When the data says one thing…but your attendees say another
It’s 2025 and collecting attendee data is easier than ever. MarTech stacks are a thing. Everyone says: “Make data-driven decisions.”
Yes, data matters. But if you only follow the numbers – or incomplete numbers – you can end up solving the wrong problem. 🙃
Years ago, with a client, we added in some new networking tools. The event rolled around and the data looked great — tons of messages, tons of meeting invites. If we were looking at those metrics alone, it was a clear success.
But my gut was telling me that something wasn't right – the numbers were “too high." So we talked to some of our longtime attendees. What we heard? “We’re not using the tools.”
Why?
Because they were receiving non-stop spam messages. One exhibitor even told me — quite proudly, I might add — that they hired temps to log in and message every single person in the attendee directory. 😱
I was mortified. The numbers weren’t showing meaningful engagement; they were showing brute-force outreach.
This was not a success moment, and it was a clear example of the difference between a data-driven decision and a data-informed one.
- A data-driven decision says, “The numbers are up, so we’re doing great. Keep going.”
- A data-informed decision says, “The numbers are a sign. Let’s dig deeper.”
So we did. We looked at the behavior of non-spammy users. We talked to some long-time attendees. We used common sense and asked ourselves: what is a reasonable number of messages or meeting invites someone could initiate in a day—genuinely, thoughtfully? We took that information and used it to create daily limits in the tool. Not on sending, but on initiating conversations and meeting invites
What happened next was really cool:
⬇️ The total number of messages and invites dropped.
⬆️ The number of attendees actually using the tool went way up.
The tool was finally doing what it was meant to do – and we helped drive ROI in a meaningful way.
Remember the old axiom:
If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Let your data guide you. But don’t let it decide for you.
