jmic paris conf may 2015 pres leo jago
TRANSCRIPT
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
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
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
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