Bean Counters and Meetings or Special Events

I just responded to a discussion about financial managers and meetings. I'd like to share it here:

Regarding financial management suggesting that events that "just get by" work and so the events that "wow" are no longer needed, as is so often true, neither is correct. Certain meetings or events that have goals which can be substantially met just by achieving a determined amount of face time will fall into the just get by = success category. But an event that needs to make a different sort of impact, provide motivation or introduce a new product or deliver a message with gravitas, these may require wow in order to achieve success, let alone maximize ROI. Frankly, in my experience, financial managers are not particularly capable of understanding this dichotomy. (That's OK. I can't do their job either.) Left brained, they are naturally oriented toward the dollars and cents analysis and the impacts of face to face interaction, the emotional quotient and memorable takeaways created by a wow factor, these just don't readily submit to number crunching. I refer to this as intangible ROI. Hard to measure, but it is there and it is vital.