Show Notes
What if JOY could be measured? Join Bishop-McCann’s CEO and Partner, Rob Adams, and VP of Event Technology, Todd Moritz, as they discuss The JOY Index™ — a groundbreaking innovation that blends AI, neuroscience, and data to quantify event impact. Discover how this new approach is transforming the way event success is defined and experienced. Topics include:
- The inspiration behind measuring JOY at events
- How AI and neuroscience come together through the JOY Index
- Turning emotional responses into actionable event insights
- The future of event metrics and meaningful measurement
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Transcript
Host: 0:00
Hi, and welcome to The Events Experience, where we take a deep dive into everything event planning. I work for Bishop-McCann, an agency devoted to creating JOY through meetings, incentives, and events for big name brands. On this podcast, myself and our company's experts will discuss all things events, so keep listening to hear all about the latest tips and trends for virtual, live, and hybrid events.
Hi everyone! At Bishop-McCann, our mission is to create JOY through exceptional experiences. What if that JOY could actually be measured? That's what we're here to discuss in this episode of The Events Experience. I'm joined by Rob Adams, our CEO and Partner, and Todd Moritz, our VP of Event Technology, to dive into the JOY Index - an innovative service that blends AI and neuroscience elevate how you measure your meetings and events.
So to get this discussion started, Rob, what inspired you to focus on the concept of actually measuring JOY at events?
Rob Adams: 1:06
Gosh, Brenna, it goes back probably seven years ago. I think about the stages or phases we went through, there was really four that I'd say that were really key. The first phase was we, as a company, were focusing on what's our mission gonna be, and we landed on we create JOY. So that was the first phase.
The second phase was about a month after that, I'd attended a conference, and I saw a speaker, Dr. Paul Zack. His whole talk was about JOY and how to measure it. So I attended that session and was just fascinated with the research that he had done around how to measure oxytocin and the things in life that create JOY. And he talked about this very simple equation of what creates JOY is JOY equals trust times purpose.
And I think that really led me to the third phase when I really think about JOY as a company and how to measure JOY. How does it actually apply for what we do? And the third phase was a conversation that comes to mind that I was having with a client, and they were getting ready to meet with the CEO to talk about the evaluation of their event. And their event that year was down five points from the previous year. And when I asked her about the reasons why and what the conversation was gonna be with the CEO, she said the why was that the food and beverage feedback was down from the year before. And the ask was gonna be for $2 million in additional budget for food and beverage.
And I thought, "Oh my gosh. That's where we're at as an industry." We're talking about food and beverage as the conversation, and thought if someone had come into my office and said, "Rob, we were down five points for our event last year, and I need 2 million additional dollars." I can't even imagine how that conversation would go.
But then that really led me to the fourth phase. We had a leadership team meeting a couple of years ago, and we were talking about what's gonna be the vision of Bishop-McCann. Ultimately, what's the one thing that we're gonna be focused on? And I challenged us as a company to be the first agency to actually measure JOY in the meetings and events industry. And I remember the conversation, and they looked at me like I had three heads. But I really did believe that the possibilities were there. That we could be that agency to create the opportunity for us to measure JOY.
Host: 3:34
Yeah, it's amazing that you set that goal for us, and then fast forward, here we are talking about this incredible new service that does just that.
Todd, can you explain a little more about what the JOY Index is and how it works at a high level?
Todd Moritz: 3:50
Yeah, of course. So, as Rob mentioned, the whole notion of surveys they really capture people that had a really great time and people that really didn't have a great time. So we're missing all that data from the middle. So there's a huge audience component that we're not even getting measurements from. So back when I joined Bishop-McCann, I was reading through company goals, and one of them was to be the first agency to be able to quantifiably measure JOY. And I thought to myself, "That's kind of a crazy thing to put down in writing. That's a big, big task."
