Organizations invest significant time, money, and energy into their events - yet many rely on post-event surveys and anecdotal feedback from the loudest voices to evaluate success. While valuable, those tools rarely capture how an event actually functions in real time. This webinar previews Event Garde's upcoming white paper on “secret shopping” and event analysis, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how structured, on-site observation by experienced meeting professionals can surface patterns, tensions, and opportunities that traditional evaluation methods often miss. Drawing on recent, real-world examples, we'll explore how observation - paired with stakeholder interviews, historical data, and experience feedback - creates a more complete and actionable picture of event performance. Participants will gain insight into how thoughtful event analysis moves beyond “what happened” to answer more strategic questions: Why did it happen? What's working as intended? Where are resources misaligned? And what should change next?