Measuring the impact of events; beyond the quantitative

For more than a decade, the events sector has been talking about legacy and impact. Yet for most of that time, ‘impact’ has been almost entirely synonymous with economic performance; contribution to GDP, visitor spending, hotel bed nights, and the familiar metrics that are easy to quantify and package for public reporting.

Meanwhile, the outcomes that matter most to communities including social, environmental, cultural, and knowledge-based benefits have often been acknowledged but rarely measured with any rigour.