Conference Feedback: Use Data to Improve Your Next Event
Your association just wrapped up its biggest event of the year—your annual conference. Guests fly in from all over the country to attend, and you typically see a jump in memberships and renewals as a result. But this year your numbers seemed to stagnate, and you aren’t sure why.
When association leaders ask you why this conference doesn’t seem as successful as those you’ve organized in the past, it’s important to align everyone on areas you can improve for next year. This is why gathering conference feedback from your attendees is so critical to putting on great events that participants enjoy.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to gather feedback with your AMS to uncover key insights into attendees’ preferences, ways to improve future marketing efforts, and creative tactics to boost engagement.
What are some ways to gather feedback?
Before analyzing post-event data, you’ll need a way to gather feedback from attendees.
Here are a few options for collecting conference feedback:
Post-conference surveys. Surveys are one of the most straightforward ways to collect attendee feedback. Fonteva’s guide to member engagement recommends sending out surveys immediately following events while the details are still fresh on attendees’ minds. Be sure to ask specific questions that prompt attendees to give constructive, actionable feedback.
In-app feedback forms. If your organization uses a dedicated app for conferences, consider creating surveys they can access on their mobile devices in just a few clicks. To get feedback that’s more granular, you could even add opportunities for attendees to weigh in on individual presentations.
On-site feedback stations. For in-person or hybrid formats, your association could set up a physical feedback station where attendees can fill out paper forms to share their thoughts on the event. If you want to go paperless, set up tablets or kiosks attendees can use instead.
Beyond directly collecting feedback, there are other ways you can gather data about the success and drawbacks of your event, too. For example, review when most people purchased tickets, analyze demographic data, examine participation rates for each presentation, and study engagement with promotional materials.
What insights can be collected from conference data?
1. Attendee Preferences
Knowing more about your attendees’ preferences is key to personalizing the way you interact with them, selecting engaging topics for future events, and generally creating an event that meets their needs and expectations.
Here are some insights your organization can uncover from conference feedback that will help you tailor your future events:
Communication preferences. Reaching out to attendees through the platforms they already use, whether that’s email, social media, or direct mail, can make them feel valued and understood by your association. To unearth these preferences, ask specific questions on surveys such as, “How did you find out about our conference?” and “Which communication methods did you find most helpful?”. You can use these responses to inform your marketing campaigns as well.
Conference topics. The topics and presenters featured at your conference are typically the main factors that determine whether attendees decide to register. It can be tricky to select topics that align with current industry trends, source experts to present them, and excite your audience. By asking which topics attendees enjoyed and which they found less interesting, you’ll make it easier to narrow down your options for next time.
“Extra” interactive elements. Many people attend conferences to network with other professionals or hone their skills in workshops. Make sure to request suggestions for additional events or ask whether attendees felt anything was missing. “You may want to consider adding a networking happy hour, roundtable discussion, or another interactive mini-event to your next conference to encourage registrations and boost audience engagement.
Once you know more about your attendees’ interests, you can begin to apply these insights to other areas of your association. For example, if 70% of your attendees indicate that they are passionate about a given topic, you can cover that subject matter more in monthly meetings, webinars, and newsletters.
2. Marketing Campaign Performance
Promoting your conference well in advance via your target audience’s preferred communication channels is one of the best ways to attract attendees. Learning how to improve your marketing tactics can help you connect with a wider audience.
A few ways to bolster your next marketing campaign using feedback data include:
Segmenting your audience based on characteristics like demographic data, engagement levels, and interests to create more targeted, highly personalized communications.
Adding testimonials to marketing materials by using quotes from positive attendee feedback. If you’ll be using the attendee’s name, just make sure to clear it with them first.
Emphasizing successful elements, such as interactive activities or popular topics. If a majority of surveys mention how much attendees enjoyed a certain speaker, for example, invite them back next year and include their name in marketing materials.
Highlighting positive feedback metrics. For instance, once you compile and report on attendee ratings for aspects of your conference like satisfaction levels, you might add that “90% of our attendees reported high satisfaction with our conference” into your marketing materials.
Tracking and showcasing “success stories.” Let’s say someone leaves feedback that they connected with an old colleague at your conference and ended up securing a role at their dream company because of it—ask to share this story with your audience.
You can also boost metrics like click-through and conversion rates by getting creative with how you invite attendees to register for the conference. eCardWidget’s page on online invitations recommends using these e-vites as a more convenient way to boost event registrations and promote virtual activities like webinars. You can also use them to invite members to regular meetings or to support fundraising and volunteer initiatives.
3. Engagement Levels
Attendees’ engagement can affect their overall satisfaction with the event, as well as how likely they are to attend your next conference.
Include a question in your event survey asking how engaged attendees felt during the conference, and request examples of what they felt went well. If the feedback isn’t glowing in the engagement department, it might be time to update your current approach.
Here are some unique engagement opportunities to offer attendees:
Interactive workshops where attendees can share tips and ask questions.
Roundtable discussions that give attendees a chance to discuss topics in a small group facilitated by an expert.
Q&A sessions for each presentation to give attendees time to ask questions. Make sure to provide an option for remote attendees if appropriate.
Meet-ups with other attendees. Depending on the size of your event, consider creating small groups of similar attendees (e.g., those in their first year of full-time work) to encourage connection. It may help to create these groups based on data in your association management tool’s membership directory.
Keep an eye out for conference-wide dips in engagement levels, so you can trace the data back to the root cause. If most attendees commented on it being hard to focus during presentations, perhaps it was due to the speaker's microphones being set too low, or noise from hallways reaching the room. During future event planning, you can keep these logistical details at the forefront of discussions to enhance engagement.
With these insights from your conference feedback, you’ll be in a position to make many valuable improvements to future events. You’ll be able to streamline logistical details, optimize operations to make your budget go further, and, most importantly, put on a conference that exceeds attendees’ expectations.