What Was Your Last Event Missing?

What was your Last Event Missing? Tips for Finding the Answer.

When you look back at your last event, would you consider it an across-the-board success? You may agree that things went really well, but that you also came up short in some key area.

While there is nothing you can do about the past, you are in position to change the future. For this reason, you must know what your last event was missing. With this information in hand you can address any concern, but most importantly, you can make strategic adjustments when planning your next event.

How to Pinpoint Problem Areas

The more observant you are during the event the easier it becomes to pinpoint areas of concern. Here are three things you should be doing:

1. Listen to what others are saying.

As you walk your event floor, do you continually hear people complaining about the same thing? If so, you can be rest assured that you came up short in this area. Make note of the concern so you can later decide how to avoid the same misstep during future events.

2. Ask others what they thought (and read Wednesday’s post on the importance of event feedback.)

Ask for both the good and the bad event feedback. Since most attendees won’t want to share the truth face-to-face, create surveys that are 100 percent anonymous. SurveyMonkey is a terrific tool.

You can broad questions such as:

• What did you enjoy most about the event?
• What was your least favorite part of the experience?
• What was the event missing?
• How would you rate the event as a whole?

But we suggest asking more pointed questions:

• If you could change one thing about the event, what would it be?
• Which did value more, Keynote speakers or round table discussions?
• Rate our list of event activities from your most to least favorite.
• Was there a Keynote topic you would have liked that we did not cover?

You get the picture. As attendees complete the survey, you can compare answers to see if one particular area was lacking. More pointed questions often provide more actionable data.

3. Be honest with yourself.

Even if you don’t hear others talking, even if you don’t send out a survey, you probably know where your event came up short. Rather than hide from this, telling yourself that everything was perfect, be honest when completing your assessment of the event.

Fact: when you lie to yourself you’re prone to making the same mistakes again in the future.

Even if your event was a huge success, there is a good chance it was missing something. As you learn more about what went right and what went wrong, the wheels in your mind will begin to turn, allowing you to make better decisions for your next event.