Balanced scorecard for fairs and events

“What you cannot measure you cannot control”. This management maxim also applies for fairs and events. Strategic indicators create the condition for planning, verifying and therefore optimising the success of fairs and events. Balanced scorecard approaches are one of the main indicator and management systems with which FairControl works. We would be pleased to advise you on the design and implementation of a management system geared to your individual management needs.

Holistic and balanced thanks to the inclusion of qualitative factors
Holistic indicator systems, which go beyond economic control parameters, play a progressively more important role, also in the field of fairs. Today, the goals of fair and event presentations increasingly go beyond economics and emphasise communication; these include image and information goals or intensification of customer loyalty. Classical financial indicators can, at best, provide partial information on the success of your event. Qualitative factors, such as innovative capability, staff expertise, the ability to retain customers and the efficiency of decision-making processes within the company are the real ‘driving parameters’ – they have an essential influence on the business results of a company and decide on its long-term success. Indicators for qualitative factors, e.g. image and satisfaction ratings of visitors, are therefore indispensable for the holistic assessment of communication success.

The balanced scorecard approach – a question of perspective
The balanced scorecard approach is understood as a strategic indicator and management system extending beyond purely financial measurement parameters. The balanced scorecard takes all the processes of fair participation into consideration and integrates the behavioural, knowledge, development and behavioural aspects for all those involved in the process. Besides the financial indicators, the balanced scorecard takes other vital perspectives into account: the customer perspective, the internal process perspective, as well as the learning and development perspective. For every scorecard perspective, goals, result indicators with the associated performance drivers, as well as targets and measures, are defined in a table. The balanced scorecard serves as an operational framework and work plan for the individual employees and, with the help of indicators, allows the extent to which the goals set have been achieved to be verified.

Goals

  • Development of a holistic indicator system, which also considers non-financial success factors of the fair presentation and offers the possibility of shifting the assessment of the fair success from an oftentimes one-sided financial or budget-based discussion towards qualitative and strategic questions (e.g. image enhancement, information goals)
  • Provision of a basis for allowing investment in “soft” factors (e.g. training of the fair personnel) to be represented quantitatively and evaluated
  • Balanced scorecard as a possibility of creating a brief and precise overview of the success of fair participation by concentrating on the essential success parameters

INDICATORS and SUBSTANTIATION of goals

  • Customer and market perspective:
    Visitor numbers, visitor structure and targeting effectiveness, communication of information, degree of fulfilment of visitor expectations and visitor satisfaction
  • Financial perspective:
    Cost structure (cost transparency, adherence to budget, goal orientation of budgeting); business generated by the fair (sales closures during and after the event)
  • Process perspective:
    Quality of the planning and logistics process; extent and nature of staff qualification measures; smoothness of the stand operation; post-fair follow-up (lead registration, lead management)
  • Learning and development perspective:
    Employee motivation and personal satisfaction; employees’ acquisition activities and readiness to initiate conversation; discipline and reliability of employees; advisory competence of the employees

Instruments

The balanced scorecard indicators are surveyed across a wide range of diverse instruments according to the various scorecard perspectives. We support you in the development of these instruments. Relevant instruments for the systematic control of your fair success in a balanced scorecard include:

  • Survey of visitors
    to survey visitor structure, visitor satisfaction and the impact of the fair (possibly supplemented with additional fair success controlling instruments)
  • Staff survey on the motivation and satisfaction of employees and to assess the fair concept and implementation of the fair
  • Controlling data on the level and structure of costs for the fair participation and on the business generated by the fair
  • Logging data on the quality of lead management
    (lead registration, fair follow-up and scheduling), of failures, postponements, erroneous resource planning etc.)