Getting the most out of your stakeholder events

Part One: Turnout rates have declined

??? Since 2018, we have run 177 stakeholder workshops in person, online and – more recently – as hybrid events. Anecdotally, it’s felt like people are becoming flakier – especially post-Covid – but we wanted to be sure.

?? So, because we’re into this sort of thing, we decided to crunch all of the data – based on almost 11,000 unique registrations – and here’s what we found.

?? Over the last five years, average turnout has decreased from 61% to 50% (leaving us with an average turnout of 56%).

?? Between 2018 and the start of 2020, turnout rates averaged around 61%. When the pandemic shifted all engagement online, turnout rates took a hit, averaging below 40%. But this dramatically improved to around 50% by the end of 2022.

??There was a post-pandemic boom as people embraced being back together again. The first quarter of 2022 average was as high as 70%, but over the last few years this has steadily fallen to 50%.

?? This means, these days, to get 50 stakeholders to attend, you need 100 to register in advance. In other words, you need to oversubscribe to make sure your events are well attended. It also means you need to work harder than ever to make sure your events are well attended: hit the phones, send emails, send text messages and – most importantly – make the event as relevant and appealing as possible to your target audience.

?? We’ve also analysed how the format, size, audience, and even what day you hold your event impacts turnout. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing our conclusions, hints and tips.

We’ve turned all this into a report. To get your hands on a copy (and if your company has an interest in running engaging, well-attended events), please get in touch at [email protected]