“Big Data” ! I agree it is imperative that a meeting planner know who his/her potential attendees are so they can craft a meeting or event to hopefully exceed their expectations.

Data collection is not new. We have been doing it for years… from mailed evaluations of an event, back in the dinosaur age, to emailed evaluations, to survey monkey, polls and surveys on your conference/event app, information from membership forms, member surveys, to name but a few. But as more and more information is gathered, what you do with the collected date now becomes the issue. What is relevant and beneficial and what is just unused data? What data will help the planner create a better meeting, better engage the audience and attract more participation?

In this time of instant communication, the demand for instant gratification and simply being just too darn busy, one can’t get bogged down in data analysis to the point where other deadlines slip. On the other hand, you can’t disregard the attendees psychographic profile” without potentially hurting your event’s success.

How do you handle the data you collect?