As the event planner, it can be easy to forget that conferences can feel extremely busy for attendees, too. A few days of bouncing in between sessions, grabbing quick lunches, networking, etc. is a lot of work!
That’s why you want to be strategic about how you gather feedback. Surveying attendees just after sessions means the content will be fresh in their mind, but the surveys should be short with questions that are easy to answer and get straight to the point. Here are our tips for post-session surveys:
- Use a mixture of yes/no, scale-based, and open-ended questions to achieve being quick while gathering the feedback you need.
- We recommend you only use about five to eight questions. (Again, to be quick!)
- Use the same set of questions for all sessions so you compare the sessions to each other. This will also help make the process quicker for attendees since they’ll know what to expect each time.
- Try to avoid asking questions about the environment or venue itself – things like room temperature and chair comfort are often out of your hands!
- Consider using a conference app! Among the many benefits, most solutions allow you to set up post-session surveys that attendees can access right away and complete with a few taps. Less paper, less hassle!
Now that you have some guidelines to follow, here are a few different types of questions to include and examples for each:
Yes/no questions
Questions that attendees can answer with a quick “yes” or “no” are key, as long as your team will be able to get the feedback necessary with such a short answer. If you feel you’ll need more information out of a question, leave it open-ended. (More on that later).
- Did the session improve your understanding of the topic?
- Was the content easy to follow along with?
- Would you attend another session lead by this speaker?
- Was there enough time for questions and discussion?
- Was the topic description accurate to the content of the session?
Scale-based, ranking questions
Again, answering these questions will be quick and easy, but opening a few questions “On a scale of 1 to 10…” or a five-star rating system allows you to compare speakers and sessions with each other.
- How would you rate this speaker?
- How would you rate the topic?
- How prepared was the speaker?
- How useful was the information presented in this session?
Open-ended questions
There are just some things you’ll want more details on. Even if attendees only have time to write a sentence or two, that feedback is invaluable! But keep your open-ended questions to a minimum and only include one or two.
- What did you learn from this session?
- What could have made this session better?
- Do you have any other comments about this session?
Whether you’re keeping surveys short or providing extra dietary options, making decisions with the attendee experience in mind will make your conference more successful.
