Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
A recent Forbes Tech Council piece and Marketbridge's three-clock framework highlight why tracking event ROI must move beyond raw lead counts to long-term pipeline.
On October 6, 2026, Forbes Tech Council published an article by Bankim Chandra titled “The Hidden ROI Of Industry Events: Why Conversations Still Matter.” Chandra, identified on the page as director and CEO of Dotsquares, argues that event reporting must look beyond simple registrations, attendance, and raw lead counts. His piece proposes evaluating event value through learning, relationships, decisions, and post-event action. This publication formalizes a shift in how marketing operators should measure the true business impact of their physical activations.
The central argument from the Forbes piece is that raw lead counts only show participation, but they do not establish immediate business value. Chandra notes that an event can influence Return on Investment even when it does not produce an immediate sale. Attendees might gain useful knowledge, sustain connections, or influence a business decision. They might also identify risks before committing resources or initiate follow-up activity.
The Forbes article recommends looking beyond attendance figures to engagement, follow-up discussions, partnerships, and actions generated after the event. Chandra argues that conversations can be highly valuable when they clarify a technology choice or inform an investment decision. These interactions might also uncover a more appropriate approach to a business problem. While Chandra's framework is practitioner commentary, it highlights a growing need for nuanced field data.
A practical adjacent example appeared in Event Marketer on September 15, 2026. Ashley Incardone, the director of corporate marketing at Marketbridge, described evaluating events on three different timelines rather than judging them solely by immediate revenue. Incardone uses a first "clock" to assess audience and experience quality within about 30 days. This initial period tracks attendee mix, seniority, engagement, and conversation quality.
The stated purpose of this first clock is to assess whether the event created conditions for later revenue, not to claim revenue immediately. From around 30 days, her second clock measures account-level movement. This intermediate phase tracks new meetings, increased engagement, improved sales access, and advancing opportunities.
Between six and 18 months, a third clock monitors pipeline, closed-won revenue, deal velocity, and revenue influence. Event Marketer reported that Marketbridge’s program was on track to run more than 40 events the following year. While this is a company-specific program forecast, it highlights the operational scale required to track these delayed metrics effectively.
At Makai, we view this shift toward phased ROI measurement as a practical necessity for brands relying on physical marketing. We deliver carefully executed, face-to-face marketing experiences designed to capture attention and generate measurable sales pipeline. When a food or beverage brand launches a national tour, relying solely on immediate booth traffic often creates a false sense of success. The real value comes from interactions that drive eventual retail sell-through and sustained brand trust.
We know that tracking the true value of live interactions requires rigorous operational oversight and disciplined field teams. By 2009, our work covered event and sponsorship activation, mobile tours, sampling, and event production at national scale. Makai was included in the 2009 PROMO 100 ranking published by PROMO and Chief Marketer, reflecting the breadth of the agency's promotional marketing work at that time. That level of field control allows us to capture the detailed engagement data needed for longer-term evaluation.
Consider how delayed tracking applies to high-volume retail environments and large footprint activations. We managed a four-week, multi-market Costco sampling program for Pulmuone's PlantSpired line, delivering more than 65,000 samples. By focusing our operational control on specific conversation quality and trial logistics, the program recorded an 18 percent sold-to-sale rate. That outcome demonstrates how structured floor execution feeds directly into the longer-term commercial indicators Incardone describes in her second tracking clock.
Moving beyond raw lead volume triggers an immediate domino effect on how field operations must run daily. If you measure conversation quality and relationship building, your field staff must be trained to capture complex behavioral data. Trade show footprint flow must also be redesigned to encourage extended discussions rather than rapid badge scanning. Treating event interactions as the start of a longer pipeline demands better CRM routing and precise post-event follow-up protocols.
If your strategy requires monitoring interactions over 30 days, your on-site workforce management becomes a critical operational pillar. Marketing teams must align their centralized event lead capture practices with their long-term pipeline goals. Without this operational alignment, teams risk losing valuable relationship data the moment an attendee walks away from the booth. Structured data collection ensures that initial conversations translate accurately into CRM records.
The event ecosystem now demands connected systems that preserve data over long time horizons. According to the Event Marketer account, Marketbridge found that some large conferences and side events performed well on immediate audience measures but struggled to produce later account movement. In contrast, smaller owned events with tightly targeted audiences performed better across Incardone's three clocks. That finding is an account of one company’s experience, not a universal conclusion that smaller events outperform conferences for all sectors.
However, it shows that smaller footprints often allow field teams to control the flow of traffic more effectively. We see this need for controlled, measurable interactions constantly when managing multi-market campaigns for consumer brands. We build festival zones, premieres, and pop-ups that turn viewers into fans and fans into advocates. We design moments people want to share, using music tie-ins, screenings, and live stunts to bring stories to life while our crews manage execution and track reach and response metrics.
This structured approach requires tight coordination between the physical activation and the subsequent data entry process. We provide clear reporting on reach, trials, leads, and sales to guide next steps in campaign optimization. Our measurement approach tracks awareness, engagement, and conversion, turning brand moments into actionable data that demonstrates business impact. When teams connect these live metrics to their CRM, they can effectively track metrics to prove retail sampling ROI over months rather than days.
Even with robust measurement frameworks in place, the technology tracking these relationships often has blind spots. The Event Marketer article reports that Incardone uses HubSpot, Salesforce, and hapily to track relationships between accounts and events. However, she also cautions that event influence can easily be missed if salespeople do not record information properly.
Incardone warned that relying strictly on automated systems can obscure the true value of live interactions. “If you’re only measuring based on the data in your dashboard, you’re going to miss something in the picture, especially for events,” she said. Incardone noted that human connection remains difficult to measure, while describing trust as important to event outcomes. She explained that the relationship formed at an event may affect a purchase before an opportunity appears in the CRM.
This influence often takes the form of helping a company earn a shortlist position, build familiarity, or reinforce trust. To counter delayed attribution, the Event Marketer account describes a specific operational response used by Marketbridge. Incardone participates in weekly pipeline calls and seeks to ensure relationships and business progress are correctly attributed in the CRM. Her approach illustrates why field teams must communicate qualitative interaction details to their sales counterparts actively.
Redefining event value requires operational discipline, clear data capture protocols, and a commitment to tracking outcomes over an extended period. The Forbes argument does not say to discard attendance, lead, or meeting metrics entirely. It simply states that they need to be interpreted alongside what happened after participation. Relationship quality, learning, decision influence, and risk reduction can be meaningful outcomes, even without standardized dollar valuations.
For brand and field marketing teams, a defensible operational implication is to define intended outcomes clearly before an activation begins. Teams should preserve a record of meaningful interactions and follow-up, rather than relying on attendance or raw lead volume alone. Event sponsors increasingly need real-time lead capture strategies that feed directly into a phased ROI timeline. Marketers can distinguish immediate experience indicators from later commercial indicators, while being explicit about the attribution limits and time lag.
For physical product activations, the sources support asking whether the event produced relevant learning, relationships, decisions, or follow-up action. Strategic measurement turns fleeting conversations into concrete business value over time.
Is your current field operations strategy equipped to capture and track the detailed consumer interactions needed to prove eventual sales pipeline?
Trade show coordinators managing multi regional campaigns often struggle to capture meaningful interactions when crowds rush past their displays. Makai takes over this execution burden by launching creative, street level ideas that surprise, delight, and generate authentic word of mouth. The agency solves scattered attention and poor booth flow by transforming passive foot traffic into structured, measurable sales pipeline.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
