What is an Event Survey?
An event survey is a structured questionnaire designed to collect feedback and opinions from participants about a specific event. Whether it’s a conference, seminar, workshop, festival, or any gathering, conducting an event survey allows organizers to gain valuable insights into attendees’ experiences, satisfaction levels, and suggestions for improvement.
This valuable feedback helps event organizers make data-driven decisions to enhance future events and deliver a more memorable experience for all participants. From small community events to large international conferences, surveys provide a way to engage attendees, measure success, and continuously improve.
Why Conduct Event Surveys?
There are many compelling reasons for organizers to make event surveys a core part of their feedback strategy. Here are some of the key benefits:
Assess Attendee Satisfaction
Surveys allow organizers to gauge satisfaction with all aspects of the event experience. This includes content, speakers, schedule, venue, food, logistics, and more. By segmenting questions by topic, organizers can zero in on strengths and weaknesses. Feedback can be analyzed by demographics as well to spot trends and differences in satisfaction levels among various attendee groups.
Identify What Worked and What Didn’t
Nothing beats direct feedback when it comes to pinpointing successes and areas for improvement. Surveys provide a structured way to capture constructive criticism and suggestions from people who just experienced the event first-hand. Their perspectives help organizers understand what worked, what didn’t, and how to enhance future events.
Measure Event Impact
Surveys also provide data to assess the impact of the event itself. Did it meet stated goals and outcomes around learning, engagement, motivation, or other targets? Questions can measure changes in knowledge, comprehension, attitudes, perspectives, and more. This helps quantify the event’s return on investment.
Gather Testimonials and Quotes
Satisfied attendees often provide feedback that doubles as powerful testimonials. By collecting open-ended comments in surveys, organizers can highlight memorable, inspiring, or funny quotes about experiences at the event. These testimonials come directly from the source and carry more authenticity and impact than quotes made up for marketing.
Enhance Future Events
The end goal of event surveys is to collect feedback that will improve future installments of the event. Whether it’s a one-time gathering or an annual conference, surveys provide tangible input on how to deliver more value and better meet expectations. Everything from the call for speakers to event app functionality can be finessed based on survey findings.
Demonstrate Commitment to Attendees
Just conducting a survey demonstrates that organizers value attendees’ opinions. It provides a straightforward way for people to share their perspectives without having to chase someone down or complain through back channels. Prompt and thoughtful follow-up on feedback shows an ongoing commitment to enhancing the attendee experience.
Compare Event Performance Benchmarks
Data from event surveys create a baseline to evaluate future performance. Event organizers can monitor metrics like satisfaction, engagement, and spending year over year or event to event. Comparisons help quantify improvement and back up anecdotal evidence.
Justify Event Investments and Spending
Surveys also generate data to help justify event budgets and investments. High satisfaction levels, glowing testimonials, and signs of impact validate continued spending. On the flip side, surveys point out where resources need to be redirected to enhance value.
Monitor Emerging Trends
Participant surveys allow organizers to pick up on changes over time. Feedback may reveal shifts in interests, technical knowledge, or preferences that impact event programming. Surveys provide an early warning system to spot trends like waning engagement in certain topics or the rise of new technology.
Provide Evidence for Event Marketing
Finally, metrics and testimonials drawn from surveys are powerful tools to use in event marketing. They provide evidence of a successful event and social proof of value. Quotes and statistics directly from past attendees make great fodder for websites, promotional materials, and social media.
Crafting Effective Event Survey Questions
Asking the right questions is crucial to maximizing the value of event feedback. Well-designed surveys yield actionable data while poorly worded questions result in unreliable responses.
Our event technology tool‘s integrated surveys provide an easy way to solicit valuable event feedback before, during, and after your event. Customizable survey templates allow the creation of targeted questionnaires for attendees, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, and more. Surveys are automatically sent via email or mobile app. All responses feed into shareable reports, helping spot trends and continuously improve.
Book a Demo of Conference Tracker
Here are some best practices for crafting effective event surveys:
-
Use a Mix of Open and Closed-Ended Questions
Closed-ended questions with rating scales and multiple-choice answers make data easy to quantify. Open-ended questions allow for candid thoughts and suggestions.
-
Keep it Brief
Since surveys are typically completed on the spot, shorter is better. Focus on the most important 15-30 questions rather than including every possible query.
-
Make Questions Clear and Specific
Avoid vague or confusing phrasing that leaves the meaning open to interpretation. Ask about concrete elements attendees experienced directly.
-
Segment by Event Components
Break the survey into sections on topics like registration, venue, content, and speakers. This allows a targeted look at each area.
-
Provide Context as Needed
Give brief background where helpful for clarity. For example, before rating a speaker provide their name, workshop title, and a photo.
-
Put Easier Questions First
Start with factual and rating scale questions to ease into the survey. Place open-ended feedback at the end.
-
Make Responding Easy
Provide multiple-choice answers whenever possible. Have ratings on a consistent 1-5 or 1-10 scale.
Here are 32 Proven Event Survey Questions to Consider
Pre-Event Questions
These questions gather baseline data on event awareness and motivate attendees.
- How did you hear about this event?
- What motivated you to attend this event?
- Have you attended this event before? If yes, how many times?
- Are there any specific topics or activities you hope to see covered during the event?
