While it’s tempting to kick up your feet and relax after your event has concluded, you have one more important task to check off your list – it’s time to give thanks to those who helped make it possible. You will be glad you recognized the efforts of your team members the next time you need to ask them for help.
Make sure you take the time to thank everyone as personally and publicly as possible by mentioning them in the event’s program, online forum, website and newsletter. Consider placing a thank-you ad in the local newspaper, sending hand-written individual notes, or presenting them with a small token or gift during a wrap-up party or volunteer recognition luncheon. Placing these seemingly small ‘deposits’ into your gratitude account will pay dividends later.
Surveys/Feedback Forms
You’ll never have the opportunity to improve your next event if you don’t ask your attendees 1) What they liked and 2) What they would change (notice both questions are framed in a positive context.) You can have them complete a paper survey form included in the registration packet, or you can have an online survey waiting for them in their inbox when they get home, utilizing web tools such as Survey Monkey, Survey Tool or Zoomerang.
The questions you ask will depend on the type of event held. If you’ve just held a customer conference for example, you will want to ask questions about the value of the program content, the effectiveness of your speakers, and questions about the venue (food, lodging, hospitality, etc.) You’ll also want to provide space for suggestions for your next event (new topics, new speakers, and venue suggestions).
To insure that a high percentage of your attendees participate in the survey, provide an incentive such as entering them in a prize drawing. This also requires them to sign the survey instead of submitting it anonymously, which I believe provides for more valid feedback.
Critique Meeting
How will you evaluate the success of your event? How many attended? How much money was raised? What were the comments on the feedback forms? How many leads did you get? How happy did everyone seem as they left? How much product was sold? Get your team together one last time and re-visit the goal you set at the beginning – did you achieve it? If not, what went wrong? If this is a recurring event, addressing these issues should be the first thing on the action plan for your next occasion.
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Plan your events with the help of surveys. Try SoGoSurvey for online survey creation and distributions.