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The ROI Methodology

The ROI Methodology is a planning- and evaluation tool for all kinds of meetings and events. It is based on the obvious fact that the only way to generate value form an event is by influencing, educating, inspiring or connecting participants to actually do something afterwards (not just think or feel) which creates value to the meeting owner.

Defining the Business Impact

When planning an event, you must therefore always start by analyzing the business needs of the meeting owner, what problems does he or she need to solve or what opportunities does he want to grasp. From this understanding, you define the desired business impact, which for a corporate event will be either a cost saving or an increase in the gross profit from sales, the only two ways of making the event profitable. If your organization is not for profit, the meeting must contribute to the ultimate value for which your organization exists (your vision and mission statements).

Ony Actions Create Value

Secondly, you must define what specific actions different categories of participants need to take after the event in order to create this value. They need to do something which they would otherwise not have done, in order words, you need to re-enforce or change their behaviour.

The third planning step involves designing the form and content of the event in order to achieve the desired behaviour.

Finally, you need to ensure that the facilities and atmosphere of the venue creates a good environment for learning.

This is the planning process all professional meeting planners should apply for all types and sizes of events.

Five Levels of Evaluation

When using the ROI Methodology as an evaluation tool, you measure the achievement of these objectives, starting with the participants’ satisfaction with hospitality and content (Level 1), then what they learned (Level 2) in terms of information, skills, new attitudes and relationships with other attendees, then how they applied what they learned (Level 3), the behaviour you reinforced or changed by means of their learning experience, and finally what value those actions created for the meeting owner, what we call the business impact (Level 4). This sequence of objectives and evaluations from satisfaction to learning, application and business impact is called ‘the chain of impact’.

If you convert the business impact into monetary values and compare with the costs of the event, you may calculate the event profit, which as a percentage of the cost is the Return on Investment (ROI) (Level 5).

When measuring the business impact (values generated by the actions of the participants), you will always use at least one method to isolate the impacts generated by the event from other influences, such as other marketing activities, market changes, competitive actions, etc.

By applying this methodology to both the planning and evaluation of meetings and events, you ensure that meeting stakeholders achieve the greatest possible results from their investment.

A Proven Methodology

The ROI Methodology has been developed by Jack Phillips and ROI Institute, Inc. over nearly 30 years, initially applied to training and development, but in later years expanded to many other applications, including meetings and events. Jack Phillips and his wife Patti Phillips have written more than 50 books on the subject and trained more than 3000 ROI professionals through 5-day certification courses. ROI Institute Inc. has partners in more than 40 countries. European Event ROI Institute has since 2005 been the partner for the meetings and events industry in Europe.