A keynote address at the European Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (EACVA) 13th Conference for Valuation Professionals stressed the importance of storytelling in business valuations. Dr. Aswath Damodaran (New York University Stern School of Business) spoke about the two camps in the world of investing and finance: the number crunchers and the storytellers. Numbers are empty—unless they are connected with a narrative. Likewise, stories matter in the valuation process—but only if they are connected with the numbers. Damodaran is so passionate about this topic that he wrote a book on it.

The EACVA event brought together more than 370 business valuation professionals, corporate finance and tax consultants, analysts, controllers, lawyers, and academics from 20 different countries in Europe and beyond, according to a blog post. This year’s conference will be October 29-30 in Munich, Germany.