When planning and executing events, there is nothing greater than receiving feedback. Whether you plan business events, networking events, conferences, seminars, trade shows or trainings; attendee feedback is the key to learning about the needs and expectations of your target market so that you can create business and marketing plans that guarantee continued success.
Creating an online survey with advanced online survey software can be a cost effective way to collect attendee feedback. In some cases, a mobile survey is be a better, more efficient option of gathering attendee feedback, and is available from many survey software providers who offer multiple-mode survey creation and administration.
In the world of event feedback, there are three main types of event surveys. It is up to you what surveys you would like to implement into your plan. The types of surveys you choose to implement depend on the data you expect to collect, and whether you have time to develop and administer surveys, and collect, manage, analyze, and interpret survey data.
3 types of event surveys
Pre-event survey. A pre-event survey can be emailed or sent as a link on a postcard to attendees prior to the event to assess attendee expectations. Feedback collected can help you focus your sales and marketing efforts. As mentioned in previous blog posts, a pre-event survey can also be used as a tool to qualify sales leads as in a lead qualification survey. The lead qualification survey can contain a pre-developed set of qualification questions to collect valuable information that is used for the purpose of generating new sales.
Mid-event survey. During the event, you can give event staff access to an iPad or Tablet PC to conduct a mobile survey, or set-up station kiosks or PCs with an online survey near registration, a booth, or in another highly visible location to collect immediate attendee feedback. Review real-time data to get an immediate look at how well your event is going, learn more about consumer needs, or qualify a lead in real-time.
Post-event survey. Following the event, email an invitation to attendees to complete an online feedback survey or send a link on a postcard. Attendees can evaluate the effectiveness of various aspects of your event such as individual speakers, seminar topics, training sessions, product demonstrations, exhibitors and sponsors, as well as rate their overall experience with the event. Post-event surveys often provide the most important feedback. If you have budget or time constraints, the post-event survey is the most important survey to administer.
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