Before you begin planning any event, it is important to define your event goals. Planners often do planning without taking this important step.

This is a mistake. Setting goals and objectives will make organizing your event easier.

What are the Event Goals and Objectives

Often, “goals” and “objectives” are interchangeable. They have their meanings.

• Goals should be specific and easily measurable.
• These are the steps and strategies you take to achieve your objectives.

These 5 Steps will help you set event goals that maximize the event’s impact.

Step 1: Identify your event goals

You are not defining the event’s goals but simply documenting its purpose. What is the purpose of the event?

These are key questions to ask when setting event goals and objectives.

1. What is the point of this event?
2. Why invite attendees to your event?
3. What are the most important things that attendees should take away from your event?
4. What is the best way to measure your success?

Keep the big picture in your mind.

The brand’s overall marketing strategy and the company’s mission should be used to determine the event goals. Event planners will find it helpful to remember the bigger picture, as their minds are often occupied with a million small tasks and deadlines.

Define your key performance goals

Understanding the “why” is important, but it is equally important to quantify your goal.

Focus on the things you can control when working towards your performance goals. You can’t control whether your attendees decide to attend next year’s conference. However, you can evaluate the sales made during, after, and before the conference. How many qualified leads were you able to obtain. How many qualified leads were followed up by your team in the following months? This list could go on.

Although it may seem obvious, decision-makers may make suggestions that you cannot control when assessing the success of an event. When communicating expectations to higher-ups, it is important to state your goals clearly.

Step 2: Make your event goals “smart”

When setting goals, use SMART goals. These are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-based

It’s impossible to say that you want “to host the best marketing conference,” but it isn’t very specific. A goal to “plan a country music festival lasting one week by the end of the current month” is specific and time-based but unlikely to be achievable or realistic.

Step 3: Determine your event goals using 20 events KPIs

No matter your goal, any of these KPIs can be a great fit.

1. Cost per customer acquisition
2. Number of qualified leads at the event
3. High satisfaction ratings from sponsors for the event
4. Individual promo code tracking link performance
5. Gross revenue
6. Total number of registrations
7. Use the designated hashtags on each platform to make social media mentions
8. Most attendees are very satisfied with the event speakers
9. Number of active community members following the event (compared with a total before the event).
10. Results from satisfaction surveys of attendees in numerical form
11. As a percentage, the number of event check-ins relative to registrations
12. A score of the Net Promoter
13. Online engagement of event community as measured by social media interactions or specific activity on the event app
14. Live event app polling
15. Shares, likes and comments on social media related to the event
16. Individual ticket sales and performance tickets
17. Ratio cost to revenue
18. Sponsor page engagement for the event website
19. Recurring events: Number of attendees who are repeat participants
20. Total acquisition of new customers

Event software can be used to measure these KPIs. Make sure you have a reliable platform with all the features required to capture your data.

Step 4: Create an event strategy

Next, you need to think about your event strategy. Now that you have a clear idea of your event goal and are passionate about them, it is time to determine how to achieve them.

Two perspectives are helpful when thinking about strategy:

1. The planner is viewed from your perspective
2. Your attendee’s perspective

What will the attendees and the planning team do to help achieve the goals? Ask yourself these questions:

Step 5: Make sure your event goal is a way for people to make connections

Although no two events are the same, they all share the goal of creating connections. Perhaps attendees can connect with content or an idea.

It is important to consider how you can create these connections. If the event’s goal is to educate attendees, you should think about what they are learning, why, and how you can help them.