We’ve already covered how we planned the event from start to finish and how we promoted the event. This time round, it’s about how our events can be better next time.
Like any good event organizer, we sent out post-event surveys to find out how we can improve the experience for our future conferences.
In total, we sent three post-event surveys, targeted at the different stakeholders: attendees, employees, and sponsors.
Our events can always be improved. The best way to know what needs improvement and how to improve is to ask people who have attended your event.
These are the survey questions we sent to the attendees of Ahrefs Evolve 2024.
- Overall Experience: How would you rate your overall experience at the conference?
- Event Organization: How satisfied were you with the organization of the event (communication, registration, logistics, etc.)?
- Content and Speakers: Which 5 speakers did you find most valuable or engaging?
- How would you rate the quality of the presentations and speakers?
- How would you rate the networking opportunities provided during the event?
- Event Venue & Facilities: How satisfied were you with the venue and facilities?
- Event App/Platform: How would you rate your experience with the event app/platform?
- What did you enjoy most about the conference? Please share any highlights or specific aspects of the event you enjoyed
- What could be improved for future events? Please share any suggestions for improving the conference
- Session Relevance: How relevant were the topics covered in the sessions to your professional needs?
- Event Length and Pace: How would you rate the length of the conference and the pacing of sessions?
- Exhibit and Sponsor Engagement: How useful were the exhibition booths and sponsor interactions?
- Pre-event Communication: How would you rate the communication leading up to the event (reminders, updates, etc.)?
- Post-event Materials: How likely are you to access post-event materials (videos, presentations, etc.) if provided?
- Event Duration and Schedule: Was the event duration (one-day, two-day, etc.) appropriate for the content provided?
- Usefulness of Takeaways: Did you leave the conference with actionable insights or strategies to implement?
- Would you recommend this event to a colleague? On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend Ahrefs Evolve to a colleague or friend?
- What kind of content would you like to see in future events?
- Ticket Pricing: Did you leave the conference with actionable insights or strategies to implement?
- Where should we host the next Evolve 2025?
- Will you join Evolve 2025?
Our team was both part of the event preparation and present as attendees on the days itself. So, we also wanted internal feedback on how things can better be done.
These are the questions we sent.
- Pre-event: For those involved in the project, it would be helpful if you could share feedback on how we can improve pre-event preparations, including any insights on the timeline, communication, or other logistical aspects.
- Event day (Workshop 21-23 Oct): Your experience as attendee/team that supported the event, noting what worked well and what could be improved.
- Event day (VIP night networking Pre event 23 Oct): Your experience as attendee/team that supported the event, noting what worked well and what could be improved
- Conference Day (Oct 24-25): Please share your experience as an attendee or as a team member who supported the event, noting what worked well and what could be improved. Other areas to consider: Event Format / Content and Structure / Attendees Engagement / Branding / SWAG / Logistics - food venue
- After Party! (Oct 25): Please share your experience as an attendee, noting what worked well and what could be improved.
- Plans for Evolve 2025: Any new ideas for Evolve 2025, including potential locations
- Is there anything else?
These are the questions we sent to the companies that sponsored our conference. We wanted to make sure that they’d had a valuable experience, and might even consider sponsoring us again at the next event.
- How was the crowd at your booth?
- Did you manage to connect with potential leads?
- Any suggestions for future events?
- Do you have any positive feedback for the event?
- What areas we can improve on?
- Any other suggestions to help us enhance Evolve 2025?
- Would you be able to provide us with a testimonial or quote? We’d like to showcase you in our event marketing materials.
Running a survey is pointless without looking at the results and figuring out what to improve.
In our case, we averaged the scores for the questions that were based on a 5-point scale. We also ran a post-event debrief and discussed the qualitative feedback we received.
All of these will feed into the planning and organization of Evolve 2025 (and beyond).
Why should you send a post-event survey?
Your events can always improve. The best way to know what and how to improve is to ask people who’ve attended your event.
However, it’s impractical to ask everyone in person for feedback (unless it’s a tiny event). So, a survey is the best tool for discovering what worked, what didn’t, and what you can tweak next time around.
When should you send the post-event survey?
You’d want to send the survey when the event is still fresh in everyone’s minds. For us, we sent the surveys right after the event ended.
How do I conduct the post-event survey?
Don’t overthink this. All you need are:
- Your attendees’ contact information, which you should have if you’re using a event management software to help with ticket purchases and registrations.
- A survey tool. If the event software you’re using allows for polls and surveys, then consider using that. Otherwise, Google Forms works (what we used.)
What types of post-event survey questions should you include?
For our surveys, we used:
- Likert scale questions that gauge satisfaction on a scale (e.g., 1 to 5)
- Demographic questions to understand our audience
- Multiple-choice questions to let our respondents pick from a selection
- Open-ended questions to let attendees tell us in detail what they liked, disliked, or what we can improve on
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) questions to see how likely they’ll recommend Ahrefs Evolve
