Q1: What do you look for when you evaluate the best events?
Only one thing – an IDEA. Anyone can hire a hall, musicians, artists, and catering. Anyone with enough money can hire artists to make a light show or mapping. Anyone can give journalists such a reward that they all come to the press conference. If I do not see an idea in the project that is related to the purpose of the event, it is not an event for me, but a gathering of people. It might still be effective, but I couldn’t care less.
Q2: What advice would you give to agencies and brands thinking about what event to put forward for Conventa Best Event Award?
Follow three criteria, put forward events with:
– Idea
– Good case
– You believe in it
Q3: What tips would you give to agencies and brands putting together case studies for their events?
Be short, use pictures and video and not too many words. Talk about the idea and purpose of the event, about chemistry, how guests reacted, what was the atmosphere, and what was the takeaway from participants. Not about technique, famous music stars or chefs. They are all just elements of the event, not the event itself. Think about the case before the event, otherwise, you will not have enough material for the case.
Q4: What kind of results and ROI metrics impress you in a case study, and which ones disappoint?
Well, the most important are metrics about participants – how they enjoyed the event, what emotions the program raised in them, how they felt at the end and what is their impression of the event one week later. This information is hard to get, you must be very subtle with surveys or whatever techniques you use to measure this.
But it is essential to try to understand the effect of the event on participants! Too often I read about numbers that are not relevant to the idea and effect of the event, usually agencies are proud of the number of participants (which doesn’t tell me anything if not presented in some context), budget-related stuff (expensive musicians, number of lights, …) and wishful thinking (claims like “this was the best event” or predictions without substance like “due to the event many participants decided to do this and that”).
Q5: What is the added value of taking part in the Conventa Best Event Award for event agencies?
All awards from festivals in the advertising world give a fair clue that the awarded agency has substantial know-how and bright minds. Sometimes we feel different within the jury and we debate about the different ideas, designs, and executions… sometimes awarded work doesn’t deserve the award… But mostly awards show quite good mapping of exceptional agencies. Events (and most of 1:1 communication) were neglected in the past and were not recognized as a powerful tool by many marketers in the past. I think that CBEA is the key factor that 1:1 communication and particularly event organization has stronger support in many companies thus also helping agencies at their work. Most importantly, CBEA differs best from average.
Learn more about entering your projects for Conventa Best Event Award 2023 at: https://www.crossover.si/best-event-award/.
