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Quest Training

Event Impact Evaluation & Legacy Planning Training Course

Helps funders and event owners judge what publicly backed events really deliver: economic, social and legacy results, evidence quality and value for money.

ECE · Event & Conference ManagementAll Levels#3140ClassroomEnglish , Arabic
Duration
5 Days
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Free substitution at any time · 30+ days' notice: full refund minus 10%. Cancellation policy

Sectors:Tourism, Hospitality & EventsCategories:Event & Conference Management

Course Overview

The Event Impact Evaluation & Legacy Planning Training Course equips the funders and owners of major events, including ministries, tourism and culture authorities, municipalities, and sponsoring bodies, with the methods needed to decide what an event should achieve, commission credible evaluation, and plan a legacy that outlasts the closing day. Public bodies across the Gulf and Africa commit significant resources to conferences, festivals, and sporting occasions, and they increasingly need to answer a difficult question: what did this investment actually change, and for whom? The course is written from the funder's side of the table rather than the organizer's. Participants learn to build a theory of change and a logic model before an event is approved, to separate activities and outputs from outcomes and impacts, and to write evaluation requirements into funding agreements and tenders. They examine how to read an economic impact study critically, testing assumptions about visitor spending, additionality, displacement, leakage, and multipliers, and how to recognize when a headline figure counts gross activity instead of new benefit. They also learn how to set proportionate evaluation budgets and decide which events deserve full study. The program also covers what economic studies miss. Participants consider social outcomes, community pride and participation, skills and employment pathways, environmental effects, destination image, and the use of venues and infrastructure after the event. They compare cost-benefit analysis, social return on investment, and the OECD DAC evaluation criteria, and they design survey, administrative, and digital data collection that begins with a proper baseline. Legacy is treated as a planned program with its own owners, budget, and timeline, not as a closing-ceremony promise. Participants also consider how to handle findings that disappoint, and how evidence should inform the next funding round. The course is delivered through event case studies, critical reviews of sample impact reports, theory of change exercises, evaluator briefing simulations, and a final workshop. Participants leave with an evaluation framework, an indicator set, a critical review checklist, draft evaluation terms of reference, and a legacy plan outline they can adapt to their own event portfolio.

Learning Objectives

  • Explain why funders and event owners evaluate events and what decisions evaluation should inform.
  • Distinguish between activities, outputs, outcomes, impacts, and legacy in event programs.
  • Build a theory of change and logic model before an event receives funding approval.
  • Write clear evaluation requirements into funding agreements, tenders, and organizer contracts.
  • Assess economic impact studies by testing visitor spending, additionality, displacement, leakage, and multipliers.
  • Compare cost-benefit analysis, social return on investment, and the OECD DAC evaluation criteria.
  • Define social, cultural, environmental, and destination image indicators suited to each event and its stated purpose.
  • Design baselines, sampling, surveys, and administrative data collection that hold up to scrutiny.
  • Commission and supervise independent evaluators while protecting the integrity of their findings.
  • Plan legacy programs for skills, employment, venues, community participation, and local business.
  • Assign ownership, budget, and governance for legacy after the organizing team disbands.
  • Communicate evaluation results honestly to ministers, boards, partners, and the public.
  • Use evaluation evidence to decide whether to renew, redesign, reduce, or end funding for recurring events.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for officials in ministries of tourism, culture, sport, economy, and finance, as well as tourism and events authorities, municipalities, and development agencies that fund, sponsor, or approve events and must account for the results. They often sit far from delivery yet carry the accountability for what public money has achieved. It is equally relevant for portfolio managers, strategy and performance leads, policy analysts, internal auditors, monitoring and evaluation specializts, and grant managers who review event proposals, set funding conditions, or read impact reports on behalf of senior decision makers. It helps them ask sharper questions before approving further support. Professionals in national organizing committees, convention bureaus, destination organizations, sports federations, cultural bodies, corporate sponsorship teams, and consultancies that prepare event impact studies will learn what funders should expect from their reports. It is particularly valuable for bodies building a recurring event portfolio or preparing a bid for a major international event, and for teams that have received impact reports they could not confidently challenge.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
  • Define what a funded event should achieve before approval is given, with clear success criteria.
  • Build a theory of change linking activities to intended outcomes and impacts.
  • Write evaluation conditions into funding agreements and organizer contracts.
  • Challenge an economic impact study on spending, additionality, displacement, and multipliers.
  • Distinguish gross activity from net benefit when reading headline claims.
  • Select social, environmental, and destination indicators suited to a specific event.
  • Design baselines and data collection that can support credible conclusions.
  • Prepare terms of reference and supervise an independent evaluator while protecting the integrity of the findings.
  • Draft a legacy plan covering skills, venues, community, and local business.
  • Assign legacy ownership and budget beyond the life of the organizing team.
  • Present evaluation findings honestly to senior decision makers and the public.
  • Decide on renewal, redesign, or closure of funded events using the evaluation evidence.

