Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The New Reality: ROI Matters

I wasn’t able to make the Motivation Show in Chicago last week for a bunch of reasons, but I’ve been studying the Tweets and news releases that have been pouring out of the show doors and into my email box. One of the more intriguing announcements came from the group ROI of Engagement, which is an initiative led by the Catalyst Performance Group. These folks are in the business of helping businesses measure ROI and building successful employee investment programs, with a focus on meetings and events. Their methodology, they say, has been used in “thousands of programs every year in more than 50 countries.”

Those kinds of statements usually make me leery, but the announcement caught my eye for another reason. They just launched a New ROI Resource Center on their website that looks to be a pretty good primer for planners who are just getting into the nuts and bolts of ROI. (And if you aren’t at least considering doing this, think hard because very shortly it will probably become a vital part of your job.)

The Resource Center seems comprehensive, containing white papers, a decent blog, and lots of case studies. It also has sections for training opportunities and software tools to measure ROI. At the very least, I think it’s a good starting point if you’re not sure how to tackle the whole ROI thing. Take a look at www.ROIofEngagement.com and let us know what you think.