Live events have never struggled to attract people—they’ve struggled to measure what actually matters. ROME Insights, a new analytics and AI startup, wants to fix that. Today, the company unveiled ROME (Return on Memorable Experiences), a measurement framework built to capture human attention, emotional engagement, and the lasting impact of in-person experiences. For an industry built on connection, it’s a shift that feels long overdue.

Co-founded by event-technology veteran Justin Zebell and marketing strategist and AI researcher Bob Hutchins, ROME Insights was created in response to a long-standing issue: traditional event metrics don’t tell the full story. Attendance numbers, badge scans, and booth visits offer surface-level signals. What they miss is the depth—the moments that spark memory, influence behavior, and justify sponsorship spend.

“We built ROME because the events industry has been measuring the wrong things,” Zebell said. His argument is simple: event organizers, sponsors, and internal stakeholders need proof of value grounded in real human experience, not just headcounts. ROME provides that proof.

The ROME framework blends multiple data sources—behavioral attention tracking, qualitative feedback, and quantitative analytics—to produce a composite engagement score. It captures both immediate reactions and longer-term recall, offering what the company calls a clearer, more defensible metric for understanding event impact.

Hutchins sees ROME as a tool that protects the value of live gatherings in an increasingly digital world. “Live events are one of the few places where people still gather in person to learn, connect, and be moved by ideas,” he said. “ROME helps organizers protect and prove the value of that experience in a world that demands measurable outcomes.”

ROME Insights will work directly with conference organizers, trade show producers, and corporate event teams to integrate the framework across different formats. The company also provides consulting services to help teams interpret findings and use those insights to shape future events—whether that means adjusting programming, reallocating budget, or refining sponsor packages.

Early adopters are already seeing results. Event organizers using ROME have reported higher sponsor renewal rates, smoother budget approvals, and a sharper understanding of which moments drive the most value. For a sector where gut instinct has often outrun measurement, ROME’s data-backed approach could become a competitive advantage.

In an era defined by metrics, the company is betting that the most important event KPIs aren’t clicks or counts—they’re the moments people remember.

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