Event Experience Questions
These questions measure overall satisfaction and pinpoint areas for improvement:
5. Rate your overall experience at the event: Excellent | Good | Average | Poor
6. How likely are you to recommend this event to others? Extremely likely | Likely | Neutral | Unlikely | Extremely unlikely
7. What aspects of the event were most enjoyable or valuable to you?
8. What parts of the event were least enjoyable or valuable to you?
9. Were there any aspects of the event that didn’t meet your expectations? If yes, please elaborate.
10. What suggestions do you have to improve this event in the future?
Event Content and Speakers
Get feedback on the heart of the event – the education and insights provided:
11. Rate the overall quality of the event’s content and presentations: Excellent | Good | Average | Poor
12. Was the content in line with the stated objectives or goals of the event?
13. Did the sessions adequately cover the topics promised? Please explain.
14. Which presentation topic did you find most useful or interesting?
15. Which speaker would you rate as the best presenter?
16. What additional topics would you have liked the event to cover?
Event Logistics
These practical questions evaluate the operational and facilities side of the event:
17. Rate the event registration and check-in process: Excellent | Good | Average | Poor
18. How organized and well-run was the event?
19. How suitable was the venue for this event?
20. Rate the food and beverage offerings: Excellent | Good | Average | Poor
21. How satisfied were you with the seating and facilities (e.g., restrooms, acoustics)?
22. Was the schedule and timing of sessions convenient? Please explain.
23. How was event information communicated to attendees?
Networking and Engagement
Evaluate the interactive and social elements:
24. Did the event provide sufficient opportunities to network with other attendees?
25. How would you rate the mix of presentations vs interactive elements?
26. How engaging and interactive were the presentations and activities?
27. What networking or interactive elements did you find most valuable?
28. Would you have liked more or less time devoted to networking and interacting? Please explain.
Overall Event Assessment
Conclude by measuring the overall event success and impact:
29. Considering all aspects, how satisfied are you with this event overall? Extremely satisfied | Very satisfied | Somewhat satisfied | Slightly satisfied | Not at all satisfied
30. Will you implement any ideas learned or actions based on attending this event? If yes, please explain.
31. As a result of attending this event, how likely are you to increase your participation or engagement with our organization? Extremely likely | Very likely | Somewhat likely | Slightly likely | Not at all likely
32. Please share any other suggestions on how we can improve future events.
Tired of compiling survey results and feedback in endless spreadsheets? Conference Tracker centralizes all your event data – including surveys – for easy analysis. Their automated reporting identifies top survey insights, benchmarks performance against past events, and spotlights areas for improvement. With Conference Tracker, tapping into feedback to enhance events is quick and painless.
Survey Follow Up and Reporting
Collecting insightful event feedback is just the first step. Taking action on survey findings is critical to driving improvements. Here are some best practices for follow-up and reporting:
-
Thank Attendees Promptly
Send a thank you email or message reiterating how feedback will be used to improve future events.
-
Share Key Findings and Actions
Let attendees know what changes will be made to directly address their feedback. Share highlights in emails, social media, blogs, or event recaps.
-
Assign Tasks to Event Team Members
Have team members review open-ended responses for their area of responsibility and create action plans.
-
Build a Feedback Review into Event Debriefs
Discuss key insights and lessons learned as a team to align on changes for the next event.
-
Track Event Feedback Over Time
Maintain records of survey results over multiple events. Monitor feedback and satisfaction trends.
-
Segment Data
Analyze results by demographics like job role and location to spot trends. Look for differences in feedback across segments.
-
Automate and Customize
Use event management platforms to save time creating, sending, and analyzing surveys. Creating surveys in advance and scheduling releases allows for freedom to focus on other things during the event.
Managing surveys and analyzing all that feedback can be tedious and time-consuming. That’s where an event management platform like Conference Tracker can help. It allows the creation of customized surveys that are automatically sent to attendees and speakers. Results are compiled into reports and dashboards to identify key insights at a glance. Automation makes it easy to collect feedback, uncover trends, and showcase achievements event after event.
Conclusion
In conclusion, conducting post-event surveys and gathering feedback from participants is vital for event organizers to enhance future events, measure success, and deliver exceptional experiences for attendees. By carefully crafting relevant and effective event survey questions, organizers can gain valuable insights to continuously improve and grow their events.
Yet, to access these insights events require well-designed surveys as well as a commitment to acting on the findings. With upfront planning, effective questions, automation, and follow-up, event organizers can make their feedback loops a competitive advantage.
When executed thoughtfully, event surveys become an essential tool for continuous improvement and attendee delight. The payoffs include loyal participants, meaningful engagement, and event experiences that build community and drive success.
Don’t just take our word for it. Conference Tracker’s customizable surveys make it easy to collect direct feedback, testimonials, and ratings from your own event’s attendees. Hear directly from event attendees how your event stacks up and what can be improved. Conference Tracker compiles feedback into reports to help evaluate success and prove ROI.
Try Free Trial of Conference Tracker
FAQs about Event Evaluation Questions
What questions to ask when evaluating an event?
When evaluating an event, consider asking questions about attendee satisfaction, event content, logistics, networking opportunities, and overall suggestions for improvement.
What are 5 good survey questions?
- How satisfied were you with the event overall?
- What was the most valuable part of the event for you?
- Did the event meet your expectations? Why or why not?
- How likely are you to attend another event organized by us?
- What suggestions do you have for improving future events?
What are the key evaluation questions?
Key evaluation questions include assessing attendee satisfaction, gauging the impact of the event, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and gathering suggestions for improvement.
What questions should I ask for event feedback?
Ask questions about the registration process, event content, speakers, logistics, networking opportunities, and overall event experience.
What are good survey questions before an event?
Consider asking about attendees’ motivation for attending, their expectations, and any specific topics or activities they hope to see covered during the event.
Garrett Effers
Garrett Effers is a Software Support Specialist with a passion for problem-solving. With over 9 years of experience in Tech Support, Garrett has successfully assisted in setting up our clients for success in both the academic and event management fields. Armed with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Full Sail University, his exceptional work has earned him several IT certifications from Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Outside of work, Garrett is known for his love of culinary, spending time with his son, and all things Marvel. Passionate about new advancements in technology, Garrett continues to strive for excellence and make a positive impact.