H&E North reports on the latest industry initiative to develop a universal standard to help event professionals make sense of the treasure trove of data unlocked by virtual events.
What does a good conversion rate look like for virtual events? What’s the average number of delegate meetings? What impact does engagement have on exhibitor satisfaction? These questions are currently almost impossible for most organisers to answer – especially to know how they perform against an industry benchmark. This is because data often sits in silos between registration systems, apps, virtual platforms, feedback surveys and CRM software. It was a problem with live events that has only grown as technology becomes more integral to our events.
A newly launched Virtual Standard Export Format (VSef) aims to break down these silos to create consistent data, unlocking the insights needed to create better event experiences for attendees and exhibitors. Simply put, it makes life easier for event teams to analyse data and compare results between their shows, even if they use different platforms.
“The silver-lining in the pivot to digital has been the data-rich environment we organisers now find ourselves in,” VSef Working Group Chair Baris Onay tells H&E North. “But with the average number of virtual platforms used per organiser sitting at four, we have a huge standardisation job at hand if we’re to benefit from this newly found abundance of data. VSef has been designed to solve this problem; to provide an open-source standard for all platforms to adhere to. I for one am looking forward to receiving data from different platforms in one format!”
VSef is an agreed data format, designed to help event organisers move data easily between event platforms, business intelligence tools and their CRM and marketing systems. It sets out detailed standards for what should be included in a range of event engagement KPIs and how those data points should be formatted for easy transfer between systems. Ultimately, the universal data format creates a framework for understanding every step of the customer journey.
Launched by prominent industry market research provider Explori, founding members of the not-for-profit initiative include 10 global event organisers and leading event tech platform partners, who have come together to steer this shared industry-wide standard. Open to all event organisers, any platform can choose to adopt the standards which can be downloaded via its website and will guide the managers of your systems and reporting tools as to how they can expect to receive data from your virtual events platform.
VSef continues to be improved with feedback from organisers and platforms and the group’s mission is to make it a universally adopted standard across the global events industry. The more platforms adopt the standards and the more organisers set the expectation that their suppliers are compliant, the more we can break down the data silos in the industry, ultimately creating smarter insights and better events. To download the VSef data standards and to see an up-to-date list of compliant event platforms, visit Vsef.io
