Why it's crucial to report on event management for successful future events

Unfortunately, attempting to collate multiple sets of data from several spreadsheets is a long and arduous endeavour. That said, as complicated as the process is, it's an absolutely imperative element of the event planning process.

Your report on event management should contain data about every aspect of the event - from the invitation process, through to dietary preferences and attendance rates. By creating a holistic picture of past events, you'll be able to constantly improve on all facets.

The most important metric you need to report on event management is ROI

In other words, how many of the guests you've hosted have subsequently made purchases that were greater than the cost of hosting them. Establishing these figures will require the merging of data from your CRM or financial systems with data that you've collected from past events. Start by working out the cost per head for each event, and then calculate the ROI for each separate customer.

Analyse the RSVPs and attendance records of past events in order to come up with a benchmark

This will enable you to determine how many guests you need to invite in order to have a fully attended event. Bear in mind that not everyone will accept your invitation, and that some of those who have accepted, won't arrive - not to mention uninvited guests who end up attending.

By looking at the attendance rates of past events, you'll be able to work out that if, for example, you want 100 guests at an event, you'll need to invite 130 people.

Depending on your brand, you may need to work out attendance according to gender

For example, you may find that women are more likely to accept invitations, and arrive at events, opposed to men. This will indicate that if you need 50 men and 50 women at your next event, you should invite 60 women and 70 men.

Another consideration is the city in which your event will take place

If you're a national brand and frequently host events in multiple cities, it's likely that the event attendance and acceptance benchmarks will differ.

You may determine that events held in Johannesburg are far more populated than those held in Durban, and so on. These findings will provide you will valuable data, allowing you to work out the number of guests you need to invite in order to ensure that your event is well attended.

Your report on event management will also indicate the best times to send out invitations, follows up and reminders

In addition, your event management report will show the sort of reminders that work best for your guests. Does an SMS reminder the day before do the job, or do you need to send an SMS reminder a week before and the day before?

Your report on event management will inform what you need to order for an upcoming event

When planning events, you can't wait until you've got a confirmed guest list to order the various products needed. These could comprise of complimentary t-shirts for golfing guests, the correct number of Halaal meals, or the right combination of his and hers thank you gifts.

These all need to be pre-ordered so that they can be branded or prepared in time for your event. By analysing your past RSVP data - you'll be able to work out a formula that you can use to prepare for future events in order to achieve minimal wastage.

Compiling a report on management may be a hassle, but the rewards are worth it

Creating a report and keeping it updated according to changing trends and various customer bases is a lot of work, but the results are incredibly worthwhile. In order to make this task easier, consider running all of your events through an event management system.

This will ensure that all data can be exported in the same format, noticeably speeding up the process. Using an event management system will ultimately make is vastly easier to create these crucial reports, allowing you to continuously plan and implement successful events.