Meeting Viewpoint

You cannot calculate ROI for a meeting!

Recently there has been a great deal of discussion about calculating ROI (Return-on-Investment) for a meeting. It can't be done, unless the meeting was a business venture to make money by having a meeting. 

There are two main reasons ROI should not be the focus of meetings and at some point someone needs to stand up to the Financial Analysts and just say so instead of trying to appease them with some obscure definition of ROI. 

First, ROI is a quantitative calculation of Income/expenses (and a variety of quantitative derivatives) and the meeting planners aren’t in charge of the income portion (unless they are charging for the meeting). As soon as you include any qualitative element into the equation you invalid a quantitative calculation. It is as ridiculous as trying to calculate the ROI of a single sales appointment versus the entire organizational process of selling. 

Secondly, and more importantly,  ROI is about risk reduction and the last time I checked meetings are about spending money for the future and there is RISK in the future! There are no guarantees that a meeting will pay off - ever. Could the salespeople have learned new skills somewhere else? Probably. Would everyone have done better without recognizing a team for a job well done with an award ceremony? Possibly. Would the customer have bought anyway?  Maybe. Did the company grow stronger by listening to the company president tell their plan for next year? Who knows? 

Meetings are an investment in people and that is the best investment you can make and the riskiest! They may leave, quit or even die! Your meeting should be based on what serves the group best based on what you want to accomplish and unfortunately that is something that cannot be measured quantitatively.

You cannot involve too many people in ideas for a meeting!

Effective meetings are a function of the tactical execution of an organization's strategy. As such, meeting planning should involve as many people as possible: the executives, the board, the people attending, the people not attending, and the meetings need to have a strategic purpose.  

Getting feedback on a meeting is critical and having a meeting on how to get feedback is a valuable expense, because the contribution that meetings make to an organization is hugely complex (note: you’ve created boundaries on feedback the minute you send a questionnaire form – So what boundaries contribute to your strategic plan?). 

The most important part of a meeting has always been what you can’t QUANTIFY!!!

In fact, the meeting planner should be part of the strategic planning team of the organization. Meetings are critical and they are complex and they are risky. The focus should be on making sure the meeting is contributing to the strategic plan of the organization. Will it generate new ideas? What will you do to capture those ideas? Who’s excited about going in a new direction? How will you let other people know they are forming a team? How will you break the organizational barriers and get people from different areas to talk with one another?  These are some of the things that should be watched, considered and measured. 

ROI is about risk reduction and innovation and growth requires RISK!

Your organization should be focused on questions about innovation and change, not ROI. The maximum ROI is achieved when you stop spending money and that is equivalent to stopping in the middle of a race as a form of pacing yourself toward victory!

 

As your presenter, I promise you I'll get your company thinking about innovation and change!

My presentation style, my words, my topics, my very thought process is about creating change and innovation through communication, and I guarantee to have an impact on your audience and provide them the tools to make it happen.

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