Trends for Healthcare Sector Meetings and Events

Return on Investment for Healthcare Sector Meetings and Events

– Part 2

The scope of the Return on Investment topic explains the need for this 2nd session; to explore in a deep way how ROI was seen by participants and what best practise was being deployed.

We started with a summary from a participant who had recently undertaken the Philips ROI methodology who felt that though the principals were sound the deployment across a whole suite of meeting types was likely too complex.

Certain meeting types; e.g. simple meetings or product training sessions with HCPs were more suitable candidates to be analysed from an ROI perspective.

Key Outcomes

• It was clear from the group that measurement aligned to a formal performance model for meetings varies from company to company. • All felt improvements could be made to current approaches. • Some companies see internal meetings and those across types; such as investigator meetings or internal sales training as suitable to measure. • More complex, multi stakeholder and multi country meetings made consistent measurement difficult.

• Available tools did not always match an increasingly sophisticated approach to measurement beyond using survey tools which were not always fit for purpose.

It was agreed that for reasons of culture in the healthcare sector, the lack of

tools and appetite for change, ROI was not an achievable goal. Therefore ROO, (return on objectives) or ROE, (return on education) were considered more viable performance measures. • It was agreed there is a low level of structured measurement of meeting activities currently taking place. • The Philips ROI model was useful and did put into focus many of the key decisions and process that need to be considered in delivering an ROI solution. • Consistent measurement was seen as more achievable for internal events such as sales training. • One participant confirmed they were measuring across meeting types to create key learnings.

Key Statistics

Return on Objectives

ROO

Demonstrate the return against objectives:

Impact

Did the results impact brand and or medical objectives:

Brand Objectives

Brand Objectives

SMART measurement metrics:

Meeting and event objectives (messages, financial):

Focus

Individual, Cluster or all Meeting and Event Types

Simple Meetings Models for the Healthcare Sector

Synopsis

It was clear from these discussions that the label, small meetings, is misleading and it was the complexity of the tasks, as opposed to the “size or financial investment”, which was a principal issue for organisations. Breaking down these tasks showed that meeting booking was still a considerable challenge. The process is time intensive and created compliance risks to venue selection. The growth of live booking tools was seen as positive but the technology was not yet mature and, though an end to end process was promised, the lack of global inventory of venues and limited live access to venue booking tools meant any global solution was still seen as some time away. The complexities in consolidating spend and managing specific parts of the process, such as HCP expense payments, were also key challenges to create a total solution for “simple” meetings.

Key Statistics

Key building blocks of a simple meetings programme.

Rank 1

Rank 2/3

Rank 2/3

Rank 2/3/4

Rank 3/4/5 Meeting Space Booking

Contracting with HCPs

Delegate Management / Registration

Food and Beverage Planning

Travel management

Rank 6 Team Building *

* Included though seen as an ad hoc, tactical purchase not one readily linked to a centrally managed approach.

Key Outcomes

• No need for a definition of “small meetings” as this does not directly address the challenge, which is more aligned to complexity and if a meeting is internally, or self-service managed. • ROI is an issue and increasingly important to the organisation. • CVENT though a key tool is still far away from providing an end to end solution to meeting booking. • Live availability is the next big thing. • This forum is important to share with industry colleagues. • ROI is not a magic formula. • Looking forward to integrated live meeting booking solutions.