Define relevant hours
Begin with a concrete learning or purchasing objective, then mark the published sessions that directly serve it. Add their scheduled durations only where times are available. Exclude overlapping sessions that the same person cannot attend together. If the agenda has topics but no timings, record relevant hours as unknown. Counting the full opening-to-closing day can conceal how much of the programme serves a different audience, while guessing session lengths creates an appearance of precision unsupported by the source.
Choose the numerator
For a narrow admission comparison, divide the verified pass cost by those relevant scheduled hours. For an attendance planning comparison, use your complete estimated cash budget instead. Label the two results differently. Neither calculation measures the quality of a session, the knowledge retained or the business value produced. Keep networking time separate unless your brief identifies a documented format and explains why its duration belongs in this calculation. A shared coffee break is not automatically a productive meeting.
Test the fragile assumptions
Check how the result changes if one priority session moves, a workshop requires an extra pass or a travel estimate increases. A ratio based on very few relevant hours can change sharply, so display the underlying hours beside it. Use the calculation to identify questions for further research, not to declare a universal winner. If one event has an incomplete agenda, compare its available evidence qualitatively and postpone the ratio rather than treating missing hours as no value.
Read with the relationship in view.
This publication is produced by the team behind Open Summit AI. This is editorial guidance, not a claim of independent attendance or testing. About the publisher.