Successful Meetings - August 2008 - (Page 61)

Meetings Technology NEW & IMPROVED BEAN COUNTING Meetings ROI is becoming more automated than ever, with sophisticated new tools that promise planners detailed insights into learning achieved, behavior changed, and money gained. By Christopher Hosford Return on investment is the Holy Grail of meetings and events, but the question has always been how to effectively track and measure it, compile the evaluation in a form that is appreciated by the C-suite, and use the information to improve next year’s meeting. Today, the ongoing technological revolution is putting automated tools into planners’ hands, tools that promise to give them a better grasp than ever on their meetings ROI. “Technology is overcoming a lot of previously thorny issues,” says Jack Phillips, Ph.D., head of the ROI Institute in Birmingham, AL, whose research and methods form the basis of many of the most prominent technological tools available to planners today. “First, there has been an inherent resistance to ROI measurement; meetings attract the kind of people that don’t want to get into measurement. They’re very busy, I understand, but they have clients asking for this.” Phillips has become a guru among those serious about meetings ROI, and his five levels of measurement inform the most advanced of them. The levels are: One— measuring reaction to a meeting, including “enjoyment;” Two—tracking the learning that attendees actually take SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS AUGUST 2008 mimegasite.com http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - August 2008

Successful Meetings - August 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry Trends
Industry Events
On the Record
Technology
Calendar
Websites of the Month
Personal Success
Technology Talk
Food & Beverage
Pre-Event
On Site
Tools of the Trade
Pre-Event
Crude Awakening
Oil’s Well
Betting on Development
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
No Spa, No Dice
New & Improved Bean Counting
Places & Spaces
Cleveland
Palm Springs, Desert Resorts
Midwest Meetings
San Antonio
Yucatan Peninsula
Gurus

Successful Meetings - August 2008