Measuring b2b Matchmaking Event Success the Right Way

Event organizers are under more pressure than ever before to measure and report the success of their networking or business matchmaking events. It’s understandable. Organizing any kind of event takes resources. Measuring it properly is an important step to analyzing it and reporting on the success of it to management.

Registration and ROI are important indicators of how b2b event matchmaking worked, but they don’t give the whole picture. What needs to be added is how satisfied attendees are with the event. However, measuring attendee satisfaction is really hard. A survey with “How did you like the event” or “Was the business event successful for you” just touches the surface of these questions. There needs to be a deeper dive into this topic.

To go about getting the clearest understanding of a b2b matchmaking event’s effectiveness for your attendees, the event needs to be measured often and from different angles. This happens in different stages and with different tools.

Core times to measure attendees satisfaction are:

• During the event
• Immediately after the event
• Six months after the event

Core tools to measure attendee satisfaction are:

• An event management software
• An event survey

Monitoring the Business Matchmaking Event

The right b2b event management software will allow an event organizer to have an overview of scheduled 1:1 meetings planned to take place during the event. If there are attendees who have not yet scheduled any meetings, the event organizer can reach out to them and encourage interesting matches.

When it comes to virtual event networking, organizers can monitor the matchmaking while the event is happening. To see if participants are online to attend the planned meeting, and messages sent between attendees.

If an event organizer is monitoring the event matchmaking software during the event, and seeing that attendees are failing to connect, they can change it. They can work in the backend to communicate with the attendee and let them know their meeting partner isn’t available, and encourage them to seek out another meeting. This allows an event organizer to have more influence on the satisfaction of the attendees for business matchmaking events while they are happening.

Business Matchmaking Attendees Rate Each Individual Meeting

An event software should also allow attendees to rate every individual meeting they had. This is important. People attend events to network. The quality of meetings that they have among each other is a key metric to the satisfaction of your attendees and the real effectiveness of the event.

Measurable meeting ratings could be:

• If a meet up actually took place
• Lack of interest between the meeting parties
• No further contact is planned after the meeting
• It was very informative but no cooperation planned
• Cooperation possible
• Cooperation already agreed

Measuring Results Immediately After the Networking Event

The above data can be run and analyzed during the event and right after, however one tool will not capture the complexity of attendee satisfaction. This is why a second form of measurement should be used. For example, a post networking event survey can capture extra questions for a fuller picture of the success of the event.

A post event survey is not to be taken lightly. A lot of thought needs to go into the questions. Though looking at SurveyMonkeys Post Event Feedback Survey is a place to start for survey best practices, the questions aren’t tailored enough for a unique business matchmaking event. The more consideration put into a post event survey, the more meaningful it is going to be.

When creating a post matchmaking event survey, remember these best practices:

• Keep the survey short. No longer than 2-5 minutes
• Less than 10 questions is ideal
• The first question should be broad, easy to answer, and the most important question to have answered
• Make questions clear, concise, and short
• Send the survey 12 to 24 hours after the event when everyone is most excited about the event

Several Months After the b2b Matchmaking Event

Measuring attendee satisfaction months after the event is a very valuable step, no matter if it's a virtual, hybrid or in-person networking event. For example, six months after the event, participants will be able to give the event organizer definite feedback. An email survey sent out to ask if participants established valuable and long-term connections from the event hosted would be a solid piece of information. It is clear that attendees reached their networking goals through the event.

Registration and ROI have always been measurable for events. However, with the onset of event softwares, attendee satisfaction can be measured in a more definite way than before. With clear definitions of whether or not a participant found individual meetings useful, something that fulfilled their goals, an event organizer will have a better chance of understanding the true success of an event.

b2match is an all in one event management software that incorporates multiple tools in its platform to measure the success of virtual, in-person, and hybrid event networking.

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