, every report, on what went wrong and what it will cost if nothing changes. The program keeps its credibility by flagging its own problems before someone else finds them.

Output

• Writes: workspace/measurement/<event>-scorecard.md, and the portfolio table in workspace/measurement/portfolio.md
• Prints: the scorecard, the cost per qualified meeting with the comparison, the repeat recommendation, and the risk line

Rules & quality bar

• Qualified is defined in writing before the event
• Instrumented before the event, never reconstructed after
• Cost per qualified meeting is the headline efficiency number
• Report at 30, 60, and 90. Never present the 30-day number as final
• Same scorecard shape every time so comparison is real
• No badge scans, registrations, or impressions as success metrics
• The risk line ships every time
• Never invent a number. Unavailable data is reported as unavailable

Related skills

• Reads: event-budget, meeting-engine, event-followup
• Feeds: event-retrospective, event-program-setup (next year's budget split)
• See also: docs/metrics.md