I've worked for more than 17 years in the Exhibitions, Media and Events Industry, and data and digital have always been at the heart of a neverending debate. We live through cycles of digital eating up the exhibitions industry, to it being an enabler and then shrinking down to something insignificant, then making a comeback... you get the idea. You can most probably self-identify as being somewhere on that sine wave above.

If there's only one thing I've learnt, the CEO's approach to Data and Digital will be the defining factor for the whole company.

If the CEO thinks digital is the wrong rabbit hole, then it is. If they think it's the future, the company will invest in teams and systems, and if they want a balanced approach, that's what they'll get—all with good reason.

With everything else on their plate, no one expects Media and Events CEOs to have the necessary expertise or time to get personally involved in this field. They're only likely to direct the right amount of resources for the type of result they want to achieve.

The same cannot be said for finance, M&A and commercial performance. I cannot imagine a CEO who doesn't get a weekly sales report or doesn't know where their finances stand. You can bet those reports will be ship shape and on time, every time, with the necessary commentary and detail!

I want to argue that a leader's actions and focus directly shape their team's, and this disparity of CEO focus on digital, data and marketing creates an accountability vacuum, leading to slower progress overall.

So, I've created a self-assessment checklist for enlightened Media and Events CEOs to better understand their organization's data and digital capabilities through their actions.

A version of this checklist has been shared in Denzil and Marco's 2020 Book, Re-inventing live. Since then, I've had time to update and tailor it to fit the post-pandemic world better.

Here's a simple list of questions for the CEOs who want to understand their own actions shape their team's and, ultimately, their business' approach to data and digital. These are about determining your perceived presence and how that might set priorities for your business without you noticing.

Download the checklist

It's broken down into three sections: The CEO's engagement with their digital assets and systems, Organizational Structure and Management processes, and a few business-minded questions for your techies.

CEO's engagement with external and internal assets and systems

In this section, the CEO reflects on their personal interactions with digital assets and systems of the company by answering straightforward, simple questions such as:

• Do you register for your events as a visitor? Who notices when you do?

This might seem like a straightforward question, but trust me; it says a lot about how large organizers operate. If the answer is no, then the CEO has no personal exposure to the customer experience of their visitors. This might lead to registration forms bloating or not functioning well and the marketing team being unable to get them fixed in case it's the IT team responsible for the website and so on. Suppose the organization knows that the CEO will -never- see this. It'll take longer to fix, potentially leading to fewer visitors, unhappier customers and even loss of revenue in the long term.

Now let's explore the other side of the coin. You're the Event Director or Marketing Director, and one day you see your CEO registering for your event (that is, "IF" you're eyeballing your registrations or receiving notifications). What would be your first reaction?

Most likely, you'll be shocked and surprised. Why is the CEO taking the time to fill out your registration forms? Did they like what they just saw? Was the experience good enough? This could be an opportunity for your team to look into how digital can impact the entire organization, from marketing strategy to operations processes.

Download the checklist for more questions like this.

Organizational Structure and Management processes

This section addresses how you design your company to deal with digital transformation in general. We'll look at the everyday management processes of your business, from organizational structure to reporting and from that all-hands Monday meeting to the one-on-ones on a permanent repeat.

Are you spreading the tasks and handing them out to existing teams as an add-on responsibility? Or are you centralizing the project management and bringing in external know-how to leapfrog your capabilities? Both being valid standpoints, I'd be more interested to understand how close to the action you are as the CEO. Here's a sample question:

• Do you receive a weekly visitor acquisition trend report for your top shows?

I'm 100% confident you're receiving a weekly sales report, although you don't go and book stands yourself. So, in case you're not keeping your eye on visitor acquisition weekly, ask yourself why not? You might feel confident the best people are on it already. But I'd like to remind you that your 'perceived presence' will go a long way in correcting errors you'll never get to see.

Advanced / Business minded tech questions for your techies

There are some bonus questions designed for the CEO's use. These (and many more in store) are designed to make the connection between the systems and the business. Often, the people who set up and maintain the systems are not those who use them to conduct business. This might create a healthy tension that produces an optimized design or go sour very quickly.

Here's a sample question:

• What's the contact/account ratio in your CRM?

This metric has been beneficial for every organization I've worked in. It simply measures how many people you know per company in your CRM. If you've not measured this before, don't be surprised to find a number below one. Considering it takes 6.8 stakeholders to make a B2B purchase decision (according to Harvard Business Review), you'd want a number that's at least above three here. (1X management, 1X Sales, 1X Marketing)

Again, it might not be the CEO's job to question this, but imagine asking your team spontaneously. If you get a quick answer and it's a good number, fantastic. But that (at least in my experience) will be the exception, not the rule.

The one-paragraph takeaway

This digital checklist provides a range of questions that address the CEO's personal interaction with the digital systems and assets, the organizational structure and the management processes, and advanced technical questions to ask techies. Media and Events CEOs can use the digital checklist to ensure the right KPIs are tracked for data and digital across their organization.

I hope this digital checklist helps you understand how your actions change the dynamics of digital assets and systems within your organization. Be sure to download and use it to guide your digital journey.

If you have further questions or comments, don't hesitate to reach out - I'm always happy to help.

Baris