Source: Wizu
If you have ever run your own event, you will be more than aware of the endless tasks required planning the event. Sometimes you can be so obsessed with the planning and organization that you don’t give a thought to your post event process. When the dust settles and you want to do know what you did right and what can be improved it can often be too late to start trying to chase feedback. It is important you give your post event strategy thought in the planning stage to ensure you are maximising the opportunity to collect valuable information.
In an ideal world you would speak to everyone that attended to get a deep insight into their thoughts and feelings and learn what improvements you can make. In reality, you will just simply not have the time to do that so will need to rely on some kind of event survey.
What Should I Ask?
There are some common survey questions that it would be useful to know. These include:
• How were the food options?
• How would you rate the speakers?
• How relevant was the agenda?
• What could we have done better?
• What was the best part of the day?
• Would you attend the event again?
• How would you rate the overall experience?
These are useful questions to give you an overall impression of how the event went but there are limitations to sticking to the standard topics. You might not uncover the smaller details that can often lead to subconscious emotional reactions. Try to understand how your attendees feel at different stages throughout the process and try to open the survey to invite them to discuss the areas they feel are important.
Top 6 Post-Event Feedback Tips
1. No time like the present – The normal advice would be to collect feedback as soon as possible after the event. We suggest you take it one step further – why not try and find out how your attendees are feeling during the event? Short, concise surveys while at the event will offer better insight as there is no time for people to forget details.
2. Include context – People get distracted at events and can often forget details. Include names of speakers, include images or videos to jog their memory and it can also improve the look and feel of your survey.
3. Re-enforce messages – If you had some key takeaways at your event then you could also utilise your post event survey as an opportunity to repeat your key message or offer additional follow up information.
4. Mobile first – Especially if you are trying to catch feedback during the event. It is important to ensure your surveys look fantastic and are easy to use on mobile devices as that is where most people are going to complete them.
5. Branding – Keep your survey on brand by customising the look and feel. This will help add to the overall impression of your brand/ event.
6. Personalize – If you have the data available then try and include personalized context. Include the attendees name and reference any events you know they attended.
When it comes to planning your post-event feedback strategy it is important to think about what you are hoping to achieve. What is the ideal outcome you want from your attendees and how can you use your survey to ensure you are measuring it?