Examine The Debrief

In my previous blog, “The Pumpkin Hour,” I broke down four different types of personalities you may find on your team once an event is over. One in particular is the Questioner. Once an event is over, the Questioner wants to process the event right now, this minute, because the fat lady sang, and the curtain fell. News flash, this is NOT the best time to debrief the event. 

But, the Questioner will say the event is fresh in your mind. You don’t want to forget the important issues that need addressing. You won’t all be together again for a few weeks because everyone is taking vacation. There is a lot you want to say. Yep. Exactly. 

During the event, everyone should be capturing topics for discussion at the debrief meeting; things that could be improved upon and things that went well. This information is key for next year’s planning. At the end of an event, however, everyone needs time to process the let-down and adrenaline from the event; let the emotions subside, mentally refresh, and get some rest. Your baby’s been born, now time has to pass for you to forget the trauma of giving birth if you plan to do it again.

Also, waiting to debrief allows the team to collect post-event survey data from different stakeholders. Information from attendees, exhibitors, staff or volunteers, and board members or investors will contribute to how successful the debrief meeting is. An efficient and effective debrief meeting should consist of these five things:

1. Schedule the debrief meeting about one month after the event.
2. Bring survey data to the meeting, but stay focused on themes, not individual comments.
3. Bring each team member’s comments, thoughts, and suggestions to the meeting, but again, stay focused on themes, not specific issues.
4. Keep the agenda timed and list each area or aspect of the event to be discussed (ie: content relevance, speaker selection, venue location, ease of check-in, food & beverage, etc.).
5. Take good notes, outline action steps, and identify goals and objectives for the items that need addressing.

By maintaining the agenda and focusing on themes instead of specific issues or details, the meeting will be more productive and take less time overall. I mean really, receiving 11 out of 1500 survey comments about meeting rooms being too cold is not worth spending time discussing a process for getting temperatures changed in a room for future events…

Do you have any debrief meeting tips? I’d love to hear them! Email me or share them here.

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