Events are a unique way of interacting. They bring people together to share memories and experiences. Music shows, weddings, parties, business conferences and even church gatherings share this aspect of bringing people together for a common cause. It’s just that the objectives differ according to the event. Music Shows are recreational events, weddings and parties are celebratory whilst business conferences are informative and some educative. These objectives are the ones that draw various stakeholders together and at the end of the day, they should determine if the event was a success or not.

During my time at the Financial Gazette, I have helped put together some of the most iconic events in the nation. We have done business conferences, sports tournaments and recreational events. After every event, my team and I would evaluate the success of the event, a process which usually starts during the event.

👌Quality of Audience

To determine the success of an event usually you look at a number of things. One of them is the quality of the audience drawn to the event. Did the event draw out the intended guests and in their correct numbers? You can plan a conference to host 200 executives and on the day only 35 show up. They could be of high quality, but 35 out of 200 is not a good number. If your conference room design doesn’t hide the empty seats then you risk disappointing the 35 guests who showed up, they will go home feeling the Conference was not well attended. Another case is that the intended guests send representatives and by doing so they upset/neutralize the calibre of guests you wish to host.

📝Organisation

Another determinant of a successful event is the logistics of the event. The putting together of the event. This is usually from planning to the end of the actual event. A successful event could be well planned and the logistics run smoothly. In my experience this is not usually the case with every event, your guest speaker can be affected by other demands outside of your event that affect their commitment, and national or economic factors also affect events. But this does not mean that if things change an event has failed. Having a team that is agile and can respond quickly to the changes whilst remaining focused on hosting the event is key. So a successful event could be one that has smooth logistics and also when things go sideways solutions come in quickly.

🥅Objectives

Another fact is that a successful event meets its objectives. If it’s a recreational event say a musical show, If people are entertained then that’s a successful event. Regardless of the turnout and how smooth the logistics were. Objectives are a good measure of an event’s success because most of the time if not all the times every event has an objective.

🎯The Ultimate Measure

In my experience over the past years of event planning and management, there is one key determinant of a successful event. This is the satisfaction of all stakeholders of the event. This is the most challenging part of event planning and management because it seeks to find the sweet spot where everyone is happy i.e. organisers, partners, guests, speakers or performers and vendors. Organisers have a clear goal of what they want to achieve hence the event, partners have a reputation to maintain and keep, speakers usually need a good quality audience to engage with, guests need a good experience to justify value for their money and vendors these are your venue, pa system contractors etc. need to assist you in making the event a success at a profit. It is not an easy task but if everyone walks away happy then we can truly say an event was a success.

In my view, a successful event is one in which that all stakeholders are happy. Ultimately achieving this guarantees the next event, a second edition of the same event, which is made better with time. Satisfying the needs of the various stakeholders on its own excites them enough to consider doing it again in future – most importantly it brings a good reputation, everyone would want to attend your next event, every vendor would like to work with you and most people will consider partnering with you. Satisfying stakeholders is the ultimate return on investment and efforts of everyone involved.