The SWOT analysis is a popular method for situation analysis and is often used especially in the fields of marketing, management and also in leadership development. But it can also be useful in assessing the success of your event.
Fundamental to the SWOT analysis is a valid assessment of strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Based on this assessment, the status quo can be evaluated and strategies and future perspectives can be considered and evaluated.
These categories are presented in a table, the so-called SWOT matrix. Different factors can be ranked here based on their importance. Further down in this blog article, we have prepared some suggestions for the SWOT analysis for you and your event.
SWOT helps you analyse the success of current, past, and upcoming events. With the SWOT analysis, you not only identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your project, but also divide the factors into internal and external. This facilitates the assessment for the following project. You can't change most of the external factors of your event, such as the weather. But you can make sure that you are well-prepared for all circumstances. Important hint for your SWOT analysis: Stay realistic. No whitewashing, no doom and gloom.
You should always conduct an initial SWOT analysis before your event takes place. This way you can identify weaknesses as well as opportunities and adapt your strategy accordingly, which makes the process more efficient and multiplies the potential event success.
But what does a SWOT analysis for events look like? We have prepared a template for your event management and give you an inspiration with which factors you could fill it.
SWOT analysis divides not only into the 4 factors of Strength, Weakness and Opportunities and Threats, but also into External and Internal factors.
You should start by dividing into external factors and internal factors.
Internal factors of the SWOT analysis include individual strengths and weaknesses of your event and project team: personnel, image, motivation, leadership qualities etc. These factors are very individual and can be different for different events. They should therefore always be developed individually. A SWOT analysis can also be useful for a competing event concept. If you happen to focus on a field where your competitor is strong, but you are weak, this will be noticed, and you can adjust your strategy.
External factors in the SWOT analysis include, for example, trends, political changes or legal circumstances. At the latest, since the Covid pandemic and the Infection Protection Act, everyone is aware of the scope that external factors can also have for the success of their own event.
For your inspiration, we have summarized some factors for your weaknesses and strengths and risk and opportunity analysis:
Motivation of the team
Relationship to partners
Relationship to investors
Good network of speakers and service providers
Efficiency of operations
Loyalty of guests
Changed legal situation
Reception by guests
Your SWOT table is filled in, but what does the SWOT matrix tell you now? How does a table affect the success of your event?
Generally speaking, there are 4 strategies that you can derive from this table.
SWOT analyses are part of the small basics of business administration and are taught at universities and schools all over the world. But is this just a theoretical concept and how does it help when planning your next event? We at MATE have taken a closer look at the theory and give some practical tips for SWOT analyses in event management.
In the best case scenario, this area is huge at your event: this is where your strengths meet your opportunities. Here, you can leverage your team's skills to gain an advantage. Contrast your strengths with your opportunities and try to "match" the two - this way you can identify connection points and build on your advantages.
You can use your strengths to mitigate and avoid risks. Identified risks can be prevented by your own skills and planning - this is called neutralization strategies.
Nobody can do everything. There can also be certain weaknesses in a team, for example due to a lack of personnel in one area. But those who have identified weaknesses can work on them specifically. Strengths can be transformed into weaknesses through these transformation strategies. This strategy is particularly important if you find the processes that you can improve, especially in an area where your competitor is strong.
Ideally, this area of your matrix should be very small, because it poses a threat to the success of your event. If you can't avoid this area increasing, it's important to keep the damage as small as possible: Work on your weaknesses while trying to keep the possible damage as small as possible.
The SWOT analysis can be a helpful tool if you need a quick status quo for your event planning strategy. It gives you a profound overview of your weaknesses and strengths and helps you make decisions. With the participation of all employees, it can strengthen internal communication.
However, SWOT analysis is not a panacea. The results should always be viewed with a certain degree of caution: Because all assessments are made on a subjective basis, the results are also easy to manipulate and, in the worst case, can be instrumentalized for a specific result. Data for competitor analysis is also always dependent on the respective insight and whether information is available at all.
But if these possible disadvantages are conscious during the process and results are classified accordingly, the SWOT analysis can also be a simple but powerful tool in event management.
By Anne Brünnert
Content management freelancer with a preference for digital topics, agile projects and with stage experience.
Virtual event: This does not have to be a boring webinar or a pixelated conference livestream. With a few good ideas and the right tools, it can become an event with real added value that will inspire your participants.
Hardly any industry has suffered as much from COVID as the event industry. One thing can be said for sure: It will never be the same again. Wondering what will be important when events are possible again? We'll tell you!
By evaluating your event KPIs, you make the success of your event measurable and can then take optimisation measures to meet the interests of your target group even better and therefore increase success. In this article, we reveal which KPIs you should pay particular attention to when analysing the success of your event.