Start with the outcome your event needs to support. Use a scorecard to agree the evidence, owners, costs and review dates before you sign the contract.
Free printable worksheet. No email or registration.
AGENCY | Your event scorecard
What would make this event worth doing?
Learning
Relationships
Pipeline
Financial return
Success measure / Evidence / Owner / Review date
Before the budget becomes the brief
Value starts with a purpose.
An educational meeting, a relationship-building event and a sales-led congress can all be useful. Each needs its own test of success.
Agree the intended change first. Then decide who needs to take part, what they will do and how the work continues afterwards. The scorecard helps you make that decision visible to the team.
This fictional example shows how four different outcomes can be reviewed. It is a starting point for discussion, not a requirement that every event achieve all four.
AGENCY | Event scorecardFictional worked example
Set the test before you commit.
Choose the outcomes that fit the event. Agree targets, evidence, owners and review dates together.
01
Learning
Can people use what they learnt?
Illustrative success measure
18 of 24 participants apply the planning method
Evidence
Before-and-after task, then a later application check
Owner / review
Learning lead 4 weeks
02
Relationships
Did the right conversations progress?
Illustrative success measure
12 agreed next steps from 20 priority-account conversations
Evidence
Conversation record, permission and a named next action
Owner / review
Account lead 30 days
03
Pipeline
Did a qualified opportunity move?
Illustrative success measure
6 open qualified opportunities reviewed in the CRM
Evidence
CRM history, source and influence recorded separately
Owner / review
Sales lead 90 days
04
Financial return
What value was actually realised?
Illustrative success measure
Break even on attributable realised contribution
Evidence
Finance records and an agreed attribution basis
Owner / review
Finance lead 90 days, then revisit
Attendance and scans describe activity. They do not, by themselves, establish learning, an agreed next step, qualified pipeline or financial return.
Useful progress can coexist with a financial loss.
Learning and relationships have value in their own right. Pipeline describes potential future business. Realised financial ROI answers a different question, using contribution you can reasonably attribute to the event.
Illustrative event review
Four outcomes. One honest view.
Fictional example
All figures below are invented to show the method. They are not AGENCY or client results, targets or benchmarks.
Learning18 / 24
Demonstrated application at the four-week check
Relationships12
Agreed next steps from 20 priority-account conversations
PipelineGBP 120,000
Six open opportunities where the event contributed. Not revenue.
Financial return−25%
Illustrative realised financial ROI at the review date
Realised contribution versus full cost
Full event costGBP 40,000
Attributable contributionGBP 30,000
Open pipeline of GBP 120,000 stays outside this calculation.
Realised financial ROI
-25%
(GBP 30,000 − GBP 40,000) ÷ GBP 40,000 × 100
Below break-even at the 90-day review
See the costs and attribution assumptions
Full event cost | GBP 40,000
Space and sponsorship
GBP 14,000
Design, production and logistics
GBP 10,000
Travel and accommodation
GBP 6,000
Staff time
GBP 5,000
Invitations, content and follow-up
GBP 5,000
How the contribution was assigned
In this fictional example, realised sales of GBP 100,000 generate GBP 60,000 contribution after product and delivery costs, before event costs. An illustrative 50% event attribution assigns GBP 30,000 to the event.
This attribution is an assumption, not proof of causality. Agree a defensible basis with finance, account for other activity and review later outcomes without counting the same value twice.
The full investment
Count more than the stand invoice.
Set the cost basis with finance. Include the work before and after the event, staff time and any relevant unrecoverable taxes or overhead allocation. Count each cost once.
Space, sponsorship and hospitality
Design, production and logistics
Travel and accommodation
Staff preparation and attendance time
Invitations, content and supporting materials
Capture, follow-up and evaluation
Financial ROI = (attributable realised contribution − full event cost) ÷ full event cost × 100.
Use contribution after product and service delivery costs, before event costs. Agree the review window and attribution basis. Record other influences, avoid double-counting and revisit longer sales cycles. Open pipeline is neither realised revenue nor profit and belongs outside the ROI calculation.
Two questions from Charlie Litchfield
Design the experience. Challenge the evidence.
What people do in the room and what happens afterwards belong in the same plan. Charlie’s books challenge both sides of that decision.
Meaningful measurement
Beyond the Badge Scan
Move beyond traffic and scans. Charlie examines measurement plans, outcome scorecards and the reality behind an event’s financial return.
Design what people will do, rather than only what they will watch. Charlie challenges passive presentation formats and makes the case for a room with something to contribute.
Choose the outcome that matters. Record the current position and the change you need to see.
02
Make it measurable
Set an appropriate success measure, evidence source, owner and review date. Agree the full budget and attribution limits.
03
Act on the evidence
Review what happened. Decide what to continue, change or stop, and give the next actions an owner.
The next useful step
Make it work for your event.
Use the worksheet with your team, or bring us the event, audience and investment decision you need to make. We agree the scope and fee before starting any work.
