You’ve closed the books on your online event. Now what? We’ve already talked about reporting event stats to your stakeholders (see my previous blog “Prove it!” for details). But is that all that needs to happen? Not even close. You’d be missing out on a lot of great information you could use for planning your next online event. What might that be? I’m glad you asked!
If you intend to repeat your online event again in the future (or really, even if you don’t), you should get feedback from your various stakeholders. The attendees, speakers, exhibitors, employees, volunteers, donors, or board members will all have an opinion on how they felt things went, their experience during the event, and how they felt you did as an organizer. Getting their feedback, scrubbing it for useful data, and gleaning the high and low points will be vital when it comes to planning the next event.
Another people group to survey would be the contractors, vendors, and service providers you worked with. This is a great way to gain knowledge and hone your skills as an organization or professional, especially if this was your first online event of this magnitude and with many moving parts. Ask your production team, online platform, and other technology providers how the communication was between you; the frequency, relevancy, and helpfulness of information. Ask if they would work with you/your organization again. If they are honest, this could be a proud or a humbling moment. You may need to do some upskilling before your next event.
Even if you don’t intend to repeat this online event or even one like it, information received from these surveys may show you or your organization where the team’s overall skill levels need to be improved or if you may need to hire someone to fill a gap. You may decide to change strategies altogether on how you bring the online event to your attendees. Perhaps you change from smaller, regional events to larger, national ones or visa versa.
Whatever the secret sauce, if you don’t ask the questions, you won’t have reliable information to know whether what you did actually achieved the goals and objectives you set for the event or not.
Want to know specifically what questions to ask? Email me and I can share my list.
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