What started as creating a solution for a virtual event to earn UFI Approved Event status, nearly a year later the effort morphed into the launch of a much larger initiative – Reporting Standards for Digital Events (RSDE) – to benefit the entire events industry, including organizers, exhibitors and digital event platform (DEP) vendors.
RSDE, a standardized set of 17 data tables and glossary terms, was created by a working group made up of representatives from 15 organizations across the events industry, representing tradeshow organizers, exhibitors, data analysts and digital platforms, all under the leadership of BPA Worldwide, the global assurance provider.
“The goal for these standards is to serve as a guide for digital platforms to adopt to help organizers accurately and efficiently report on metrics,” explains Glenn Hansen, BPA’s president and CEO, when announcing the launch. “With RSDE, event organizers, exhibitors, digital event platforms and data analysts now have the tools to bring more trust and transparency into the digital event marketplace.”
One major industry roadblock that RSDE aims to eradicate is understanding of the data sets by organizers and exhibitors. “With the move over to digital events, people were excited that they were going to have all this data, and have a much better picture of what was happening within their events,” says David Richardson, principal at Cogknition. “When they received the reports from the event platforms, not only did they lack confidence, they understood what was happening at their event, but they weren’t really sure they understood what the report was trying to say. With RSDE, they get a much better understanding of what they are seeing.”
“RSDE will provide organizers and exhibitors with the information they need (and have been eagerly awaiting) to understand and evaluate the impact of digital events, ultimately driving a cycle of continuous improvement,” notes Robyn Davis, owner at Exhibitors WINH LLC, and a member of the RSDE working group.
Hansen added BPA will begin certifying DEPs to the RSDE standards immediately. Event data provided by verified DEPs will be “pre-audited” by BPA for inclusion in applications for “UFI Approved Event” status or for inclusion in any organizers’ event marketing materials and BPA Brand Reports.
RSDE includes a number of components to assist all aspects of the digital event marketplace, including a glossary of terms; 17 tables of data format to provide the user what is typically required; sample CSV file for DEPs to follow; request for proposal (RFP) template for organizers to use when shopping for a DEP; contract terms and conditions template to address data ownership and privacy protection compliance, and three separate “User’s Guides” for organizers, exhibitors and DEPs. All of the RSDE components can be downloaded here.
Another key element of RSDE, Richardson adds, “will be guidance to organizers and exhibit professionals to ensure they understand not just what the standards require, but also how to ask vendors for compliance with the standards and how to check that their platform is providing compliant data so that they know that they can use the data that comes to them.”
RSDE has collaborated with VSef (Virtual Standard Export Format), a data standard for digital events and communities based in Europe. VSef has been developed by Explori in collaboration with event organizers and digital event platforms worldwide. As well as including VSef in its entirety, RSDE offers broader content including recommended data ownership terms and an RFP template for shopping digital event technology. The two industry initiatives will work in partnership such that they remained aligned. Digital event platforms being certified to RSDE will, by default, be certified to be compliant with VSef.