But then I really dug in a little bit more, and Rob invited me to a conversation with Dr. Paul Zack. And something just clicked. I realized in looking at this equation, JOY equals trust times purpose, we can actually apply factors to both sides of that equation and solve it mathematically. And that's when the light bulb went off that, "Oh my goodness, we actually can measure JOY."
Now, what we did was we brought in a partner that I knew called Zenus AI, and what they do is anonymous facial analytics. So what they can do is they can actually put scanners in a room, and they can capture facial expressions. They can tell if you're paying attention or not. And it's all completely passive. It's all completely anonymous. We're using that for the purpose side of the equation with the notion that people go to things like keynotes and general sessions because they want that tribal experience. They want that shared sense of purpose.
And we combine that with Dr. Zach's immersion data. So we get an immersion reading when we're capturing oxytocin and dopamine levels using wearables that attendees already have on their wrist. So imagine, you know, you come in with your Apple Watch, your Garmin Fitness Tracker, your Aura Ring, your Fitbit. All you have to do is scan a QR code, download an app, and enable your device, and we're actually capturing those very subtle releases of oxytocin and dopamine releases in attendees' brains. That's our trust side of the equation.
So when we combine Immersion data and Zenus data, we actually define what JOY is. What we're doing is we're taking these moments of highs and low points where people are experiencing JOY or they have a dip in their JOY, and we're mapping that to transcripts of what's happening on stage. So I have a transcript of every word that was said on stage, who said it, at what point in time they said it, and we can actually map that to those high and low points with our data.
What the JOY Index does is then it goes one step further and analyzes the psychological motivators behind why people felt something or didn't feel something. So that we can provide actionable insights to our clients and say, "You need to do more of this and less of that to have a better audience outcome."
Now, it's way more complicated than that because we have algorithms that work in the background, there's AI processing involved, but that was really the germ of the concept. We decided to actually test that theory on our own company offsite last year. And lo and behold, it worked. We actually were able to get a measurement, and that really set the ball rolling for everything that we have going on right now, which is incredibly exciting.
Host: 6:40
So continuing to talk about this from the tech side of things, how do you ensure that the JOY Index provides actionable insights?
Todd Moritz: 6:49
So over time, as we measure more and more events, Bishop-McCann and the JOY Index will become the authority on what works and what doesn't at events. So if you think about specific audience types, it could be about the particular venue that you're in, it could be the theme of the event, it could be the time of year, it could be the way you have seating arranged. We'll be able to tell you for this type of event, for this type of audience, in this particular location, you should structure your content this way.
So we'll have data from hundreds of events across multiple industries, so that we can actually be the arbiters of JOY. We can actually tell our clients, if you do this, you will have a more joyous outcome for your attendees.
Host: 7:30
Yeah, being able to have that data is such a game changer. So continuing to think about the long-term vision of this, Rob, from a leadership perspective, how do you see the JOY Index shaping the future of events?
Rob Adams: 7:46
The traditional way is you think about how we're measuring events, we talk about these event goals that we have. And then the event actually happens, and then we do this thing called a survey. And we know again, what Todd alluded to earlier is that surveys are highly inaccurate.
And then what we do is we take that feedback, and then we design the next year's event based upon flawed feedback that we have. What we can do today is we can actually measure all of those experiences in real time, second by second. Then we can take that feedback, and then make recommendations that we know are gonna make an impact for the next year's event.
What I get really excited about is I imagine sitting with a client and really asking the question, "What emotions are you wanting your attendees to experience, and what are the key outcomes that you're wanting from this event?" And if we know what those experiences are they want to be created and the personas, with our technology and the data that we have, we can create experiences with a 95% confidence in what that outcome will be.
Host: 9:01
It's exciting to see how this could impact our industry and help us continue to evolve and create better experiences. So, taking this a step further, Rob, how do you see JOY translating into tangible business outcomes?
Rob Adams: 9:18
There are so many opportunities that when we've really ideated on where we can measure. But I think some of the things that come top of mind, I mean there's some things like theme development for sure, but things like speaker and keynote selection.
