Event funnel

The funnel is the most useful boring tool in event marketing, because it converts a vague worry ("will people come?") into a specific diagnosis. Track how many people hit the website, how many start registration, how many complete it, and how many actually check in — then compare each conversion rate against your last edition at the same point in the calendar. The leaks tell you where to work: a big drop between starting and completing registration usually means the form is too long or pricing surprised people; healthy registrations with weak attendance point at the gap between signing up and caring enough to come. The same logic applies on the exhibitor side: enquiry to proposal to contract to rebooking is a funnel too, and it deserves the same instrumentation. The honest nuance is that the largest leak at most B2B shows is registered-but-didn't-attend, and teams routinely exclude it because it feels outside marketing's control. It isn't: reminder sequences, published agendas, pre-booked meetings, and a reason to come on a specific day all measurably lift show-up rates. The classic mistake is celebrating the registration number and treating attendance as weather.