Newly named PGI president Rob Ross has announced that the Alexandria, Va.-based event and communications agency has published the position paper “Clothes for the Emperor,” tackling today’s hot-button topic—the thorny issue of measuring the effectiveness of events.

Speaking at Destinations Showcase Washington earlier this month, Ross stressed the urgency for event professionals to address the issue of measuring event value and return. “These aren’t games,” he said. “This is real life. We get it. We want to do something about it … and it’s not going to involve magic wands, secret handshakes or tired slogans.”

The paper examines the current business climate, where the term “ROI” is tossed about with enthusiasm, yet rarely appropriately addressed. It calls upon event professionals to avoid simplistic formulas to measure event effectiveness, stressing instead the ultimate power of the attendee’s evaluation of the event and urges the use of a range of tools to draw out that opinion.

The paper is available online at www.pgi.com/value_measurement.pdf.