Getting it Right: Measuring Events

Chapter 7 of Paine’s book “Measure What Matters” is all about measuring the impact and success of special events. This particular chapter really resonated with me because I am an officer for a group on campus in which the officer body had problems determining the goals and effectiveness of a particular event.

The organization I am a part of has held a certain event several times over the past three years. The first few times the event was held the objectives seemed fairly obvious (even though we never really talked about them as an officer body) and no one really questioned the effectiveness of the event.

However, the past couple of times the event has been held we realized different officers had differing opinions of the objectives of the event and therefore people attending the event were getting mixed messages.

As officers we realized we needed to sit down and discuss the event in detail. Paine outlines seven steps to measure events and the first step is defining objectives. As I found out with my organization this is much easier said than done. I remember having several LONG officer meetings debating on the most effective objectives and how we planned to achieve those objectives in a tangible way.

I also remember having LONG meetings after the event to discuss and evaluate whether or not we met our newly outlined objectives. Turns out, the tactics we had set in place to reach our objectives actually caused us to achieve something completely different. I had to sit back and laugh a little when I realized our event had been successful, but not in the way we had planned and hoped. Next time we need to follow Paine’s steps for success more closely.

This experience just goes to show Paine’s steps for measuring and events are extremely important. Even though putting measurement in place for an event might not always be easy or exciting it is necessary in order to achieve the objectives you painstakingly outline prior to the event.