SMART Goals for Event Technology

How do you measure success for event technology?

Yesterday’s #eventprofs chat focused on event technology, and with Liz King’s leadership, we started talking about how you measure success.  I proposed that traditional SMART goals, although a bit formulaic can be helpful.

It got me thinking about what I really want from event tech, and I then proposed the following new meaning for the SMART acronym:

Event tech should be social, meaningful, app-ifiable, relevant and time and money saving.

I propose that all event tech, from apps to hybrid to presentations to websites should all be designed to reach SMART goals. Now to put some more substance behind that acronym.

• Social: Event tech should help promote interaction between event participants. This can be those in the room, but also those participating virtually and through hybrid format. It should also promote easy integration with social media. And it should be fun – think gamification.
• Meaningful: Let’s make sure that the tech is actually beneficial to the event, and that it is designed to maximize the benefit. For example – spending thousands of dollars on video is great, but it is so much better if you spend a bit more and get some readable content, summaries and transcripts added to it.
• App-ifiable: OK, so it doesn’t need to be an actual app, but it should be mobile device friendly. This also applies to websites, registration sites, and onsite programs.
• Relevant: (Admittedly, this one is pretty close in theme to meaningful, but that’s what happens when you come up with an acronym in the spur of the moment. As my 4 year old was saying this morning, “you get what you get, and you don’t get upset.”) Your event tech should actually be relevant for your event, not just a sparkly new object.
• Time and Money Saving: Event tech needs to save you time and money, or generate more time and money for you. If an event app brings in more sponsorship money – great! If an online presentation management tool makes it possible for speakers to upload, edit, review presentations and instantly update mobile device programs directly without going through the event planner – great! If it is more work, or a crazy amount of money… well you know where this is going.

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