Learning #10 – When it comes to events, think quality over quantity

Our light-hearted learnings for 2021 

We learned a huge amount from CPhI this year, one of the main learnings being that our events strategy should focus on quality over quantity. 

It is so easy to get drawn into the numbers game, choosing the events you attend simply on the number of attendees. We have seen first hand, however, that the number of guests is only part of the picture.

As you might imagine, due to the pandemic, CPhI was not as well attended this year as it usually is. This may well have caused many exhibitors to sit this year out, fearing that the loss of footfall would impact their return on investment. However, we have heard from some of our clients who attended, and their results may surprise you.

Our clients shared that the quality of their meetings at the event were far superior to previous years. Sure, there were less of them, but the attendees had all been determined to attend for one reason or another, giving the meetings more focus and reducing the number of interactions that weren’t likely to lead anywhere.

We imagine that this will continue to be the case for many events throughout 2022 and beyond, so this is certainly a useful learning to take with you into the future.

Seasonal solution: Take a look through your 2022 event calendar and look to strategise and prioritise your event attendance, thinking about the potential quality of your interactions, not just the quantity. The same rule applies to how many events you are attending; by focusing on the important events for you and attending less, could you improve the quality of interactions you have with, and the impression you give to, attendees?