From ROI to ROR: How I Measure the True Value of Conferences and Events

When I look back over my 19 years in the affiliate marketing world, I’ve lost count of how many hotel lobbies, expo halls, and late-night networking events I’ve been a part of. To date, it’s been over 100 conferences across four continents. These events have shaped my career in countless ways, but the way I measure their value has shifted drastically over time.

In my early days, attending a conference was a test of ROI. I’d walk into an event with a spreadsheet in mind. Every handshake had to be logged. Every conversation had to be measured. I’d sit in the corner of a loud hotel bar typing furiously on my laptop, calculating projected revenue from meetings that had barely ended. The pressure was constant: “How will I justify the cost of this trip? How many dollars can I tie to these hours?”

That mindset was drilled into me. As an employee of an agency, it was what leadership wanted to see: proof, in black and white, that my time away from the office translated into direct revenue. But while I may have been “producing numbers,” the truth is I wasn’t enjoying the events. Conferences felt nerve-racking, like walking around with a quota over my head. I rarely gave myself the space to simply connect with people.

That all changed when I launched Tactical Marketing ten years ago. Suddenly, I had the freedom to redefine what success looked like. I no longer saw conferences as places to rack up short-term ROI, but as opportunities to build something far more valuable: Return on Relationships (ROR).

ROR doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet at the end of the week. You can’t put it into a neat formula. But it’s real, and it compounds over time. It looks like:

• Warm connections that grow into partnerships months or even years down the line.
  

• Referrals from people who trust you because you took the time to know them, not just pitch them.
  

• Collaborations that never would have happened if you had only focused on transactional conversations.
  

• And perhaps most importantly, friendships that make this industry feel less like a grind and more like a community.
  

Some of the most valuable opportunities I’ve ever had didn’t come from a scheduled meeting slot on a conference app. They came from sitting down at a lunch table with strangers, sharing stories about kids and sports, and later realizing we had ways to work together. They came from chance introductions by mutual friends at after-hours events. They came from being genuinely curious about someone else’s journey, not just their budget.

I’ve learned that when you shift from ROI to ROR, conferences stop being transactional and start being transformational. The deals still happen, but they’re built on a foundation of trust, mutual respect, and genuine connection. And those deals last longer, perform better, and create ripple effects that keep paying off in ways no spreadsheet can capture.

Today, I attend conferences with a much lighter mindset. I don’t walk in with a quota. I walk in with curiosity. I focus on people, not numbers. And the return on that investment? It’s immeasurable.

Because at the end of the day, relationships don’t just drive revenue, they drive fulfillment. And that’s the kind of ROI that truly matters.