It’s our mission at Exhibitus to craft experiences that take your brand from “event ordinary” to “experiential awesome.” This process begins with questions that drive understanding of a client’s objectives and expectations.
So, the answers continue! In our current webinar series, we answer five of your pressing questions in 25 minutes. Below are nuggets of expertise and insights we learned during our January 2026 session, Metrics Managed: Leveraging Data to Showcase Live Events’ Data, featuring Exhibitus’ industry expert, Lynn Reves, executive vp – marketing and results strategy, with moderator, Rob Majerowski, director strategic projects.
To hear the details of each response, listen to the replay of the January 14th 5-in-25 webinar here.
We look forward to continuing to provide answers during our next webinar on Thursday, May 14th at 10:00 am EDT. Register and submit your questions for this and future webinars here.
Metrics Managed: Leveraging Data to Showcase Live Events’ Data
Q#1 – How do you define success for brand activations and align KPIs with overall business objectives?
- Success is not the event—it’s really the business outcome the event is designed to influence.
- Start with your brand’s stated objectives and then work backward to identify the behaviors that the event must drive to support those goals.
- From there, mapthree layers of KPIs.
- Business impact
- Behavioral signals
- Experience performance
Q#2 – What metrics matter most across different event types, such as face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid?
- While the format may change, the measurement framework should stay consistent. What shifts is how to capture those data points and signals.
- For face-to-face events
- Quality of interaction
- Dwell time and repeat touchpoints
- Post-event actions taken within a defined timeframe
- For virtual events
- Session stickiness and completion rates
- Active participation versus passive attendance
- Content replays and downstream consumption
- Look for any metric that shows true interaction or engagement
- For hybrid events, success is about equivalency of value.
- Are virtual participants receiving the same strategic impact as those onsite?
- Are you seeing comparable intent signals and follow-up behaviors?
Q#3 – How do you ensure data quality and leverage the right tools for accurate measurement?
- Data quality starts with intentional design, not dashboards. At Exhibitus, we start with STORY BEFORE STRUCTURE. If measurement isn’t baked into that experience architecture on the front end, the data will always be incomplete or misleading.
- First, define data requirements during experience design—not post-event.
- Next, standardize what constitutes an “interaction” or “engagement,” along with a strict definition of what a qualified lead is (as defined by Sales) if LeadGen is an objective.
- Lastly, minimize any friction so data collection doesn’t disrupt the experience.
Q#4 – What methods can be used to communicate event impact to executive leadership?
- In their quest to understand the success of an event, executives typically ask for ROI, a calculation that focuses on spend and revenue. But what we believe they truly want is clarity and confidence in the investment. That’s why we recommend expanding the conversation to include all the areas of value for investment such as sales, cost savings achieved through prospect pitches, and media coverage.
- Three “executive-friendly” lenses to consider:
- Business contribution – “What did this event influence or accelerate?”
- Audience insight – “What did we learn about our customers that we didn’t know before?”
- Optimization opportunity – “How will this make the next investment smarter?” This feeds into a continual improvement plan (CIP).
- For B2C leaders, impact reporting must connect experience to brand momentum. Focus on showing how the event influenced consideration, preference, and advocacy—especially in competitive categories where emotional differentiation drives growth.
Q#5 – What’s next for event measurement in terms AI and emerging tech?
- Today, we’re really entering a phase where measurement becomes predictive, not just retrospective.
- AI is already enabling several areas in live events:
- Real-time engagement scoring during events and journey analyses
- Pattern recognition across multi-event portfolios if you measure consistently
- Automated insight generation instead of manual analysis
- But what’s most exciting is the move toward “experience intelligence,” where data doesn’t just report performance, but can actively inform design decisions. Things like eliminating human barriers, traffic flow, fixing “connector” areas when you find that they impede flow.
- That said, technology will never replace strategy. AI can surface signals, but humans still decide what matters. The future of event measurement belongs to teams who can blend advanced technology with a clear point of view on business value.
Thank you Lilly, Brian, Eddie, Alex and Erin for sharing your “top-of-mind” questions with us. We look forward to responding to the next set of issues and challenges on our 5-in-25 webinar session on May 14th.