Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Introduction As organizations are growing more and more cautious as to where they spend their money… exhibiting at tradeshows is often at the top of the list to be scrutinized. Providing exhibitors and sponsors return on investment is more critical than ever for attracting and retaining industry partners. This toolkit was created for meeting, event and tradeshow producers as a resource to get you and your industry partners a better understanding of the value of your meeting/show. All too often success is measured only by dollars in sales or in leads generated, however there are many more factors to be considered. This tool is designed to help organizations quantify and measure the other intangibles that contribute to the success of an event that are often overlooked, but hold tremendous value to the organization beyond immediate dollars to the bottom line. The goal is for individuals to be able to complete this template specific to their organizations desired outcomes, establish measurements, identify methods on how to achieve those goals, and finally measure the outcome and true return on investment. Design The tool is broken down in to six valuable measurements of exhibiting at a meeting: • Lead Generation • Ideas Generated • Networking • Competitive Intelligence & Industry Trends • Education Training • Marketing & Branding Beyond the sales and leads generated, these other areas offer value that is often not considered when deciding whether or not to participate in an event. Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Instruction  Review and consider the purpose of each category and the importance it holds for your organization. Remember • Think beyond the immediate bottom line • Consider how the outcomes may enhance your organizations overall performance • Develop an achievable, valuable goal for each of the categories. For example: • 20 new customers met, • 50 qualified leads, • learned new idea that will improve our organization, • My “aha” moment was…. • Each category should have AT LEAST one goal, but can have as many as you wish. Keep in mind, you many have immediate ROI expectations, near term ROI, and Long term ROI  Identify actions that can and should be taken to achieve success in reaching your goals (i.e. in order to meet with 20 current customers, preset appointments with attendees/customers 15 days prior to the event).  If you choose, you can weigh the importance of our categories and customize to your organization. You can then score the success of each outcome. – For example, a staff person new to the organization/field, their goals would be weighted more toward education, while a more seasoned staff person’s goals may be more weighted to reconnecting with customers or learning trends and how it may impact the organization. The individuals would than rate their experience on a scale of 0 – 5 to determine the measurable success  After the event, be sure to revisit this document to measure your success and share the information you learned along with the ROI with your colleagues. Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Thought starters to customize your worksheet                   How many prospects were uncovered? How many new relationships were established? What industry trends did you learn? What competitive intel did you gain? How many clients did you meet with (existing account maintenance)? How visible were you to attendees? How was your booth location/traffic? How did you brand? How was your brand perceived? Did your booth hook work? Pre-mailer? Were attendees drawn in? Were you consultative? What are my competitors doing well? How well were you able to connect with your target audience? Did the attendance meet your expectations? What would you do differently next time? What would you do the same? What events/sessions outside of the expo did you attend? What were the valuable take-aways? Were the optional events offered in conjunction with the conference of value? Did you sponsor any events? What was the client feedback? Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Category/Value How important is this category? Goals (List at least one goal per category that you want ROI on) Actions Outcome Score (Immediate, Near, Future) (0=low,5=high) Lead Generation Weight/importance _____% Ideas Generated Weight/importance _____% Networking Weight/importance _____% Competitive Intel Weight/importance _____% Education Training Weight/importance _____% Marketing/Branding Weight/importance _____% TOTAL Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Competitive intelligence gathered      Cost? New products? What are others doing differently (creative ideas)? What are the trends you noticed? What are competitors doing in their booth to drive traffic? What was the total cost of exhibiting at the event?       Travel (hotel, air,) Client entertainment Exhibit cost (shipping, booth, electric) Registration Promotional materials Other costs Total ______________ How did this compare to other exhibitions you attend? Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Exhibitor/Sponsor ROI Toolkit Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014 Will Alvey, Angie Day, Chris Dinegar, CMP, Jen Howie, Earla J. Jones, MS, CMP, Anne Nagel, Amy M. Pfeiffer, Sharyn Weiss, Alisha Waid, CMP Facilitation by: Leadership Synergies Created by the ASAE Meetings & Expositions Council, October 2014