There's a quiet frustration baked into this request, and it's entirely justified. The user isn't asking for a complex data model or a custom-coded dashboard. They want a map that answers a simple question: who is going where, and what are they attending? The fact that Excel's hover text forces them to choose between an employee name and an event name is not a limitation of their skill level. It's a limitation of the tool's default behavior, and it's worth saying plainly: this should not require a workaround.
What stands out here is the user's willingness to adapt. They've already considered adding a City column to disambiguate multiple events in the same country. They've found a relevant forum post, but the formula doesn't quite fit their data because they don't have a yes/no filter. That's not a failure of understanding. That's a sign they're thinking structurally about the problem, which is exactly the right instinct. The issue is that Excel's map chart, especially when powered by Power Map, treats hover details as a single label field rather than a rich tooltip. It's a design constraint, not a data problem.
The practical takeaway for anyone in this situation is twofold. First, if you need full hover text with multiple fields, Excel's native map chart will keep fighting you. The better path is to build a simple Power BI visual or use a custom tooltip in a PivotChart, both of which handle multi-field hover text natively. Second, if you must stay in Excel, consider concatenating the fields into a single helper column, like "Anne, Event1," and use that as your hover label. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done without adding a second series for every row. The user's instinct to avoid manually adding each row as a series is correct, and they should trust that.
The deeper point is that this user is doing something right. They're not asking for a miracle. They're asking for a practical way to surface attendance data in a visual format that their team can actually use. That's a reasonable request, and it deserves a tool that meets them halfway. Excel can do a lot, but when it comes to interactive hover details with multiple data points, it's not the right fit. The sooner they pivot to a solution that treats hover text as a first-class feature, the sooner they'll stop fighting the tool and start focusing on the actual outcome: getting their team the answers they need at a glance.