The metric comes first, and the event is designed backwards from it.

principle — attributed to Mark Brewster

The conventional flow is to design the event, then measure outcomes. Brewster runs it the other way. Before any agenda is drafted, the team decides what success looks like in numbers: fifty percent of attendees rating the brand as the leading innovator in its market, or a defined shift in stated intent on a specific question. The survey question is written first. The success threshold is set first. Only then does the program get built, the speakers chosen, the communication points designed to land what the metric requires. The event becomes a mechanism for producing a measurement, not the other way around.

For corporate event leaders and B2B organizers building strategy from the top down. Most useful at the kick-off of annual planning, before the agenda exists.

strategic-event-design, metrics-first, kpi-design, event-strategy