Evaluating events

It is important to always try and evaluate the success of an event. The following evaluation techniques will help you to demonstrate the worth of the event to colleagues and other interested parties and provide you with valuable feedback to make the next event even better.

Summarise attendance – always keep a detailed record of how many people attended the event and who they were – you may want to break down attendance by type – e.g. age/area/business sector. For larger events you should also register numbers taking part in individual sessions/workshops.

Develop user-friendly feedback forms - Put one on each chair before your event begins. It’s a good idea to station someone by the door to ask people to fill them out as they leave - if you don’t get them there and then you are unlikely to ever get them back. Feedback forms allow you to measure change in attitudes and awareness as well as satisfaction with the event. You can also include questions to generate statistics that may be useful to include later in media campaigns or publicity material. Download a feedback form example that you can tailor to suit your event.

Record comments - Questions and requests for further information made during the event can be a good indication of interest levels and suggest themes for future events. You may also wish to include quotes in evaluation documents, on your website or in publicity for future events.

In-depth feedback - If you require more in-depth feedback, ask attendees whether they would be willing to talk to you after the event about their experience and whether they found it useful or not, then summarise these discussions.