Course Outline

Course Outline:

Day 1

The Funder's View of Event Value

  • Why public bodies and sponsors fund events, and what they are entitled to ask
  • Activities, outputs, outcomes, impacts, and legacy: using the terms accurately
  • Building a theory of change and logic model for an event
  • Setting success criteria before approval rather than after delivery
  • Writing evaluation requirements into funding agreements and tenders
  • Who evaluates what: roles of funder, organizer, evaluator, and auditor
  • Proportionate evaluation: matching effort and budget to the scale of the investment
  • Practical application: participants build a theory of change for a publicly funded event
Day 2

Economic Impact: Reading the Numbers Critically

  • Direct, indirect, and induced effects, and how studies estimate them
  • Visitor spending surveys, sample bias, and common errors
  • Additionality, displacement, leakage, deadweight, and attribution
  • Input-output multipliers and why inflated assumptions go unchallenged
  • Gross activity versus net benefit, and cost-benefit analysis as a stronger test
  • Tax revenue, jobs claims, and the difference between temporary and lasting employment
  • Comparing an event's returns with other uses of the same public funds
  • Practical application: participants critique a sample economic impact report and rewrite its weakest claims
Day 3

Social, Environmental, and Destination Outcomes

  • Community pride, participation, volunteering, wellbeing, and disruption to residents
  • Skills, employment pathways, and local business participation
  • Environmental effects and links to event sustainability reporting
  • Destination image, media value claims, and their limitations
  • Social return on investment and the OECD DAC evaluation criteria
  • Balancing quantitative indicators with qualitative evidence from residents and participants
  • Who benefits and who bears the costs: distribution across communities
  • Practical application: participants build a balanced indicator set for a chosen event
Day 4

Designing and Commissioning the Evaluation

  • Baselines, comparison groups, and timing of measurement
  • Surveys, administrative data, digital and mobile data, and interviews
  • Writing terms of reference and selecting independent evaluators
  • Protecting evaluator independence and managing awkward findings
  • Data ethics, privacy, and working with organizers and partners
  • Sampling design, response rates, and reporting the uncertainty in estimates
  • Timing of evaluation: before, during, and long after the event
  • Practical application: participants draft terms of reference for an independent evaluation
Day 5

Planning and Governing Legacy

  • Legacy as a planned program: hard, soft, and intended versus accidental legacies
  • Venues and infrastructure after the event: use, operators, and running costs
  • Skills, volunteers, business networks, and sector development
  • Legacy ownership, budget, and governance after the organizing team disbands
  • Reporting results to ministers, boards, and the public, and feeding the next funding decision
  • Linking legacy plans to the bid and the funding agreement from the outset
  • Evaluating legacy over time: what to measure long after the closing day
  • Final workshop: participants present an evaluation framework and legacy plan for a major event

Upcoming Dates

Selected date

Online · 6 – 10 Dec 2026

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CityDatesPrice per ParticipantEarly Bird
LondonScheduled
2 – 6 Nov 2026€5,600—
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MadinahScheduled
9 – 13 Nov 2026€4,200—
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MadridScheduled
16 – 20 Nov 2026€5,400—
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MakkahScheduled
16 – 20 Nov 2026€4,200—
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ManamaScheduled
23 – 27 Nov 2026€4,700€4,230until 2 Nov
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MuscatScheduled
30 Nov – 4 Dec 2026€5,300€4,770until 9 Nov
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OnlineScheduled
6 – 10 Dec 2026€1,700€1,530until 16 Nov
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ParisScheduled
7 – 11 Dec 2026€5,700€5,130until 16 Nov
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Sharm El-SheikhScheduled
14 – 18 Dec 2026€4,300€3,870until 23 Nov
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SingaporeScheduled
21 – 25 Dec 2026€6,700€6,030until 30 Nov
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AbujaScheduled
21 – 25 Dec 2026€5,100€4,590until 30 Nov
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AccraScheduled
28 Dec 2026 – 1 Jan 2027€5,100€4,590until 7 Dec
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AmmanScheduled
3 – 7 Jan 2027€3,100€2,790until 14 Dec
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AmsterdamScheduled
4 – 8 Jan 2027€5,400€4,860until 14 Dec
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BakuScheduled
11 – 15 Jan 2027€4,800€4,320until 21 Dec
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BarcelonaScheduled
18 – 22 Jan 2027€5,400€4,860until 28 Dec
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BeirutScheduled
24 – 28 Jan 2027€4,000€3,600until 4 Jan
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BerlinScheduled
25 – 29 Jan 2027€5,800€5,220until 4 Jan
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CairoScheduled
31 Jan – 4 Feb 2027€3,300€2,970until 11 Jan
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Cape TownScheduled
1 – 5 Feb 2027€5,100€4,590until 11 Jan
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CasablancaScheduled
8 – 12 Feb 2027€4,300€3,870until 18 Jan
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DammamScheduled
14 – 18 Feb 2027€4,200€3,780until 25 Jan
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DubaiScheduled
21 – 25 Feb 2027€4,400€3,960until 1 Feb
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DohaScheduled
21 – 25 Feb 2027€4,400€3,960until 1 Feb
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ErbilScheduled
28 Feb – 4 Mar 2027€3,100€2,790until 8 Feb
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IstanbulScheduled
8 – 12 Mar 2027€4,700€4,230until 15 Feb
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JeddahScheduled
14 – 18 Mar 2027€4,200€3,780until 22 Feb
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KigaliScheduled
15 – 19 Mar 2027€5,100€4,590until 22 Feb
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LisbonScheduled
22 – 26 Mar 2027€5,400€4,860until 1 Mar
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Kuala LumpurScheduled
22 – 26 Mar 2027€4,400€3,960until 1 Mar
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Available in: Istanbul · Dubai · London · Doha · Amsterdam

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