- Elevating Events for Omnichannel Engagement
Measuring Congresses When the Results Are Uncomfortable
How to stop hiding behind vanity metrics and start proving value.
Now available on-demand
Mark Watson
Co-Founder
Fractal Force
Pierre Metrailler
CEO
Onomi
About the webinar
In this on-demand episode, Mark Watson (Fractal Force) and Pierre Metrailler (Onomi) unpack a difficult reality about congress ROI: it often breaks down not because teams lack effort, but because they measure the wrong things.
Here is a recap of what we covered, including the key moments, the practical example, and the operating model you can apply.
What stood out in the discussion
A core theme was that most congress reporting optimizes for what is easiest to count, not what is easiest to convert into impact.
Mark called this the “firework paradox.” Dashboards light up with impressive activity numbers, but once the congress ends, it is still unclear what actually changed.
Pierre connected this to what he sees in the field: congresses create real intent, but the evidence is often trapped in disconnected systems, late follow-up, and reporting that does not reflect the funnel.
We opened with a simple poll:
When you honestly assess your congress reporting, where is the biggest gap?
The strongest signal was clear: many teams still do not have a baseline for what good looks like, and insights are often limited or scattered. That set the tone for the session: the gap is not data volume. It is measurement design.
The key questions we covered
Why does congress ROI break down even when the dashboard looks successful?
Mark: Because there is a disconnect between correlation and causation. Vanity metrics like attendance, scans, and reach look positive, so organizations assume success without proving what worked, what did not, and what changed.
What should “real impact” look like?
Mark: Real ROI sits in the middle of the funnel. It is not only about reach or sales outcomes. It is about whether the congress moved education, attitudes, confidence, and behavior. If those changes are not measured, teams stay blind to what actually drove value.
Why does congress ROI break down even when the dashboard looks successful?
Pierre: Show the funnel, not just the headline. Start by satisfying the need for activity metrics, then move quickly to the smaller, more meaningful indicators that translate into follow-up and insight. Smaller numbers are not failure. They are where the signal is.
Why does congress ROI break down even when the dashboard looks successful?
Mark: Three operating rules:
- The 30-second rule. If booth staff cannot categorize an interaction in 30 seconds, it will not scale.
- A to B change definition. Measure what the HCP believed or knew before versus after, and where progression broke down.
- Immediate CRM connection. Follow-up must be linked to specific context and synced fast, or the value decays.
Practical example from ESMO: The daily report card
Pierre walked through a daily report card model used with congress teams, built to shift reporting from vanity metrics to action.
The report card is built around three buckets:
- Activity: what happened (scans, conversations, engagement volume)
- Impact: what moved (follow-up requests, consent, next steps created)
- Insights: what was learned (themes, unmet needs, questions that signal intent)
The reason this matters is timing. Performance becomes visible while the congress is still live, not in a debrief weeks later. That changes what teams can do with the data.
Pierre also shared how this reframes success in practical terms: teams stop saying “we had 9,000 people on the booth,” and start saying “we have 300 engaged HCPs we need to follow up with.”
Mark’s A V I O model for congress ROI
Mark summarized a practical model for cracking the congress black box:
- Access
Not just reach, but whether information is actually easy to find, timely, and usable after the congress. - Value
Whether the interaction delivered something meaningful to the HCP, and whether follow-up was requested and delivered. - Impact
Whether beliefs, understanding, confidence, or intent shifted. This is the sticky middle most dashboards ignore. - Outcomes
Not only market performance, but evidence of behavior change that connects back to patient care and treatment decisions.
The takeaway
Congress reporting does not fail because teams lack numbers, it fails because the numbers do not explain what changed.
ROI improves when reporting follows the funnel, focuses on the middle, and turns congress engagement into CRM-ready context that enables fast, relevant follow-up.
Watch the full session on demand to see how this plays out in practice.
Speakers
About Onomi
Onomi is the event-powered omnichannel solution that helps life science companies to create personalized, engaging, and compliant experiences for Healthcare Professionals. From omnichannel webinars and advisory boards to in-person congresses and standalone meetings, Onomi covers a wide range of medical event use cases, while enabling successful omnichannel strategies through deep CRM integrations including Veeva CRM, Veeva Vault CRM, IQVIA OCE, and Salesforce.
With 22+ years of unrivaled experience in the event technology industry, Onomi is the first choice for HCP engagement. Onomi technology is trusted by 15 of the top 20 life science companies.
For more information about how Onomi can help you increase HCP engagement and gather valuable data to drive effective follow-up, reach out today.
