Proving Event ROI with Stephanie Worthington

Your events aren’t failing. They’re just being evaluated the wrong way.Stephanie Worthington, Head of Events and Field Marketing at Upstart, has spent 30+ years turning trade shows into revenue drivers, not money pits. She breaks down the framework that actually makes an event program work – from how to decide which shows are worth the spend to why traditional ROI metrics miss the real impact. If your events look “fine” on paper but still feel hard to justify, this is the conversation you’ve been missing.In this episode, you'll learn:How to tell if an event is actually worth your budget before you commitWhy event leads stall after the show (and what to do about it)What actually improves event ROI beyond cutting spend or chasing more leadsHighlights: (00:00) Meet Stephanie Worthington (01:58) The three-lens framework for prioritizing events (07:41) Where event teams waste the most money (10:57) Why event ROI is so hard to prove (15:14) Making events part of a full-funnel strategy (20:28) Improving ROI without increasing budget (22:43) How Stephanie is using AI in her event workflowResources:Stephanie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieworthington/Club ITCHI: https://www.clubitchi.com/Gayle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaylekalvert/