Event Survey: Reaching Out to Your Audience

Have you ever thought about what your target audience actually think of your brand? It can be pretty scary to learn all the positive and negative feedback that people have about the products and services you offer. However, if you look at it more closely, every business or organization, regardless of the size, would not be able to thrive in a cutthroat industry without any input from its target audience.

At present, events are among the most effective ways to gauge audience engagement and boost branding. Conducting seminars, workshops, presentations and even a meet-and-greet are all great examples of imparting knowledge, introducing products and enticing target customers to learn more about a brand. In return, brands are able to learn more about their audience and gain new perspective about their services by going through the audience’s event feedback.

Event surveys provide a detailed reference of how good a brand performed and achieved its core goals during an event. It contains a combination of questions that are related to the event, as well as queries that address the subjective and objective influences of the event to the attendees.

Introducing event surveys

The emergence of event app platforms and event surveys remarkably changed how attendee-generated data is collected. In the past, attendees were handed papers and pens to fill out survey forms. In some cases, pens were not event provided, and it made event surveys then more of a hassle than a meaningful initiative.

When generating survey questions always remember to:

  • Keep it short but concise
  • Avoid asking personal questions
  • Maintain confidentiality

Surveys allows businesses to measure attendee satisfaction rates. As a tool for monitoring and keeping an eye on audience feedback about an event, it needs to be fashioned into something that captures the key parts of an event to help attendees gauge more easily how the event was able to adhere to their needs and demands.

What is the most ideal way to conduct event surveys?

There are two things that you must focus on first when conducting event surveys:

1. What type of event are you organizing for your brand?

2. At what part of your event do you plan to introduce your survey?

Let’s discuss item number 1 first.

There is an art to asking questions and applying that to your event surveys allows you to gather exactly just the information that you need. Always bear in mind that different types of events bring varying levels of experiences to attendees; hence, there is a need to customize surveys based on event type.

  • Conferences

Exchanging innovative information is the main objective of conferences. Conferences can likewise serve as a venue where business-related trends are discussed, new networks among entrepreneurs and marketers are established, and products left and right are presented to fellow event attendees.

When conducting a survey for conferences, consider the following factors that are the most significant to your attendees:

-Satisfaction rate: Was your audience happy after attending your conference? Were they satisfied with the venue, theme, guest speakers, topics as well as the reception and food you prepared?

-Structure and time frame: Were you able to distribute the activities accordingly with the time frame you have given for your conference? Did your attendees have enough time to build networks and discuss ideas with each other? Were there presentations and speeches seem pressed for time?

-Topic relevance: How relevant were the topics discussed by your guest speakers to your event’s theme? Were you able to cover a vast variety of topics related to the industry where you belong, as well as the niche that your audience is most interested in? Are there other topics that your audience wishes to discuss in the future?

  • Trainings and Workshops

Trainings and workshops are held to help boost or develop new skills that attendees can use to pursue bigger opportunities and improve what they can do. As such, surveys for this type of event should be able to measure the following:

-Topic and theme: Was the theme of the course an excellent representative of the skills and knowledge that your audience want to learn? What about the topic? How relevant and useful was the training’s topic to your attendees?

-Efficiency: Were your attendees able to improve their skills or develop a new set of skills through attending your workshop? Were the right skills enhanced or not? How efficient was the trainer in teaching the participants?

  • Business Meetings and Town Halls

Events that involve a select group of individuals, particularly business meetings or town halls are held with the intention of resolving internal conflict in an office or department, track workplace performance, tackle new goals and projects, and even boost communication among the team members involved.

The focus of your surveys for this type of gathering should be:

-Communication Barriers: How has communication improved since the event? Were pressing issues among team members aptly tackled and resolved?

-Goal-setting: Were new goals set for the team? What team and project objectives were crossed out on the list? Were there new expectations set for each team member?

-Team cohesion and individual progress: Was the event able to spur stronger unity and teamwork in the department? Did the team members feel that the meeting prioritized growth and development among the employees involved?

There are several other events depending on what a brand requires or aims to achieve for its products, services, and customers. The key is to be able to both look at the bigger picture as well as pinpoint specific areas that require the most attention when prepping your event.

Now that we’re done discussing how to incorporate event types when creating surveys, let’s move on to item number 2 – When do you plan to conduct your survey?

There is a difference when surveys are conducted before, during and after an event. The objectives and the desired feedback from the audience will vary.

Pre-event survey

A pre-event survey is one that is conducted prior to the start of an event. It is designed to help brands and event organizers build anticipation among attendees, and get to know the target audience better. Pre-event surveys usually cover questions that measure attendee expectations for the event, along with general information about their interests and hobbies.

Mid-event survey

Mid-event surveys keep track of audience satisfaction and engagement during the event. Sometimes, organizers look around during an event and immediately assume that all is well just because there are groups of people chatting and smiling, or because everything is going as planned. However, they may not be looking hard enough to notice the small details in the event that are affecting audience engagement. By distributing surveys in the middle of an event, you are able to determine whether your attendees are still eager to witness more during your event, or are slowly losing interest in participating in the activities that you prepared. This way, you can immediately address their concerns and see whether you can provide an immediate solution to their dilemmas. Are your attendees in need of an icebreaker? Is the coffee not strong enough to keep them awake? Is there something causing a delay in the transition from event segment to another?

Post-event surveys

Distributing surveys after the event means that you want to capture the full experience of your audience in your event. At the same time, post-event surveys are usually used so that brands and event organizers have a comprehensive reference for their future events. Pointers for improvement are tackled, thus, enabling preparation for future event expectations to be planned ahead of time.

Aside from preparing the right event survey questions according to event type, and gathering attendee feedback before, during or after the event, event app platforms likewise offer survey apps that efficiently collect, store and analyze attendee-generated data. From there, brands and event organizers can create reports and analysis based on the collected information. Some of the best-reviewed survey apps available in the market include Survey Monkey, Snap Inc., Qualtrics, and Micepad.

Event surveys provide more advantages than meets the eye. When used correctly, it can bridge existing gaps you have with your customers and business partners. In the long run, your target audience will be more willing to participate in improving your products and services as well as in pushing you for bigger progress.

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