I think about the conversations that we have with our clients about what we believe to be true around what speakers or the keynotes that they're gonna be delivering and what we hope to be the outcome. When I think about the ability to actually measure our speakers and the keynotes that have been delivered and actually know what the impact was for a particular audience - and making recommendations knowing what the 95% confidence of what that deliverable is gonna be - that's very exciting.
I love the next one around executive coaching. And why I love this one so much is because I personally relate to this. It's always the question that I know that I have for myself every time that I do a keynote. Or executives that we work with, the first question that is always asked at the end of that was, "How'd it go? How'd I do?" And it generally goes something like, "Yeah, I think you did a good job." Or, "Yeah, I think there's maybe some opportunities. And maybe that comment that you made in your opening or your closing." That's all based upon what one believes to be true. The difference is now with what we've been measuring, we can have a very different conversation.
So if I were to ask, "How'd I do?" Then that question could be answered with, "Rob, let me tell you about the three things that you said that had the biggest impact. When you said this, it had a tremendous spike, and this is the reason why. When you said this, it had a spike on the downside."
I'll give a personal example actually for myself. When I spoke at WEC, it was really fascinating around one of the things that we saw. At WEC, the World Education Congress for MPI, I was talking about what I see around this transformation around technology and AI. But what I didn't do is I didn't talk about what that actually meant. And with the findings with the JOY Index, what we realized is the brain does not like incomplete information. So the feedback for me would be, "When you said that around the transformation around technology and AI, complete the thought. Talk about what that actually means to be able to help calm the mind, to help create spikes in the future when I talk about those things."
And then of course, the other application that we see is a big one is sponsorship opportunities. You know, you think about so many events that are funded by sponsors, and sponsors always wanna know that the money that they're spending is actually gonna have an impact on the meeting or event. Now we're able to give advice to sponsors and to say, " If you do a better job with things like storytelling, we know that we're gonna have a huge impact on sponsors." And ultimately, that's what it's all about. If sponsors know they're spending money and the money they're spending is gonna have a positive impact, that's huge.
Host: 12:19
So as always, we love wrapping up our podcast by tying back to our mission of creating JOY. With that in mind, what's some potential advice for planners who want to create more JOY?
Rob Adams: 12:33
I think the thing that comes top of mind is, everyone knows that the one thing that I talk about all the time is that challenger mindset. You know, the challenger mindset versus the champion mindset. Champions are the ones that are always the best, and the challengers are the ones that are always thinking differently, wanting something better in the future. And as I think about that, it's so important that we as an industry continue to stay curious. We had this incredible opportunity to create so much impact, and I think the focus of always staying curious is incredibly important.
And also related to that is don't be afraid of breaking the status quo. Breaking the status quo is what's gonna continue to help our industry move forward. You know, we've gotten a lot of criticism over the years around technology and our industry. One of the stats, when I got in this industry almost 11 years ago, was that we are five to seven years behind technology. And as I think about what's happening right now in the overall business climate, this type of technology that we're talking about just doesn't keep us current. It allows us as an industry to actually get ahead, and for me that's very exciting.
Host: 13:47
Totally agree. It really is such an exciting time for us. Todd, any advice to planners on how to create JOY?
Todd Moritz: 13:54
Yeah, I think this whole notion of the industry being five to seven years in technology innovation, I think that's really key here. We have to be open to innovation. None of the work that we're doing with the JOY Index would be possible without AI.
My view on event technology has always been very, very broad. It's anything that can apply a data point to an attendee journey. With the JOY Index, we're actually applying millions of additional data points. There's no way we could possibly process all those data points if it weren't for AI.
So yeah, be open to innovation. And other than that, just call me and sign up for a JOY index measurement for your event, and then you can really see the impact.
Host: 14:30
Definitely. Well, thank you both so much again for being on the podcast and for providing our listeners with an inside look into the JOY Index!
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Events Experience. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, and create JOY wherever you go!