Event ROI Planner
Score a conference before you sign. Forecast what it should return. Get an event mix that fits your stage, budget, and goal. Then export the whole plan as a working Event Dossier.
Answer nine questions about the event
Book at 70 and up. Negotiate between 50 and 69. Below 50, pass unless a speaking slot or guaranteed meetings change the math.
Build the forecast from your own rates
Fill this in nine months after the show. The variance column updates as you type.
Tell me where you are and what you need
Series A, net new pipeline
| Event type | Share | Budget | How to run it |
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Take the whole plan into a working file
Ten-sheet Excel workbook with your score, forecast, and every deadline pre-filled from the event date: outreach schedule, contract and payment dates, service order cutoffs, ship-by dates, dinner timeline, post-event follow-up, and the nine-month review. All editable. Enter your access code to download.
- Pre-event vetting and forecast
- Pre-event outreach plan
- Event and booth overview
- Booth setup and shipping
- Staff and travel
- Speaking sessions
- Swag and collateral
- Ancillary events
- Post-event outreach
- Post-event actuals and variance
Ask and I’ll send one
The scorecard, forecast, and stage planner are free to use as much as you like. The Dossier export is for people planning real events. Tell me the event and I’ll send a code.
Four habits of field marketers who make events pay
They vet like a buyer, not a fan
Attendee list first, agenda second, brand names last. They ask who came last year by title and company, then check that list against the accounts sales actually wants. No list, no signature.
They forecast before they spend
Every event gets a number before the contract: leads, MQLs, pipeline, return on spend. The forecast is the argument for the budget and the yardstick nine months later. Vibes do not get renewed.
They build the meeting machine around the event
Pre-registration lists scrubbed against targets, BDR outreach three weeks out, ABM ads on the attending accounts, a dinner for the ten that matter, and follow-up sequences loaded before the flight home.
They run the floor like operations
Shipping tracked, booth services ordered early, staff briefed on the two questions that qualify a visitor, lead capture tested on day zero. Great field marketers are half strategist, half stage manager.
Event ROI, answered
How do you calculate event marketing ROI?
Start with total spend, not just the sponsorship fee: booth services, travel, swag, and any dinner or side event. Estimate raw leads from attendees times a realistic capture rate, qualify them, then apply your lead to MQL rate (20% is a fair default), your MQL to closed won rate (13.3% is a fair default), and average deal size. Revenue divided by total spend is return on marketing spend. Measure actuals nine months after the show, because that is how long enterprise security deals take to close.
How do you vet a conference before sponsoring?
Score the event on who attends (ICP density and seniority), what you get (speaking slot, guaranteed meetings), what it costs per qualified attendee, how many competitors share the floor, whether it lands in territory your sales team covers, and where it falls in your pipeline cycle. Ask the organizer for last year’s attendee titles and company list. If they cannot produce them, that is your answer.
What is a good cost per MQL for a cybersecurity event?
For enterprise security, a forecast cost per MQL under $1,000 is strong, $1,000 to $2,500 is workable if the seniority is high, and above $2,500 needs a speaking slot or guaranteed meetings to justify. The number matters less than whether the deal size supports it: a $150K ACV can carry a cost per MQL that would sink a $15K product.
Should a seed-stage startup do trade shows?
Rarely with a booth. At seed, the money goes further in executive dinners, small roundtables, speaking slots, and walking the floor at the big shows without exhibiting. A booth costs the same whether you have two customers or two hundred. Buy the booth when you have a pipeline team to work it and a customer story to tell at it.
When should a company build its own user conference?
When you have enough customers to fill a room without begging, a category story that no third-party agenda will tell for you, and the sales capacity to follow up on every attendee. That usually means Series B or later. Done right, an owned conference becomes the highest-return event on the calendar because you control the audience, the agenda, and the follow-up.
What does the Event Dossier export include?
A multi-sheet Excel workbook covering the full event lifecycle: pre-event vetting with your score and forecast pre-filled, pre-event outreach plan, event and booth overview, booth setup, staff and travel, speaking sessions, swag and collateral, ancillary events, post-event outreach, and post-event actuals with variance against forecast.