Deal velocity (event-sourced)

The quiet argument for exhibiting isn't only lead volume — it's that a buyer who spent twenty minutes at your stand, met your engineer, and touched the product may close faster than one who downloaded a whitepaper. Velocity is where that claim gets tested. Measuring it takes nothing exotic: event-tagged opportunities from the CRM import, timestamps you already have, and a comparison against your other channels' averages over the same period. If event-sourced deals close meaningfully faster, that's compounding value the cost-per-lead comparison never shows — faster cycles mean earlier revenue and less sales effort per deal, and it hands event marketing an argument in sales' own language. If they close slower, that's worth knowing too: it often means the stand captured curiosity rather than intent, and the fix is qualification, not more traffic. The common mistake is comparing velocity on a handful of deals and declaring a trend — event cohorts are small, one whale distorts everything, so use medians and several editions before concluding anything. One honest nuance: some of the speed is selection, not causation — buyers already close to deciding are exactly the ones who visit stands, so the event may be harvesting velocity as much as creating it.