PCMA’s Deborah Sexton
At its 2007 Annual
Meeting held in January in Toronto, the Chicago-based
Professional Convention Management Association unveiled a new
online meeting research and measurement program, MeetingMetrics,
developed in cooperation with New York City’s GuideStar
Research.
The program measures “return on
event” -- the psychological and economic impact of a meeting -- by
analyzing surveys of attendees conducted before and after the
event. MeetingMetrics then determines changes in attitudes and
behaviors of participants.
“In our survey of CEOs, we found that
many thought planners were not strategic thinkers,” said Deborah
Sexton, president and CEO of PCMA. “This product hands
strategy to planners.”
The service will be available
exclusively to PCMA members for two years at a discounted price
(the cost normally will be on a per-event basis). The program
includes hundreds of custom-built pre- and post-event surveys; a
questionnaire builder; a branded online report center for
documenting meeting results; online survey technologies; a
personalized control panel, and a research consultant.