More than 700 events Ā· 14m room nights Ā· US$12bn GVA Ā· 49 countries Ā· 180 cities Ā· in the past 12 months

Event impact attribution: prove what your event changed, not only what happened around it.

An event finishes, and two numbers arrive in the same week: the attendance figure everyone already believed, and the economic-impact figure someone was paid to produce afterwards. They rarely agree. The gap between them is where the argument starts.
Gross activity through counterfactual, displacement, and leakage to attributable retained value, with the working shown. The number a treasury reviewer or auditor should be asked to accept, not the gross one.

A tenth of the world's output and employment depends on the visitor economy

Living Lab’s first economic model was for the Singapore Grand Prix in 2012. In 2025 we became a software platform: government-grade intelligence for the visitor economy

In the last 12 months we have deployed at more than 700 events. They delivered 14 million room nights and over US$12bn in gross value added

What does Living Lab do for event impact attribution?

Event impact attribution. Living Lab connects ticketing, accommodation, transport, spend, and sentiment data to the event’s actual footprint and a defined control period, and separates what changed from what merely coincided. Reference data is published by the OECD.

Runs the attribution for a bounded past event: what would have happened anyway, what moved from elsewhere in the city, what left the local economy the moment it was spent. States the counterfactual before the result is produced, not after. Every event in the calendar on one method, so a festival and a tournament can be compared on a shared basis.

The forward version of the same evidence: what the next edition, or the next bid, would deliver under base, downside, and legacy-backed cases, with displacement stated. Demand137 decides what to host next; Signal137 accounts for what was hosted.

ProductYour questionYou getWhat it changes
Signal137What did the event actually change, net of what would have happened anyway?Gross activity through counterfactual, displacement, and leakage to attributable retained valueThe legacy figure is built to survive the first hard question
Signal137How much of the spend left the local economy?Leakage through non-local suppliers and contractors, traced and statedThe share the local-benefit test cares about is known, not assumed
Signal137Did the event grow the economy or rearrange it?Displacement against known local spending patternsGrowth and reshuffling are two numbers, not one
Signal137How do we report the legacy to funders, council, or the public?A result stated as attributable, with the counterfactual made explicitA claim an auditor or journalist cannot unpick in one question
Signal137Can this be done for a first edition with no baseline?Comparable events, markets, and destinations, with a wider uncertainty range statedThe result says so rather than hiding behind false precision
Signal137How does this event compare with others in the calendar?Attribution on one consistent method across every eventEvents compared on a shared basis, feeding the portfolio decision
Signal137What if the result shows less than was claimed?The result reported as foundA bounded, defensible result is worth more to a funding decision than an inflated one
Demand137Whether to host again, or renew the agreementThe next edition modelled on the last one's attributed result, with the counterfactual statedThe renewal negotiated from evidence, not precedent
Demand137What would the next bid deliver?Base, downside, and legacy-backed cases, net of displacementThe funding position set before the announcement
BothWho holds this, and where?Model, data, and a trained team inside your jurisdictionThe capability survives the change of official or consultant

Show the working, not only the number

Calendar optimisation example

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Show me the evidence

Tell us the question. We'll bring back the answer.

Come and show your working

We turn messy event and tourism data into decisions that help communities grow. Bring curiosity and rigour. We will hand you questions nobody has answered yet.